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Consumer digital piracy in media contexts is one of the most publicized adverse developments brought on by the Internet and digitization of data. Since the turn of the millennium, it has irrevocably changed the business environment for the creative industries. The sharp decrease of recorded music sales, especially in the physical album format, is perhaps the best example of the negative effects digital piracy. However, the growth of legal services in digital music and video is balancing this trend, as consumers have found that piracy is no longer the obvious solution to acquiring music and video content. This also calls for new approaches to piracy research. We sought them by integrating three theoretical perspectives relevant to the phenomenon: neutralization theory, cognitive dissonance, and the theory of planned behavior. The articles included in this dissertation utilize both qualitative and quan- titative methods, and contain an extended framework of constructs related to digital music and video piracy. The dissertation introduces the mechanism of “dissonance-neutralization” of piracy, i.e., neutralizations tailored to weaken the impact of piracy-induced negative emotions as a mode of dissonance reduction. The results suggest that quality perceptions about legal alternatives can affect piracy neutralizations and attitudes toward piracy. Content remains the most important success factor and differentiator for these services. Based on the findings reported in the included studies, digital piracy can be combated with communications targeted against commonly used neutralization techniques. However, there are limitations to what this can accomplish, as many consumers continue to hold negative opinions about various industry parties, despite the vast improvements in digital services since the early 2000s. Fortunately, the younger consumer generation, or Generation Z, does not seem so attached to these sentiments. In the future, they will for the large part determine the direction of developments. Piracy will remain as a significant factor in the music, television and movie industries for the foreseeable future, but the current trajectories of legal services seem more promising than earlier.

Music is a strong element of the empirical world of the young. Playing an instrument creates meanings, and it can help to feel and deal with emotions. Music itself is a source of immense joy and motivation for young players, even when learning is not easy. Year after year, the piano is the most popular instrument chosen by Music Institute applicants. The aim of this study was to investigate the difficulties encountered by piano students who are slower to learn than might be assumed from their talent and practising. The study also examined whether the piano teach- er’s observations about the student's learning difficulties in piano playing tally with the results of tests measuring learning difficulties. It also aimed to find teaching methods that will help these students to learn faster and more easily. The study involved 27 young piano pupils. They all participated in tests measuring reading and spelling skills, rapid naming, and mathematical skills. Fifteen pupils had difficulties in one or more tests (n=15). Based on these tests, eight students of different ages were selected for interviews (n=8). The interview data lets the students speak: it allows them to say how they feel about their playing and learning. The findings showed that the results of the tests partly corresponded to the ease or difficulty of playing. Pupils with similar test results seemed to progress and encounter similar problems of playing. The results also showed that the piano teacher cannot tell whether the pupil has other learning difficulties or not based only on the piano lessons. Pupils must be taught “according to the symptoms”. According to the interviews, playing meant much to the students, despite any difficulties that may arise. Most important was the teacher’s role as motivator and learning facilitator, and above all as an adult willing to encounter them in their ongoing life situation. This study also yielded a collection of teaching methods that can be used to teach all kinds of pupils. The findings indicate that whether or not a pupil has any learning difficulties is not very relevant if they are motivated to play. When each student is taught as an individual, seeking the most appropriate method, whether the student has dyslexia, naming difficulties or some other problem is irrelevant. Anyone who is taught well and listened to as an individual can learn to play the piano.

Good movement control is essential in team sports that require fast-paced running, pivoting, jumping and landing. Alterations in dynamic neuromuscular control may cause significant stress on the musculoskeletal system, and increase the risk of both acute and overuse injuries. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the effectiveness of interventions to prevent sports injuries, the incidence and severity of overuse injuries, and the role of decreased movement control as a risk factor for future injuries in young team sports athletes. The study methods included a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials, a retrospective epidemiological investigation on the prevalence of overuse injuries, a cross-sectional investigation on young athletes’ movement control, and a prospective risk factor analysis on the biomechanical characteristics of a jump-landing task. The observational study population comprised a total of 401 young basketball and floorball players from the Tampere district. First, the study revealed that training interventions are effective to prevent sports injuries. Second, overuse injuries in youth basketball and floorball affected mainly the knee and the lower back, and caused long absences from training and competition. Third, decreased movement control was highly common, especially among young female players from basketball and floorball. Finally, stiff landings with less knee flexion and increased vertical ground reaction force were associated with increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries among young female team sports players. Certain deficiencies in young athletes’ movement control and jump-landing technique might be related to future injuries. However, the current screening method based on a jump-landing task is not accurate enough to identify athletes who will suffer future injury. Neuromuscular training can improve movement control during sporting tasks and is effective in reducing the risk of injuries. The actions to prevent ACL injuries in young female team sports players should include a focus on avoiding stiff landing patterns by teaching the players to increase knee flexion during landing and cutting movements.

