Thesis (M.A. (Social Work)) --University of Limpopo, 2015 / Please refer to the document / University of Limpopo

近年來臺灣生育率快速下降，我國育齡婦女總生育率長期低於2.1之人口替換水準，政府為追求生育率之提升，祭出許多政策誘因。本研究係針對臺北市生育政策中「公辦民營托嬰中心」為焦點，欲探討雙薪生育家庭在尋找托育方式時所重視及關切考量之因素，以及探究臺北市公辦民營托嬰中心對於臺北市民在托育服務與育兒照顧方面的實質幫助。本研究透過質性研究之深度訪談法進行，經由訪談送托家長及中心主任藉以探究臺北市公辦民營托嬰中心此一政策的評價。 本研究結果發現，臺北市公辦民營托嬰中心受到育兒家庭歡迎之因素有(一)學費低廉，減少雙薪父母的經濟負擔；(二)環境新穎，硬體設備及教具資源豐富且多元；(三)師資專業，能夠依據孩子年齡給予適合的刺激互動與發展訓練；(四)緩和育兒家庭照顧孩子的壓力，給予暫時的喘息空間。對於育兒家庭希望改善之處有(一)師生比例較高；(二)孩子間容易發生交互感染的問題；(三)專業人員離職，易造成嬰幼兒重新適應主要照顧者之問題。對於公辦民營托嬰中心政策之建議則有(一)延長托育時間；(二)廣設平價托嬰中心。 針對研究結果，提出研究建議為(一)比照臺北市國小及幼兒園「課後照顧」方式，設立臨時托育服務；(二)加強居家保母與私立托嬰中心管理之責，建立積極監督機制；(三)設立保母及私立托嬰中心評比機制，給予績優者在硬軟體設備之補助，打造臺北市友善托育環境；(四)定期表揚績優居家保母與托嬰機構，並給予托育獎助費用。 / The fertility rate declines rapidly in recent years as the total fertility rate of childbearing age women has been below the population replacement level of 2.1 for a long time in Taiwan. The government promotes many incentive policies to raise fertility rate. Therefore, the study explores the factors that dual-earner households care and consider and the concrete assistances that the public babysitting center policy delivers to the residents in Taipei City for babysitting service and nurture caring. This study applies the deep interview method of qualitative research with the interviews with the parents who demand babysitting service and representatives of babysitting centers to evaluate the policy. The research reveals that the factors the public babysitting center policy is welcomed among nurturing families are derived from the following: 1. the financial burden of the dual-earner households is lightened by inexpensive tuition fee. 2. The facility is new with plenty and various of hardware equipment and teaching aids. 3. Professional teachers give children adequate stimulation of interaction and training of development according to their ages. 4. The policy alleviates the pressure of parenting, having the families relaxed temporarily. Regarding the issues to be improved, parenting families ask for the following: 1. slightly high student-teacher ratio. 2. Cross-infection problem among children. 3. The problem of readapting for children and infants due to the resignation of the professionals. The suggestions from the participants with respect to the public babysitting policy are as follows: 1. extending the time of babysitting. 2. Budget babysitting centers should be widely established. The study concludes with the following advices: 1. Interim babysitting service is to be set up in line with the after-school care for elementary school and kindergarten students in Taipei City. 2. Active supervision system is to be established to enhance the managerial duties of the home babysitters and private babysitting centers. 3. Assessment system is to be created to home babysitters and private babysitting centers while excellent units are encouraged with hardware equipment subsidies to build a babysitting-friendly environment. 4. Excellent home babysitters and babysitting centers are to be praised and rewarded with babysitting compliment regularly.

Ten experimental and 10 control subjects in elementary special education were exposed to a semester of contingency management procedures for up to 6 1/2 hours per day. The experimental group was taught by teachers who were exceptionally well trained and qualified behavior analysts, while the control group was instructed by teachers with varying degrees of expertise in behavioral techniques. Both groups were given the Bender Gestalt as a pretest and posttest to determine the effect of such treatment on the diagnostic indicators of "acting out" tendencies. Furthermore, the rate of actual "acting out" was measured for all subjects by counting the number of verbal corrections resulting in placement in time out and/ or warning of forthcoming time out during 20 class days of baseline and the last 20 days of treatment.

