This study looks at the figure of the child in the novels of Thomas Hardy. It argues that Hardy, in his various presentations of the child, draws on mythologies generated by the figure of the child in the nineteenth century. The introduction describes the existence and proliferation of these mythologies during the time in which Hardy was writing. It summarizes representations of the child in history, science and literature, and reviews existing critical literature on the topic. The study comprises six chapters. The first looks at babies and young children, the second at Jude the Obscure, the third at Tess of the D’Urbervilles, the fourth at pregnant women and the fifth at the child within the family unit. The final chapter uses close reading to provide a re-evaluation of two of Hardy’s ‘minor’ novels. Each chapter draws on specific historical contexts to reveal different aspects of the child myth. The study as a whole looks at the different ways in which Hardy uses the myth. At times he participates in it, or appears to, while at others he exposes it, or employs it to expose class and gender divisions in nineteenth century society. Ultimately, Hardy acknowledges the power of the child myth in literature and in society, while simultaneously recognising it as a fallacy that is both inaccurate and dangerous.

The study concerns on the assessment of early literacy development of children aged three to five years. A review of research into the assessment of early literacy, a consideration of purposes of literacy assessment and a survey of practice in schools revealed the need for new measures of literacy development that are in step with current research into literacy development in the preschool years. The study addressed six questions: 1. How is early literacy development currently assessed by teachers? 2. What is the focus of teachers' early literacy assessment? 3. What are teachers' purposes for assessing early literacy development? 4. What are teachers' needs in terms of assessment of early literacy development? 5. How can researchers better assess early literacy development? 6. Can early literacy development assessment instruments developed for researchers also be useful to teachers? Questions 1-4 were investigated through an interview survey of 30 schools. Question 5, the major research question of the thesis, was researched through the development and trialling of a new measure, the Early Literacy Development Profile. Teachers' views gathered during the trial were used to answer question 6. The major outcome of the study is a new measure, the Early Literacy Development Profile. This is intended for those research studies which require a measure which results in a statistical outcome (specifically, experimental studies involving comparison of groups of children, comparison of methods and comparison between age spans). Other outcomes include: a basis for the development of a new measure~ a review of the literature on early literacy assessment and a delineation of the purposes of assessment in this area. Three lines of future research emerge: further development and evaluation of the Profile~ comparisons with other measures; use of the Profile in studies involving comparisons between groups, methods and age spans.

No description available.

The current investigation provides a preliminary investigation of the "imposed networks" (adults with whom youth interact, but were not necessarily chosen) of youth aged 8 to 12. Also evaluated was the relative influence of parents and teachers on youths' feelings of self-efficacy. Youth reported on levels of warmth, psychological control and decisionmaking at home and at school. Self-efficacy was assessed by both youth and parent report. Results indicated that the emotional climate provided by parents was more influential on girls' feelings of self-efficacy than boys, and that higher warmth was negatively associated with boys' feelings of self-efficacy. Teacher psychological control was consistently negatively related to youths' feelings of self-efficacy. No evidence was found for either additive or interactive effects of home and school environments. Instead, the pattern of results suggested that youth benefit from moderate to high levels of parental warmth, when teachers provide levels of warmth that are either equally high or lower than parents.

While a handful of studies touch on the topic of hope and grandparent-grandchild (GPGC) relationship, none have made this subject the main object of inquiry. The purpose of this investigation was to explore how hope is reciprocated in extraordinary GP-GC relationships. Using a qualitative multiple case study design, three grandmother and adult granddaughter pairs were interviewed separately and were later observed engaging in a joint creative project. Nurturing, sharing and inspiring emerged as characteristics of grandmother-granddaughter relationships that were connected to hope. In addition, findings indicated that each member of the grandmother-granddaughter dyad helped the other envision a hopeful future. Grandmothers acted as hope models for their granddaughters. Reciprocally, granddaughters inspired their grandmothers to live longer by giving them hope for the future. While findings suggest that the GP-GC relationship holds potential for the intergenerational transfer of hope, future research is needed to further understand this process.

