This report is the outcome of a Field Study project. The aim of the study was to findout how the floating deaf-mute children of migrant workers experience psychologicalproblems in Guiyang, China. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory was used asa theoretical frame. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 4 inner migrantcouples who have deaf-mute children receiving treatment in a Center for disabled inGuiyang. 12 professionals working with treating deaf-mute children are alsointerviewed as well as 5 deaf-mute children. In total together 21 informants areinterviewed. The result of this study shows that three main aspects influence thepsychological problems of floating deaf-mute children with migrant parents most:social welfare policy, family income conditions and the center of treatmentenvironment. This study explored the problems based on Brofenbreener’s ecologicalsystems approach, which for the author had a new perspective to research on thesituation of deaf-mute children of migrant workers in Guiyang, China.

Parental involvement contributes to the improvement of student achievement. Although children entered kindergarten with varying levels of literacy development, parents might perceive kindergarten literacy instruction as a panacea for any lacking skills, therefore lessening their involvement in their children's literacy development. Thus, there was a need to understand parents' perceptions of the importance of (a) their involvement in the education of their children, (b) their role in their children's literacy development during kindergarten, and (c) their role in their children's early literacy development as influencing their children's overall literacy development. Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development served as a guide for this qualitative exploratory case study. Semistructured telephone interviews were conducted with 11 kindergarten parents on their perceptions regarding their involvement in the literacy development of their child. Data analysis was guided by Yin's 5-phased cycle of analyzing case studies, through which 4 main themes emerged. First, the parents perceived their involvement in the early literacy of their children helped their children's overall literacy development. Second, they perceived their involvement in their child's education was important. Third, there was a change in the degree of involvement of parents once their children entered kindergarten. Last, parents perceived that their involvement in their children's literacy development was one of the various roles and responsibility they have in being a parent. The findings of this study may contribute to positive social change by serving as useful information that can assist schools and teachers in developing effective strategies for encouraging parental involvement for families with children in kindergarten.

Callous and Unemotional (CU) traits are a relatively recent addition to the existing body of research examining the development of severe behavioural problems in children, and antisocial behaviour in adults. Children who are high in CU traits display shallow emotions, manipulate other children, lie easily, and demonstrate very little remorse or guilt. Additionally, they are more likely to engage in more severe forms of antisocial behaviour, more often, and from a younger age than their peers. Research has found that CU traits moderate the well-established relationship between parenting and conduct problems. That is, children who are high in CU traits seem to display levels of behaviour problems that are unrelated to the quality or type of parenting they receive. This has serious implications when one considers that the most effective psychosocial treatments available for behavioural disorders are based upon improving parenting, and would therefore require significant modification for children high in CU traits. In addition, the research exploring the moderating role of CU traits in the relationship between parenting and conduct problems has not taken a developmental perspective and considered different ages of children. Finally, existing research has not considered the reciprocal relationship that CU traits have upon parenting behaviour, or the direct relationship between parenting and CU traits. The present study has addressed these limitations by utilizing an accelerated longitudinal methodology. The present study recruited 449 grades one, three and five children from six public primary schools. Questionnaires assessing conduct problems, CU traits, and parenting styles were administered to their parents for completion. Additionally, teacher report was also sought on a number of key variables to ensure validity. One year later, all of these children and their families were re-approached to assess the extent to which each of these variables had changed over time. One year later 233 (51.89%) of the original sample completed the same measures allowing examination of the change in these variables over time. Given the relatively short time period, it was expected that one of the best predictors of any of the key variables at time 2, would be baseline scores measured at time 1. For this reason, hierarchical regression was used to control for temporal stability, as well as demographic factors. Additionally, the hypothesis that a different pattern of relationships would emerge for children of different ages was tested by examining the moderating effect of age upon all predictive relationships. This was done by entering the product of age and the predictor variable(s) as the final step of the regression analyses, and then conducting simple slopes analysis on all significant predictive interactions. Three distinct findings emerged from these analyses. Firstly, age moderates the effect of CU traits on the relationship between parenting styles and conduct problems. Behaviour problems in younger children are better predicted by parenting behaviours and by CU traits than in older children. Secondly, both CU traits and conduct problems were predictive of worsening parental behaviour. Once again, this was particularly evident in younger children. Finally, inconsistent parenting, and corporal punishment were found to be predictive of CU traits. These findings are discussed from a developmental perspective in the context of Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model.

