<p> Viewing motivation to volunteer through an attachment theory perspective may enhance understanding of volunteering motivations. A questionnaire was administered to (N=155) emerging adult college students using a Lykert-type scale (1 - 7) to assess attachment (Bartholomew &amp; Horowitz, 1991) and motivation to volunteer (Omoto &amp; Snyder, 1994). Five forward linear regression analyses were conducted to identify significant predictors of attachment style on motivation to volunteer. For each analysis, one of the five motivations to volunteer variables (values, understanding, esteem enhancement, personal development, community concern) was regressed on the combination of four attachment style variables (secure, avoidant, anxious ambivalent, dismissing avoidant). Findings indicate that Secure significantly predicted Values, Understanding, and Community Concern; Anxious Ambivalent predicted Understanding, Personal Development, Community Concern, and Esteem Enhancement; and Dismissing Avoidant predicted Understanding. These findings partially support the hypothesized notion that securely individuals would likely report selfless motivations; whereas, insecure individuals would likely report self-serving motivations. </p>

In order to break the cycle of poverty for disadvantaged children through early intervention, a counseling component is needed. As perceived by parents and teachers, counseling services would reduce the long-range damaging effects caused by social problems such as crime, violence, and drugs. This study attempted to determine the counseling needs of three- to five-year-old educationally disadvantaged children. The research method was descriptive and used a questionnaire. The survey questionnaire was administered to a sample of 22 parents and 22 teachers at a Head Start facility. Survey respondents were 44 African-American subjects: 1 male and 43 female teachers in Atlanta, Georgia. In conclusion, a counseling model was proposed to implement subsequent results of this study.

<p> Using a meaning making lens and a qualitative methodology, this dissertation study sought to explore transformative meaning making and implicit beliefs of parenting among a sample of 40 adolescent mothers participating in a home visiting program during their transition to parenthood. Given the high attrition rate for interventions serving adolescent moms, the study also explored the alignments between meaning making and home visiting program participation. Through iterative coding and theme analysis, this investigation revealed that participants&rsquo; beliefs about parenting evolve as they transition from pregnancy to parenting. They engage in meaning making throughout the process, which leads to scripts of change in three areas: improvements in relationships, changes in life outlook, and changes to self. Two groups emerged on either end of the spectrum of meaning making. High meaning-making <i> transformers</i> tended to remain actively enrolled in the intervention while the low meaning-making <i>remainers</i> all dropped out by the second year. An analysis of implicit beliefs about parenting, or meta-parenting mindset, identified three groups of participants: <i>fixed theorists, </i> <i>incremental theorists,</i> and <i>mixed theorists. </i> Fixed theorists, who believed parenting ability was natural or instinctual, had a lower retention rate in the program (14%) than the overall rate of the sample (42%) even after controlling for participants who moved away. Incremental theorists, who attributed their parenting abilities to gradual growth and learning, had a 50% retention rate and also represented just 6.6% of those receiving a low number of visits and 66.6% of those who had high rates of home visits.</p>

Two groups of 5- to 8-year-olds, and a comparison sample of adults, were examined in an effort to explore the developing relationships between false belief understanding and an awareness of the individualized nature of personal taste, on the one hand, and, on the other, a maturing grasp of the interpretive character of the knowing process. In Study 1,20 children between 5 and 8, and in Study Two, a group of 15 adults, all behaved in accordance with hypotheses by proving to be indistinguishable in their good grasp of the possibility of false beliefs, and in their common assumption that differences of opinion concerning matters of taste are legitimate expressions of personal preferences. By contrast, only the 7- and 8-year-old children and adults gave evidence of recognizing that ambiguous stimuli allow for warrantable differences of interpretation. Study 3 replicated and extended these findings with a group of 48 5- to 8-year-old subjects, again showing that while 5-year-olds easily pass a standard test of false belief understanding, only children of 7 or 8 ordinarily evidence an appreciation of the interpretative character of the knowing process.

<p> Despite plentiful research on the physical, psychological, and emotional demands on adult child caregivers, there are few studies that highlight developmental issues in the adult child/dependent parent dyad. This study was designed to highlight the dependency factor in this dyad, thus addressing the gap in the literature. With family systems theory, attachment theory, and role conceptualizations constituting the bases for the study, research questions addressed how adult child caregivers experience parental dependency and how dependency affects the caregiving/care-receiving dynamic. Ten volunteer participants were interviewed, and the results were analyzed using a variation of the van Kaam method of data analysis in which themes emerged from qualitative phenomenological data. Results of this study revealed 6 main themes; in descending order of the number of participants endorsing each, the themes were as follows: caregivers did not receive enough help from family/friends (n = 10), caregiving evolved on its own (n = 8), expectations changed (n = 8), roles changed (n = 8), dementia caused changes (n = 7), and new relationship provided benefits (n = 5). The first 2 themes indicated the ways in which adult child caregivers experience parental dependency. The remaining 4 themes illuminated participant-reported changes following the addition of dependency to the adult child/parent dynamic. Findings from this study can influence social change by promoting appropriate support interventions that support the physical and mental health of the caregiver population.</p>