Humans make efforts to manage their lives, and they do this by setting goals and making decisions. When they commit to their decisions, they construct their identity. This research aimed to study young people’s personal goal contents and appraisals, and how these constructs were related to identity and career identity development and subjective well-being. The theoretical basis of this research comprised the life-span model of motivation (Nurmi, 2004; Salmela-Aro, 2009), the conceptualisation of phase- adequate engagement (Dietrich, Parker, & Salmela-Aro, 2012), and the dual-cycle model of identity development (Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, & Beyers, 2006; Luyckx et al., 2008). The data for the study stemmed from the ongoing Finnish Educational Transitions Studies -research programme (FinEdu, 2013). Two samples were used. The results showed that, at age 17, adolescents had several personal goals regarding the future of their education, work, social relationships and income (Study I). Adolescents who mentioned self-related ruminative types of personal goals had higher burnout and more symptoms of depression as well as lower life satisfaction and self-esteem compared to other adolescents. Further, the results showed that a considerable number of young adults (40%) had a diffused or moderately diffused identity profile (Study II). The Diffused diffusion profile was associated with more self-related personal goals and less social relationship goals and with poor well-being. Finally, the results (Study III) showed that career goal success expectations, effort, stressfulness in adolescence and longitudinal changes within these constructs predicted later career identity development, at age 26. Career goal success expectations and effort strengthened throughout adolescence and young adulthood and was associated with adaptive career identity development. Stress related to career goals increased over time, and it predicted maladaptive career identity development. Personal goal contents and processes were related to identity development and well-being. The results revealed a darker side among a significant number of the young people who had self-focused ruminative goals, a diffused identity profile, and ruminative identity processes resulting in poor well-being. Overall, personal goal contents and appraisals proved to be practical tools in assessing and supporting identity development and well-being among young people.

This study is an attempt to better understand the relationship between Finns and Russian minorities living in Finland. This study considers the role of perceived threats to the attitudes of Finnish adolescents towards Russian minorities. The theoretical framework for this study was the integrated threat theory (ITT). Even though ITT has been revised and threats have been reduced to two major threats (realistic and symbolic threats) (Stephan et al., 2015), this study utilized the original conceptualization of ITT which stipulates that prejudice and negative attitudes towards minorities can be explained by four types of threats that are: realistic threats, symbolic threats, negative stereotypes, and intergroup anxiety. Realistic threats are threats to the physical and economic wellbeing and political power of the in-group; symbolic threats are threats that arise because of differences in norms, values and morals with the out-group; negative stereotypes are implied threats to the in-group; and intergroup anxiety refers to the anxiety the in-group might experience in the process of interaction with members of the out-group especially when both groups have had a history of antagonism (Stephan & Stephan, 1996, 1998, 2000). First, this study showed Finns in general do percieve Russian minorities as a threat (realistic threat, symbolic threat, and negative stereotypes) and that among the different types of threat, realistic threat and symobolic threat were more prevalent among older Finns than among younger Finns. No significant difference was found between both groups for negative stereotypes. This study also showed perceived threat to be a significant predictor of prejudice, and that among the different types of threat, negative stereotyping was the strongest predictor of negative attitudes towards Russian minorities. This study also revealed that Finnish adolescents generally perceive immigrants as a threat and that among the different types of threats, realistic threat and symbolic threat were the most perceived threats from immigrants in Finland. This is especially important because realistic threat and symbolic threat were found to be positively related to prejudice or negative attitudes towards immigrants and this positive relationship between threat and prejudice was the same among early, middle, and late adolescents.

