Digital Commons Network^™

Facilitating Forgiveness And Reconciliation In “Good Enough” Marriages, Solangel Maldonado

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The article offers information on the long-term effects of divorce on children and parents under the analysis of the social science literatures. It informs that the U.S. Courts should encourage reconciliation between low-discord parents which in turn would help to save their marriage and protect their children from negative psychological effects of their divorce.

The Meaning, Experience, And Value Of 'Common Space' For Women And Children In Urban Poor Settlements In India, Anupama Reddy Nallari

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Housing and basic services in urban poor settlements have been the focus of bi-lateral agencies, national governments as well as NGOs and CBOs. However, little attention has been paid to understanding the value of "common spaces" in these settlements, or in the planning and design of "common spaces" in upgraded or redeveloped settlements. Common spaces include communal areas like childcare and play facilities, religious and cultural establishments, shops, physical infrastructure like roads and sanitation, and informal spaces like courtyards, steps, lanes, and corridors where women perform daily chores and interact and children play. This dissertation focuses on understanding the significance …

Toward A Child-Centered Approach To Evaluating Claims Of Alienation In High-Conflict Custody Disputes, Allison M. Nichols

Michigan Law Review

Theories of parental alienation abound in high-conflict custody cases. The image of one parent brainwashing a child against the other parent fits with what we think we know about family dynamics during divorce. The concept of a diagnosable “Parental Alienation Syndrome” (“PAS”) developed as an attempt to explain this phenomenon, but it has been widely discredited by mental health professionals and thus fails the standard for evidentiary admissibility. Nevertheless, PAS and related theories continue to influence the decisions of family courts, and even in jurisdictions that explicitly reject such theories, judges still face the daunting task of resolving these volatile …

The Development Of Musical Thought, Melissa J. Clayton, Jerry L. Jaccard

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The question that drives this research is: What is the process of musical thought development in children? In sorting through possible answers to this question I have studied the work of Piaget (1, 5 and 6) and Moog (4). Moog’s studies of the musical experience of pre-school age children has led him to conclude that the developmental changes in the structure of musical thought appear to coincide with changes from one developmental stage, as in the developmental stages set forth by Piaget, to the next and that the underlying principle of these changes have to do with memory (4).

Using Art To Assess Environmental Education Outcomes, Ami G. Flowers, John P. Carroll, Gary T. Green, Lincoln R. Larson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Construction of developmentally appropriate tools for assessing the environmental attitudes and awareness of young learners has proven to be challenging. Art-based assessments that encourage creativity and accommodate different modes of expression may be a particularly useful complement to conventional tools (e.g. surveys), but their efficacy and feasibility across diverse contexts has not been adequately explored. To examine the potential utility of integrating art into evaluations of environmental education outcomes, we adapted an existing drawing prompt and corresponding grading rubric to assess the environmental attitudes and awareness of children (ages 6–12) at summer camps in Athens, GA, USA (n = …

Human Rights Of Women And Children Under International Law - An Introduction, Ved P. Nanda

Denver Journal of International Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Prevalence Of Overweight In 2 To 17 Year-Old Children And Adolescents Whose Parents Live Separately: A Nordic Cross-Sectional Study, Lena Hohwu, Mika Gissler, Agneta Sjoberg, Anna M. Biehl, Alfdgeir L. Kristjansson, Carsten Obel

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

Comparative data of parental separation and childhood overweight has not been available before across the Nordic countries. The aim of this study was to examine the within-country prevalence and association between parental cohabitation and overweight in Nordic children.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey of 2-17-year-old children was conducted in 2011, titled: “NordChild”. A random sample of 3,200 parents in each of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden were invited to participate in the study with parents of 6,609 children accepting to give answers about their children’s health and welfare including information on height and weight of each …

Whose Rights Should Prevail? Toward A Child-Centric Approach To Revocation Of Birthparent Consent In Domestic Infant Abortion, David L. Thibodeaux

Belmont Law Review

Though overhaul of adoption laws across the United States has been nearly universal, there is still no uniformity among the states in approach to voluntary relinquishment of parental rights: the very issue at the heart of the controversial cases that sparked reform. This Note attempts to track the development of domestic adoption laws as they affect birthparent consent in infant adoptions, the competing policies driving these developments, and the way states have attempted to reconcile that friction. Part I of this Note provides an underpinning of adoption terminology by outlining the actors involved, the basic elements required for infant adoption …

Professional Missionary, Amateur Father: Using Missiological Principles And Family Systems Theory To Raise An Emotionally Healthy Family., David R. Dunaetz, Stephen S. Lambert

Selected Faculty Publications

Missionary fathers are sometimes better equipped to undertake the missionary task than to be successful husbands and fathers in stressful, cross-cultural contexts. This paper examines several missiological principles which are congruent with family systems theory that can help missionary fathers ensure the success of their family life.

