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Work-Family Interface during the Age thirty Transition: Experiences of Women Professionals from the Corporate sector
The age thirty transition is a significant developmental transition in the lives of women. Past studies have found this to be a period of disruption and re-evaluation of choices before lasting commitments are made in work and family. This research is focused on studying the experiences of women professionals from the corporate sector as they negotiate the age thirty transition and the work-family interface during this transition period. It provides a current understanding of this transition in lives of women professionals in the context of urban India. Based in the paradigm of phenomenology, this study follows the IPA method. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six women and the data was analyzed at individual as well as cross-case level. The findings indicate that approach of age thirty i.e. approximately between ages 25 and 31 is a transitional period as the young women enter and establish themselves in adult roles in work and family. The changes in their environment and social expectations interact with developmental changes within the ??self. Amidst unique individual experiences, the results suggest a common structure of the transition experience with distinct phases and an evolution of work-family interface across these phases. Keywords: age thirty transition, work-family interface -
Evolution of Virtual Prey using a Virtual Predator
Can evolution happen on a computer is it possible for Images to evolve? This paper tries to show that Mother Nature has got it right and evolution is the future for programs. How many times will a new release come to solve my previous problem and in the process create new problems! Evolution can happen on a computer is very clear in this work titled Evolution of a Virtual Prey using a Virtual Predator. The Virtual Prey can evolve its skin color based on an Artificial Intelligent Virtual Predator. Monochrome patterns have evolved very successfully. Some repeatable patterns in the Brodatz Texture Database have also evolved. Charles Darwin in his famous book Origin of Species suggests that evolution takes place using a method he termed Natural Selection. Survival of fittest has to be considered in context of the environment in which the species are living. One of the criteria of survival depends on whether the specie was able to propagate before it was hunted down by a predator. For example the skin color of a prey like an insect evolves to match the background it is living on such that the predators like birds and frogs will not detect them. Assume there are thousand insects on a surface and if nine hundred and ninety are eaten over a period of time are eaten. Then the last 10 will be those which have got skin color, pattern, and texture closest to the original. Some findings have been in the comparison of different genetic operators to evolve specie. Use of Mutation and Crossover operator is critical. Some level of continuation is required in the next generation to maintain and not lose the quality which has been already attained. The number of generations required depend on DNA length and on the correct use of these three parameters.. The runtime from thirty minutes has been reduced to ten minutes to evolve specie of 100 plus variables in the DNA of the images. If we are ready to run the program for a day on multiple machine in parallel then the possibilities of great diversity is very much possible. The predator will be an algorithm which tries to do a basic computer vision operation of correlating two images and ranking them. Then it eliminates a certain percentage of the population. The dissertation is broken down in chapters. Chapter 1 gives the Introduction and Chapter 2 gives an idea of what all research is happening in this area. Chapter 3 is the core content of my work and it shows the different approaches I have used to evolve textures, the use of different operators. This chapter is followed by the testing I had to do due to the complexity of the application and high chance of error creeping into the results. An idea of the application can be got from the Appendix where I have given a walk through of the Zing World -
On Degree Sequence of Total Graphs and the Order of the Graphs
In this dissertation we discuss about the degree sequence of total graphs of some general graphs. A total graph of G, denoted by T(G) has vertex set as the union of vertices and edges in G and vertices are adjacent in T(G) if they are adjacent or incident in G. We try to obtain the degree sequence of total graphs of particular graphs like complete graph, path, cycle, wheel and star, from the number of vertices of the given graph (without directly drawing the total graph). We also explain the decomposition of T(G) into G and K_(d_i )s where dis are degrees of each of the vertices in G, moreover discuss about the degree sequence of T(G)??T(Ge). -
