This thesis examines the effects of anti-obesity discourses on parenting practices. While academics have paid attention to the political dimensions of anti-obesity policy and related discourses (for example Colls and Evans, 2009, Evans, 2006, 2010, McPhail, 2009, Rawlins, 2009), and others have considered the experiences of feeding and caring for families (for example Curtis and Fisher, 2007, DeVault, 1991 Warin et al, 2008, Valentine, 1999), the way in which anti-obesity policies become enrolled in, and possibly contested through, parenting practices remains largely uncovered. In response to this, the thesis explores the ways in which these anti-obesity policies and discourses are brought into family life, lived, experienced, and made meaningful, contributing to critical obesity geographies and broader literature on bodies, parenting, care, and consumption. The thesis draws on research interviews and focus groups with parents, in which accounts of parenting practices and understandings around body size were explored in light of contemporary UK anti-obesity discourse. Using this research to explore the everyday enaction of parenting knowledges around body size, these parenting enactions are investigated alongside the governance of body size and parenting, developing an account of the ways in which we can see the aims of the state enacted in everyday practices of care (Dyck et al, 2007). By paying attention to everyday practices, this thesis argues that anti-obesity discourse emerges not only through top-down practices of governance, but through mundane and personal relationships of care and engagement with bodies, food, and fat. However, caring practices are demonstrated as existing in multiplicity and the excesses of everyday life in relation to parenting and body size are given space in the thesis to challenge narrow accounts of what it means to be a ‘good’ parent or have a ‘good’ body size; it is argued that we need to take seriously the situated lay knowledges that are developed through everyday practices of care. The thesis contends that such notions of ‘good’ parenting, bodies, and size are enacted through anti-obesity discourse as a particular classed discourse of parenting knowledge and body size, which furthermore, reinforce gendered versions of bodies, parenting, and everyday life.

Strengths-based assessment is providing an alternative to the typical way that psychologists approach mental health in the literature. Social-emotional strengths are multidimensional, positive indicators of mental health that include Social Competence, Self-Regulation, Empathy, and Responsibility. Limited research has been conducted to examine the potential connection between parental involvement in children’s education, specifically in the areas of supporting a child’s learning at home, parental involvement within educational settings, and parenting practices (discipline, Monitoring, use of Praise and Incentives) in connection with social-emotional strengths. With an emphasis on prevention of mental health problems, parents are an important and potentially untapped resource for school-based interventions to promote social-emotional strengths. Multiple informants in strengths-based assessment has also received limited attention in the research, therefore potential differences in parent and teacher ratings of social-emotional strengths were explored. The relationships between parenting variables and social-emotional strengths were examined. The sample included 166 kindergarten children. Teacher ratings of children’s strengths were available for all 166 of these children. Parent ratings of children’s strengths were available for a subset (n = 122) of these 166 children. Participants were from both the U.S. and Canada. Measures used to assess parenting variables included the Parent Involvement Project Questionnaire-Modified, the Fast Track Project Parent-Teacher Involvement Questionnaire, the Parent Practices Interview, Parental Support for Learning Scale, Trust Scale from the Family-School Relationship Survey, and the Social-Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale (SEARS)-Parent, and the SEARS-Teacher short form. All together, parenting variables explained 37% of the variance in Self-Regulation/Responsibility, 29% of the variance in Social Competence, 29% of the variance in Empathy, 37% of the variance in Total Social-Emotional Strengths as rated by parents, and 20% of the variance in Total Strengths as rated by teachers. In terms of individual predictors of the parent-rated strengths sample, Positive Verbal Discipline and gender (female status) were significant positive predictors of Self-Regulation/Responsibility. This indicated that the higher the use of Positive Verbal Discipline, the higher the levels of Self-Regulation/Responsibility. Supportive Parent Involvement, Positive Verbal Discipline, and gender (female status) significantly predicted Social Competence, also in a positive direction. This demonstrated that the higher the level of Supportive Parent Involvement and Positive Verbal Discipline, the higher the level of Social Competence. Parent perception of his/her Time and Energy, Praise and Incentives, and the child’s gender (female status) positively predicted Empathy; Monitoring negatively predicted Empathy. For Time and Energy and Praise and Incentives, this indicated that the higher the level of these parenting variables, the more positively Empathy was rated by parents. Monitoring moved in the opposite direction of Empathy; as Monitoring increased, Empathy decreased. Positive Verbal Discipline and gender (female status) predicted Total Strengths rated by parents in a positive direction; as Positive Verbal Discipline increased, so did Total Parent-Rated Strengths. For teacher ratings of strengths, Trust of the child’s teacher and gender (female status) predicted Total Strengths in a positive direction. This indicated that as Trust of the child’s teacher increased, so did the level of teacher-rated Total Social-Emotional Strengths. Female status was consistently associated with more positive ratings of the social-emotional domains and Total Social-Emotional Strengths. Teachers and parents had moderate levels of association (r = .48) in rating of kindergarten students’ Total Social-Emotional Strengths. In summary, all parenting variables were predictive or associated with social-emotional outcomes except for Appropriate Discipline, and Monitoring had a negative relationship with parent-rated Empathy. Socioeconomic status was also not found to be significantly predictive or associated with social-emotional domains. Parenting practices such as Positive Verbal Discipline and gender were particularly predictive of social-emotional domains. Implications for research and practice are outlined.