Mass Trauma: Disasters, Terrorism, And War, Allan Chriman, Joseph Dougherty

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

• Mass-exposure events, such as disaster, terrorism, and war, have unique impacts on children.
• Effective conceptual approaches must balance risk and resilience from a developmental perspective.
• Models of mass trauma effects and exposures include exposure dose, cumulative risk, determinants, and moderators.
• Children are a special needs population particularly vulnerable to the impact of mass trauma due to a lack of experience, skills, and resources to independently meet their mental and behavioral health needs.
• The National Commission on Children and Disaster’s Report recommends a greater focus on the disaster mental and behavioral health needs of children throughout planning, training, exercises, and response …

A Phenomenological Examination Of The Influence Of Culture On Treating And Caring For Hispanic Children With Autism, Lynette Estrada, Aaron R. Deris

Special Education Department Publications

Researchers have found that cultural factors may lead to lower rates of diagnosis in Hispanic children with autism and that parents lack the knowledge of therapies and practices used in the treatment of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Five research questions guided this phenomenological study. The focus of the first two questions was how culture may affect families seeking assistance; the third question queried how professionals play a part in the choice of therapies ; the fourth question dealt with how do families choose a therapy to aid their child with ASD. The focus of the last question was the …

Exploring Associations Between Assertiveness, Health, And Gender In Children Ages 6-11, Kelsey Jae Smith

Theses & ETDs

There is considerable evidence of a gender difference in health among adolescents and adults, however there is a lack of data surrounding the development of these disparities in children. In addition to gender, research in assertiveness shows clear associations with health, but the literature is unclear how gender and assertiveness interact with one another (Sarkova et.al., 2013). The current study sought to fill the gap through exploratory research into children’s assertiveness skills and self-reported health outcomes and by examining sex differences in assertiveness skills when gender socialization, measured by child’s perceptions of parent and peer pressure to conform to a …

Socialization And Regulation: Caregiver Characteristics And Preschoolers’ Expectations In Negative Emotion-Eliciting Situations, Allison Gornik

Theses & ETDs

While previous literature has examined relations between how parents treat children’s emotions and children’s outcomes, the manner in which these emotional socialization characteristics are internalized and then verbalized by children has not been studied. To this end, this study examined how the main caregivers (mother, father, head teacher, assistant teacher) in preschoolers’ lives treated emotions, and then how, in turn, children believed they would respond to emotional situations with those caregivers. Children from a local daycare were read vignettes and asked questions about their coping strategies and their expectations following their emotional expression. Each child’s caregivers completed questionnaires on their …

Gardens As Educational Tools In Urban Public Schools, Michelle Diane Wheat

Theses & ETDs

Urban public school education has become increasingly decontextualized from the natural world over time. This causes a division within students that impacts how they learn, what they learn, and their mental health. Children's knowledge is increasingly devoid of environmental awareness. In addition ADHD, depression, and obesity have been linked to this separation. These problems are exacerbated by a culture of standardized tests motivated by financial concerns, and the gearing of education toward career preparation. Children learn to fear nature and reap none of the benefits that immersion in nature can foster. School gardens, especially in urban areas, can provide a …

Representations Of Agency And Communion In Narratives About The Self Versus Gendered Others, Taylor S. Parker

Theses & ETDs

This study examined differences in children’s representations of agency (exerting influence to achieve desired outcomes) and communion (feelings of social belongingness) in narratives about the self versus gendered others. These themes were coded for in four different narratives (one about the self, as well as one each about a masculine, feminine, and androgynous puppet) generated by 20 children. Though data were not analyzed directly between gender conditions, differences in correlational patterns between girls and boys for themes and age emerged. For girls, descriptions of dynamic physical activity decreased with age in importance as well as propensity, and descriptions of physical …

