Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Child maltreatment—a serious public health problem—is a global phenomenon. Parenting programs are considered effective approaches to preventing child maltreatment; however, comprehensive understanding is still lacking of the effectiveness of such programs in all areas of outcomes and the way parenting programs work. This thesis consists of two parts: a quantitative synthesis of high-level evidence about program effects and a qualitative integration of program process. The thesis employs two research methods: meta-analytic review and systematic review. I searched 11 electronic databases to identify studies published between 2000 and 2012. Forty-two studies meeting the eligibility criteria were included in the systematic review, and 21 of these were included in the meta-analysis. The total random effect size was 0.338. The research found that parenting programs successfully reduced substantiated child maltreatment reports. The programs also reduced risk factors and enhanced protective factors associated with child maltreatment. However, program effects began to decrease in the first year after program completion. Parenting programs function by remediating parental cognition, thus changing parenting behaviors and enhancing parent-child relationships. The successful program components include teaching child-rearing knowledge, improving parenting skills and changing parents’ inappropriate attitudes towards children. Parenting programs are demonstrated to be effective public health approaches to avoiding child maltreatment. Parenting programs could produce positive effects in both low- and middle-income countries, as well as high-income countries. The study recommends a longer-term intervention beginning prenatally or at an early age of the children and involving more male caregivers. The evidence-based service of parenting programs could be widely adopted in future practices. The research also indicates that parenting programs could be applicable within the Chinese context, where such programs have not been widely used to date. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

Background: Adult obesity is a major public health issue for both developed and developing countries. Apart from diet and physical activity, evidence suggests that child abuse may also be a possible risk factor associated with the adult obesity. Methods: The objectives in this review are to systematically identify from 2 electronic databases (PubMed and Google Scholar) and investigate the association between child abuse and adult obesity. The impact of using different self-reported questionnaire to evaluate the abuse experience in childhood are assessed and discussed. Quality and limitations of this review were also emphasized. This systematic review includes articles from various groups of population and explores the different types of abuse. Results: Studies consistently show that child abuse is more likely to be a risk factor of adult obesity after adjustment for age, sex, race, psychological risk behavior, health risk behavior (exercise), and social economic status. During the past decades the association between child abuse and adult obesity has been well explored. Consistent with the inclusive papers, some identified potential and common confounding factors sex, race, age, social economic status, health behavior (exercise), psychosocial risk factors, and mental health is summarized for further study. Discussion: Limitations include reporting and information bias, where child abuse can be assessed self-administered questionnaire, face-to-face interview or child services records. Publication bias is another concern that the null findings are less likely to be publish. Although, the measurement suffers several bias, it did help evaluate the abuse situation in childhood and generalize the association between into a standardize form. Due to the prevalence of child abuse and economic burden related to obesity in China, studies in the developing or recently transitioned setting are needed to clarify the relevance of evidence from Western studies to policy making and public health interventions in China. According to recent studies, polices should consider screening of child abuse to better identify the target population and provide effective interventions that help people who are at high risk of obesity due to the child abuse. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a child's rights of speech are taken into account in child welfare investigations. A child's speech or words are not always taken seriously or as important as it should be in the child’s context. This problem has been a major topic of concern both at the national and the international level. Children want their speech of rights to be respected. It is their fundamental right that every human must guarantee to protect these rights to make a better world for future generations. Therefore in order to deeply examine the research topic, the authors used different theoretical approaches like power theory, communication theory and freedom of action. Furthermore the authors gathered more information using semi structure interviews with social workers who work with child welfare investigations. From the interview discussions, the researchers looked for recurrent themes and came with some findings that children are able to express their opinions in child welfare investigations. Children’s visibility and participation in child welfare investigations have improved since BBIC (the child’s needs at the center) has been involved in child welfare investigations. Children´s words or opinions were also ignored. More so, the actual level of how a child´s contribution directly influenced the decision making process was very unclear. The study further shows that social workers are using various communication methods and techniques to adress children's wishes and opinions to provide the best acceptable services. A well-established feedback session is made available in order to gather the children’s opinions and improve on the services.

