Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1992. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Keville Frederickson. Dissertation Committee: Barbara C. Wallace. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-124).

In the 1980’s, a handful of authors distilled the anecdotal experiences of adult children of alcoholics (ACoAs) into a syndrome of dysfunctional characteristics that they proposed were shared by most ACoAs. The books they published were commercially successful and launched a popular movement and a self-help industry, which mental health clinicians would eventually need to either acknowledge or refute. In the ensuing years, the ACoA syndrome has become broadly accepted among laypersons, but efforts to validate this syndrome through empirical research have been inconclusive. To date, there is little evidence regarding the degree to which mental health clinicians have embraced the validity of an ACoA symptomology. In this study, mental health clinicians in a southeastern state were surveyed regarding both their endorsement of a distinct ACoA syndrome and the therapeutic utility of ACoA support groups. The results indicated a lack of support for either.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Young adults are moving back into their family homes and are now living with their parents. Common terms for the adult children include "previously launched adult" and "incompletely launched adult." I used data from Wave 3 (2001 to 2003) of the National Survey of Families and Households to analyze the relationship between different life course and family development variables and the launching status of young adults. This dissertation specifically uses the dependent variable "launching status" of either previously launched or failure to launch. I undertake two multinomial logistic regression models with the dependent variable "launching status." I then proceed to a replication of the original analysis with two other multinomial logistic regression models, using the dependent variable "launching status" and the data gathered from Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households (1992 to 1994). I conclude with a descriptive analysis of the 2009 American Community Survey to describe current trends of adult child and parent co-residence. The first analysis uses various life course variables as independent variables and then introduces control variables into the models. The second analysis uses various family development and family structure variables and then introduces control variables into the models. After running the two models using the Wave 3 data, I determined that the life course variables had a significant relationship with launching status, and the family development variables did not prove to be very significantly related to launching status. The replication of the Wave 3 analysis with the Wave 2 data showed similar results. Like the original analysis, the life course variables were significantly related to launching status, whereas the family development variables were not significantly related to launching status. The descriptive results using the American Community Survey data show that a majority of young adults who are living at home are between the ages of 18 and 24, are male, are White and non-Hispanic, and have a high school education or less. The major contribution of this research is that it differentiates between those who have never left the family home and those who left and then returned. This is the first study, to my knowledge, to do so.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1989. / Bibliography: leaves 98-108.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

This qualitative, interpretive research sought to elicit explanations for certain contradictions and choices in the lives of four married women who were autonomous and assertive in their careers, yet non-assertive and compliant in their married lives. Such contradictions appeared both in their projected stories and semi-structured interviews. It had been expected that these projected stories would reveal autonomy and assertiveness, in line with the white, middle-class, feminist values of the subjects, but they had not. Explanations for these apparent contradictions were attributed to the effects of being children of alcoholic fathers. While the subjects' socialisation and vulnerability to family ideology provided certain explanations for the presence of such contradictions, an object relations account of the unconscious need to resurrect an ideal father and repair the generic family provided a more probable explanation,and accounted for their traditional gender role behaviour as ideal wives in spite of their non-traditional, feminist behaviour outside of marriage.

Research into the phenomenon of compulsive hoarding has only been conducted during the last twenty years. To date, no studies have been done that examine the impacts of compulsive hoarding on young and grown children. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore what the positive and negative impacts on children or adult children are. Twelve women, each identifying themselves as an adult child of a compulsive hoarder completed a qualitative questionnaire via email. Participants were recruited through membership in the internet support group, “children of hoarders”. All participants identified their mother as the compulsive hoarder. Three distinct themes emerged over three distinct time periods. The first time period begins with early childhood and continues through adolescence. The second begins with the time they first moved away from home. The third starts with the end of the second and continues through to whatever age they are today. The first theme's focus was the participants' feelings as associated with their mother's hoarding. The second theme dealt with a need to understand what “normal” is. The third theme was the means they use/used to cope with the situation. Clinical implications include support for using systems theory, ambiguous loss and attachment frameworks. This study also provides valuable information relevant to participants need to normalize their experiences. / Master of Science