Bio Family 2.0: Can The American Child Welfare System Finally Find Permanency For 'Legal Orphans' With A Statute To Reinstate Parental Rights?, Meredith L. Schalick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The American child welfare system terminates parental rights for thousands of children each year even though adoptive families have not yet been identified for the children. Every year, there are more than 100,000 of these “legal orphans” waiting for new families. Given the lower rates of adoptions for children of color and older children, and the poor outcomes for most youth who age out of the foster care system, the American child welfare system must start to think differently about permanency options for children. This Article proposes a model statutory provision to reinstate parental rights under certain circumstances to give …

Patient Registries: Patient Consent When Children Become Adults, Leslie P. Francis

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Are Mothers Hazardous To Their Children’S Health?: Law, Culture, And The Framing Of Risk, Linda C. Fentiman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the psychosocial processes of risk construction and explores how these processes intersect with core principles of Anglo-American law. It does so by critiquing current cultural and legal perceptions that mothers, especially pregnant women, pose a risk to their children’s health. The Article’s core argument is that during the last four decades, both American society and American law have increasingly come to view mothers as a primary source of risk to children. This intense focus on the threat of maternal harm ignores significant environmental sources of injury, including fathers and other men, as well as exposure to toxic …

Criminalization Of Polygamy In Canada: Historical, Legal And Sociological Analysis, Washi Ahmed

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

The Canadian Criminal Code criminalizes the act of polygamy pursuant to s.290, and bigamy (another act which is similar to polygamy) pursuant to s.293 under the assumption that such practices have an adverse impact on women and children. However, the history of the criminalization of polygamy in Canada suggests that it was enacted deliberately to marginalize a particular minority group. This paper is divided into four chapters. Chapter I discusses the historical background of polygamy and indicates that the criminalization of polygamy in Canada was an adoption of the American legal approach to Mormonism. Chapter II analyzes the provisions of …

Children, Violence And Bullying, Joav Merrick, Isack Kandel, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

Adolescent violence is a very visible phenomenon in our modern society, where you just have to open the newspaper or the television and you find yourself right in the middle of it. In order to understand the scope of the problem, we need to look at the epidemiology of global violence. Each year, more than 1.6 million people worldwide lose their lives to violence and for every person who dies as a result of violence, many more are injured and suffer from a range of physical, sexual, reproductive and mental health problems. Violence places a massive burden on national economies …

Essential Music Therapist Attributes For Relationship-Building With Children: Does Our Profession Train Personal Abilities?, Jean M. Nemeth

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

The purpose of this sequential mixed method investigation was to discern the personal attributes that a music therapist employs to engender therapeutic relationships with children and to begin ascertaining the music therapy profession’s attempts to foster these qualities in music therapy students. The overarching goals of this dissertation were to identify aspects of relationship-building that go beyond skills, techniques, and theoretic orientation and to open a discussion about how to best address training of the person of the music therapist. The Phase One phenomenological inquiry consisted of thematic cross-comparison of in-depth interviews with five highly experienced children’s music therapists. Results …

Survey Of Illinois Law: Stepparent Childcare, Jeffrey A. Parness

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

In Illinois, the “liberty interests of parents” are reflected in the “superior rights doctrine,” which holds, as elsewhere, that parents have superior rights regarding the care of their children. This doctrine is necessitated by U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Troxel v. Granville in 2000. The superior rights doctrine is incorporated into some Illinois statutes, as when childcare may be afforded to a nonparent “only if” the child “is not in the physical custody” of a parent and as when “reasonable visitation privileges” may only be afforded a stepparent who has lived with the child for at least five years. The …

The Dangers Of Unlimited Access: Fiction, The Internet And The Social Construction Of Childhood., Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

At the beginning of the twentieth century, librarians, teachers, and parentswrote about the dangers to children of unlimited access towhatwas termed “sensational literature.” At the beginning of the next century, they struggled to deal with the dangers to children of unlimited access to the Internet. Although separated by a hundred years, they appear to be makingmuch the same argument about themuch the same issue, that of the public library providing unlimited access tominors towhat some viewas inappropriate or dangerousmaterials. However, a closer analysis of the discourse in the professional media regarding these two controversies, one that investigates the mechanisms underlying …