The thesis explores bilingual adolescents’ language use, linguistic resources, and language practices in interaction at three junior high schools in Haparanda, a Swedish town on the country’s northeastern border with Finland. A comparison is also made with interaction among bilingual adolescents at two Sweden-Finnish junior high schools in Stockholm and at one Swedish-speaking junior high school in Helsinki. The aim of the study is to increase our knowledge of bilingual adolescents’ interaction practices and language repertoires, i.e. translanguaging, in interaction. The primary data consists of close to eleven hours of video- and audio-recorded informal group and pair conversations. The data was collected in 2014–2015 among 14–15-year-old bilingual adolescents at three junior high schools in Haparanda. The first set of material for comparison, comprising six hours of bilingual 13–15-year-old adolescents’ informal conversations, was collected in 2014 at a Swedish junior high school in Helsinki. The second set consists of 8 hours of video- and audio-recorded group conversations among 13–15-year-old bilingual adolescents in two Sweden-Finnish high schools in Stockholm in 2015–2016. Each of the conversations lasted for between fifteen minutes and one and a half hours. The theoretical framework is found in the field of translanguaging, which aims to describe bilingual language use and interactional practices (including code-switching), rather than focusing on the languages themselves. In translanguaging, research on interaction has the multilingual speaker, not the monolingual individual, as the norm. The analysis of the conversation data collected is mainly qualitative. The qualitative analysis of the bilingual adolescents’ conversations in Haparanda reveals patterns in their use of linguistic resources and translanguaging practices in interaction. The interlocutors fluidly and flexibly make use of their language resources, including grammar, morphology, syntax and language practices in their interaction. Not only are Standard Swedish and Finnish used in the negotiation processes, but also Meänkieli, local dialects, youth slang, and English. They translanguage in order to make sense beyond the resources of any one particular language. Examined from the viewpoint of translanguaging, similar patterns could be found in Haparanda, Stockholm and Helsinki, but there were also differences: in the recordings from Haparanda, Finnish was the matrix language, i.e. the base language in eleven of the fourteen conversations, but the bilingual adolescents frequently switched from Finnish to Swedish. In the conversational data collected in Helsinki in 2014, the relationship between the languages in the conversations was the reverse. In all the seven conversations from Helsinki the interlocutors generally used Swedish as the matrix language and they switched from Swedish to Finnish. In Stockholm, the interlocutors used more Swedish than Finnish and they switched more between languages if they used Finnish as the matrix language. Their language use seems to be more influenced by Swedish than adolescents’ language use in Haparanda. It can be assumed that sociolinguistic factors, like the different language settings, have an impact on adolescents’ language use in Haparanda, Stockholm and Helsinki.

This study examines the meanings and prerequisites of self-organised physical activity from young people’s perspective. The theoretical framework is social space, which enables young people’s experiences to be interpreted in parallel with their physical, social, and cultural environment. Three research questions are addressed: (1) Where does young people’s self-organised physical activity take place? (2) What are the forms of the activity? (3) What meanings do young people associate with the spaces of the activity? The research data were collected within one municipality. The main data consist of 34 theme interviews with young people aged 12 to 16 years. The interviewees were selected mainly with the help of a questionnaire in three lower secondary schools. Interview data were also collected at the sites of self- organised physical activity. The chosen interviewees were boys and girls with different physical activity orientations in terms of the forms and frequency of physical activity, and with different living environments: a small city centre, the residential areas of the city, a rural town centre, and rural areas. The data also include activity maps and on-site observation. The data were analysed using content analysis. The ideal places of self-organised physical activity were situated close to home, available for spontaneous use, and occasionally modifiable. Open and sufficiently large spaces appeared to be more significant than high-quality sites or facilities. The forms of activity were characterised by the adaptation of sports and movement to suit the place, time frame, and particularly the reference group. Physical activity environments proved to be divergent social spaces for different young people. Spaces of sociality and spaces of playfulness were of major importance for the activity, implicating a distinction from the discourse of rationality. The spatial power held by adults over the spaces for the activity was also relevant for the meanings. In conclusion, the role of physical activity in unstructured leisure time varied from spontaneous supplementary motion to goal-oriented training. Finding space for meaningful activity required variable degrees of agency because it often connected with opportunities to negotiate acceptable uses of functionalised and limited space.

This dissertation examines how members of one particular youth community, Christian lifestyle sports enthusiasts in Finland, use language and other semiotic resources to construct participation in their community of practice (CoP). The CoP is organized around the late-modern activity culture of lifestyle sports. The participants also share the Christian faith and in their snowboarding camps organize Bible study sessions and engage in prayer and worship. The theoretical and methodological framework incorporates sociolinguistics, social semiotics, discourse studies and connective ethnography, including the exploration of both the digital and physical spaces of the community. The dissertation comprises four articles that include micro-level examinations of the community members’ situated uses of heteroglossic and multimodal resources, and thus attention to a diversity of socially meaningful language forms and modes. The data for these studies were gathered during the years 2006-2014, each data set representing a different communicative context. Specifically, I analyzed discursive social positioning of self and other in interviews, linguistic and discursive heteroglossia in computer-mediated communication and in spoken interaction, and mediated performance in online videos. This research shows that participation in this CoP is constructed in shared activities simultaneously with the negotiation of social categories and relations. Hence, participation is defined by a sense of groupness which makes the community distinct from other groups but nevertheless connected to global cultures, practices and styles. The CoP members also articulate an understanding of their joint enterprise, the community’s Christian mission, amidst many transcultural flows. Heteroglossic and multimodal resources are employed for negotiating solidarity, constructing expertise (especially in terms of terminologies, products and video-making practices), and interpreting and recontextualizing the Bible and other semiotic material connected to Christianity within the lifestyle sports culture. These findings point to shared translocal actions and practices by which the community members deal with positions, voices and social relations in highly reflexive, strategic and creative ways that enable them to engage in processes of (dis)identification in their own spaces at the intersection of youth culture, religion and lifestyle sports.