An Empirical Analysis of Price Discovery in Spot and Futures Market of Gold in India
The broadest classification of the Indian financial market can be made in terms of commodity market, stock and security markets and foreign exchange market. Commodity markets are markets where raw or primary products are exchanged. These raw commodities are traded on regulated commodity exchanges, in which they are bought and sold in standardized contracts. Gold is a commodity which has been undergoing very serious price fluctuations in recent years. It has had its own impact on commodity trading too. Price discovery process of gold has always been a matter of wide discussion among researchers and policy makers. In this context this study aims at analyzing the price discovery process of Gold in Indian commodity market. It also looks into the volatility impact of futures price on spot price as well as the volatility impact of spot price on futures price. The study is completely based on the secondary data collected from the official website of NCDEX. The data extend for a period ranging from 23rd April 2009 to 29th December 2011. The daily data of spot and futures prices of gold during the period is taken into account. Various econometric tools are employed to test the hypotheses set. The VAR model result confirms the unidirectional relationship runs from the spot market to the futures market of gold in India. It reveals co integration and dynamic relationship between spot and futures markets of gold. The result of GARCH model implies that both futures as well as spot markets do have significant impact in the price volatility of gold in India. The result of VECM tells that spot market is dominant in the price discovery process which is a clear indication of the fact that spot market of gold is information efficient in India. The result is of great significance for the investors who wish to improve portfolio performance. With regard to policy making, a better understanding of the interconnectedness of these markets would be useful for the policy makers who coordinate the stability of financial markets. For marketers, it provides a reliable forecast of spot prices in the future to allow them to effectively manage their risks in the production or marketing process. The unprecedented uptrend in the price of gold and high volatility in recent years provides room for some important social implications. -
EFFECT OF CORIOLIS FORCE AND NON UNIFORM BASIC TEMPERATURE GRADIENT ON THE ONSET OF RAYLEIGH BENARD CONVECTION IN SECOND ORDER FLUID WITH GENERAL BOUNDARY CONDITION
The effect of coriolis force and non uniform basic temperature gradient on the onset of Rayleigh B??nard convection in Second order fluid with general boundary conditions are studied using the Galerkin technique. The effects of one linear and five nonlinear basic temperature gradients are studied on the onset of convection. A linear stability analysis is performed. The influence of various parameters on the onset of convection has been analyzed and their comparative influence on onset is discussed. The study of the problem with general boundary conditions for velocity and temperature indicates that the results of the previous studies for different boundary conditions are obtained as limiting cases for the present studies. -
Health Expenditure in Puducherry (U.T) A Study using National Health Accounts Framework
With the start of globalization, the Indian economy started experiencing a sudden growth and with the boom of various sector in the economy, the employment opportunity, income as standard of living started increasing. With the increase standard of living, there is an increase in demand for health care services. Health care plays an important role in the lives of the people. With government being welfare oriented every year the investment in health care increases and the private contribution to the health care sector is increasing at a higher pace. This study aims: (1) To quantify the extent of household expenditure on health by household characteristics in Puducherry; (2) To track the flow of resources in Health sector from different sources and present them in the form of accounting principles and (3) To develop a matrice format which facilitates the user to understand the sources of finances and uses of such finances on different item of expenditure. A primary data survey was conducted to capture the picture of household expenditure and the National Health Account matrices framework as prescribed by WHO was used in developing the health accounts matrices. The finding shows that majority of the household expenditure is made in purchasing medicine and other goods from the retail sector. Bulk of the spending is made in curative services. The expenditure flows to retail sale of medicines and drugs seems to be the major provider of services to the community. Households are the prominent sources for spending on health care. Out of the household surveyed only 2 to 3 per cent of the population would opt for health insurance. The present expenditure pattern seems to be shying away from other crucial functional elements of health care like Primary health care, Prevention of diseases, Public health and Promotive care. The study also finds a need to increase the awareness of Health insurance among the public and the need for more investment in health infrastructure as well as training of health personnel. -