Bullying has been identified as a problem that can affect the physical and psychosocial health of both the aggressors and victims. Given the consequences for those who bully, for victims, and for the school environment, early intervention is important to minimize these risks. School staff need additional data to understand the scope of bullying and to adopt effective strategies. This study seeks to meet this need by analyzing the association of bullying behaviors and school climate perceptions of middle school students within the context of school membership. This study used Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory. Within this framework, a bullying interaction occurs not only because of individual characteristics of the child who is bullying, but also because of actions of peers, teachers and staff; physical characteristics of the school environment; and most importantly, of student perceptions of these contextual factors. This study used survey data to analyze the effect of student perceptions of school climate on self-reported bullying behaviors of students in six Sarasota County middle schools. Data sources include student- and school level data. The researcher gathered student level data from a modified middle school YRBS survey the Sarasota School District administered to middle school students, in December 2003. The school level data were gathered from the Florida Department of Education Web site. The data were analyzed using multiple regression analyses and within multilevel models. The results indicated that bullying was a common occurrence in the schools. Approximately eight percent of students were bullied on a regular basis in school, with verbal bullying as the most common type of bullying and relational bullying as the least common. Bullying aggression for physical, verbal, and relational bullying was most common for boys. Girls reported higher levels of being victims of relational bullying. Bullying also varied according to school membership and grade membership. Bullying differed according to school climate perceptions, as well. Interestingly, the effect of some of these variables on bullying was modified by sex. Finally, school context was a significant predictor of bullying, in particular the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Trauma exposure during childhood increases the risk of multitude complex post-trauma symptomology. Extensive research has been conducted on the effects of trauma exposure on adults, and the findings have been thereafter applied to children. This is problematic due to the developmental differences between adults and children. There is thus a need to understand the unique symptomology of children, who have been exposed to trauma, as understanding the effects of childhood trauma will certainly aid in the prevention and treatment of childhood trauma. This study incorporated a systematic review methodology to analyse the effects of exposure to childhood trauma on children’s mental health and wellbeing. Relevant literature from all the methodological paradigms that were published during the specified time period of this study (2000 – 2016) were considered for. Furthermore, the inclusion criteria also specified that only studies of which the participants were children were allowed to be included in the review; studies focusing on adults and their exposure were deliberately excluded. The initial search strategy yielded a total of 316 articles; after all duplicates had been removed and, the titles and abstracts of the remaining articles had been assessed, the number of relevant articles was reduced to 22. These 22 articles were thereafter assessed by means of a critical appraisal tool to evaluate whether they were suitable for inclusion. Several articles were excluded as the focus of the studies were on treatment modalities and the effects of child trauma in adulthood. This signifies a gap in the literature with regard to studies that investigate the effects of child trauma. Ultimately, only 13 of the 22 articles remained. These underwent full-text evaluation and data extraction. Results of this study provide insight into the effects of child trauma on child mental health and well-being. Based on thematic analysis, the results clearly show that children, who are traumatised, have a negative worldview. In addition, the symptoms they manifest are complex, which often lead to misdiagnosis. Moreover, these studies also explain the resilience processes involved when a child is exposed to trauma. In essence, this study provides parents, caregivers, researchers and mental health professionals with an all-inclusive understanding of the effects of childhood trauma based on a scientific body of literature.

