Studies on menstruation have focused only on menstruation itself and menstrual disorders. The menstruating girls or women have been neglected. So, the purpose of this study was to understand menstrual experience of adolescent girls in their perspective and build a theory on it. The specific purpose of this study were to find initial reaction of the girls, their strategies to adapt to menstruation, consequences of their efforts, influencing factor, and patterns of experience. The subjects of this study were eleven adolescent girls who experienced menarche three months to twenty-six months before the interview time. They were selected purposively. Their ages were in range of twelve and sixteen. One of them was a elementary school girls, three high school girls, and seven middle school girls. Two girls were handicapped because of cerebral palsy. All of them had some knowledge about menstrual physiology and hygiene during menstruation. Data were collected from September, 1994 to July, 1995. Data collection and analysis were done according to the grounded theory methodology by Strauss and Corbin(1990). Data collecting method was the long interviews and observation. Each interview took from 1 hour to 2 hours. Interview were tape?recorded and transcribed later by author. Data were analyzed immediately after interviews. Based on the results of previous interview, next interview were planned until gathered data reached the saturation point. Results were as follows. One hundred and six concepts were found. Those concepts were grouped into twenty eight categories and then fourteen higher categories. Twenty eight categories were as follows, "want to hide", "bewildered", "sense of burden", "sense of heterogeneity", "gladness", "sense of superiority", "negative empathy", "positive empathy", "limited hygenic control", "sense of timing", "lack of knowledge", "lack of support", "advance knowledge", "informational support", "emotional support", "edurance", "prayer", "disclosing", "avoidance", "diversion", "sense of powerlessness", "discovery of sex identity", "sense of maturation", "sense of stability", "acceptance of menstruation". Fourteen higher categories were as follows, "negative feeling", "posive feeling", "exchange of feeling", "limited hygenic control", "sense of timing", "accumulated experience", "dysmen-orrhea", "level of knowledge", "need for support", "perceived support", "sharing of feeling", "self-control", "passive acceptance", "active acceptance". The core category was "emotional shaking", which consisted of "positive feeling" and "negative feeling". "Emotional shaking" comes up to every adolescent girls experiencing menarche, independently of any contextual conditions, and its demension has two directions: positive one and negative one. Its influencing factors were time of menarche, advance knowledge, support from the significant persons, expression and self?regulation. Even if they showed different process of adaptation to menstruation, general process of adaptation were as follows: 1. stage of emotional shaking 2. stage of acceptance 3. stage of internalization of the menstrual experience. Seven patterns existed on the process of adaptation to menstruation after menarche. Those are as follows. 1. If girls thought their menarche came too early and they had not much knowledge on menstruation, they had a kind of negative feeling. If they did not get enough support and dysmenorrhea superimposed, they came to accept menstruation passively. 2. If girls had menarche too early, they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge. But support helped them accept menstruation easily. 3. If girls had menarche too early, they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge on menstruation. But by experiencing subsequent menstruations and disclosing feeling, they began to accept menstruation. 4. If girls had menarche too lately and they had enough advance knowledge on menstruation, they had positive feeling. If dysmenorrhea superimposed later, their feeling turned in to negative one. But they came to accept menstruation positively by disclosing feeling and getting support. 5. If girls had menarche too early, they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge on menstruation. In addition to this, if dysmenorrhes superimposed while they did not get enough support, they felt powerless and came to accept menstruation passively. 6. If girls had menarche too early and did not get enough advance knowledge, they had negative feeling. But disclosing feeling and support made them get sense of homogeneity and began to accept menstruation. 7. If girls had handicap, they had negative feeling, even though they had enough advance knowledge and menarche was late. But Menarche made them get feel sexual identity. Their limited hygenic control and negative empathy from their mothers made them accept menstruation passively. To let adolescent girls take their menstrual experience as a part of their lives forming a positive sense of feminine identity, it needs qualified teaching and, support and deep concern of the significant others. Nurses including school nurses should try to develop an educational program, which include menstrual physiology, hygiene during menstrual period, meaning of menstruation and impact of menstruation on the development of female sexual identity.

