Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Parental Precaution: Neurobiological Means And Adaptive Ends, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Colin Holbrook, Martie G. Haselton

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans invest precious reproductive resources in just a few offspring, who remain vulnerable for an extended period of their lifetimes relative to other primates. Therefore, it is likely that humans evolved a rich precautionary psychology that assists in the formidable task of protecting offspring. In this review, we integrate precautionary behaviors during pregnancy and postpartum with the adaptive functions they may serve and what is known of their biological mediators, particularly brain systems motivating security and attachment. We highlight the role of reproductive hormones in (i) priming parental affiliation with young to incentivize offspring protection, (ii) focusing parental attention on …

The Effects Of Tai Chi On Balance And Peripheral Somatosensation In Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes, Elisabeth Inge Cavegn

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in older adults is a major health concern, as older adults with diabetes have a two- to threefold risk of injurious falls and physical disability. Although studies on the effects of Tai Chi on balance and fall prevention have increased over the last two decades, the benefits for older adults with diabetes, specifically for those with impaired somatosensation in the lower extremities, are limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Tai Chi exercise on balance, peripheral somatosensation, and fitness in older adults with type 2 diabetes. The …

Sibling Conflict Resolution Styles And Marital Conflict Resolution Styles, Fatimah Shalash

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

This study used qualitative methods to examine if there was a connection between conflict resolution styles used with siblings in adolescence and conflict resolution styles utilized in current romantic committed relationships. The Conflict Resolution Behavior Questionnaire (Reese-Weber, & Bartle-Haring, 2003) and Gottman‟s (1994a, 1994b) couple-conflict types as adapted by Holman and Jarvis (2003) were administered to 144 participants through an online questionnaire. Analysis of the CRBQ using a multiple regression indicated participant‟s self-rating of compromise, attack, and avoidant conflict resolution styles used with siblings when an adolescent predicted current self-ratings of compromise, attack, and avoidant conflict resolution styles utilized in …

Actualizing Empowerment: Developing A Framework For Partnering With Families In System Level Service Planning And Delivery, Kathleen Ferreira

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The engagement of families of children and adolescents with Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) as full partners in individual treatment, organizational, and system level decision making has become an important focus for systems of care (SOCs) serving youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. SOCs typically include cross-agency partnerships with mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and education for the purpose of providing services and supports for youth with SED who have multi-agency needs. Implementation of a federal mandate requiring family driven care (FDC) within systems of care funded through the Children's Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) has revealed that most system of …

Life Experiences That Contributed To The Independence And Success In The Lives Of Foster Care Alumni, Dawn Elizabeth Montgomery

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the factors which helped these foster care alumni to persevere and to succeed. The intent was to provide a framework for equipping youth in foster care more effectively by building on their strengths and the resources available in foster care. The study’s method incorporated the interviewing of ten ethnically diverse individuals who had experienced the foster care system. Based on their insights and the themes which emerged, the WARRIORS Model was created. This acronym represents the key themes derived from the interviews: Wounded, Advocacy, Reality of Belonging, Resources, Inspired to Succeed, …

Not Yet Married: The Implications Of Meanings Of Marriage On Youths In Singapore, Paulin T. Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Marriage is a social construct that takes on different meanings as societies develop and mature. To understand why people get married, it is important that we understand what marriage means. This paper will discuss the social transformation of marriage in Asia using Singapore as a case study. To examine two demographic trends- delayed marriage, and the increasing proportion of people who remain single - this discourse also explores the constraints imposed by contradictions between traditional norms and modern expectations. In the midst of these ideological challenges, there are important implications for the practice of marriage among younger Singaporeans. We see …

Evolving With The Times: The Changing Landscape Of Work Life Integration In Singapore, Paulin Tay Straughan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This year, we celebrate 10 years of our journey and look toward a new chapter in our history as we communicate the relevance and increasing importance of Work-Life strategies for developing human capital today. We consolidated research studies on Work-Life Integration to date so as to understand what has been accomplished in this field and set directions and trends for future research. We commissioned A/P Paulin Tay Straughan, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences and Deputy Head of the Department of Sociology at the National University of Singapore, to conduct this research. The study unearthed several interesting …