Student-Teacher Relationship Patterns in Undergraduate College
The student-teacher relationship has always been important at all levels of formal education, including undergraduate level. Positive student-teacher relationship plays direct role in facilitating students experience, and ultimately enhancing the academic outcomes. Furthermore, such relationship, especially at undergraduate level, becomes crucial since it also helps to facilitate the change and transformation process of adolescents who are stepping out from kindergraten-12th grade (K-12) system of education and venturing into college life. Given such importance and closeness in the relationship, this study attempted to examine the attachment patterns of the student-teacher relationship at undergraduate level. The research was guided by two broad questions. First, is student-teacher relationship at undergraduate level an attachment relationship? Second, if it is an attachment relationship, do distinct patterns exist? Drawing on two-dimensional internal working model of adult attachment postulated by Bartholomew (1980) as conceptual framework, the study explored the perception of 216 undergraduate students on student-teacher relationship from a university in Bangalore by using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). From the result two distinct dimensions, first related to students self and second associated to their view about availability of teachers and how they would reciprocate in the interactions, were observed which was later confirmed by CFA. The finding could help in future research to find the aspects of the relationship that promote the sense of security and supportiveness to enhance the academic outcomes of the students. Keywords: adult attachment patterns, student-teacher relationship -
A Study on the Impact of Microfinance in Women Empowerment with Specific Reference to ESAF Microfinance and Investments Pvt. Ltd. (EMFIL)
This study attempts to understand the impact of microfinance on women empowerment, in terms of changes in income and savings, preference for formal sources of credit, socio-economic status, and political participation. The study also attempts to find whether the members of a private microfinance institution are satisfied with the services offered by them. The study was conducted on a sample of 220 women beneficiaries of microfinance services of a leading MFI operating in Kerala state. The sample was selected by convenience sampling. The results of the study show that microfinance programs have created a positive impact to its beneficiaries. Majority of the respondents are engaged in various income generating activities because of the credit facilities provided by microfinance institutions. This resulted in a significant change in their income level and savings after participating in microfinance programs. This has helped them to earn income for their family and also enabled them to play an important role in their family and also in society. After joining microfinance programs they also preferred formal financial institutions for availing credit facilities. It was also found that microfinance has empowered women socially, economically and politically. The results also indicated that the MFI selected for the study was able to provide good service to its members and the members were satisfied on the services offered by the MFI. Keywords: Microfinance, Microfinance Institutions (MFI), Women Empowerment, Social, Economic and Political Empowerment. -
Content suggestion in e-learning
Self ??directed e-learning focuses on the independent learner one who engages in education at his own space free from curricular obligation. In this research, user's access interests were introduced into the design of a recommendation framework by using web browsing behaviour of the user. According to the user's access interest the recommendation framework can provide users with personalised information. The research thesis is to determine if users access interest can be extracted and to associate users access interest with other attributes to design a recommendation framework that attempts to recommend the information items, here the research papers to a researcher searching for interesting topics of research in her field. The proposed system is very useful to the new researchers as initially they are not aware of the research areas where they can work on. This system assists the researcher in searching the papers they are interested to search. The documents of interest to the user are used to build the user profile and this profile is used to re-rank the web search