<p> Parental Stress With Homeschooling K-6th Grade Children in a South Florida District. Jennifer A. Myers, 2015: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education. ERIC Descriptors: Homeschooling, Stress, Stress Management, Coping This applied dissertation study was designed to inform and advance knowledge by using a quantitative approach to determine if perceived parental stress in homeschooling parents varies as a function of age, income, education, and ethnicity. Previous research in the field of homeschooling has primarily been qualitative in nature, thus, leaving a gap in the research. </p><p> Home schooling parents of K-6 grade children in South Florida districts were specified as the sample for the study. A perceived Stress Survey and demographic questionnaire were administered to 102 participants. Parental participants were male and female, all ethnicity, and ages 18 and older, who were homeschooling K-6th grade children in South Florida. Inferential statistics were used to draw conclusions from the sample tested. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.0 was used to code and tabulate scores collected from the survey and provide summarized values where applicable. Logistic regression analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to evaluate the two Research Questions and hypotheses. Analysis of the primary data indicated that age, income, level of education, ethnicity and number of children homeschooled had no significant effect on perceived stress. Implication from findings suggests that behavioral characteristics of the child may mediate the relationship between stress and parental characteristics. The study is a valuable addition to the homeschooling research community as it aligns with and extends findings from previous research. </p>

<p> While the role of computers in the 21^st century has enabled organizations to become more efficient and effective, technology has also created problems for many of its users. The research literature on the use of workplace email indicated that email is causing several problems, including an interruption of workflow/productivity, email overload, stress, and work-life imbalance. The mobile market in 2015 was exploding and showed a significant growth trend and is expected to continue. In addition, working women are an increasing population in the workforce, and even more women are working virtually. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how an overload of workplace email was perceived by virtual working women to impact their stress levels and ability to maintain a reasonable work-life balance, in order for managers to better support and manage employee workloads. The theoretical framework for this study included Gilbert&rsquo;s (2007) Behavior Engineering model (BEM) and Ashforth, Kreiner, and Fugate&rsquo;s (2000) Boundary Theory. The basic qualitative method was utilized, in addition to nonprobability and purposeful, or convenience sampling. A total of 14 participants participated in the study and met the criteria to include (a) female, (b) age 25&ndash;65, (c) remote or virtual worker, (d) full-time employee, (e) work for a U.S. based organization, and experiencing or experienced overload from email. The research design included a combination of structured and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that virtual working women&rsquo;s job performance was impacted and they experienced: (a) increased and decreased stress from workplace email; however, it was dependent upon the volume, tone and frequency of the emails (b) increased and decreased productivity from workplace email and (c) impacts on work-life balance, given the use of workplace email. Discovering virtual working women&rsquo;s self-perceptions, as it relates to workplace email, stress, and work-life balance, provided valuable insights for managers to develop strategies and performance improvement interventions for dealing with email overload. Recommendations for future research to expand the study include: (a) the &ldquo;millennial&rdquo; population or the non-telecommuter (b) a quantitative study, (c) text overload, (d) gender differences, and (e) mental and physical health effects.</p>

The study investigated the educational attitudes, abstract and concrete, and the perceptions of the quality of academic life of students from Taiwan studying in the United States. The Educational Belief Questionnaire (EBQ) and Perceived Quality of Academic Life (PQAL) were administered to 161 Taiwan students attending an American university. Three null hypotheses were tested in light of the obtained data. Results indicated no significant differences in their perceptions of the academic quality of life irrespective of their background or personal characteristics. With regard to the major area of the study, the students did, however, differ in their attitudes toward education. In general, all students seemed to have positive attitudes toward education. The educational level of subjects emerged as the significant predictor of academic achievement (GPA) of Taiwanese students. The implications of these findings for foreign students attending American universities were discussed.