Participation and activities are important for adolescents’ functioning and health. This is in line with the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Main areas of functioning include physical activities (PA) and participation in organised sport clubs. To ensure adolescents with long term illnesses or disabilities (LTID) can participate fully in society, functional abilities interact with contextual environmental and personal factors. Because habits and attitudes of adolescents can carry through to adulthood, it is important to assess the personal factors in relation to activities and participation. Therefore, the aims of this study were to describe PA trends and to determine the associations between physical activity and the ICF personal factors in adolescents with LTID. Finnish data, from a national representative sample from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study, of 13 and 15 year olds in 2002 (n=3016), 2006 (n=2979), 2010 (n=3578), and 2014 (n=3250) were used in this study. With all data collections combined, 17% (n=2206, mean age=14.8 years, 55% girls) had self-reported LTID. When possible, descriptions of functional difficulties were included in analyses. All studies used the same HBSC protocol across the different data collection years with analysis of items that measured PA, sports club participation, psychological assets related to PA and educational aspirations. Descriptive statistics, mediation regression and binary logistic regression models were used to identify and report associations between PA and personal factors. Trend analysis was also performed. Younger (13 year old) boys were the most physically active and older (15 year old) girls the least. Moreover, there has been an increase from 11% to 21% of adolescents that reported daily PA from 2002 to 2014, with a twice likelihood from sports club members. Intentions for future PA was strongly associated with increased PA in both boys and girls. Furthermore, boys with high PA self-perceptions and aspirations not to general upper secondary schools were associated with daily PA. Global self-esteem was reported to be a significant mediator between perceived fitness and intentions for future PA in boys but this relationship was not found in girls. The results of this study connect with previous studies in that there are similar trends in PA in adolescents with and without LTID. It is important to take into account sports club membership when reporting amounts of physical activity of adolescents with LTID. There is almost one in six adolescents with LTID in general schools and realising this may influence the implementing of guides for inclusion in sport clubs at various levels. Finally, as PA are recommended to be part of daily routines, finding commonalities in personal factors can assist with future classifications of functioning, disability and health of adolescents with LTID.

Sport is a popular activity among Finnish children and adolescents. Junior sport encompasses various objectives, and one of its functions is to generate the prerequisites for competitive sport and an elite sports career. This study examines socialization into competitive sport. It approaches the socialization process as a sports path that denotes the sequence of states and events in sport as part of one’s life course. The study emphasizes experiences and through them the meaning-giving and lifeworld of the young athletes themselves. Hence, the aim of the study is to create a sociological interpretation of athlete development. The research data comprise a survey of 2,430 registered participants in sport aged 14 to 15 years, and interviews with 26 young athletes aiming at elite sports careers. The survey was analysed by statistical methods, focusing on comparison between two groups at different participation levels. The interviews were analysed with content analysis to formulate a sports paths typology for young athletes and to categorize their experiences in sport. The results of the study were divided into four research papers concerning (1) the role and significance of parents, (2) the sports paths of participants in team sport in relation to different sports and the sporting context, (3) types of life-historical sports paths, and (4) significant experiences in sport. The results of the substudies were abstracted and then synthesized into a social construction of sports paths within a framework of systemic norms, capitals and agency. The following systemic norms were identified: socialization in a single sport and specialization, success rationality and dedication to sport, and participation in the talent development activities of sports systems. These norms of a rationalized sports system created a framework for acting in the social field of sport and the accumulation of cultural capital along a sports path, so-called sports capital. However, young athletes still interpreted systemic norms from the perspective of their lifeworld. Social capital in sports paths was represented by three areas: family as the first socializer in sport, friends as playmates and later as peers in the world of competitive sport, and coaches as enablers of athletic development. These social relationships were interpreted as resources for sports capital. In the formulation of the sports path, the dimension of agency emerged as the power to make choices and the capability to utilize capitals. In previous studies on athlete development, the dimension of agency and the understanding of the lifeworld of adolescents has remained scarce.