Empirical Analysis Of Causes Of Income Inequality: A Level Playing Field For Children At The Start Of School Career, Ei P. Theint

Scripps Senior Theses

Numerous and countless factors have been theorized to be causes of inequality. This paper started with identifying the most important determinants of income inequality through theoretical research. Among the various theories of causes of inequality, I hypothesized creating a level playing for children at the very start of their career as students as an important determinant. In order to test the hypothesis that a level playing field is important to help fight inequality, a regression tailored for this question is created. I develop a regression model using the variable public expenditure on primary education as the variable to be tested …

The Role Of Early Intervention Programs On Reducing The Negative Effects Of Poverty, Jenna Kanegawa

CMC Senior Theses

Children under the age of 18 are the largest age group of people who live in poverty in America. This paper focuses on early intervention programs and how they can help ameliorate the negative effects of poverty. Previous research has demonstrated the negative effects of poverty, such as lower academic performance and achievement and more behavioral problems. Various risk factors for poverty, such as single parents, low maternal education, and lack of resources, and their role in the design of early intervention programs will be explained. The Perry Preschool Project (PPP), Head Start, the Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) Program, and …

Trauma-Focused Equine Assisted Psychotherapy : A Quantitative Study Of Intervention Effectiveness, Nakita Dziegielewski

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This study uses a quantitative lens to examine if Natural Lifemanship's ® Trauma- Focused Equine Assisted Psychotherapy ™ (TF-EAP) model is effective in reducing the psychological, emotional, and/or behavioral problems in youth with a trauma history. Secondary data was collected on behalf of Spirit Reins, the organization that implements Natural Lifemanship's ® TF-EAP ™ model, and used to determine the effectiveness of their traumainformed treatment intervention. Through a pre and post-test research design, data analysis was conducted on 40 youths' Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale (CAFAS) total scores to determine intervention effectiveness. Findings suggest that Natural Lifemanship's ® TF-EAP …

Theology, Mission And Child: Global Perspectives, William Prevette, Keith White, C. Rosalee Velloso Da Silva, D. J. Konz

Edinburgh Centenary Series

In our view there are three primary and equally constituent parts to the volume we have been commissioned to edit and collate, and these are therefore indicated in the title.

The Emergence Of Leadership In Children: The Role Of Play, Athletics, And School, Shelby K. Barthold

CMC Senior Theses

Leadership studies and leadership development have become increasingly popular in recent years. However, much of this popularity has been focused on leadership in adults. This thesis explores the emergence and development of leadership skills in children as they gain experience from play, athletics, and school. The definition of leadership is examined as well as the skills needed for proficient leadership. The skills are structured around the Big Five personality factors. Each of the areas discussed – play, athletics, and school – gives children many opportunities to interact with their peers allowing for valuable development. Overall, this thesis asserts that leadership …

Effects Of Clergy Reporting Laws On Child Maltreatment Report Rates, Frank E. Vandervort, Vincent J. Palusci

Articles

Child maltreatment (CM) reporting laws and policies have an important role in the identification, treatment, and prevention of CM in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [US DHHS], 2012). Abuse by a member of the clergy “is not only a personal and emotional betrayal, but [also] a spiritual betrayal, with secrecy amplified by the unprecedented and systemic cover-up committed by the Church hierarchy” (Coyne, 2011, p. 15). Recent controversies have resulted in the consideration of changes in mandated U.S. reporting laws that include increasing requirements for clergy and extension to additional professions (Freeh, Sporkin, & Sullivan, …

Play In Children With Motor Disabilities, Suzanne Martin

Theses and Dissertations--Rehabilitation Sciences

The purpose of this research was to explore and describe the relationship among the child, family, home environment, and pretend play of children with motor disabilities. The environment is a powerful force in early child development. This research is based on Bronfennbrenner’s ecological theory of development and the ubiquitous role of play in all domains of development. Children with motor disabilities may lack exploration of the environment and as a consequence demonstrate deficits in play. Play was measured in 32 children with motor disabilities aged 24.8 to 61.3 months with a mean age of 33.7 (SD 9.3) months. Children demonstrated …