Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Students' And Parents' Habits And Attitudes Toward Reading In Title I And Non-Title I Schools., Judy L. Netherland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study describes and compares the reading habits and attitudes of students and parents in Title I and Non-Title I schools. The study was conducted because reading is an important basic skill that all children must acquire. The information gathered can be used to help parents provide beneficial experiences for their children in reading.

The literature review addresses literature and research related to factors identified as impacting readiness for school and reading achievement in elementary-age students. Research indicates that family structure, amount of time children spend watching television, availability of learning tools, and home literacy activities may be related to …

The Best Interest Standard: How Broad Judicial Discretion And Influences Of Social And Political Suggestion Have Led To An Abandonment Of The Rule’S Primary Purpose In Child Custody Decisions, Lakeisha J. Johnson

ExpressO

The vital questions in child custody disputes all concern that which is in the best interest of the child. Historically, interpretations of the “best interest” standard have been founded upon presumptions steeped in the notion of natural rights and duties based largely upon a mix of scientific and subjective conclusions regarding gender-based parenting roles and the need to sustain them. My research demonstrates that, as courts attempt to avoid the decisions of the past and submit to the societal will of the present, the modern application of the “best interest of the child” standard has led unexpectedly to an abandonment …

Essay On Community, Hubie Jones

New England Journal of Public Policy

Family and community are human organisms that are the bedrock of any society. They provide the sustenance, values, direction, and protection that make it possible for individuals who live in a defined location to prosper and thrive singularly and collectively. Community is the social structure that mediates between the individual resident and the state and private elites, guiding social transactions between these different worlds to advance and protect the interests and needs of individuals and groups within neighborhoods or local communities.

Foreword, Elaine Werby, Donna Haig Friedman

New England Journal of Public Policy

Interspersed throughout this issue are Voices of Community Action — the voices of executive directors, board members, and staff. Some are personal reflections; others describe their work or tell of the struggles of those who live with poverty. All speak to the commitment of service and change, to personal development and growth, and to the worth of their work. Their stories are 10 matched in the testimony of those who have received services or participated in community action programs. All of these stories bear witness to the importance of what happens on the front lines among leaders, board members, staff, …

Individual And Social Influences On Ethnic Identity Among Latino Young Adults, Lenna L. Ontai-Grzebik, Marcela Raffaelli

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Building on prior Latino ethnic identity research, this study had three goals: describe age-related trends in ethnic identity among young adults, examine relations among ethnic identity and individual factors, and explore the impact of family and peer socialization on ethnic identity. The participants (two hundred 19-to 30-year-olds; mean age = 22.5) completed self-report surveys sent to Latino undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in four midwestern institutions of higher education. The findings suggest individual factors are strong predictors of ethnic identity during early adulthood; respondents who were younger, high on Latino orientation, spent more time in the United States, and whose …

The Family Context Of Care In Hiv/Aids: A Study From Mumbai, India, Premilla D'Cruz

The Qualitative Report

Though the continuum of care model has been adopted in HIV/AIDS intervention, there is little empirical work documenting the experiences of caregiving families. Addressing this gap, a study on family caregiving and care receiving was undertaken in Mumbai, India. In-depth interviews were conducted with seven seropositive caregivers, seven seropositive care receivers and five seronegative caregivers. Thematic analysis of the data was conducted, yielding a number of key themes. This paper discusses the key theme of the family context of care which includes the caregiving system, family values, perceived mode of infection, gender of the seropositive person, and class. Implications of …

Paradoxes Of Health And Equality: When A Boy Becomes A Girl, Noa Ben-Asher

ExpressO

This paper is about an unusual child custody dispute between the parents of a six-year-old child and the child welfare services of Franklin County, Ohio. The conflict emerged when the child’s parents complied with their male child’s professed desire to be treated as a girl by attempting to enroll the child in the first grade as a girl. The paper treats this case as an exemplary test-case of contemporary co-dependence between scientific-medical discourse and liberal-rights discourse. The paper analyzes the positions of the two sides of the custody dispute according to the classic modern distinction between mind and body. On …

Conjoint Marital Therapy: Proxy Voice Intervention And Softening In The Context Of Couple Enactments, Ryan B. Seedall

