Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Youthful Metaverse: Towards Designing Safe, Equitable, And Emotionally Fulfilling Social Virtual Reality Spaces For Younger Users, Divine Maloney

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Social virtual reality (VR) represents the modern rendition of the metaverse, this dissertation aims to fill the research gaps while highlighting trends of youth in VR. The scientific contributions of this research include 1) expanding the current HCI understanding of the social dynamics and the interactions of teens in emerging novel online digital spaces; 2) bridging two research areas that have not been widely studied in HCI, social VR and young users in social VR; and 3) generating design implications to inform the design of future social VR platforms to better support and protect teens’ online social experiences, results which …

The Future Of Humankind: Comparative Cross-Cultural Study Of Youth Environmental Engagement And Environmental Outcomes, Lyudmyla Tsykalova

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Throughout history, the relationship of humans with nature evolved with culture. Climate change calls for a cultural shift in how we relate to nature and fellow humans, pointing to the need to rethink most human activities. Youth are frequently seen as agents of change. However, the widespread understanding that youth environmental engagement is necessary and brings more sustainable outcomes has almost no supporting empirical evidence. Research is needed to reveal whether youth environmental engagement is related to climate policies and ecological consequences and how this engagement varies across cultures.

Based on data from over 300,000 15-year-olds from 40 countries across …

Democratic Orientations Among Adolescents In Aspiring And Established Democracies, Natallia Sianko

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Democratic citizen orientation - support for democratic principles and values - appears an important ingredient in making democracies work. However, there is no agreement as to what attitudes and behaviors make up a democratic citizen orientation. The main goals of this dissertation are to: (1) identify and describe factors that characterize adolescents' democratic orientation, (2) explore cross-cultural variation in democratic orientations among adolescents in established and aspiring democracies, (3) investigate the relationship between adolescents' democratic orientations and historical legacies of their countries, (4) investigate the relationship between adolescents' democratic orientations and the current quality of democratic institutions, and (5) analyze …

Promoting Perceived Competence In Youth: Examining The Interaction Between Leaders' Facilitation Style And Youths' Autonomy Orientation, Angela Wozencroft

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In high ropes courses, there are many different types of facilitation styles that are effective. It is unclear how the environment that is created through particular facilitation styles impacts the outcomes participants experience. The tenets of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) provide useful direction in understanding how two styles of facilitation interact with clients' personality in promoting positive outcomes such as perceived competence. The purpose of this study was to examine how the learning environment created through either an autonomy supportive or controlling facilitation style affects the perceived competence of at-risk youth participants in relation to their level of autonomy. Eighty-eight economically …