This qualitative study describes the meaning of the experience of loss for four child participants following the death of a grandparent. Using both descriptiveexploratory methodology and human becoming theory as the framework, the findings are presented in three themes. Related to meaning of the experience of loss, the theme in the children's language is, sadness deepens with awareness of the permanence of death. Related to how relationships unfold following the loss of a grandparent the theme is, time spent doing things and with others provides memories. The final theme is related to hopes and desires the children had following the death of their grandparent, that theme is wishes to undo the past mingle with ongoing relating with one who has died. Practice implications and directions for further research are discussed in light of study findings.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine adolescents' level of interest and engagement in risk behaviours as it relates to adolescents' and parents' perceptions of the parenting variables, demandingness and responsiveness. Data were collected from both adolescents and parents. The sample was obtained from two schools: (a) 44 Grade 8 students (28 girls, 16 boys) from a local junior high school and their parents (44 mothers, 37 fathers) ; and (b) 33 Grade 8 students (10 girls, 23 boys) from a second local junior high school. In order to examine perceptions of parenting, participants were asked to complete a 33 item questionnaire adapted from Lamborn et al.'s (1991) parenting measure and Greenberg's (1991) Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment. Adolescents were also asked to report on their level of engagement in 26 risk behaviours, adapted from Lavery et al.'s (1993) 23-item Risk Involvement and Perception Scale. Results indicate adolescents' interest in becoming involved in risk behaviours although a relatively low incidence of actual engagement in risk behaviours is evidenced at this time. Adolescents from one school report significantly higher interest in risk behaviours than those from the other (F₃,₇₃ = 4.98, p<.03). However, the relationships between adolescents' ratings of risk behaviours and the two parenting variables were similar at the two schools. Findings were, therefore, reported for the combined group of adolescents (N = 77) . Adolescents' perceptions of parental demandingness and responsiveness were relatively positive overall. Relationships between adolescents' perceptions of parental demandingness and responsiveness, particularly with regard to mothers, were inversely related to interest in risk behaviours (ranging from r = -.62 to r = -.35 for Total Risk Behaviour). Multiple regression analyses indicated that mothers' demandingness, as perceived by adolescents, is the most significant predictor (Standard beta = -.56, p.001) of teens' interest propensity for engagement in risk behaviours. Adolescents' perceptions of parenting are more strongly related to their interest in risk behaviours than are parents' perceptions of their own parenting. Discrepancy scores between perceptions of demandingness and responsiveness indicate that parents typically rated themselves higher on the parenting variables than did their teens. However, the absolute magnitude of discrepancy in parental demandingness was found to be only moderately associated with adolescents' ratings of risk behaviours (r = .32) and no relationship was found for discrepant perceptions of parental responsiveness. Four parenting style groups (Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive Indulgent, and Permissive Indifferent), based on Baumrind's conceptual framework, were formed on the basis of adolescents' ratings of their parents' demandingness and responsiveness. Adolescents parented Authoritatively (scores above the median on both variables) reported the lowest level of interest in risk behaviours, whereas teens from Permissive Indifferent families report the highest (F₃,₄₅ = 8.03, p < . 001) . A qualitative study was conducted by examining adolescents' use of leisure time. Eight adolescents, a male and a female chosen from each of the four parenting groups, completed a four-day Activity Log describing what they did, where, and with whom in out-of-school time. Those who were parented Authoritatively reported the fewest risk factors and the lowest level of interest in risk behaviours. Further investigation of adolescents' interest or engagement in risk behaviours, using the Activity Log in conjunction with comprehensive interviews, is warranted. This study contributes to knowledge in this area in several ways: (a) a wide range of risk behaviours was examined in relation to the parenting variables, demandingness and responsiveness; (b) in addition to adolescents' data, both fathers' and mothers' data were examined in relation to adolescents' interest and engagement in risk behaviour; and, (c) new measures, some derived from others' work and one newly created, were employed. / Graduate

No description available.

Explicitly rewarding the imitation of actions demonstrated by a model provides a method for training new behaviour in mentally retarded children. After such training even initially nonimitative children will often copy further novel actions even though such imitations are not rewarded (generalized imitation). A review of the literature on this topic suggested that many aspects of this phenomenon had not been adequately investigated. The research for this thesis therefore studied a number of practical aspects of imitation training in a total of fourteen initially nonimitative subnormal children. Five experiments were performed using a discrete trial paradigm. Experiment 1 compared two methods of training generalized imitation in initially nonimitative children. The first method involved varying the actions demonstrated for imitation from trial to trial (a 'Cumulative' method). In the second method, imitation of each action was trained to criterion performance in isolation (a 'Serial' method). Both methods successfully trained imitation and generalized imitation, but the results suggested that the 'Cumulative' method was the more efficient. Experiment 2 investigated the maintenance of imitation by intermittent reinforcement. The 'imitations' of one group of subjects were reinforced on a variable-ratio schedule and those of the other on a continuous reinforcement schedule. Both reinforcement conditions maintained 'imitations' and 'generalized imitations' at high, stable levels, but the group maintained under variable-ratio reinforcement showed greater resistance to subsequent extinction (the Partial Reinforcement Effect). In Experiment 3, subjects who had been trained to reproduce the actions of a particular model in one setting were tested in different locations and with different models. Changes in both variables resulted in decrements in 'imitative' and 'generalized imitative' response performances. In Experiment 4, a discrimination was established with three subjects by training imitation in the presence of a large ball and non imitation in the presence of a small ball. Imitation was then tested for various other ball sizes. Levels of imitation decreased as the test stimuli increasingly differed in size from the large ball. "Generalized imitations" occurred at about the same level as 'imitations' for each test stimulus. In Experiment 5, all previously trained subjects were tested after an interval of three months with no formal imitation training. Some children then demonstrated decrements in imitative responding but rapidly recovered former levels of performance upon brief refresher retraining. The results suggested that, for clinical purposes, the "imitations" and "generalized imitations" of retarded children may be expected to show some characteristics of a single functional response class. However, some parts of the present results as well as other published data indicate such an account does not completely explain all aspects of the phenomenon.