results. The paper presents the overall architecture of the proposed system and its implementation via a prototype design. In this dissertation an attempt is made to design a system prototype which will recommend the information items to the user according to the user access interest, which is captured from the web browsing behaviour of the user. The content similarity of the information items is also taken into consideration. The information items are suggested to the user based on the relevance. The organization of the thesis is done into various chapters. Introduction contains the brief introduction about personalisation services in e-learning scenario, recommender systems in e-learning. Literature review discusses about the web-based self-directed e-learning and the works done in the field of recommender systems in e-learning. Chapter 3 discusses the methodology adopted to design the system. In chapter 4 results are being analysed and discussed. Chapter 5 gives the future enhancement that can be done to the system design. -
Narration of Self in the Autobiographies of Augustine of Hippo and Teresa of Avila
This dissertation is a study of narration of self in the autobiographies of Augustine of Hippo and Teresa of Avila. Confessions, the autobiography of Augustine of Hippo, is considered the first organized spiritual autobiography in the Western Europe and The Life of Teresa of Jesus measured as the first spiritual autobiography among women. In the main argument I propose that the self narrated in Confessions is a confessional self and the self narrated in The Life of Teresa of Jesus is an inquisitional self. According to Christian tradition confession is the disclosure of sins to a priest and acknowledging and praising the Holiness of God for his mercy towards a sinful man. In Confessions, Augustine makes a confession to God, to himself, and to the human kind. Augustine narrates a confessional self because all throughout the text we observe a total surrendering of his sins and flaws to God without any justification or argument similar to a confession. The self narrated by Teresa in The Life of Teresa of Jesus, I argue, is an inquisitional self. It is because Teresa has written the autobiography by the command of her confessors. Teresas vision and spiritual ecstasies made a contradiction in the church and predicted that it was from devil. In order to prove the reality and truth it was necessary to submit her life history to the judicial court, which was established as an inquisitional court. Therefore her confessors asked her to write her life story only with the explanation of spiritual favours she received. She was forced to write a life story with many restrictions. Consequently the self narrated in The Life of Teresa of Jesus became an inquisitional self where she hides many incidents of the real life. -
A Phenomenological Investigation of Mens Experiences of Depression and Gender Role Socialization in Early Family Relationships in urban South India
With the overwhelming suicide rate among men over women, and family problems and illness being the major causes of suicide in India, it is vitally important that we have a better understanding of how men struggle with depression in the context of family. Based on increasing studies on depression and family in the last two decades, a number of researchers have suggested that male depression is associated with early family life experiences. As few studies on the experiences of depression and gender role socialization in early family relationships are reported in India, the present study adds credence to the concept of male depression that may relate to early family life experiences. The aim of this study is to understand the subjective experiences of depression and gender role socialization in early family relationships among Indian men. A non-clinical sample of 9 men was selected using purposive sampling from a human service organization. Theoretical sampling of biographical accounts of a clinical group (1 male client with history of clinical depression) was used for triangulation of data. Consensual Qualitative Research methodology is adopted. The subjective experiences of participants are examined by open-ended, in-depth interviews. The interviews are taped and transcribed. Identification of domains and core ideas, and cross-analyses are conducted on transcripts. A research team of three and an external auditor are employed for data analysis. The findings have contributed to new understandings of depression in the light of gender role socialization in early family relationships among Indian men. Implications suggest further studies of male depression in the family context, the challenge of family life education in India, and the importance of gender sensitivity in counseling with men. Keywords: men, depression, gender role socialization, early family relationships, consensual qualitative research. -
The Effect of Logotherapy on Meaning and Quality of Life of the Elderly in Old Age Homes.