The purpose of the present dissertation is to extend our understanding of young athletes’ sport participation process from a psychosocial perspective by examining the reasons why young athletes persist in or withdraw from sport, and how the coach–athlete relationship and motivational aspects influence their participation behaviour in organized sport. The problem setting was based upon achievement goal theory, and self-determination theory. The analyses of this study were based on two data sets, including 2,014 and 2,243 young Finnish football, ice hockey and basketball players, aged 15 to 16 years. Participants responded to a multi–sectional questionnaire incorporating the Finnish versions of the Questionnaire of Reasons for Attrition, the Coach–Athlete Relationship Questionnaire, the Perceived Motivational Climate in Sport Questionnaire, the Sport Motivation Scale, the Perceived Physical Competence Scale, Enjoyment Scale, and the Perception of Success Questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients determined all scales in the survey to be psychometrically sound. With respect to withdrawal from organized sport, the results indicated that “having other things to do” and a decline in excitement were the most important reasons for withdrawal. Withdrawn players also reported lower scores than persistent players did in the coach–athlete relationship, task-climate, intrinsic motivation, task- and ego orientation, and perceived competence. Young athletes’ profiles with high coach–athlete relationship and task climate, and moderate ego climate, as well profiles with high autonomous and controlled motivation, appeared to be the most beneficial from the perspective of sport persistence. The model of this dissertation also highlighted how young athletes’ goal orientation and perceived competence predict different degrees of relative autonomous motivation and persistence in organized youth sport. The findings reinforce the necessity for sports practitioners to support and encourage young athletes’ achievement goals, foster coach–athlete relationships, autonomous and controlled motivation as well as to enhance young athletes’ perception of competence in order to keep them motivated to sustain participation in organized sport settings.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanisms leading to muscle hypertrophy in humans by studying local muscle molecular and systemic hormonal responses to a single bout of heavy resistance exercise (RE) and to long-term resistance training (RT) with or without protein supplementation in a randomized controlled double-blinded design. In line with earlier studies, heavy RT for 21 weeks led to muscle hypertrophy and an increase in muscle strength in both young and older men. Whey protein ingestion before and after each RE workout increased vastus lateralis (VL) muscle cross-sectional area and seemed to accelerate the increase in VL muscle thickness as well as the increase in body mass.However, no effect of protein was seen in muscle fiber size or in muscle force. A bout of RE in both young and older men decreased myostatin and its receptor gene expression. However, when protein was ingested before and after the RE bout, the decrease in myostatin mRNA and protein content did not occur and also the increase in serum testosterone during the RE bout was attenuated. The results of the older men suggest that the latter was not explained by a significant difference in the expression of androgen receptors. Protein ingestion increased the gene expression of the positive cell cycle regulator cdk2 after the RE bout and RT. The RE bout rapidly and favourably increased the phosphorylation of mTOR signaling pathway proteins, and whey protein ingestion strengthened and prolonged this response. RT did not consistently change the acute mRNA response to the single bout of RE or change the basal level of mRNA expression. However, the basal individual changes in androgen receptor concentration during the RT period seemed to explain, in part, the muscle hypertrophy observed during RT.Altogether, this thesis provides new information about the molecular events that possibly regulate muscle hypertrophy during resistance training with or without protein ingestion. These results could be applied when planning proper training and nutrition protocols with the objective of increasing or at least maintaining good muscle size and functional capacity. Heraproteiinilisän nauttiminen ennen ja jälkeen jokaisen kaksi kertaa viikossa suoritetun voimaharjoituksen tehosti lihasten koon kasvua. Tämä selvisi Juha Hulmin väitöstutkimuksessa, jossa käytettiin 15 grammaa proteiinilisää sekä ennen ja jälkeen harjoituksen 21 viikon ajan. Verrokkiryhmä nautti plasebojuomaa.- Selityksenä tälle näyttää olevan erityisesti nopeat harjoituksen jälkeiset muutokset lihasten mTOR-signalointireitin aktivoinnissa. Tämän reitin aktivoituminen on tärkeää lihasproteiinien synteesissä. Lihaksethan koostuvat pääosin proteiinista ja vedestä. Toinen selittävä tekijä oli lihaksen omien kantasolujen kaltaisten solujen jakautumiskapasiteetin lisääntyminen, Hulmi analysoi.Voimaharjoitus vähensi lihasten kasvun estäjien ilmentymistä. Yksittäinen raskas voimaharjoitus laski lihasten kasvua estävän proteiinin, myostatiinin ja sen vaikutusta välittävän reseptorin ilmentymistä. Teoriassa tällöin myostatiinin vaikutus lihassoluissa vähentyy edistäen lihasten koon kasvua.Voimaharjoittelu sopii vanhoille ja nuorille. Voimaharjoittelu on erittäin tehokas tapa lisätä lihasten kokoa ja voimaa sekä nuorilla että vanhoilla. Tulokset rohkaisevat voimaharjoittelua harrastavia nauttimaan proteiinipitoista ravintoa ennen voimaharjoitusta ja välittömästi sen jälkeen.- Ei saa kuitenkaan unohtaa terveellistä, mm. runsaasti kasviksia, hedelmiä ja marjoja sisältävää ravintoa riittävän suojaravintoaineiden saannin ja muiden terveysvaikutusten varmistamiseksi, Hulmi muistuttaa.Lihasten koon ja sen myötä toimintakyvyn lasku ikääntyvillä on suuri ongelma ikääntyvän väestönosan osuuden kasvaessa voimakkaasti. Toisaalta usein jo nuorilla lihasten kuormittamattomuus ja vääränlainen ravinto johtavat pieneen ja heikkoon lihaksistoon.Hulmin tutkimuksessa selvitettiin voimaharjoittelun ja proteiiniravinnon vaikutuksia sekä nuorilla 25-vuotiailla että vanhemmilla 60-vuotiailla terveillä miehillä. Proteiinilisänä oli korkealaatuisena pidetty maidon hera. Tutkimus toteutettiin satunnaistettuna, kontrolloituna ja kaksoissokkona.

