Family, Life Course, and Society Commons^™

Utilizing A Community-University Partnership To Meet Grandfamilies’ Needs: Development And Evaluation Of A Grandchildren-Mentoring Program, Christine A. Fruhauf, A. Nancy Mendoza, Pamela Bishop, Gail Engel, Suzanna Hetchler

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

In response to the increasing rate of grandparent-headed homes and the needs of grandparents and grandchildren, we engaged in a community-university partnership to develop, implement, and evaluate a grandchildren-mentoring program. Prior to developing the grandchildren-mentoring program, a county needs assessment was conducted. The needs assessment revealed that grandparents wanted opportunities for mentorship of their grandchildren. As a result, we partnered with an undergraduate practicum course to create a new option of college students engaging with grandchildren. During our inaugural grandchildren-mentoring program, we conducted focus groups/interviews with grandparents (n = 5) and grandchildren (n = 7) at the end of the …

A Case Study Of Ovc Case Management Through The Zambia Family (Zamfam) Project—Brief, Population Council

HIV and AIDS

The ZAMFAM program aims to improve the care and resilience of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) as well as young people living with HIV in Zambia by providing support and protection and by strengthening the capacity of children, families, and the community to better manage the socioeconomic shocks of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A case study approach was employed to understand actors and perceptions, and to document best practices by the program. This brief summarizes the case study findings. The ZAMFAM program utilized several approaches to improving the well-being of OVC. Services or referrals were provided to beneficiaries through home visitation …

A Case-Study Of Ovc Case Management Through The Zambia Family (Zamfam) Project, Lyson Phiri, Drosin Mulenga, Nancy Choka, Caila Brander, Nachela Chelwa, Nkomba Kayeyi

HIV and AIDS

Zambia’s HIV prevalence is estimated at 11% among adults aged 15–49 years and 1% among children younger than 15 years. An estimated 10% of Zambia’s population is at high risk of being orphaned or vulnerable due to the HIV epidemic. The Zambia Family (ZAMFAM) project aims to improve the care and resilience of vulnerable populations while supporting HIV epidemic control. ZAMFAM used a case management approach that tracks beneficiaries from identification to graduation. The Population Council conducted a qualitative case study to understand actors and perceptions, and document best practices. Program beneficiaries viewed the ZAMFAM program as having made a …

A Re-Evaluation Of The Hyper-Selectivity Perspective: The Case Of Second-Generation Filipinos, Brenda B. Gambol Gavigan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Scholars Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou (2015) argue that the upward mobility of one racial group --- Asian Americans --- in the U.S. can be explained by its “hyper-selectivity”: the Immigration Act of 1965 brought in Asian migrants who are more highly educated than their compatriots back home and the average American. These middle-class immigrants bring with them a success frame based on exceptional achievement and generate ethnic capital (i.e. resources and information available in the community) that ultimately benefits all members of an ethnic group, including the second-generation. In addition, the educational leaps of the second-generation have altered racial …

Development Of A Minority Stress Preventive Intervention For Sexual And Gender Minority Youth And Young Adults, Natalie Holt

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Mental health disparities amongst sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals are spurred by exposure to minority stressors and sustained by mediators of problems with emotion regulation, social support, and cognitive processes. Emerging clinical research suggests empirically supported behavioral health treatments can be culturally adapted to address these mental health disparities, however less work has focused on the prevention of symptoms. The present study developed a brief preventive intervention targeting mediators of the minority stress model for SGM youth and young adults aged 17 to 26. Focus groups with 8 SGM participants informed development to ensure the content and delivery of …

Renforcement Du Suivi Et De L'Evaluation Des Changements Sociaux Et Comportementaux Pour Le Planning Familial En Afrique De L'Ouest Francophone, Leanne Dougherty, Martha Silva, Kathryn Spielman

Reproductive Health

Francophone West Africa has the highest fertility rates in the world and low contraceptive prevalence. In response, the Ouagadougou Partnership was established to encourage family planning (FP), but efforts have focused on service delivery and commodity procurement with fewer investments in demand creation through social and behavior change (SBC) approaches. A recent study found that in countries with a high desired ideal number of children, FP progress is limited without investing in efforts to increase demand. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that SBC can directly increase contraceptive use by addressing intermediate outcomes such as attitudes, social norms, …