South African education has undergone many changes in the past two decades. In an attempt to educate all South African children and provide as many prospects as possible, a funding system was adopted with the intention of achieving "redress, equity and quality" (DoE, 2006). The goal of redress was important to begin solving system discrepancies between different social groups in the country whereas the goal of equity is one of the means to attain redress. The Quintile Funding System has been considered the means to achieve equity and redress. This tiered system directs more funding to those learners in need of financial support than more affluent learners. By increasing funding to learners of a lower socio-economic status (SES), learners who would otherwise be disadvantaged, could possibly reap the benefits of more opportunities through good quality education. This study aims to investigate the functionality and relevance of the quintile funding system. By using the preProgress in International Reading Literacy Study (prePIRLS) 2011 reading literacy test results and background survey questionnaire data, the SES of each quintile is examined. The reading literacy achievement is also used as a proxy for education quality and, by examining the differences in prePIRLS 2011 reading literacy achievement of the quintiles, the levels of quality may be established. The SES and reading achievement enables a comparison between quintiles to justify the use of a five-tiered funding system. An effective funding system should ensure that the largest number of learners in the country reap the most benefits from a good quality education. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Kindergarten students who are identified as at risk in reading often enter school with deficiencies in early reading skills. Little research exists for this vulnerable population on reading instruction in large, urban, school systems. The purpose of this multiple case study, which was guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of human development, was to describe urban kindergarten teachers' beliefs about the environmental factors that contribute to students' at-risk reading status, instructional practices employed to remediate reading, and teacher reports about systems in place to support student reading development. The multiple case study design included (a) structured interviews, (b) observations of kindergarten instructional practices in reading, and (c) a review of documents relevant to the delivery of instruction and home literacy assignments in 3 schools situated in 3 northeastern districts in the United States of America. The constant comparative method utilized included data coding, category development, and identification of themes. Findings indicated that (a) teachers believe parental involvement would influence the development of kindergartners' early reading skills; (b) teachers used a core and phonics curriculum within a print-rich environment to teach early reading skills, with variation in approaches seen within and across school sites; (c) there is a lack of professional development within the schools to enhance kindergarten reading instruction; and (d) the schools' instructional practices may not be part of a coherent instructional philosophy. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators with a deeper understanding of how to remediate reading with attention to the environmental factors at-risk readers experience at home and school.

abstract: Having a child with special needs can be overwhelming, emotionally draining and extremely stressful for parents and their family members. Research identifies the support systems families need in order to have quality-of-life. The current study uses mixed methods to evaluate the degree to which parents and other primary caregivers in Arizona view the educational and health related services that their child with special needs and/or other health impairments received when they entered kindergarten. It evaluated the degree to which the caregivers themselves perceived the support/services that they received in order to access quality of life for themselves, their child with special needs and other family members. Finally, the research identified reoccurring themes to better understand the intricacies involved within these support systems/services that promoted or hindered positive family and child outcomes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2017

