The focus of this thesis is nocturnal enuresis in the primary care setting. Three aspects have been central: 1) the parental perspective, 2) differences between children with enuresis of varying severity, and 3) to explore whether the universally recommended basic bladder advice have any therapeutic effect.   Study I built on qualitative data from interviews with 13 parents of children with enuresis, focusing on family impact and coping strategies. A common consensus among the participants was that they felt frustrated about the perceived lack of information and help they received from the healthcare system. In study II anamnestic data and voiding chart parameters – reflecting renal and bladder function – were compared between 54 children with enuresis of varying frequency. No measurable differences were found. Study III was a randomised controlled study. Forty children with previously untreated enuresis were recruited and randomised to receive either first bladder advice for one month and then alarm therapy (n=20) or just the alarm therapy (n=20). The bladder advice did neither result in a significant reduction in the number of wet nights, nor improve the effect of subsequent alarm therapy.  Study IV was a cross-sectional questionnaire study of 52 parents, including comparison with normative data and with validated instruments evaluating intra-parental stress and satisfaction. The results showed no significant differences between the parents studied and normative data.    Study I and IV were the first to look at the parents, as opposed to children with enuresis. The results can be used by healthcare professionals when counselling families about strategies to use and attitudes to avoid. Study II aimed at filling a glaring blank in the field of knowledge: we do not know how children with infrequent enuresis differ from those who wet their beds often or every single night. The fact that no differences in bladder or kidney function was found indicates that they may differ in the way they sleep. Study III will probably have the greatest impact on how we should treat children with enuresis. The recommendation that all of them be given bladder training as a first-line therapy can no longer be supported.

The purpose of this thesis was to suggest exemplary factors of adoption ministry programs to successfully support adoptive parents who have experienced difficulties in their adoptive family life by examining adoptive parents' practical needs and practical consideration of adoption ministry programs in adoption ministry churches. Chapter 1 presents the research concerns, introduces the context of the research problem, and explains key words related to the research. Chapter 2 consists of literature reviews related to adoption and adoption ministry. This chapter provides biblical, theological, and practical perspectives on adoption and adoption ministry as well as examines the present circumstance of adoption ministry in Korean churches. Chapter 3 explains the methodological design of the study. This chapter contains an overview of the research design, and an explanation of the research sample, the research instrumentation, and the procedures of the research. Chapter 4 analyzes the data collected from the study through a general demographic questionnaire and an open-ended essay questionnaire. The study surveyed and interviewed two sample groups. According to the comparison of responses between adoptive parents and adoption ministers, in general, I found that most adoptive parents understood the biblical, theological, and practical meaning of adoption and that adoption ministry positively influenced the church. Adoptive parents and adoption ministers must play a key role in creating an adoption culture in the church, but the leader of adoption ministry should be the senior pastor. Chapter 5 discusses the research implications and how those implications apply to the adoption ministry in Korean churches. The study aimed to effectively support adoptive parents through adoption ministry programs. The results offer several exemplary factors of adoption ministry programs such as education, counseling, adoptive family meeting, and financial support.

Den här uppsatsen har för avsikt att undersöka och förstå hur det är att vara förälder till ett barn som är trans. Studien är kvalitativ och semistrukturerade intervjuer har använts. Genom de fem intervjuerna som jag har genomfört med föräldrar till transpersoner har jag undersökt föräldrarnas upplevelser och erfarenheter samt förhoppningar och önskningar i relation till att deras barn är transpersoner. Resultatet pekar i två riktningar där den ena handlar om föräldrarnas tankar och känslor och det andra om deras behov och förhoppningar. Det föräldrarna tog upp i den första riktningen av resultatet handlade om sorg, tvivel, oro men även att det har varit berikande. I den andra riktningen av resultatet berättade de om behov att träffa andra i liknande situationer, få höra positiva berättelser, önskemål om att samhället skulle vara mer accepterande mot transpersoner och mindre könsuppdelat. Resultatet har styrkts genom Antonowskys KASAM-teori och analyserats med hjälp av queerteori. Slutsatsen är att en bredare och mer nyanserad representation med tillgång till positiva och hoppfulla berättelser skulle göra de här personernas liv lättare och kanske rentav öka deras känsla av sammanhang.