<p>The purpose of the current study was to conduct an investigation about parenting perceptions in an early childhood separation program for toddlers. Due to the important role of parents, caregivers, and teachers for the children in this program, 67 participants completed the Parent Behavior Importance Questionnaire-Revised (PBIQ-R), a questionnaire applicable for both parents and non-parents based upon the parent development theory (PDT). This first quantitative glimpse into how a program of this nature conceptualizes parenting demonstrated significant results when comparing parents and teachers within the parenting dimensions of Bonding, General Welfare and Protection, Responsivity, and Sensitivity and when comparing caregivers and teachers within the dimension of negative parenting. Other inquiries included investigating the difference between non-parent and parent participant responses and how age of participants may impact responses to the PBIQ-R. This study also gave participants the opportunity to share thoughts, reactions, and specifically explain what influenced their responses on the questionnaire. This study has the potential to impact programs of this nature in terms of providing evidence based research for staff development, furthering dialogue amongst parents, caregivers, and teachers, and guiding programmatic changes. </p>

During the preschool years, children across all cultures that have been tested seem to come to an explicit understanding of the fact that mental states are related to but ultimately separate from the reality that they are meant to represent. This understanding is sometimes called a representational theory of mind (RTM). I hypothesized that the neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) would be associated with RTM development in preschoolers. I selected DA because several lines of work now suggest that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is critical for RTM and its development. In both animals and humans DA has been shown to play a crucial role in the development of frontal regions. In the first study, I recorded the spontaneous eyeblink rates (EBR) of 60 preschool aged children (range: 48-62 months) who were also given tasks that assessed their RTM and response-conflict executive functioning (RC-EF) skill. In both animal and human models EBR increases with available DA, and thus EBR can be used as an indirect measure of DA functioning. Regression analyses showed that EBR predicted unique variance in RTM and one Stroop-like measure of RC-EF performance after controlling for the effects of age and language ability. In the second study, I also administered a battery of RTM and RC-EF tasks to 79 preschool aged children (range: 42- 54 months). I recorded their spontaneous EBR in addition to collecting genetic material which was processed for allelic variations of DA turnover, transport, and receptor genes. Polymorphisms of catechol-O-methyl transferase gene (COMT) and the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4) were associated with children’s RTM performance. These findings provide preliminary evidence that DA functioning is associated with RTM development in the preschool years. Results suggest that there may be a selective effect of DA on RTM ability. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-08 12:45:24.627

Graduate

<p> Caregivers interacting with young children in natural settings have been found to provide language input that is in tune with the child's output in terms of mean length of utterance (MLU). Previous research suggests that caregivers provide language input within the child's proximal zone of language development, that is 2.0-3.0 morphemes ahead of their child's MLU. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate whether speech-language pathologists (SLP) working in early intervention tailor their input in the same way. </p><p> Communication interactions between six speech-language pathologists and their toddler aged clients between the ages of 28 and 33 months were audio recorded during one of their regularly scheduled speech and language intervention sessions. MLUs for the SLPs and the children were calculated for each intervention dyad via the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) version 2012 computer software program. The MLU of each SLP was then compared to the MLU of her client. Data analysis revealed that three of the six SLPs directed their language input to the child at levels within the child's proximal zone of language development, between 2.0 and 3.0 morphemes greater than the child's MLU. The other three SLPs provided input at levels that exceeded the 2.0 to 3.0 morpheme range. Qualitative analysis suggest that factors other than the children's MLUs, such as their language comprehension levels, may have been a factor in the complexity levels of the SLPs input. Future research, employing larger sample sizes and careful measures of the children's language comprehension and cognitive levels, is indicated.</p>

<p> Raising an adopted child from the child welfare system poses unique challenges because these children bring with them an increased risk for developmental and mental health problems (Simmel, 2007; Whitten &amp; Weaver, 2010). Adoptions from Child Welfare have almost doubled in the last decade, comprising up to 41% of all adoptions (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2012). Of these adoptions, anywhere from 10% to 25% end up disrupting (Briggs &amp; Webb, 2004; Festinger, 2002; Rosenthal &amp; Groze, 1994; Smith &amp; Howard, 2000). Thus, it is important to identify and understand which factors can likely increase adoption success or which ones are more likely to create barriers. Currently, there are some studies that have identified specific adoptive child traits that increase disruption (Barth, 1997; Barth &amp; Berry, 1988; Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 2010; Rosenthal &amp; Grove, 1990) along with some family factors (Barth, 2000; Coakley &amp; Berrick, 2008; Festinger, 2002). However, two important family systems aspects, involving qualities that the adoptive parent themselves bring to the process, have thus far been overlooked in the research: attachment styles and parenting styles. In order to shed more light on this neglected aspect of the adoptive process, this study investigated whether or not there was a relationship between an adoptive caregiver's own attachment style or parenting style and adoption outcomes. The logistic regression method was used in the analysis of a convenience sample of 113 adoptive parents and it was found that two parental factors were the most influential in predicting adoption outcomes: anxious attachment style and authoritative parenting style. Additionally, incidence of trauma in the parent's history was identified as a factor that negatively impacted the chance of adoption success. The implications or clinical practice and research are discussed.</p>