Daily communication between home and preschool is central to the preschool's operations. The aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about how preschool teachers experience communication with caregivers in cases where there are language barriers at pick-up and drop-off. The study is qualitative and we have conducted semi-structured interviews with preschool teachers who have experience in communicating with caregivers where there are language barriers. The chosen theory for further analysis of the empirical evidence has been Bronfenbrenner's ecological system theory where we used the concepts microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem.   The participating preschool teachers talk about how they define the concept of language barrier as a broad concept but which mainly refers to when communication is limited in some way by language barriers. The preschool teachers portray that they see language barriers as both an opportunity and an obstacle, in different perspectives. An essential strategy that is presented is their own approach, which indicates a positive attitude towards the caregivers. The participating preschool teachers present smaller groups of children and more employees as a prerequisite for creating favourable communication with caregivers in cases where there are language barriers at pick-up and drop-off. This would result in more time with each individual guardian, which the preschool teachers point out as essential for favourable communication. Previous research on the subject is scarce, and the regulatory documents for preschool do not provide answers to how preschool teachers should communicate with caregivers in cases where there are language barriers in daily communication. Overall, this indicates that more research in the subject is relevant for the preschool teaching profession. / Daglig kommunikation mellan hem och förskola är centralt i förskolans verksamhet. Syftet med studien är att bidra till kunskap om hur förskollärare upplever kommunikation med vårdnadshavare i fall där det finns språkbarriärer vid hämtning och lämning. Studien är kvalitativ och vi har genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med förskollärare som har erfarenhet av att kommunicera med vårdnadshavare där det finns språkbarriärer. Den valda teorin för vidare analys av empirin har varit Bronfenbrenners ekologiska systemteori där vi använt begreppen mikrosystem, mesosystem, exosystem, makrosystem och cronosystem.     De deltagande förskollärarna berättar om hur de definierar begreppet språkbarriär som ett stort begrepp men som i huvudsak syftar till när kommunikationen på något sätt begränsas av språkliga hinder. Förskollärarna redogör för att de ser språkbarriärer som både en möjlighet och som ett hinder, i olika avseenden. En väsentlig strategi som presenteras är det egna förhållningssättet, som indikerar på ett positivt bemötande gentemot vårdnadshavarna. De deltagande förskollärarna framställer mindre barngrupper och fler anställda som en förutsättning för att skapa gynnsam kommunikation med vårdnadshavare i fall där det finns språkbarriärer vid hämtning och lämning. Detta skulle resultera i mer tid med varje enskild vårdnadshavare, vilket förskollärarna poängterar som väsentligt för en gynnsam kommunikation. Den tidigare forskningen inom ämnet är begränsad, och styrdokumenten för förskolan ger inte svar på hur förskollärare ska kommunicera med vårdnadshavare i fall där det finns språkbarriärer vid den dagliga kommunikationen. Sammantaget indikerar detta på att mer forskning inom ämnet är relevant för förskollärarprofessionen.

Vi har valt att titta på den fysiska aktivitet som räknas till den friskvård som arbetsplatsen erbjuder. Det handlar om att hjälpa sina medarbetare till en god personlig hälsa, samtidigt som arbetsgivaren själv vinner på hälsosamma medarbetare. Studiens hälsopedagogiska idé innebar att belysa vad som möjliggör till fysisk aktivitet och hur arbetsplatsen kan bidra till personlig utveckling gällande den fysiska hälsan. Syftet med studien var att belysa hur medarbetare och arbetsgivare beskriver aspekter som påverkar möjligheten till att utföra fysisk aktivitet i arbetsgivarens regi. För att analysera och tolka studien har vi använt oss av en teori och ett perspektiv, Bronfenbrenners utvecklingsekologiska modell och ett salutogent perspektiv. Studien utgick från en kvalitativ ansats där enskilda intervjuer använts som datainsamlingsmetod. Urvalet bestod av åtta respondenter varav fyra var arbetsgivare och fyra var medarbetare. Studien kunde av resultatet konstatera att det är viktigt för arbetsgivaren att involvera medarbetarna i det utbud som erbjuds för att så många som möjligt ska nyttja friskvården på företaget. Det är även viktigt för arbetsgivaren att ta tillvara på den sociala tillhörigheten som uttalats vara en stor motiverande faktor och bibehålla denne som en positiv aspekt i medarbetarnas vardag. / In this study, we have chosen to look at the physical activity that counts as the wellness that the workplace offers. It is about helping your employees to good personal health, at the same time as the employer itself benefits from healthy employees. The study's health pedagogical idea meant to shed light on what enables physical activity and how the workplace can contribute to personal development regarding physical health. The purpose of the study was to shed light on how employees and employers describe aspects that affect the possibility of performing physical activity under the auspices of the employer. To analyze and interpret the study, we have used a theory and a perspective, Bronfenbrenner's developmental ecological model and a salutogenic perspective. The study was based on a qualitative approach where individual interviews were used as a data collection method. The sample consisted of eight respondents, four of whom were employers and four were employees. The study was able to establish from the results that it is important for the employer to involve the employees in the range offered so that as many as possible will use the wellness at the company. It is also important for the employer to take advantage of the social affiliation that has been stated to be a major motivating factor and maintain it as a positive aspect in the employees' everyday lives.