The purpose of this study was to compare the parenting style used by grandparents in the first-time parenting of their children with the parenting style used by grandparents in the second-time parenting of their grandchildren. In addition, a comparison was made between first-time parenting and second-time parenting and the parenting style experienced by these grandparents as children in their family of origin.The Grandparents Parenting Grandchildren Questionnaire (GPGQ) was distributed to 505 grandparents raising grandchildren between birth and 12 years old in HARP Grandparenting Support Groups in six states. One hundred fortyfour responses were analyzed at the .05 level of significance measuring the multivariate difference between four parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, rejecting/neglecting, and authoritative). Ten grandparents were interviewed by telephone.Results1. The multivariate difference between the parenting style used by grandparents in the first-time parenting of their own children with second-time parenting of grandchildren was significant. In parenting their own children, grandparents were more authoritarian, more rejective, and less authoritative than they were in parenting their grandchildren.2. The multivariate difference between the parenting style used by grandparents in the first-time parenting as compared with their memories of the parenting style used in their family of origin was significant. In parenting their own children grandparents were found to be less authoritarian, more permissive, less rejective, and more authoritative than their parents were.3. The multivariate difference between the parenting style used by the grandparents in the second-time parenting of their grandchildren and the parenting style experienced as children in their family of origin was significant. When parenting their grandchildren grandparents were found to be less authoritarian, more permissive, less rejective and more authoritative than their parents were.4. Grandparents reported raising their grandchildren differently from their children (54.1%), the same (33.3%), and 12.5% did not answer the question.5. Grandparents from telephone interviews reported some differences in second-time parenting from the first-time parenting due to available resources, legal arrangements, family issues, understanding of discipline, and the role differences. / Department of Elementary Education

The purpose of this study was to empirically measure the effectiveness of a school-based intervention program for elementary children whose parents had been recently separated. Forty-nine third through sixth grade students in a northwestern Indiana county participated in the study. The sample consisted of twenty-six treatment and 23 control subjects; 30 females and 19 males participated.The hypothesis addressed was: Male and female elementary children who receive treatment will demonstrate a statistically significant different attitude toward their' parents' separation or divorce, school behaviors, and self concept when compared to children who receive no treatment.The independent variable was a subject's participation in a ten-week, school-based intervention program. The intervention program was based on a model proposed by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. The dependent variables were attitudes toward parental separation/divorce (Children's Attitude Toward Parental Separation Inventory), self concept (Piers-Harris Self Concept Scale), and school-related behaviors (Devereux ElementarySchool Behavior Rating Scale). Sex of the children was a moderator variable.The study employed a nonequivalent control group design using a pretest-posttest format. A 2 x 2 nonorthogonal factorial design was used. Multivariate and urivariate analyses of variance procedures were used to test initial (pretest) differences and the hypothesis of no difference between treatment and control groups.The multivariate analysis of variance of the pretest scores found no significant difference between the control and treatment groups pretest scores. In the univariate analysis of the pretest data, a significant sex difference was noted on one Devereux variable measuring inattentive-withdrawn behavior.In the multivariate and univariate analysis of the posttest data, no significant treatment or interaction of sex and treatment effects were recorded. In this study treatment did not significantly effect a child's self concept, attitudes toward separation/divorce, or school behaviors.

This study aims to establish the knowledge and learning needs of parents with toddlers in order to formulate guidelines for a pro-active parental support programme. The topic represents a response to the need for information and skills expressed by numerous parents in the researcher's private practice. Contemporary parents continue to be confronted by the significance of the responsibility of parenthood. They also continue to experience learning deficiencies regarding their role as parents in spite of living in an age of information and technology. Intervention research was undertaken. The principal findings of this investigation were the following: parents participating in this investigation expressed the need for guidance that take into account two specific factors, namely that the program should be based on a Christian perspective and that the guidance should take the specific developmental phase of the child into consideration - the toddler phase in this case. Themes were also identified that these parents would like to see included in such a programme. These were: discipline, developmental phase, moral values and character development, emotional needs of toddlers, parental involvement in children's play, the uniqueness of every child, conflict management and communication, parental style, children and marriage, and aspects in the adult's world with a negative impact upon parental status. These themes were used as guidelines to compile a prototype parental support programme. This program was subjected to a pilot study involving three separate groups of parents. Guidelines were continuously evaluated and adapted where necessary. A final global evaluation confirmed the suitability of the program for further development and testing. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Emotional Behavioral Disorder (EBD) is a term used within the educational system to describe those students who in spite of supports for their emotional and behavioral difficulties, continue to struggle academically and negatively impact their peers. Children with EBD are one of the most difficult segments of the education population to integrate into the regular classroom due to their disruptiveness and the individuality of their needs. Strategies that have been used to help children with EBD include those with a cognitive and/or behavioral focus (both individually or in the classroom setting), those aimed at improving parenting skills and those that use prescription medication either by itself or as an adjunct to more behaviorally oriented treatments. In spite of increased usage and proven efficacy, however, many parents are reluctant to consider medication as a treatment alternative, and those who opt to use medication perceive their child stigmatized in their educational experience. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore parental perceptions of medication use to address Emotional Behavioral Disorders and their satisfaction with using medication to address school based difficulties. Using grounded theory methodology, in depth, open-ended interviews with seven mothers of students identified as EBD were used to obtain information about their experiences and perceptions. Interviews were analyzed using a constant comparative method. The findings suggest that parents’ decision to use medication to address a child’s behavioral difficulties were based primarily on their own history of medication use and their relationship with school personnel. Implications and recommendations for school personnel and planning are then summarized.