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the effectiveness of proxy voice intervention, embedded within couple enactments, on client-perceived softening. During enactments, direct couple interaction is the focus while the therapist coaches from the periphery. In the context of an enactment, the therapist may use proxy voice when partners appear to be distressed and expressing themselves in terms of secondary emotions by modeling appropriate attachment and self-concept expression. The primary research question was whether therapist use of proxy voice in an enactment would be more likely to bring about softening effects, or whether use of proxy voice was counter-intuitive to enactment conceptualization and would …

Women's Response To Spousal Unemployment: Economic, Labor Force, And Family Constraints, Elizabeth Miklya Legerski

Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from 29 interviews with the wives of steelworkers who were forced into unemployment, I explore the conditions and factors that shape women's choices in response to their husbands' job loss. Access to a unique and under-studied sample of women married to unemployed working-class men necessitates the use of grounded theory research techniques that allow me to "give voice" to working-class women.

Re-Constructing The Image Of The Voluntarily Childfree: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Media Representation And The Childless By Choice, Eddy Sass

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, like most other parts of the world, there is a commonly held belief that all capable couples should have children. This belief has contributed to the development of a pro-natalist ideology or concept that having children is good. This pronatalist belief tends to spill over into the media, as well. Yet, there are those individuals who do not subscribe to the parenthood belief structure and to the manner in which the media frame the parenthood debate. These people are known as the voluntarily childfree or the childless by choice. This thesis is an exploratory ethnographic examination …

Caregiving Resources: Family Fact Sheet #7, Eastern Agency On Aging, University Of Maine Center On Aging, Aroostook Area Agency On Aging, Senior Spectrum, Rosscare, Norumbega Medical, Horizons Health Services, Indian Township Tribal Health Center, Bucksport Regional Health Center

Maine Center on Aging Service and Consultation

There are many resources available to assist informal caregivers, and not all are based on income requirements. Local resources that exist are your Local Area Agency on Aging, the Maine Alzheimer’s Association Helpline, and the Bureau of Elder and Adult Services. Federal resources include Elder Care Locator and AARP. Before calling a resource specialist, make sure to have basic information about your loved one, as they may ask about their demographic, health, legal, and financial information. Call ahead to familiarize yourself with options in order to be prepared before a crisis occurs.

Stress And Adult Health: Impact Of Time Spent In Paid And Unpaid Work, And Its Division In Families, Roderic Beaujot, Robert Anderson

PSC Discussion Papers Series

Based on a sample representative of the Canadian population aged 30-59, this paper assesses the impact of time spent on productive activities, and various types of activities, on stress and health. The main finding is that the number of hours spent is a better predictor of stress than is the type of activity. Moreover, the effects of paid and unpaid work are additive rather than multiplicative. That is, the more people work, regardless of what they are doing, the more likely they are to feel stressed. Still, working irregular hours and non-traditional family models are also associated with poorer health …

Wife Battering In Contemporary Cairo: An Exploratory Study In Rights And Perceptions, Iman Mohamed Eissa

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The universal phenomenon of wife battering has calamitous consequences on the battered woman, usurping her security, human agency and autonomy, thus relegating her to a secondary status citizen, incapable of contributing to the community's development. Research on wife battering in Egypt is very limited. The goal of this thesis is to explore battered women's lives in contemporary Cairo, focusing on battered wives' perceptions of abuse in relation to discrimination against women in Egypt and women's citizenship rights within the Egyptian state. This study was conducted using a qualitative research methodology. Ten in depth, semi-structured interviews were carried out with battered …

Living With Family And Foreigners: Egypt Female Tourist Guides' Narratives On Their Family, Work, And Identity, Junko Toriyama

Archived Theses and Dissertations

This is an ethnographic research project on Egyptian female tourist guides. Based on over forty semi-structured interviews, the study attempted to gain an insight into Egyptian female tourist guide's everyday life, especially focusing on her gender relations from two different angles; discourses and practices. Tourist guiding in Egypt is a relatively new occupation, as it was created to serve the demands of a growing international tourism industry. In one respect, it is an occupation to buff er two different cultures. The occupation offers a gender neutral criteria and gender neutral responsibility, and many women as well as men are working …

Community And Land Attachment Of Chagga Women On Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Elizabeth Parnell Carr