Today the elderly in India is faced with a changing life situation where the traditional joint family system, according to which the elders were recognized and respected have given way to nuclear families where the elderly try to fit in. The number of old age homes in India is on increase especially in the state of Kerala. The existing literature shows that the elderly in old age homes in India undergo the problems like, relational issues, poverty, health issues, rejection from children, death of the partner, death anxiety etc, which lead to meaninglessness and poor quality of life. The current research is aimed at studying the effectiveness of a logotherapy intervention called Meaning in Life Programme on the meaning and quality of life of the elderly in old age homes. For the purpose of the study three old age homes with similar administration were selected from the districts of Kottayam, Kannur and Ernakulam district of Kerala where the highest number of old age homes of India are situated. 60 of them who met the inclusion criteria were randomely put into two groups, namely control group and experimental group. At par with the existing literature the study proves that the elderly in old age homes have a low meaning and quality of life. The average mean score of meaning in the pre-test was 14.23 in MiLS and the average mean score of quality of life in the pre-test is 51.83 in WHOQOL. The experimental group was given an intensive Logotherapy- meaning in life programme for five days and the control group had normal life. After a period of one month both groups were tested with MiLS and WHOQOL and there was significant difference between the control group and the experimental group. The Experimental group scored 22.06 in MiLS at the significant level of p < .001 and 59.73 in WHOQOL at the significant level of p < .001. The study revealed that logotherapy is effective in enhancing meaning and quality of life of the elderly in old age homes. Key words: meaning, quality, elderly, logotherapy -
Effect of Animal Assisted Therapy among Children with Autism
Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is still at a very infancy stage of growth as a therapy mode in India. People are slowly getting to know of this and its positive effects for different populations like special kids, people in their old age, and terminally ill patients amongst the many others. Hence the choice to experience this is now gradually increasing in cities that provide AAT. In this present study the aim was to assess the effectiveness of AAT among children with autism. Specifically the focus was to see if AAT does affect the dimensions of communication, social and motor skills in children with autism. To do the same, a case study method was employed in order to derive an in-depth knowledge of the changes and improvements in the child. A multiple technique of data collection was employed wherein data was obtained via semi-structured interviews, observation and medical reports. The data obtained were transcribed and coded and put through a case analysis. The results obtained state that there have been improvements in the dimension of communication and social skills in the autistic children who were a part of this study. Motor skills however have not been significantly enhanced in almost all of them or rather the changes have not been very substantial. In view of the people providing information, the positive shift in these areas could be attributed to AAT but not solely as there could be other therapies and techniques that could have played a role in it. Key Words: Animal Assisted Therapy, Autism, Communication Skills, Social Skills, Motor Skills. -
Demographic Variables Influence on Work Engagement of Nurses and Doctors in Hospitals.
It has been foreseen that the healthcare sector in India will be at par with the IT services as well as education in terms of revenue, and would largely contribute to the countrys economy. The health-care industry is presently worth $ 7 Billion dollars (USD), and is predicted to grow at the rate of 13% every year. At this pace, work levels in hospitals have increased, and an employees contribution towards work has decreased. The psychological connection of employees towards their work has gained critical importance; as organizations find that their employees are not giving their best in these times when the demand is on its rise. Work engagement is a positive-fulfilling work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption, where vigor being high energy levels and mental resilience, dedication being a state of mind where an individual is strongly involved in ones work, and absorption is characterized by engrossment and concentration towards ones work. Literature review on work engagement from the last decade has focused on the relationship of engagement with job satisfaction, employee turnover, performance, and other human resource related constructs. A sample of 372 respondents comprising of doctors and nurses form 20 hospitals (corporate, government and private/trust) of 150 beds and above. Respondents were chosen by using judgmental sampling technique. The variables under investigation were Work engagement and eight demographic characteristics of the respondents. Utrecht Work engagement scale (UWES), by Wilmar Schaufeli and Arnold Baker, (2003), and based on the objectives the eight demographics were included. Fourteen hypotheses were tested and the major findings were that the overall work engagement for doctors was significantly high, and for nurses it was found to be moderate. Significant difference on work engagement levels on doctors was found across gender, educational qualification, age of the respondents, marital status, number of children, and