Background: Pediatric obesity is a serious health issue, with an exceedingly high prevalence, having both short and long-term consequences. The Family Lifestyle Program (FLP) provides treatment services to families struggling with pediatric overweight and obesity living in the Winnipeg Health Region. Purpose: To determine whether caregivers’ nutrition knowledge and/or their attitudes about nutrition change as a result of attending the family group education sessions of the FLP. Methods: In this quantitative exploratory research, 17 caregivers (68% female) attended at least four out of five family group education sessions and completed a self-administered survey over three time periods of the program intervention, spanning approximately eight weeks from Time 1 to Time 3. Results: Caregiver nutrition knowledge did not change. Significant changes in three of the four attitude measures across three time periods were observed, related to caregiver attitudes toward their child’s and their own eating habits, program specific nutrition content (label reading and meal planning), and the perceived effort in providing foods to family and in role modelling of healthy behaviours to family members. Conclusions: The family group education sessions assisted the caregivers apply nutrition knowledge through participation in the program intervention, to improve their confidence with following healthy eating principles and role modelling these behaviours to their family members.

Advocates of divorce conciliation argue that it is preferable to the legal resolution of disputes over children because it gives parents joint responsibility for decision-making which leads to more suitable settlements and ones more likely to be implemented. This thesis seeks to gain an understanding of the conciliation process and thereby test the assumptions implicit in such statements. It is based upon the examination of interview and observation material from clients and conciliators of one out-of-court Conciliation Service and includes a statistical description of the Service. It also discusses the question of responsibility for attendance at, and participation in, conciliation; concluding that many parents interviewed had not taken such responsibility. The major part of the thesis, based on a detailed examination of transcripts of tape recordings or conciliation appointments, argues that the construction of the problem is vital to the conciliation process and analyses the way conciliator interventions narrow the area in which the problem can be located and focus on feelings and relationship difficulties. It further argues that the process includes and depends on the construction of a particular concept of parental responsibility. This prioritises communication, co-operation and joint decision-making and becomes the rationale for a range of sometimes conflicting solutions constructed as a result ot conciliator initiatives. The later part of the thesis examines the ways in which conciliators seek to motivate parents to agree, relating this to the current conciliation/therapy debate, and to the use of expert knowledge. Finally this thesis investigates the influences on parents which are external to conciliation. This reveals complexities which may affect the outcome of the process of conciliation. It is concluded that much of the present debate is conducted on the basis of inadequate empirical knowledge and conceptual frameworks which produce a blindness to such complexities.

The purpose of this study is to increase understanding of how parents of children in need of special support have experienced their interaction with the pre-school. Our three main areas of interest were to investigate how several parents experienced their contact with the pre-school, if there were any experienced factors that had played a part in the contact with the pre-school and if we could conclude anything about how the curriculum had been followed in these cases, with assistance of the parents’ experiences. Our study is qualitative and we chose to interview six parents. We both participated in all of the interviews. The theoretical base of this study is rooted in the phenomenological theory and we also used the framework factor theory to complement our analysis. One of our conclusions was that the parents expressed so many different experiences that we decide not to try compare them in general. On the other hand, all of the parents expressed that they were the ones who knew their children best and due to that, another conclusion that we interpreted was that the pre-school educators should pay attention to the parents so as to ensure that their contact would work as well as possible.