Theses and Dissertations

Chagga women who control land on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, have a deep and profound sense of attachment to their lands and homes. This thesis compares their reasons for attachment to the systemic model. The systemic model states that community attachment is dependent on social ties and interactions. The three factors that lead to these ties are length of residence, social status, and age. In-depth interviews with women in 2002 and 2003, a survey from 2002, and field notes from 2002 and 2003 are used to explain the main factors of attachment of women in three villages on the mountain: Mbahe, …

Predictors Of 1997 Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Completion And Dismissal Rates In Utah, David A. Evans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was two-fold. The first intention was to identify a group of debtor characteristics that predicted discharge among Chapter 13 bankruptcy filers in the district of Utah from 1997. The second objective was to use that same set of characteristics to predict the likelihood of dismissal at three critical stages of the bankruptcy process. Those stages were identified, first, as the period before the 341 hearing or meeting of creditors (n = 115 or 12.7%), second, before confirmation of the debtor's repayment plan (n = 267 or 29.4%), third, the period after confirmation of …

Borrower- And Mortgage-Related Factors Associated With Foreclosure, Amber C. Gallagher

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to develop a conceptual model that could be used to aid in identifying which household factors contribute to an increased likelihood of foreclosure. More specifically, what borrower-related and mortgage-related factors are correlated with home foreclosure? This was achieved by studying a sample from an inventory of active and foreclosed Federal Housing Administration (FHA) homes in the state of Utah. The sample consisted of 179 cases. Characteristics of interest were extracted from data and divided into two categories: borrower-related factors and mortgage-related factors.

Bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted with the borrower- and mortgage-related factors. …

Multiple Mentors And Family Involvement In Mentoring At-Risk Youth, Christine W. Woodbury

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined whether higher family involvement plus additional mentoring relationships had a greater positive effect than a one-on-one relationship with a mentor and low family involvement. The study demonstrated, in this sample, that having two mentors does not have a greater impact on academic motivation, social competency, family unity, self-esteem, and deviance than having one mentor. It was also shown, in this sample, that higher family involvement does not have a greater impact on academic motivation, social competency, family unity, self-esteem, and deviance than lower family involvement. Although additional studies are needed to fully understand the impacts of mentoring …

Parents' Knowledge And Attitudes About Immunization In India, Anne George

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Childhood immunization is acknowledged as being a crucial health intervention for children. Immunization rates of children may vary depending on their parents' knowledge and attitudes about the issue. The focus of this study is on parents' knowledge and attitudes about immunization, and employs Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. A questionnaire was administered to 233 parents in India to explore the issues of parental immunization knowledge and attitudes. Correlates of parental knowledge and attitudes that were explored included gender, education, respondents' immunization status, and children's immunization status. Sources of parental knowledge about immunization were also examined. Overall, parents in this sample …

The Ability To Taste 6-N-Propylthiouracil (Prop) And Its Relation To A Parent's Emotional Investment In The Infant, Deann Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Research on parenting is increasingly being studied from a biological perspective. An understanding of the biological mechanisms leading to individual differences in maternal behaviors can help direct research toward more focused intervention resulting in closer mother-infant attachment relationships, and therefore, positive child outcomes. This research was a preliminary study that tested mothers' ability to taste a harmless chemical, 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP), in relation to their responses to a questionnaire about the emotional investment they experience towards their infant. Although research attempting to relate these two variables together has not been carried out before, individual studies show potential links between these two. …

The Role Of Deception In Mediating Relationship Involvement Of Couples Interacting On The Internet: Stages Of Intimate Formation, Dustin W. Edgerton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A vast majority of individuals involve themselves in an intimate relationship at one time or another. This study looks at a new, but increasing, forum of relationship development, that of the Internet. More specifically, this study addresses various stages of Internet relationship development, and deception individual 's use during the process of forming and maintaining these relationships.

This research gathered quantitative and qualitative information from 134 individuals involved in online relationships. The quantitative analyses provided only a few significant findings and it is suggested that the current methods of measuring deception are inadequate and do not appear to represent the …

Intermediate Trainee Perspectives Of Family Therapy Skills, Margo Benson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Marriage and family therapy training involves the development of therapy skills that lead to effective treatment, and the family therapy literature recognizes the importance of skill development in training. The training literature dealing with specific skills most often refers to beginning-level skills and obtains data largely from supervisors and trainers. Intermediate-level skills appear to be overlooked and no apparent attention is given from the perspective of trainees.