Sham Marriages, Ancillary Powers, And Moral Discourse: Toh Seok Kheng V. Huang Huiqun; Adp V. Adq, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Is marriage an institution (of public morality) or a contract (of private ordering)? In Toh Seok Kheng, the High Court concluded that it was unable to declare a “sham marriage” void just because the motives behind the marriage seemed improper. In ADP, the High Court held that since a void marriage meant there was no marriage to begin with, the “wife” was not entitled to maintenance, and there could not have been any “matrimonial assets” to be divided, unless she had a strong “moral” claim. This piece considers how the aforementioned moral-contractual dichotomy emerges in these cases.

Pregnancy And Mental Health Of Young Homeless Women, Devan M. Crawford, Emily C. Trotter, Kelley J. Sittner Hartshorn, Les B. Whitbeck

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Pregnancy rates among women in the U.S. who are homeless are much higher than rates among women who are housed (Greene & Ringwalt, 1998). Yet little research has addressed mental health, risk and resilience among young mothers who are homeless. This study utilizes a sample of women from the Midwest Longitudinal Study of Homeless Adolescents (MLSHA) to investigate pregnancy and motherhood over three years among unaccompanied homeless young mothers. Our data are supplemented by in-depth interviews with a subset of these women. Results show that almost half of sexually active young women (n = 222, μ age = 17.2) had …

Maturation, Peer Context, And Indigenous Girls' Early-Onset Substance Use, Melissa L. Walls, Les B. Whitbeck

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

This paper examines a biosocial model of the impact of puberty on Indigenous girls' early-onset substance use by considering the potential mediating role of peer context (i.e. mixed-sex peer groups and substance use prototypes) on the puberty and substance use relationship. Data include responses from 360 girls of a common Indigenous cultural group residing on reservations/reserves in the upper Midwest and Canada. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that the statistically significant relationship between girls' pubertal development and early-onset substance use was mediated by both mixed-sex/romantic peer groups and favorable social definitions of substance use. Implications for substance use prevention …

Archival Methods And The Veil Of Sociology, Mary Jo Deegan

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Archival methods of research are crucial to reconstruct. interpret. and evaluate contributions of early sociologists that are hidden behind the veiIs of racism and sexism. Many of these founding sociologists profoundly shaped their communities and created important organizations to combat social inequality and injustice. Their lives as intellectuals were frequently controversial. which made them political anathemas to mainstream sociologists, usually white males working in prestigious universities who wanted money. fame, and prestige for the new discipline and its leaders.

In this chapter, [recount how r began a career using historical research to understand the rich. alternative history of the profession. …

The Social Construction Of Infertility, Arthur L. Greil, Julia Mcquillan, Kathleen S. Slauson-Blevins

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Health and illness are not objective states but socially constructed categories. We focus here on infertility, a phenomenon that has shifted from being seen as a private problem of couples to being seen as a medical condition. Studying infertility provides an ideal vantage point from which to study such features of health care as inter-societal and cross-cultural disparities in health care, the relationship between identity and health, gender roles, and social and cultural variations in the process of medicalization. Infertility is stratified, both globally and within Western societies. Access to care is extremely limited for many women in developing societies …

Heterogeneity And Its Impact On Thermal Robustness And Attractor Density, Yuri Cantor, Bilal Khan, Kirk Dombrowski

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

There is considerable research relating the structure of Boolean networks to their state space dynamics. In this paper, we extend the standard model to include the effects of thermal noise, which has the potential to deflect the trajectory of a dynamical system within its state space, sending it from one stable attractor to another. We introduce a new “thermal robustness” measure, which quantifies a Boolean network’s resilience to such deflections. In particular, we investigate the impact of structural homogeneity on two dynamical properties: thermal robustness and attractor density. Through computational experiments on cyclic Boolean networks, we ascertain that as a …

The Discursive Construction Of Irish Early Childhood Education And Care Policy: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Rachel Kiersey