D.Ed. / The underlying dynamics of Cases A and B have been integrated into a comprehensive description in this chapter. The cross case analysis allowed the researcher to determine the similarities and differences in these two cases. These research findings were then verified against a detailed literature control. The research, as verified by current literature, shows that women who were sexually abused as children all suffer from an Identity Problem. Most literature on the treatment of sexual abuse victims stresses the need to address the women's low selfesteem. Yet, the treatment is geared at her present low self-esteem believed to be a result of the abuse. The research findings agree that sexually abused women have low self-esteem, although their Identity Problem is not a result of the abuse, but an intensification of an already present low self-esteem and Identity Problem. The research findings indicate that their Identity Problems started before the abuse, as early as in the womb. The present Identity Problem renders the young girl more vulnerable to the abuse. The treatment of women who were sexually abused as children should be aimed at reconstructing their Identity's and specifically at treating the root cause of the problem, which is not the abuse itself. Women who were sexually abused as children are prone to feelings of worthlessness and responsibility. Powered by their Identity Problem, a Spiritual Walking Zombie Syndrome develops. Sexually abused women have an overwhelming sense of being responsible for others. And if they cannot keep others happy, which is impossible, they feel like failures and think they are worthless. The feeling of being responsible starts before the sexual violation and the abuse only intensifies these feelings. The research finds that sexual abuse can be a physical, subconscious threat to a person. Subconscious reactions to life threatening incidents differ from individual to individual. If one has accepted death one tends to act dead-like. On the other hand, if one expects death one lives in fear of dying and life is full of disasters. The research also finds that as a result of pre-natal and early childhood experiences, sexually abused women tend to act immaturely when compared to their chronological age. Their immaturity is evident in their dress, their constant self-rejection and by their dysfunctional relationships. From the research findings it is clear that each individual plays out her own life script. This life script determines how she reacts to herself and her environment. Women who were sexually abused as children have a similar life script, which in turn makes them more prone to abuse. Sexually abused women deny themselves the right to be themselves. Their perceived shameful existence, of relegating themselves, starts prior to the abuse. Treatment should therefore address these destructive life scripts and not treat the presenting symptoms. Chapter 7 proposes recommendations for the treatment and prevention of sexual abuse.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil

Twenty emotionally disturbed children between the ages of six and twelve from three agencies providing special treatment for behavioral or emotional problems were the subjects for this study. The subjects were divided into two major diagnostic categories, withdrawn and acing out, and then matched in pairs by age and diagnosis. One half of each pair was randomly assigned to the experimental condition and the remaining halves were assigned to the control condition. Both the experimental and control groups contained five withdrawn and five acting out subjects. Four experimenters were used, and each experimenter worked with two or four experimental children and their matched control subjects. The Purdue Perceptual-Motor Survey was administered to all the subjects prior to the experiment and behavior rating of maladaptive behaviors was obtained on each child from three adults who worked closely with the child. Using the methods outlined by Kephart and Radler in “Success Through Play”, the experimental subjects received perceptual-motor training for one-half hour three times a week for nine weeks. The control subjects received individual adult attention for the same amount of time as the training in the form of physical or quiet activities and games. At the end of the nine weeks the subjects were tested with the Purdue Perceptual-Motor Survey again and new behavior ratings also were obtained. The behavior scale was analyzed as a total score and then two subscores were obtained for anti-social and asocial behaviors. Analysis revealed that: 1) The experimental subjects’ perceptual-motor scores increased the most, especially among the withdrawn subjects; 2) The training had little effect on the maladaptive behaviors of the acting out subjects. The experimental acting out subjects improved behaviorally, but not significantly more than the control acting out subjects; 3) The training had a significant effect on the maladaptive behaviors of withdrawn children. The total behavior scores and the asocial behavior scores of the experimental withdrawn children improved; their anti-social scores changed very little. The subjects came from three agencies with different treatment philosophies. One agency was a public school with special classrooms for emotionally disturbed children which exclusively used behavior modification techniques. Another agency was a residential treatment center which was designed for a milieu therapy, where the children are removed from the home. The third agency was a semi-residential treatment center that used a combination of milieu therapy and behavior modification techniques, where the children return home for weekends. There were equal numbers of acting out, withdrawn, experimental and control subjects from any single agency. An analysis of the amount of behavioral improvement within each agency was performed which revealed that there was significantly more improvement among the subjects from the semi-residential treatment agency. It was concluded from this study that; perceptual-motor training increases the perceptual-motor abilities of emotionally disturbed children, especially those diagnosed as withdrawn, childhood schizophrenic and autistic; perceptual-motor training aids in reducing maladaptive behaviors in disturbed children diagnosed as withdrawn, childhood schizophrenic and autistic; perceptual-motor training may most effectively be used for emotionally disturbed children in conjunction with other forms of treatment.