This research examined the perspectives of trainees concerning family therapy skills at the intermediate level. Intermediate trainee perspectives were compared with the perspectives of their supervisors. Comparisons were also made with perspectives of …

Progress And Progression In Family Law, Martha Albertson Fineman

Faculty Articles

The process and nature of change in our family formation seems unlikely to be derailed. The policy question for those concerned with the institution of the family in today's world should not be how we can resuscitate marriage and thus save society, but rather how we can support all individuals who create intimate, caring relationships, regardless of the form of those relationships. Continued inattention to the social and economic dislocations and the emerging family needs produced in the wake of changes in family formation can be disastrous, not only to individual families, but also to society.

Of particular importance for …

A Grandmother Describes Her Adjustment To Parenting Her Grandchildren, University Of Maine Center On Aging

Maine Center on Aging Education and Training

This article is a grandmother’s story about parenting her grandchildren. She discusses the stresses of this role, the issues faced from the legal side, family issues, as well as their means of achieving help and support in this situation.

Working With Kinship Families: Reflections Of A Clinician, Bonny Dodson, University Of Maine Center On Aging

Maine Center on Aging Education and Training

As families are face increasing pressures, kinship care is becoming a more common occurrence. Furthermore, as the foster care system becomes more taxed, informal kinship care is becoming more prevalent. This article looks at work with kinship families from a clinician’s perspective. Case examples and models are utilized to promote collaborative efforts in working with these families and allowing for the best care possible.

Kinship Websites, Bonny Dodson, University Of Maine Center On Aging

Maine Center on Aging Education and Training

This article includes a compilation of websites for both Maine and national resources for kinship care.

Dwelling On Common Ground: Scientific And Family Narratives Of Change In Natural Landscapes, Damian Craniak Ph.D.

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Can mapping past and current changes in prairie landscapes in relation to historical shifts in human culture suggest promising directions for efforts to restore the health of grasslands and other natural communities? During the last 20,000 years the Land shifted and altered; during the past 10,000 years Life moved and migrated; and during the past 5,000 years natural and human Law has been turned and twisted to produce changes unanticipated in the history of the world. In the past 500 years these changes have quickened as we have changed ourselves from foragers into fur traders, and then into farmers, foresters, …

Taking Stock Of Work-Family Initiatives: How Announcements Of "Family'friendly" Human Resource Decisions Affect Shareholder Value, M. M. Arthur, Alison Cook

Alison Cook

Sampling 231 work-family initiatives announced in the Wall Street Journal, this study examines the relationship between work-family human resource decisions and share price reaction. Consistent with past research, the results suggest that firm announcements of work-family initiatives positively affect shareholder return. In addition, we find that timing influences the relationship in three scenarios. First, pioneers of work-family initiatives generate larger share price reactions than later adopters of the same initiative. Second, the first work-family announcement a firm releases influences share price reaction more than successive work-family announcements by the same firm. Third, share price reactions to work-family human resource decisions …

Investigating The Relationship Between Parenting Styles And Delinquent Behavior, Danielle J. Terry

McNair Scholars Journal

Although numerous studies have examined the connection between delinquent behavior and parenting styles in children and adolescents, limited research has been done to determine if there is an ongoing relationship between these variables in the college population. This study included 38 college students and examined the relationship between parenting styles; families studied were authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and uninvolved. It was predicted that authoritarian parenting practices would be highly correlated with delinquent behavior, particularly for students with a difficult temperament and low family cohesion.

The Impact Of Sure Start Local Programmes On Child Development And Family Functioning: A Report On Preliminary Findings, Edward Melhuish, Jay Belsky, Alastair H. Leyland, Angela Anning, Zarrina Kurtz, Jane Tunstill, Mog Ball, Pamela Meadows, Jacqueline Barnes, Martin Frost, Beverley Botting

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A principal goal of Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) is to enhance the functioning of children and families by improving services provided in the local programme areas. As a first step in assessing the impact of SSLPs on child and family functioning, the Impact module of the National Evaluation of Sure Start (NESS) is studying 9- and 36-month old children and their families in 150 SSLP areas and in 50 comparison communities (i.e. areas designated to become SSLP later). In 2003, home visits were carried out in more than 8000 families in the first 75 SSLP areas and 3000 families …