Doctoral

Conceptual distinctions between care and early childhood education have influenced and reinforced the construction of knowledge about the early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy area. Discursive constructions in policy texts permeate wider society and become embodied in the broad social domain as “truths”, establishing the status quo about how social issues are perceived. Close scrutiny of the knowledge constructed about key concepts within Irish ECEC policy texts between 1998 and 2008 can shed some light on the ideological perspectives shaping the truths about ECEC in Irish society. This research used a critical discourse analysis (CDA) methodology to investigate policy …

Formal Supports Improve Qol For Parents Of Children With Disabilities: Systematic Review; And, Mothers Caring For A Child With A Disability Require Dynamic, Tailored Support Services To Return To Paid Work, Sylvana Pasini

Theses : Honours

Parents caring for a child with a disability (PCCD) may experience adverse effects on quality of life (QOL) due to role demands, hence it is important to evaluate available support services. This paper aims to systematically review current research examining the impact of formally provided, parent-focused emotional or informational interventions on QOL for parents caring for a child with a disability or chronic condition. Procedures: Electronic searches of five databases (2001 – 2011) were conducted and reviewed against the study eligibility criteria. All levels of evidence were included, and studies were evaluated against standard quality assessment criteria by two reviewers. …

Maternal Defense: Breastfeeding Heightens Aggression By Reducing Stress, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Colin Holbrook, Sarah M. Coyne, E. Thomas Lawson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Mothers in numerous species exhibit heightened aggression in defense of their young. This shift typically coincides with the duration of lactation in nonhuman mammals, which suggests that human mothers may display similarly accentuated aggressiveness while breast feeding. Here we report the first behavioral evidence for heightened aggression in lactating humans. Breast-feeding mothers inflicted louder and longer punitive sound bursts on unduly aggressive confederates than did formula-feeding mothers or women who had never been pregnant. Maternal aggression in other mammals is thought to be facilitated by the buffering effect of lactation on stress responses. Consistent with the animal literature, our results …

“I Would Feel Uncomfortable If My Child’S Teacher Were Gay”: Examining The Role Of Symbolic Homophobia And Political Affiliation, Michael Moore, Amy C. Moors

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Symbolic homophobia is a general negative disposition towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, which is demonstrated in symbolic forms of prejudice rather than overt actions. Stigma towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals has transformed from overt forms of prejudice to slightly less blatant more subtle forms in recent years (Schafer & Shaw, 2009). Based on previous research, it is has also been shown that conservatives will have higher levels of symbolic homophobia. (Linneman, 2004), Thus, in order to assess the more nuanced forms of prejudice in relation to political affiliation, Study 1 created a scale to assess symbolic homophobia. …

Acting Virtuous: Chastity, Theatricality, And The Tragedie Of Mariam, Kent Lehnhof

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Given the interrelation of female chastity and female theatricality in early modem discourses, it comes as no surprise that both figure importantly in what is believed to be the first original English drama to be written by a woman. As Elizabeth Cary explores a Jewish queen 's sexual purity in The Tragedie of Mariam, she does so by concentrating on questions of performance. Cary's title character explicitly abjures theatricality even as she embraces chastity, creating a fissure in Renaissance discourses on women that threatens to swallow up the antifeminist idea that female chastity is always an act.

Perceptions Of Support, Likelihood Of Retention, And Differences Between Places Of Origin Among First-Generation College Students, Teresa Radomski

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

First-generation college students are less likely to attend and complete college than their peers whose parents have completed college. Among the reasons cited for this disparity is lack of parental familiarity of the college admissions process and financial aid opportunities. First-generation youth wishing to pursue a college education must rely on others for this knowledge. This study examines first-generation college students' perceptions of support and whether their places of origin have any bearing on their future plans. The study examines interviews with participants through the lens of Tinto's (1993) model of student departure to examine whether their responses, and whether …

Striving For A Better Life, Ana Artiaga

Stories of Immigration: Oral History Workshop Papers

No abstract provided.