PURPOSE: This paper examined gender differences in a rate, type, relevant variables of delinquent behavior, and a gender differences regarding the relative influence of family,personality, academic achievement, sexual abuse and alcohol drug abuse on delinquent behavior among Korean adolescents. METHOD: Data were collected by self-report questionnaires. Subjects consisted of 2,100 adolescents (male 1,396, female 704) in Korea, using proportional stratified random sampling method. Statistical methods were Chi-square, t-test and path analysis. RESULT: Male adolescents had higher rate of delinquent behavior, and more all types of delinquent behavior (antisocial, aggressive, and psychopathic) than female. Male adolescents showed more dysfunctional family dynamic environments, higher antisocial personality and sociability than female adolescents. Female adolescents had higher depressive tendencies than male. The most powerful contributing variables on male delinquent behavior were age, antisocial personality, parent-child relationship, isolation feelings, and sexual abuse in this order named. Drug abuse, isolation feelings, antisocial personality and parent-child relationship tended to be contributing variables for female delinquent behaviors in this order named. CONCLUSION: This investigation will provides a foundation for theory that addresses the complexities of both gender-specific and gender influences on delinquent behavior and development of preventive strategies for female delinquency.

Recently the rate of adolescent smoking in Korea has increased rapidly, and various health problems related to smoking can be expected to increase in the future. Studies on smoking behavior report that assertiveness is important factor influencing on the adolescent smoking. PURPOSE: This study was conducted to develope a educational video for the purpose of adolescent's smoking prevention. METHOD: The 533 participating subjects, 269 in experimental group and 264 control group, in the study were 7th grade students. The content of video introduces three smoke tempting situations. The experimental group received 17 minute video education, and the control group did not receive any treatments. RESULT: The results show that the student's assertiveness was increased significantly in the experimental group after the video education. Student's attitude on smoking became more negative in the experimental group. However, in the control group, the intention, assertiveness, attitude was not changed. CONCLUSION: This assertiveness video can be useful educational resource for the smoking prevention program for adolescents. Also further study on longitudinal effect and application on drinking, drug abuse are needed.

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to identify and compare the stressors and coping behaviors of high school students who experienced suicidal ideation vs those who do not. METHOD: The data were collected from 1,441 high school students living in the middle region of Korea. Researchers collected the data using Adolescent Stress Inventory and Adolescent Coping questionnare from February to May of 1999. Data were analyzed using X2, T-test. RESULT: A significant proportion (31.9%) of subjects had thought about suicide during the past 6 months, 297 girls (35.3%) and 163 boys (27.2%). Major stressors of subjects who experienced suicidal ideation were academic problems, conflicts between family members, and changes in sleeping or eating patterns. Conflicts with family members contributed to have suicidal ideation. There was no significant difference in helpful coping behaviors between the two groups. The group who experienced suicidal ideation had lower scores and fewer coping behaviors. Boys perceived more stressors and had fewer helpful coping behaviors than girls. CONCLUSION: It is necessary to develope school-based suicide prevention programs. Our findings suggest that the program should focus on problems related to studying and conflicts within the family.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify the rate of suicidal attempts, investigate difference of rate of suicidal attempts between students and delinquents, and examine correlation between personality, family dynamics, environment, and suicidal attempts among Korean adolescents. METHOD: Data were collected through questionnaire surveys. Internal consistencies for this questionnaire ranged from 0.63 to 0.88. The subject used in this study consisted of 922(delinquent : 367, student : 555), using the proportional stratified random sampling method. Statistical methods employed were Chi-square and t-test. RESULTS: 1) The rate of suicidal attempts were 10.8%, and the highest peak age of suicidal attempt was 17-18 year old (16.9%).2) Delinquents(19.6%) showed a higher rate of suicidal attempts than students (5.1%). Among the students, girls (43.3%) showed a higher rate of suicidal attempt than boys (19.1%). Whereas, boys (80.9%) showed a higher rate of suicidal attempt than girls (56.7%) among delinquents.3) Those who attempt suicide have more familial problem such as incest, psychosis, depression, attempted suicide, committed suicide, and alcoholism in their family. They also have more dysfunctional family dynamics, environment, and maladaptive personalities than non-attempters. CONCLUSIONS: Suicide and suicidal behaviors are multifaceted events. For suicide prevention, independent assessments of variables such as familial problems, personality, family dynamics, and environment must be considered.