There has been an upward trend in obesity among African American (AA) adolescents over the last 2 decades. While parenting characteristics (e.g., styles and practices) are linked to adolescent eating habits and weight status, related research has focused on European American children from 2-parent middle-class households or economically disadvantaged AA children from single mother households. The purpose of this quantitative secondary data analysis was to investigate the relationship between parenting characteristics on the weight status of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (n = 325) among a broader population of AA mothers and fathers residing both inside and outside of the home. The social cognitive theory, widely used in obesity intervention research, was the framework used to explore parental behaviors that contribute to adolescent weight status and health. The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 was used to examine the relationship between parenting characteristics on adolescent weight status, as measured by body mass index (BMI) percentile. Statistical analysis included the Kruskal-Wallis Test, Mann-Whitney U, Spearman rho correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression. Results indicated no significant relationships between parenting characteristics and adolescent BMI percentiles as determined by Kruskal-Wallis and multiple regression analysis when controlled for sociodemographic variables. Study findings indicate that variables beyond parenting practices, such as urban/rural residence, must be considered to explain BMI and weight status among AA adolescents. Largely, this study increased knowledge on AA parenting characteristics and promotes education and social awareness of the continued weight epidemic that plagues AA children in the United States.

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Introduction: Children of Black immigrant parents living in the US are at elevated risk of being overweight or obese, thus increasing their risks of morbidity and mortality as they age. Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children's nutrition through their food parenting practices, defined as behaviors or actions that affect the child's dietary habits. Three aims guided this study: (1) To examine food parenting practices among a sample of Black immigrant mothers living in Metro Atlanta using a modified Comprehensive Home Environment Survey (CHES); (2) To assess maternal knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, acculturation, and modeling in relation to food parenting practices among a sample of participants surveyed in Aim1 using focus groups; and (3) To refine the proposed Influences of Food Parenting Practices on BMI model (Model) using data collected in Aims 1 and 2. Methods: 103 Black immigrant mothers completed the CHES and 30 of them participated in four focus groups. Univariate, bivariate, and explanatory analysis was used for the survey data, and the qualitative data analysis was thematic. Results: Based on survey findings, mothers used structure the most in feeding their children, which directly influence mothers’ reports of their children’s dietary behavior and habits. Education, income, age of migration, mother’s concern for child’s weight, and child’s sex were significantly associated with the participants’ food parenting practices. Specifically, mothers with more income, more education, or who migrated before age 14 were more likely to have healthy food available and better meals routine. Focus group data analysis revealed seven major themes and six subthemes, where acculturation influenced mothers’ food parenting practices greatly. Since migrating to the US, some mothers’ nutrition changed in positive (e.g., eating more fruits) and negative ways (e.g., snacking more) because of schedules, cost, and access. Survey and focus group findings were instrumental in refining the Model by adding 5 new relationships to the proposed model. Conclusion: The results of this study provide a baseline for the food parenting practices of Black immigrant mothers in the US, and important factors (i.e., knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, acculturation, and sociodemographic) that influence their children’s dietary behavior.