The presence of poverty, unemployment and children been infected or affected by HIV/Aids contributed to a high level of children in need of care and protection (Patel, 2005:165) and forced communities to came up with a ways of addressing this increasing need of alternative care. Cluster foster care schemes were one of the initiatives that were started spontaneously by community members to address need for more alternative care options (Colby-Newton, 2006:18). This form of alternative care was also included with the proclamation of the Children’s Act, 38 of 2005 and the Children’s Amendment Act, Act 41 of 2007 (Matthias, 2010:172-176). Although cluster foster care schemes are acknowledge and practice as a form of alternative care for children in need of care and protection the operationalising thereof remain a grey area. In an unpublished study by Taback and Associates, it was suggested that further research should be conducted regarding elements that need to be included in the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes (Taback and Associates, 2010:4). The above form the motivation for this study and also provide the basis for the formulation of the research question namely: “What are the operational elements necessary for the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes?” Following from the research problem and research question, the goal for this research was to explore and describe the present functioning of cluster foster care schemes in order to identify operational elements to be documented in a guideline for service providers and social workers. The researcher made use of qualitative research approach to explore and describe the participants’ perception on the research problem. This research endeavour firstly falls in the ambit of the phenomenology research design, which aimed to describe the conscious experience of the everyday life of the participants, which were in this study the managers of cluster foster care schemes as well as foster parents that provide foster care as part of a cluster foster care scheme. In addition to this the researcher also opted to include the exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design, which guided the exploration, description and contextualising of the views of the participants on elements needed to operationalise cluster foster care schemes. In order to achieve the above the researcher the researcher decided to make use of an intervention research model by Rothman and Thomas (1994:3-51), namely the “Intervention Develop and Design” framework (IDD framework). In this study the researcher only used phases one to phase four and certain steps of the IDD framework to develop the operational guidelines for the operationalising of cluster foster care schemes. In concluding the report of the study, the researcher provided summaries of and conclusions related to the background rational; research questions; goals and task objective of the study; the research methodology implemented; the empirical findings and literature consulted; and the developed operational guidelines. He concluded the document with recommendation related to the research process and methodology employed; research findings; and recommendation for further research on the research topic. / Social Work / D. Soc.Sc. (Social Work)

The extent to which customers are satified with the care they receive from the health professionals has been an important area of interest for researchers, managers and health care workers. The physiotherapy cerebral palsy clinic at Mulago Hospital in Kampala Uganda provides physiotherapy services for parents/caregivers of children with cerebral palsy. The parents/caregivers visit the clinic seeking physiotherapy services that will address their problems and those of the child. The purpose of this study was to explore the satisfaction that the parents/caregivers of children with cerebral palsy get from utilising the physiotherapy services at the clinic and to identify the barriers/problems that they encounter that might affect their attendance.

Nationally there has been an increase in the number of children requiring care and protection who have been placed in foster care in South Africa. This increase has also been evident at the Child and Family Welfare Society of Pietermaritzburg. Many of the children needing care and protection are placed in foster care with their grandparents. The aim of this study was therefore to explore the experiences and support networks of grandparents and their adolescent foster grandchildren. The study was guided by the ecological framework. This was a qualitative study with the purpose being descriptive. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 adolescent foster children and one focus group discussion was conducted with 8 grandmothers. Although the plan was to include both grandparents in the study, it became evident at the sampling stage that many of the children were placed with their grandmothers, even if the grandfather was present. A significant finding of the study was that it was mainly grandmothers, rather than both grandparents, who had the responsibility for caring and nurturing the children in their care. Although five of the adolescents lived with both their grandmothers and their grandfathers; grandfathers were not seen as playing a significant role in their lives. Grandmothers were the decision-makers, responsible for discipline and a source of support for the adolescents. Grandmothers experienced financial and housing difficulties. Adolescents expressed feelings of loneliness and loss in relation to their parents. Social workers have focused mainly on assisting grandmothers to access the foster care grant and grandmothers and adolescents have not received grief and bereavement counseling and therapeutic services. Recommendations include the need for social workers to respond to the therapeutic needs of adolescents and the employment of social service professionals. Recommendations at a policy level include the improvement of the partnership between the Department of Social Development and NGOs. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The extent to which customers are satified with the care they receive from the health professionals has been an important area of interest for researchers, managers and health care workers. The physiotherapy cerebral palsy clinic at Mulago Hospital in Kampala Uganda provides physiotherapy services for parents/caregivers of children with cerebral palsy. The parents/caregivers visit the clinic seeking physiotherapy services that will address their problems and those of the child. The purpose of this study was to explore the satisfaction that the parents/caregivers of children with cerebral palsy get from utilising the physiotherapy services at the clinic and to identify the barriers/problems that they encounter that might affect their attendance.