Program Evaluation On The Kids First Program, Katherine E. Yamauchi

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

This study is a program evaluation of the Kids First program, an eight-week psychoeducation program, on parents and children who have experienced a divorce and/or separation. This study was conducted to assess the usefulness of specific program interventions as it relates to parental insight, co-parenting, and child adjustment. A descriptive analysis was conducted to examine results of the evaluations. Results indicated over 85% of the sample rated program satisfaction as moderately or very valuable, suggesting parents gained some knowledge and saw value in the program. Results also endorsed 95% of parents moderately or highly valued the effectiveness of the program’s …

The Effect Of Emphasis In Telephone Survey Questions On Survey Measurement Quality, Kristen M. Olson, Jolene Smyth

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Questionnaire design texts commonly recommend emphasizing important words, including capitalization or underlining, to promote their processing by the respondent. In self-administered surveys, respondents can see the emphasis, but in an interviewer-administered survey, emphasis has to be communicated to respondents through audible signals. We report the results of experiments in two US telephone surveys in which telephone survey questions were presented to interviewers either with or without emphasis. We examine whether emphasis changes substantive answers to survey questions, whether interviewers actually engage in verbal emphasis behaviors, and whether emphasis changes the interviewer- respondent interaction. We find surprisingly little effect of the …

Integrating Affect Perception Tasks From The New York Emotion Battery Into A Comprehensive Measure Of Neuropsychological Change Across The Lifespan, Melinda A. Cornwell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background: The ability to perceive others’ emotions is a vital skill for social competency, impacting the success of personal and professional relationships (Brinton & Fujiki, 2011; Cassidy et al., 1992; Côté & Miners, 2006). According to Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST; Carstensen, 1991), human motivation develops to become more discerning in choosing milieus that yield the most gratifying return on the investment of personal resources (e.g., time, attention, and effort), perhaps explaining why some research findings indicate that older adults may demonstrate an affect perception (AP) bias described as a positivity effect (Reed et al., 2014). Moreover, AP predicts cognitive and …

Life Expectancy And Active Life Expectancy By Disability Status In Older U.S. Adults, Haomiao Jia, Erica I. Lubetkin

Publications and Research

Objectives

The Medicare Health Outcome Survey (HOS) is the largest longitudinal survey of the U.S. community-dwelling elderly population. This study estimated total life expectancy, active life expectancy (ALE), and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) by disability status among HOS participants.

Methods

Data were from the Medicare HOS Cohort 15 (baseline 2012, follow-up 2014). We included respondents aged ≥ 65 years (n = 164,597). Participants’ disability status was assessed based on the following six activities of daily living (ADL): bathing, dressing, eating, getting in or out of chairs, walking, and using the toilet. The multi-state models were used to estimate life expectancy, …

The Disproportionate Impact Of Covid-19 On Older Latino Mortality: The Rapidly Diminishing Latino Paradox, Rogelio Sáenz, Marc A. Garcia

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Objectives: This brief report aims to highlight stark mortality disparities among older Latinos that result from the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Methods: We use recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to compute age-specific death rates (ASDRs) for three causes of death: deaths from COVID-19, residual deaths, and total deaths for four age-groups (55-64, 65-74, 75-84, and 85 and older) to assess the impact of COVID-19 on older Latino mortality relative to non-Latino Whites and non-Latino Blacks and also in comparison to residual deaths. Additionally, we obtain ASDRs for all causes of deaths from 1999 to …

How To Improve The Mental Health Of Your Children, Alina M. Baltazar

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gender And Parliamentary Representation In India: The Case Of Violence Against Women And Children, Sadhvi Kalra, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

To better understand how gender impacts parliamentary representation, we analysed representative claims made by parliamentarians in India, the world's largest democracy. Applying critical frame analysis to plenary debates in the Indian Rajya Sabha, we examined four parliamentary bills addressing violence against women and children under four successive governments between 1999 and 2019. Testing six hypotheses concerning who represents and how, our study found women legislators more active in speaking on behalf of women and children than male legislators. Women parliamentarians focused more on rehabilitating victims and expanding the scope of rights and rights-holders. Women were also more vocal in contesting …