PURPOSE: This study was to identify and clarify the relationship between perceived health, self-esteem, and self-care agencies for promoting self care among Korean adolescents. METHOD: Data were collected from 817 adolescents in schools located in Seoul, Kyungki-do, and Chuncheon from Sept, 16th to Sept, 28th, 1999, and from Mar 10th to Mar 25th, 2000. The instruments used for this study were the Health Self-Rating Scale, Self-Care Agency Assessment Questionnaire (Denyes, 1981), the Self-Esteem Questionnaire (Rosenberg, 1971). RESULT: 1) The mean perceived health status among Korean adolescents was 8.75 (SD=1.72) 2) The mean self-esteem was 27.27 (SD=4.64). 3) The mean self-care agency was 99.64 (SD=21.02) and the average self-care agency score was 3.99 (SD=0.84). In the subcategories, the highest degree was feelings towards health (4.15), followed by ego strength (4.06), attending to health (3.87), general health knowledge (3.56), and the lowest degree was specific health knowledge (3.20) 4) There was statistical significant differences between demographic factors and self-care agencies, expecially, gender (t=28.65), grade (F=3.79), pocket money (t=5.72), and height (F=9.82) 5) The statistical relationship between perceived health status, self-esteem, and self-care agencies were found to have a positive correlation. 6) Self-care agencies among adolescents was the highest factor predicting self-esteem (15%). CONCLUSION: The relationship between perceived health status, self-esteem, and self-care agencies revealed a significant positive correlation among adolescents. Therefore, nursing intervention for adolescents needs to develop self-esteem programs to increase self-care agencies.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the important factors on juvenile delinquency and to examine relationships between sex, age, the family environment, the personality of adolescents, smoking, and juvenile delinquency.
Methods
Data collection was done through questionnaire surveys. The subjects for this study consisted of 1,948 adolescents delinquents : 784, students : 1,164 in Korea, using proportional stratified random sampling method. Statistical methods employed were chi-square, t-test and path analysis. Results: The results of this study were as follows : 1. The delinquent adolescents were reared in a more dysfunctional family environment, and had a higher maladaptive personality than the other student adolescents. 2. The delinquent adolescents showed the larger amount of smoking than the student adolescents. The cause of increased smoking tendency among delinquents simply were 'for social relation', 'for diversion', 'for nicotine addiction', whereas 'for tension relieving' among non-delinquent adolescents. 3. The most powerful contributors on delinquent behavior were antisocial personality tendencies, smoking, sex, strength of parent- child relationships, and the age of the adolescents in this order.
Conclusions
Our cross-sectional findings indicate that smoking was one of the most powerful contributing variables to delinquent behavior, but family environment, personality, sex and age of adolescents were also proved to be strong exogenous variables to smoking in adolescents.

PURPOSE: This study attempted to grasp the significance of high school boys smoking experiences, and to define its structure, then utilizing the results to create effective nursing intervention in order to protect students from smoking habit. METHOD: This study is based on a phenomenological approach. A group of eight male high school students who had experience in smoking were selected as the subject of this study. Intimate interview with participatory observation were carried out from them and the
result
ed data were analyzed by Giorgi's method as below. Result: The male high school students' smoking experiences were found to be a direct result from the environments around them and misty curiosity, masculinity, maintenance of close relations with peers, habitualness, stress relief, and concealment from the family. CONCLUSION: The result indicates that the male high school students' smoking, especially in an aspect from its starting point, motivational perspective, attitudes, and recent increasing rate of the juvenile smoking should be recognized as one of the problems that should be resolved. Concurrently, programs for preventing and quitting smoking should be started from the early stage of childhood as possible.