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Camp Geronimo: Evaluating The Influence Of An Animal Assisted Intervention Based Summer Camp On Social Participation In Children With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Joelle Ruggeri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research regarding animal assisted intervention (AAI) has found that it can be an effective intervention towards promoting positive social participation in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). A quality improvement project was implemented at The Barn at Spring Brook Farm, where children ages 2-12 with IDD are able to participate in AAI activities. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the Barn’s Camp Geronimo, a six-week long summer camp program, and its impact on the social participation of participants using the Home & Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS). The study findings showed positive results, with statistically significant change …

Beyond Biology: Bases For A Child-Centered And Functional Account Of Parenthood, Jacob Kohlhaas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that the presently influential Catholic theological account of parenthood is indebted to an essentialist theory of gender and the system of sexual ethical reasoning it produces. In consideration of the family, Catholicism tends to favor the differentiated gender roles of the father as the primary financial provider and the mother as the primary caregiver. Though such thinking is often justified as natural or traditional, it relies heavily upon a post-Victorian social context. This gender complementarity is often accompanied by an idealization of the autonomous biological-nuclear family. This family is autonomous in granting parents alone direct responsibility for …

An Exploration Of The Culture Care Experiences Of Puerto Rican Families With A Child With Special Health Care Needs As Perceived By The Family Caregiver, Karen S. Rousseau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advances in medical care have resulted in rising numbers of children living with chronic illness. Nurses care for families with special needs during all aspects of their care from the office visit, the inpatient stay, and in the home. Therefore, nurses need to be highly skilled and sensitive to the families' cultural needs in order to assist with coping and the daily challenges they face. This study explored the culture care experiences of Puerto Rican families with a child with special health care needs as perceived by the family caregiver. This family member is the individual who has the greatest …

A Constructive Account Of Children's Moral Agency Drawing On Thomas Aquinas's Theory Of Emotions, Ann Vinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation makes the case that children are moral agents engaged with the morality of their communities without being morally accountable as adults. Contemporary Christian theological anthropology holds that children are fully human and in the image of God, and that they are already encountering good and evil in the world. Childhood is viewed as an essential part of human life and as something that perdures throughout a person's existence. Through their emotions, children are able to engage with, make meaning of, and respond to their surroundings, and these early emotional experiences help to shape each person for the whole …

The Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach With Traumatized Children: Its Effectiveness In The Reduction Of Locked Seclusion In An Inpatient Psychiatric Setting, Halana M. Finnie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aggressive or explosive behaviors in children typically occur within the context of a variety of psychiatric diagnoses and pose additional challenges when children present with histories of abuse. These behaviors are often interpreted as deliberate or noncompliant and management of these extreme behaviors often results in locked seclusion in most inpatient psychiatric settings. Locked seclusion remains controversial at best and raises legal and ethical issues regarding its safe and therapeutic use.

This retrospective quantitative study evaluated the effectiveness of the Collaborative Problem-Solving (CPS) approach as a less restrictive behavioral intervention on an inpatient child psychiatric unit with children ages 5-12 …

Exploring Learning Of Pediatric Burn Patients Through Storytelling, Maryann Godshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this study was to explore if pediatric burn patients learned from an age appropriate discharge teaching book. The Pediatric Burn Book© contained coloring pages and seven main teaching points; taking care of my body, bathing, eating right, exercise, sleep, going to school, and keeping follow up appointments. The children were admitted to a pediatric trauma and burn center in northeastern Pennsylvania over a two year period. Twenty children aged five through ten who had second or third degree burns participated in this study. The children were read the discharge teaching book, asked to draw a picture of …

Living With Dying In The Pediatric Icu: A Nursing Perspective, Debra Stayer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Caring for critically ill children who die quickly or whose condition progressively worsens is often overwhelming with the journey to the end justly stressful and difficult for all involved. Unequivocally pediatric ICU nurses spend a significant amount of time at the bedside attempting to meet and manage the palliative care needs of the children and their families during this arduous time. However, the literature lacks the perspective of the pediatric ICU nurse who provides palliative care to children with a life-threatening or life-limiting illness and their families. Therefore, a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry to explore the essence of the experience provided …