“Las Experiencias De Padres Con Hijos Discapacitados” Lived Experiences Of Mexican-Immigrant Parents Of Children With Identified Disabilities, Christina Cortez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

A nurturing and engaging environment within the family often leads to enhanced student performance. Nonetheless, the education system continues to struggle to connect with families from racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse groups, particularly parents with limited English proficiency or those who have children in special education programs. Amplified difficulties may arise because children with identified special needs—such as physical impairments, learning deficiencies, or developmental disabilities—require additional support, interventions, parental support, and/or services. As the nation attempts to mainstream children in public education and provide them support, Mexican immigrant families in many cases remain underrepresented, or they fall into greater risk …

The Interaction Of Adversity, Hope, Social Support, And Academic Resilience In Emerging Appalachian Adults, Daniel Joseph Gottron Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The negative impact of adverse childhood experiences on both short-term and long-term wellbeing has been repeatedly validated across multiple populations. While adverse childhood experiences have been thoroughly researched in many contexts, this is not the case for Appalachia, which has often been relegated to the fringe of scholarly research, resulting in an overall lack of research on Appalachia. Further lacking is research into how protective factors might be utilized to help overcome adversity. While some recent research on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, hope, and resilience has been conducted, it too has been limited to select populations. It is …

Caregivers’ Expectations, Reflected Appraisals, And Arrests Among Adolescents Who Experienced Parental Incarceration, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Melissa Noel

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

This research sought to identify a potential process by which intergenerational crime occurs, focusing on the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ subsequent arrests. We drew from Matsueda’s work on reflected appraisals as an explanatory mechanism for this effect. Thus, the present research examined whether caregivers’ and adolescents’ expectations for adolescents’ future incarceration sequentially mediated the effect of parental incarceration on adolescents’ actual arrest outcomes. Propensity score matching was used to examine this effect in a sample of 1,735 15- to 16-year-olds using NLSY97 data. Parental incarceration was positively related to caregivers’ expectations of adolescents’ future arrest. Moreover, caregivers’ expectations …

Effects Of Parental Incarceration On Their Children : A Study Of Children Of Incarcerated Parents, Afua Amankwaa

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

The adult prison population is estimated to have increased recently, at a rate similar to the rate at which the total world population has increased. As prison adult population increases, it can be inferred that the number of children with incarcerated parents is also on the rise. However, with lack of data and policy on these children, particularly in the Low Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), little or virtually nothing is known about these children and how they are faring after the separation of their parents from them. This study aimed at bridging this knowledge gap by examining the effects of parental …

Book Review: Reconnecting To The Source By Ervin Laszlo, Elizabeth W. Szatmari Krasnoff

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Quantum philosopher Ervin Laszlo has taken one step further outside of the contemporary mainstream scientific view, which believes in a reductive “scientific” method primarily of highly controlled experiments to determine truth. In this visionary work, Laszlo proposes that the true laws of nature can also be accessed and felt experientially. Here he argues that the new quantum science can support this view, and even assist us as we heal the rift between mind and spirit and reconnect to our source. Laszlo proposes a new paradigm, a holotropic worldview with love as the core attracting force of wholeness. Indeed, as the …

Book Review: The Intelligence Of The Cosmos: Why Are We Here? By Ervin Laszlo, Elizabeth W. Szatmari Krasnoff

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Ervin Laszlo breaks down his theory of everything into a credo of 8 statements. This review looks in some detail at Laszlo’s theories and also touches on the other writers who have been invited to participate. It is noteworthy that Laszlo breaks with the current scientific belief that we are without purpose, and that evolution has no purpose. He believes that compassion, love, and expansion are our purposes for being here.

Microrna Gene Expression States Underlying Individual Variation In Aging And Lifespan In Isogenic C. Elegans, Holly Kinser

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Average lifespan differs greatly between species, but lifespan among same-species individuals is also highly variable. While much effort has been devoted to uncovering longevity-associated traits and lifespan-extending perturbations in humans and model organisms, how differences in lifespan arise between individuals is unknown. Studies of human identical twins demonstrate that surprisingly little of the variation in lifespan between individuals can be explained by genetics and shared environment. Furthermore, even genetically identical C. elegans reared in highly homogeneous environments display a degree of variability in lifespan similar to that of outbred human populations. Thus, longevity must be determined at least in part …