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Supersymmetric string theories are the best candidates we have for a unification of all the fundamental interactions known in physics. These theories still need to be confronted with experiment. However, direct evidence for string effects only becomes important at high energies. This means that, at present, one can only hope to constrain these theories through their low energy limits. Of these, the most promising are supergravities where the fields and their interactions are severely constrained by the superstring theory. In this thesis we will consider some of the additional constraints imposed by cosmology on these models. In the first part our attention will be focused on the problem of stabilising the dilaton field. The vacuum expectation value (vev) of the dilaton is related to both gauge and gravitational coupling constants. This means that for the theory to be realistic the dilaton needs to acquire a finite vev. The most popular way of doing this is through the condensation of gauginos. In this thesis we will propose a particular model where the dilaton is stabilised at reasonable values with a vanishing cosmological constant. We will also show a way of dynamically evolving the dilaton to this stable point in a cosmological setting. In a second part we will address the "moduli problem". Moduli fields arise generically in string-inspired theories, their vev being related to the compactification radius. The expected mass and coupling of these fields would make them incompatible with the standard nucleosynthesis scenario. Thermal inflation has been proposed as a mechanism that would permit one to solve this problem. In this thesis we will examine in detail how this mechanism can be implemented in a supergravity model and we will also consider the possibility of defect production in this scenario.

No description available.

Throughout the twentieth century there has been academic debate about the relationship between early life experience and adult health. This thesis examines the origins of that debate, its manifestation in different scientific fields of inquiry, and its recent re-emergence in epidemiological research. It shows how the changing nature of the debate was inextricably related to changes in the notion of adult health, the development of methods of empirical investigation, and the consequent availability of scientific evidence. The thesis therefore spans a number of disciplines and draws on the relevant knowledge from each. During the first forty years of this century the debate was policy-led. Adult health was assumed to depend on child health but empirical investigations of the link were limited. Research concentrated on early life factors, such as the behaviour of the mother, which were thought to influence morbidity and mortality in infancy and childhood. The focus of the academic debate was whether these factors were environmental or genetic in origin. This debate had important policy implications. Public acceptance of the significance of the early environment provided the rationale for the emerging infant and child health services. More recent interest in the influence of early life on adult health sprang from two different hypotheses about the basis of adult health, both of which focus on adult chronic disease. The first hypothesis puts forward the view that adult lifestyle is the main source of risk for chronic disease, and considers early life factors only to the extent that they are associated with the development of healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. The interdisciplinary, American dominated debate associated with this hypothesis is policy-led, and lacks a common conceptual model for understanding the risk processes that may be involved in the lifetime development of health related behaviour. In contrast the second hypothesis gives a causal and dominant role to environmental factors during critical periods of growth in utero and infancy which affect particular body systems, with long term consequences for adult chronic disease. This epidemiological research is science-led and dominated by one British investigator (Professor DJP Barker) and his research team who have developed the concept of 'environmental programming'. The academic debate associated with this hypothesis concerns the interpretation that is given to research findings which show associations between early life and adult chronic disease. Whereas for Barker they are evidence of a biological process occurring at the beginning of life, for others they reflect continuity of social deprivation throughout life. It is the relative influence of the intrauterine, childhood and adult environment which is in dispute. The thesis addresses these questions in respect of cardiovascular and respiratory disease by drawing on data from the Medical Research Council's National Survey of Health and Development, a unique prospective study of the health and development of over 5000 men and women followed up since their birth in March 1946. Evidence is presented which suggests that the effect of early life factors on adult blood pressure, lung function and overall health status is irrespective of later socioeconomic experiences, thus providing support for the environmental programming model. A second model, based on Rutter's concept of 'chains of risk' is put forward to explain the lifetime development of health related behaviour, and is used to account for the links between adult physical activity and early social, educational and individual characteristics which are found in data from the National Survey. In the recent debate there has been little engagement with the policy process, although Barker's new theories have attracted considerable public attention. The thesis draws on its historical reviews of epidemiological research and child health services to consider what effects the evidence presented may have on health and social policies for children in the 1990s.

Lone-parent families were in the news in 1993 as never before. The Child Support Agency, and the question of lone-parent families' entitlement to state support were the feature of many news reports. This study examines this media coverage and, using concepts from agenda-setting and issue definition literature, examines the roles that political actors have played in the construction of these media reports. A content analysis of a complete sample of 77ie Times and 7he Sunday Times comprises the primary analytical method, with a policy process framework organising the analysis. It has been found that government ministers played the greatest part in setting the media agendas for these and other issues. It seems that other actors can be successful in shaping coverage, however, if they make use of certain tactics, particularly if they provide 'ready-packaged' stories to journalists that combine a human interest element (involving 'real' people) with a political slant. By mobilising on a mass level absent fathers were able to provide such stories and were thus able to take control of press coverage of the Child Support Agency. The lone parents' groups Gingerbread and the National Council for One Parent Families, on the other hand, found mobilisation and particularisation more difficult due to the social and economic situation of their client group - nine out of ten lone parents are women, and around eight out of ten claim income support benefits - and for this reason were less successful in shaping either coverage of the Child Support Agency, or of lone-parent families and their right to state support.