Gesture Production, Motor Skills, And Disfluencies Observed In Typically Developing Preschoolers, Christina Beatty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interest in gesture production has considerably increased in recent decades, yet few studies have examined the preschool population. Even fewer studies have examined the intriguing interaction between motor skills and gesture. The original intent of this study was to investigate the relationship of gesture and motor skills in individuals who stutter. However due to recruitment limitations the enrolled sample consists solely of typically developing preschoolers, 3:8 to 6:6 years. Data are presented on gestures and disfluencies during spontaneous speech, a cartoon narration, and a video narration. Additionally, disfluencies were observed during a procedural description task with restricted hand use and …

The Meaning And Experiences Of Healthy Eating In Mexican American Children: A Focused Ethnography, Alicia Kay Ribar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purpose

The purpose of this focused ethnography is to understand the meaning and cultural influences of healthy eating and the role of nursing in the promotion of healthy eating practices from the Mexican American child's point of view.

Background

No current studies directly measure the meaning of healthy eating from the Mexican American child's perspective. Mexican American children have a unique perspective and understanding of the meaning of healthy eating and can help identify cultural norms and other factors that may be vital in directing culturally appropriate health promotion interventions.

Research Design

A focused ethnography method using Leininger's four phases …

Attachment And Anxiety In Aggressive Children And Adolescents, Erinn Obeldobel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is rising concern among the general public regarding childhood aggression and its impact on society. This study sought to further the understanding of childhood aggression by examining the variables of anxiety and current attachment in an aggressive population of youth. There is a substantial body of research that relates poor attachment to aggressive-related behaviors (e.g., Allen, Hauser, Borman-Spurrell, 1996; Gacono & Meloy, 1994; Meesters & Muris, 2002; NICHD-ECCRN, 2006; Simons, Paternite, & Shore, 2001). In comparison to the research on the relationship between attachment and aggression in children and adolescents, the relationship between anxiety and aggression is more contradictory …

System Transformation In The Context Of Building An Integrative System In The Child Welfare System In Allegheny County Through Child And Adolescent Needs And Strengths Assessment, Svetlana Doni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, the Allegheny County constituents could witness the transformation of a widely criticized system of divided services into a single Department of Human Services. As an attempt to improve service planning DHS moved to a common assessment (CANS Comprehensive) shared across the child-serving offices/systems that would lead to a shared service plan and an overall integrated service delivery process. The primary goal of the CANS is to support communication between systems and, in the end, help the integration process within DHS.

This study describes what CANS is and how it became a central point in Human Services …

Social Competence Difficulties, Loneliness, And Victimization By Peers As Predictors Of Eating Disturbance In Young Girls: A Longitudinal Investigation, Marissa Deleel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1950s, epidemiological studies have shown a steady increase in the number of children and adolescents with eating disorders (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2003). Moreover, Anorexia Nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness (Sullivan, 1995). Historically, eating disorders were believed to occur predominantly in Caucasian adolescent and adult females from middle to upper socio-economic status (SES). Presently, studies are beginning to include more diversified samples and are discovering the presence of maladaptive eating behaviors. The current longitudinal study utilized a large community sample of girls who were assessed at age 9 and again at age 10. …

An Investigation Of Psychosocial Functioning For Children And Adolescents Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorders, Maura Paczan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a literature review of how the various sub-types of bipolar disorders are related to a child's daily functioning. Also, this study examined the age of onset of the disorder as it is related to psychosocial functioning. Specifically, age of onset was compared with psychosocial functioning in the areas of friends, family and school. Further, the interaction between age of onset, type of bipolar disorder (I, II, NOS), and psychosocial functioning was examined. The results confirmed, youth diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder evidence significant difficulty in overall psychosocial functioning. This finding was consistent across measures (i.e., CGAS and GSA …