Väitöskirjatyössään Sami Määttä tutki nuoruutta ja nuorta aikuisuutta ajattelu- ja suoritusstrategioiden näkökulmasta. - Nuorten ja nuorten aikuisten ajattelu- ja toimintatavat muodostavat kumuloituvia kehiä erilaisten muiden psykologisten tekijöiden, kuten masennuksen, ja muiden tärkeiden kehitysvaiheeseen liittyvien tekijöiden, kuten koulumenestyksen kanssa, Määttä kertoo. Adaptiiviset strategiat, kuten optimismi, pitävät itseään yllä ja lisäävät todennäköisyyttä sille, että nuori pärjää koulussa ja elämässä yleensä, mikä taas vähentää esimerkiksi masennuksen todennäköisyyttä. Tämä taas johtaa siihen, että optimistisen strategian käyttö tulevaisuudessa on entistäkin todennäköisempää. Sen sijaan ei-adaptiivisten strategioiden käyttö, esimerkiksi itseä vahingoittava strategia, johtaa epäonnistumisiin ja sitä kautta epävakaiseen itsetuntoon ja mahdollisesti masennukseen, mikä lisää entisestään ei-adaptiivisten ajattelu- ja toimintatapojen käyttöä. This dissertation examined following research aims: (1) Is it possible to identify homogeneous subgroups of adolescents who deploy different kinds of achievement strategies? (2) How stable are adolescents’ achievement strategies during the 8th and 9th grades? (3) What are the antecedents of strategy use? (4) What are the consequences of the use of specific strategies on well-being, school adjustment and external problem behavior? (5) What is the role of achievement strategies in the transition from school to work? (6) What is the role of peer groups in adolescents’ achievement strategies? Four studies (two cross-sectional and two longitudinal) using two datasets were carried out. The results showed that: (1) adolescents used five kinds of achievement strategies, four of which resembled the kinds of strategy reported previously: the optimistic strategy, defensive pessimism, self-handicapping and learned helplessness; (2) each type of achievement strategy showed some stability across the year and a half; changes in group membership were most likely to occur between the two adaptive (i.e., from the optimistic to defensive pessimistic group or vice versa), or between the two maladaptive (i.e., from the self-handicapping to learned helplessness group or vice versa) groups; (3) depressive symptoms, school adjustment and external problem behavior impacted changes in strategy use; (4) the use of achievement strategies contributed to adolescents’ subsequent depressive symptoms, school adjustment and, for boys in the helpless group, norm-breaking behavior; (5) the achievement strategy use had an impact on the likelihood of problems in the transition from school to work (adaptive strategies increased success, maladaptive hindered it); and problems with this transition decreased use of self-protecting causal attributions; (6) the failure expectations and task-avoidance of adolescents’ peers were related to adolescents’ own norm-breaking behavior, and indirectly to their maladjustment at school and low grades. Overall, achievement strategies seem to form self-perpetuating, cumulative mechanisms together with other psychological mechanisms and outcomes. The problems individuals face during their life-span may be caused on the one hand by the accumulation of failures, and on the other, by the related use of maladaptive strategies

Juomiskäyttäytymisen pitkän aikavälin muotoutumisesta tiedetään varsin vähän, sillä tutkimuksia samojen ihmisten käyttäytymisestä lapsuudesta aikuisuuteen on maailmassa vain muutama. Pitkänen osoitti tutkimuksessaan, että varhainen päihteiden käyttö, heikko itsehallinta ja kouluiän ongelmat ennakoivat alkoholin ongelmakäyttöä.Perhetaustaan liittyvät ongelmat, erityisesti vaikeudet vanhemmuudessa sekä vanhempien alkoholinkäyttö ja äidin tupakoiminen lisäsivät riskiä sekä varhaiseen alkoholinkäytön aloittamiseen että aikuisiän ongelmajuomiseen. Heikko itsehallinta ja koulusopeutumattomuus 14-vuotiaana sekä pojilla heikko itsehallinta jo lapsuudessa olivat myös keskeisiä aikuisiän alkoholin ongelmakäytön riskitekijöitä.Ongelmien kasautuminen lapsuudessa ja nuoruudessa oli riskitekijä erityisesti sille, että alkoholinkäytöstä aiheutui aikuisiässä ongelmia. Lapsuuden perheeseen liittyvät tekijät sekä tutkittavan oma käyttäytyminen lapsena ja nuorena olivat voimakkaammin yhteydessä hänen juomiskäyttäytymiseensä 42-vuotiaana kuin varhaisaikuisuudessa.Pitkäsen mukaan ennalta ehkäisevään työhön pitäisi panostaa nykyistä enemmän ja varhaista puuttumista kouluikäisten huonosti voimiseen pitäisi kehittää. Riskiperheitä tulisi tukea jo ennen lapsen syntymää sekä lapsen ollessa neuvola- ja kouluiässä. Asiatietoa olisi aktiivisesti levitettävä sekä erityisesti opettajien ja vanhempien valmiuksia ja tietotasoa parannettava.Pitkäsen työ perustuu Jyväskylän yliopiston psykologian laitoksen Lapsesta aikuiseksi -tutkimukseen, jossa on tutkittu