types of hospitals. No significant difference on work engagement levels was found across work experience for doctors. Significant difference on work engagement levels on nurses was found across educational qualification, age of the respondents, work experience, marital status, number of children, and type of hospitals for nurses. No significant difference on work engagement levels was found across gender for nurses. Implications suggested that hospitals develop a flexible training, and therapeutic program for men and women to manage stress customized to their requirement. Focus should be given on encouraging employees to continue higher education. Younger and less experienced employees should be encouraged to interact with senior staff as their sharing of ideas and thoughts would be beneficial to both older and younger employees. Hospitals should imbibe values and ethics which are based on compassion, love for mankind and development of society through good leadership which would inspire them to go that extra mile. Key words: Work engagement, Demographic influence, Doctors, Nurses. -
Unlocking Credit Default Swaps to the Retail Investors to Boost Liquidity and Risk Diversification
Credit Default Swaps, is one of the significant contributors to the 2008 financial crash due to raise of illiquidity and its limited space to mitigate the risk, the market is dictated by few institutions across the globe. Hence the research investigates realistically by probing the credit default swaps role and contribution in the financial crash, existing gaps and current mechanism of the credit default swaps, as a result we anticipate the outcome might force us restructure the existing mechanism or possible innovative alternate models in order to boost the liquidity and to establish robust platform which helps to minimize the counterparty risk. Financial tsunami in the year 2008, alarmed researchers, regulators, economists, sovereigns and financial institutions across the globe to emphasize on the need of strong liquidity and risk mitigation or diversification model(s) for credit default swaps market reformation and the development along with creating superior confidence levels in the market. The literature review of the research acknowledged that the existing financial institutions and researchers analyzed and articulated the need of the retail investors participation in the credit default swaps market to create a strong liquidity and to mitigate counterparty risk. The anticipated restructuring or possible innovative alternate models may help to reform and to maintain the development of the credit default swaps market and also provoke superior confidence levels to boost strong liquidity and options to diversify the associated risk. The outcome of this research may also motivate the investments in the debt market which helps to enhance the debt capital markets and economies around the globe. Finally we verify the liquidity strength and degree of risk with the help of research proxies; the proxies are width of the bid and ask spread of the research outcome, as we strongly believe bid and ask spread have self illustrative power to explain the degree of liquidity and risk mathematically and statistically, the research assume multiple regression model to establish relationship between dependent variable and independent variables. Keywords: Unlocking, Credit Default Swaps (CDS), Retail Investors, Liquidity and Risk Diversification. JEL Classification: L810, G320 -
RAYLEIGH B??NARD - CONVECTION IN MICROPOLAR FLUID SATURATED POROUS MEDIA WITH MAXWELL - CATTANEO LAW
In this paper we find the effects of saturated porous media on the onset of Rayleigh-Benard convection in a micropolar fluid with Maxwell-Cattaneo law. We have done a linear study of the problem and the Rayleigh number has been arrived at using Galerkian method. The critical Rayleigh number has been found for different boundary conditions and graphs have been plotted for the same. -
Synthesis and Characterization of Vanadyl Complexes of Heterocyclic Acid Hydrazones
Two acid hydrazones, Furan-2-carbaldehyde nicotinic hydrazone and Furan-2-carbaldehyde benzhydrazone have been synthesised and they are characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR and UV spectral analysis. Vanadyl complexes of these two hydrazones were synthesised and characterised by elemental analysis, IR, UV, EPR, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Spectral data indicates the square pyramidal geometry for the monomeric ve coordinated oxovanadium (IV) complexes with the general formula [VO(L)(OCH3 )].The vanadium complex of the acid hydrazone was studied for its catalytic activity. The complex was found to be a good catalyst in quinoxaline synthesis. -
Parental Attention of Full-time Dual Earning Couples and Its Impact on Children
As dual-earner families became the normative household type over the 21st century, the question of how families cope with and negotiate new work and family role responsibilities became the topic of much research and scholarly debate. Both parents working are inevitable in the current scenario. The purpose of this study is to understand the magnitude and quality of the parental attention of full-time dual earning couples and its relation to different chosen variables such as Recreation, Health, Socialization and Self-esteem, Moral development and Academic performance of their children. Data was collected from 50 respondents of full-time dual earning couples from various professionals in urban Bangalore region by administering a self-designed structured questionnaire. It has been found that most of the parents spent their valuable time with their children as they understood that would enhance physical, behavioural, personal and academic development of the children. The null findings in the present study indicate that the life style of full-time dual earning couples does not affect the normal development of their children, rather children are accustomed to parent work timings and are able to adapt to the changes in their parents work and responsibility. -
Exploring the Professional Problems Faced by Beginning Counsellors
Counselling Education at a Post-graduate level is of recent origin in India. Every year a number of students who complete their Post-graduate studies (M.Sc.) in Counselling get employed in various settings. As trainees their issues related to practice of counseling get addressed in training sessions, in supervision and through other means like personal therapy. Nothing is conclusively known about their status as beginning counselors. The aim and objectives of the study were exploring the professional problems faced by beginning counselors and the ways in which they are coping with them and their suggestions to cope as individuals and the ways in which the training institutes could help them to cope. The study was done by conducting two focus group discussions (FGD) of six beginning counselors and personal in-depth interviews of three beginning counselors who were working in different settings like Clinical-rehab, School and Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). While three school counsellors, two counsellors working in clinical-rehab settings and one EAP counsellor formed the participants of FGD, one counsellor from each of these settings who was not part of FGD was interviewed personally. While for the FGDs, the researcher used the self-constructed guide, for the interviews, the findings of FGD data which formed the Interview Schedule. Both the FGDs and the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed and analyzed with conventional content analysis. Data from both the FGDs and interviews were included to form the Results. The findings show the various professional problems faced by the beginning counselors and the coping strategies used by them and their suggestions for coping with their professional problems at an individual level and at an institutional level. Implications for professional development, training of counsellors and scope for future research are presented. Key Words: Beginning Counsellors, Professional Problems, Coping, Professional Development. -
Meaning in Life as Constructed by Male Adolescents of Alcoholic Parents
Little research has been done to understand the experiences of male adolescent living with an alcoholic parent. This qualitative phenomenological study was used to explore and understand how the sons of an alcoholic parent living in South India find meaning in their situation. Alcoholism occurs in India as it does in all nations, but here there is a greater sense of shame attached to it and it is less mentioned than in Western countries. The sample in the study is selected according to the non-probability and purposive sampling technique. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in which the researcher interacted with the participants. Five boys were interviewed between the ages of seventeen and twenty; three attend a prestigious college while the other two were no longer at school. Some from wealthy families while others were sons of day labourers. All were keen to advance in their chosen careers, some through gaining degrees. Sports and recreation were important to them and it provided a sense of achievement and a release from the stresses of a dysfunctional family. There were supporting features in the lives of the boys; support coming from mothers, older siblings, sports coaches and some teachers. Other ways of gaining a sense of value was by having a personal faith in God and by helping younger disadvantaged children. The counter to this was that some teachers did not understand and were critical of the boys while in most cases members of the extended families like uncles, aunts and cousins interacted in negative way. The exceptions were grandparents who either were able to control their alcoholic son or could provide time and support to their grandson. The negative influences added to the stresses of living with an alcoholic father. What was surprising was the degree of maturity of the boys; they accepted that alcoholism was a disease and that it was not their fathers fault, and they remained loyal to their parent. This study shows that the school sports coaches have a more positive influence than teachers. This may be because coaches have a more holistic approach than teachers. It highlights the need for schools and colleges to adopt a more proactive approach to at risk students by identifying such students and for training of teachers in how to deal with these students. Thematic network approach to data analysis was used. This involved organising the data into three levels of themes reflecting salient themes i.e. basic, organising and global themes (Attride-Stirling, 2001). Attride-Stirling describes six stages in analyses involving thematic networks involving devising a coding framework, identify themes, refine the themes, constructing the thematic network, describing, exploring and summarising the networks and interpreting the patterns. Five global themes emerged from the analysis. The male adolescent need for praise, building self-esteem, helps, belief, being misunderstood by others. Recommendations are presented to create conditions necessary for the male adolescent. This involves education and creation of supportive environments for the male adolescent and his family. Key words: Adolescent of alcoholic parents, Meaning in life, Alcoholic, Thematic network, Logotherapy.