If the educational agenda No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is to be successful, teachers, parents and children from all cultural backgrounds have to be involved in the implementation process. This idea of NCLB Act clearly identified with the purpose of this study, which was focused on the evaluation of the parenting practices of Nigerian immigrant parenting practices in preparing their children for college. Five basic parenting theoretical approaches were employed by the researcher to gather, collect and analyze the data. The researcher interviewed and observed the environment of sixteen Nigerian immigrant parents on how they prepare their children for college. One school administrator and one school teacher were interviewed to evaluate their own perception of how Nigerian immigrant parents prepare their children for college. The major results of the findings were proactive parenting strategies. These included Cultural Orientation; Immigrant Experience; Surviving in the United States; Strong Parental Background; Early Childhood Education; Early Emphasis on Education; Close Interest in Children; Regular Supervision of Children; Preservation of Indigenous Culture; Supportive Family Collaboration; Strong Involvement in School Activities; Involvement in Community Organizations; Comparing of the Cultural Values in the United States and Nigeria; and Early Emphasis on Education. The study provided specific recommendations to assist teachers and school administrators in providing support to Nigerian immigrant parents as they prepare their children for college. Suggestions for additional research were provided. The concluding statement hinged on the idea that there are several factors that Nigerian immigrant parents consider beyond the conventional levels in preparing their children for college. Ultimately, proactive parenting is an innovative strategy that demonstrated that all children benefited maximally from the motivation of parents, expertise of teachers and the resources in the environment.

This thesis investigates the pattern of parental educational homogamy and its implications for parenting practices and children’s early development in contemporary Britain. At the heart of the thesis lies an interest in the mechanisms behind the intergenerational transmission of educational success and, more specifically, the consequences for children of new patterns of parental resemblance in education. The thesis is composed of three empirical chapters, each of which is concerned with a different outcome: 1) trends in educational attainment and educational assortative mating amongst parental couples; 2) parents’ childrearing values and stimulation-oriented interactions with children; and 3) children’s early cognitive and behavioural skills. The first chapter combines data from four birth cohort studies from 1958, 1970, 1990 and 2000-01 while the second and third chapters rely exclusively on the latter study. The empirical analyses use Log-linear and Diagonal Reference models. With regard to trends in educational assortative mating, the thesis finds that the strength of homogamy increased between 1958 and 1970 to decrease thereafter and remain stable, at its lowest level, throughout the 1990s. Moreover, amongst recent cohorts of parental couples the percentage of unions where mothers are more educated than their male partners equalled that of unions exhibiting the opposite pattern. The findings concerning the dynamics of parenting in heterogamous couples suggest a pattern of female dominance in the attitudinal domain as fathers align with the views that can be expected on the basis of the mother’s level of education rather than their own; however, no significant adjustments between partners are observed in parenting behaviours. Lastly, the thesis finds a positive gradient in the association between parental education and children’s early cognitive and socio-emotional development but little or no support for the hypotheses of differential effects for sons and daughters or gender biases in parental preferences for children. That is, no significant interactions are observed between the gender of children and the impact of parents’ absolute and relative levels of education. Taken together, the findings of the thesis qualify concerns about the increase of educational assortative mating in industrialised societies and its potential consequences for the intergenerational reproduction of inequalities in education.