samoja henkilöitä 8-vuotiaista 42-vuotiaiksi sekä Kansanterveyslaitoksen Nuorten aikuisten mielenterveys -tutkimukseen, jossa on seurattu lukiolaisia viiden vuoden ajan. The aim of the present study was to examine the development of and precursors to alcohol drinking behavior, considering the timing of antecedents (childhood, adolescence) and of outcomes (adolescence, young adulthood, early middle age) separately for females and males. The Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (JYLS) extending from age 8 to 42 provided the data for Studies I, III, and IV, and the Mental Health of Young Adults (NAM) extending from age 17 to 22 provided the data for Study II. There were four main themes common to the four original publications (Studies I–IV): analysis of drinking behavior, methods of measuring drinking behavior, precursors of drinking behavior, and differences between the genders penetrating the three other themes. Several indicators of drinking behavior were used including the frequency of drinking, binge drinking, the alcoholism screening tests CAGE and Mm-MAST, and problems due to drinking. About half of the participants of both longitudinal studies had shown some signs of heavy drinking by young adulthood, and at early middle age, half of the JYLS participants acknowledged that the use of alcohol had caused problems for them in, for instance, human relationships and work. Continuity in drinking behavior was high, even though at the individual level variation was also considerable. The early age of onset and heavy drinking in adolescence were significant risk factors for later heavy drinking. The level of adult alcohol use and alcohol problems was significantly higher in men than in women. Significant childhood and adolescent risk factors to and resource factors for drinking behavior in young adulthood and early middle age were found. The precursors varied, however, across the indicators of drinking and across the genders. In sum, problems due to drinking were more predictable than other aspects of drinking behavior. Low child-centeredness in parenting, externalizing problem behaviors, low school orientation, maladjustment, substance use, and somatic symptoms in adolescence were associated with adult problem drinking in both genders. Additionally, maternal smoking and the daughters’ internalizing symptoms were linked to adult problem drinking in females, whereas parental drinking, the sons’ low compliance, and childhood externalizing problem behaviors, and social activity preceded adult problem drinking in males. The longitudinal results revealed a finding that was not found in the literature: problems due to drinking in males and females were more predictable in middle age than in young adulthood.

First aim of this study entity was to evaluate the results of treatment and rehabilitation in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). The long-term health outcomes in the early adulthood were evaluated in the framework of the International classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF). The second aim of this study entity was to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of two multidimensional measures of functioning which were used in the outcome evaluations.For the outcome evaluations young adult patients with JIA were gathered from the patient files of the Rheumatism Foundation Hospital (RFH), Heinola, Finland. The patients were evaluated during a one-day visit to the RFH by a multidisciplinary team. Patients completed Finn-AIMS2, Finn-MDHAQ and the quality of life (QoL) (RAND-36) questionnaires. Age-, sex- and domicile matched controls were gathered from the Finnish population registry. The validity and reliability of the Finnish versions of the Arthritis impact measurement scales 2 (AIMS2) and the Multidimensional health assessment questionnaire (MDHAQ) were evaluated in two Finnish adult rheumatoid arthritis (RA) populations.Sixty-three per cent of young adult patients with JIA had active disease at a mean age of 23 years after a mean follow-up of 16 years. Patients experienced more pain, had lower levels of mobility and social life than controls. In patients with active disease versus controls the differences became even more conspicuous. In all, 20% of the patients had uveitis diagnosed during the course of the disease. Levels of education and employment in patients with JIA were similar to controls. Patients rated their QoL similar to controls except in one sub area of physical health. In the areas of mental health patients with JIA and controls evaluated their QoL similarly. Patients with active disease rated their QoL lower in all areas of physical health compared to patients in remission and controls. On the contrary mental health was found to be similar between all patient groups and controls. Finn-AIMS2 and Finn-MDHAQ were found to be valid, reliable and applicable for outcome studies in adult RA age groups.In conclusion, gaining remission and active treatment and rehabilitation interventions designed to maintain functioning should be a high priority in clinical practice in young adult patients with JIA. ICF can offer a promising tool in providing a wide perspective on health outcome evaluations and a unified language between different health professionals nationally and internationally. Minor modifications suggested in the Finn-MDHAQ would benefit application of the instrument in the future. The appropriateness of both measures, Finn-AIMS2 and Finn-MDHAQ, for the young adult age groups should still be reinforced in further studies. Marja Arkela-Kautiainen tutki lastenreumaa sairastaneiden nuorten aikuisten terveyttä, toimintakykyä ja elämänlaatua.– Lähes kaksi kolmasosaa nuorista aikuisista kärsi taudista edelleen. Heidän fyysinen toimintakykynsä oli heikentynyt verrattuna sellaisiin nuoriin, jotka eivät ole sairastaneet lastenreumaa, Arkela-Kautiainen toteaa.Fyysinen toimintakyky oli huonompi myös verrattuna niihin nuoriin, jotka olivat sairastaneet lastenreumaa, mutta eivät tutkimushetkellä kärsineet sen oireista. Psyykkisessä toimintakyvyssä ei sen sijaan ollut eroja lastenreumaa sairastaneiden ja sairastamattomien välillä.Arkipäivän hoidon tärkein tavoite lastenreumaan sairastuneiden lasten ja nuorten hoidossa on sammuttaa taudin aktiviteetti. Lisäksi aktiivista lastenreumaa sairastavat nuoret tarvitsevat tehokkaita hoito- ja kuntoutustoimia, joiden avulla toimintarajoitteiden kehittyminen voidaan välttää. Näin voidaan mahdollistaa myös parempi elämänlaatu varhaisessa aikuisiässä.Arkela-Kautiaisen tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan hyödyntää lastenreumaa sairastavien lasten ja nuorten hoidon ja kuntoutuksen suunnittelussa, kehittämisessä ja laadun arvioinnissa. Tavoitteena on, että palvelut tukisivat paremmin lasten ja nuorten hyvinvoinnin edellytyksiä. Toisaalta tutkimustulosten toivotaan vaikuttavan hoito- ja kuntoutuspäätöksiä tekeviin viranomaisiin perusterveydenhuollossa, erikoissairaanhoidossa ja Kansaneläkelaitosten paikallistoimistoissa.

Margareetta Tummavuoren 6,5 vuoden seurantatutkimus antoi tietoa harjoittelun vaikutuksista nuorten kestävyysurheilijoiden sydämen rakenteeseen ja toimintaan. Hän selvitti myös maksimaalista toimintakykyä kuvaavan maksimaalisen hapenottokyvyn kehittymistä kestävyysharjoittelun vaikutuksesta. The purpose of this 6.5-year follow-up study was to investigate the impact of training on the structure and function of the heart of young endurance athletes with the help of echocardiographic variables and maximal oxygen uptake (O2max), which indicates the capacity of maximal cardiovascular function. This study also sought to determine at which age the structural and functional changes in the heart took place, the impact on cardiovascular function of short-term (6 - 7 months) training during three different training seasons, and the effect of body size and growth. The significance of the size of the heart at the baseline situation was examined by dividing the 16-year-old male cross-country skiers (n = 20) into two groups one comprising those with small hearts and the other comprising those with large hearts according to the end-diastolic diameter (EDD) of the left ventricle. EDD, septal wall thickness in diastole (SWTd) and posterior wall thickness in diastole (PWTd) of the left ventricle of the heart increased (7.8, 12.5 and 9.8 %, respectively) significantly during the 6.5 years. EDD increased significantly during the first three years (age 16 - 19), while the walls remained unchanged, whereas during the last three years (age 19 - 22) EDD did not increase, but the walls thickened significantly. O2max increased during the first three years and evened out thereafter. The annual echocardiographic changes and those of O2max were small. There were no significant changes during the different training seasons. EDD, normalized with body surface area (BSA), did not change during the study. In the baseline situation the EDD of those with small hearts increased during the study more than the EDD of those with large hearts, but without reaching comparable values even at the end of the study. There were no differences in wall thickness between the groups. EDD increased more in the group where BSA had increased more. The skiers tended to have a larger EDD, and their SWTd and PWTd were thicker than those of control subjects of the same age. In conclusion it can be stated that genetic factors and growth had a great impact on the size of the heart of the skiers and control subjects, and that young cross-country skiers, thanks to endurance training, first experience dilatation of the left ventricle of the heart and then hypertrophy of the walls.