<p> The behavioral investigation presented here provides initial behavioral insight into novice interactions occurring within a makerspace. Specifically, this dissertation represents an attempt to identify interactions that support nascent maker and computer science identity and skill behaviors. The data and discussions are provided in order to illuminate relations among physicality, identity, and novice behaviors within a makerspace. The discussion builds primarily on the conceptual bases of behaviorism, relational frame theory, behavioral phenomenology, and radical embodied cognition. </p><p> Through the use of a behavioral framework, the findings presented here shed new light on constructivist approaches to learning. <i>Social context matters.</i> The social environment provides the necessary structure for learning to happen at a makerspace. Tools alone cannot provide a makerspace or make learning happen. <i>But, tools are important.</i> Tools provide a hook, a purpose, a context for people to gather and construct knowledge and artifacts. <i>Interactional histories matter.</i> Students&rsquo; lives outside of the makerspace influence what happens in the makerspace. Students&rsquo; susceptibility to reinforcement from maker-initiatives will be determined by how they relate to makerspaces, makers, and CS. If makerspace components are to be used effectively to broaden CS participation, it will be necessary to purposefully design learning trajectories for identity behaviors as well as conceptual skills. </p><p> The novelty of this study and its findings is the identification, disaggregation, and articulation of the novice maker experience using a behavioral lens. The behavioral approach applied here can pragmatically inform instructional design and investigations of how <i>making</i> can support learning trajectories. Ultimately, this dissertation highlights pathways for future behavioral research and better behaviorally informed design of makerspace-inspired instruction that grows computer science identities and skills.</p>

<p> This study explored middle-class parents&rsquo; descriptions of their experience of the emotional &ldquo;essence&rdquo; of the conflicts that arose between themselves and their children as parents facilitated the homework process. This study on homework experiences sought to gain a deeper understanding and meaning experienced firsthand from the middle-class parents&rsquo; point of view. The use of phenomenological methods allowed for the deep and thick description necessary to uncover the essence of the middle-class parental perspectives on the parent-child emotional experience embedded in the homework process. The identified themes included <i>creation of a homework routine, emotions of resistance and stress,</i> and <i>parental role construction. </i> The emergent constituents were: <i>paradox of parental role construction, tiers of stress,</i> and <i>desire for family harmony during homework time.</i> The study revealed the following ramifications resulting from the relationships between emergent themes and constituents: the intersections between <i>paradox of parental role construction</i> and <i>desire for family harmony, desire for family harmony</i> and <i>creation of a homework routine, creation of a homework routine </i> and <i>paradox of parental role construction</i> and, finally, <i>desire for family harmony</i> and <i>tiers of stress. </i> These intersections manifested in the following: <i>stress, resistance, confusion,</i> and <i>family tension,</i> respectively. The significance of this study rests in its extension of current research on the experience of homework facilitation among working-class families with elementary-aged children by focusing on learning at home in the middle-class. It identified stress during this period as tiered, that middle-class parents would like training on their role during homework, and that middle-class parents had a cathartic stress-relieving experience when they were given an opportunity to share their &ldquo;homework&rdquo; experiences.</p>

<p> Using data from the Minnesota Student Survey of over 120,000 eighth, ninth, and eleventh grade students across the state, this study examined the characteristics of students who identified themselves as engaging in bullying behavior (bully only), being the target of bullying (victim only), or both engaging in and being the target of bullying (bully-victims). Scores for these three bully/victim groups were compared to the general student population on fourteen characteristics: perception of safety, perceived fairness, perception of care, family communication, family inclusiveness, internalizing behavior, externalizing behavior, inattentiveness, coping skills, positive self-evaluation, positive feelings toward others, parent abuse, sexual abuse, and family substance abuse. All categories of bullies and victims reported adverse scores on these measures, scoring on average about one-half standard deviation below the mean of all Minnesota students. Bullies and victims were similar on eight of the fourteen measures. Bully-victims consistently reported lower scores compared to the bully only and victim only groups. Gender differences were found with female students reporting more hardship on half of the investigated characteristics; however, gender did not interact with bully/victim status. These findings have important implications for understanding the psychological, behavioral, and physical space which both bullies and victims occupy.</p>

The present study examined the effectiveness of child development and child management training as an approach toward primary and secondary prevention of child abuse and neglect. Volunteer participants with a newborn child participated in 1 - 1 1/2 hour training sessions twice weekly in the privacy of their own home. Child development training consisted of 2 weeks of training in language, motor, self-help skill, and social skill development. Child management sessions (6 weeks) included training in reinforcement, shaping, punishment, rule development, writing behavioral contracts, mistakes of reinforcement, observing, counting, and recording behavior, communication skills, and coping skills. Following a 5 day baseline phase of in-home observation and pretesting, Immediate Contact Group participants began training in their infant's 3rd week of life. Delayed Contact Group participants began training in their infant's 12th week of life following a baseline phase which corresponded to the Immediate Contact Group's baseline, treatment, and post-treatment phases. Multiple outcome measures, matched across time for the two groups, consisted of the Adult/Adolescent Parenting Inventory (an at-risk inventory), a child development inventory, the Comprehensive Index of Marital Satisfaction, generalization observation, parent-infant observation, and role play assessment. Results reveal differential effectiveness dependent upon the outcome measure analyzed. Analysis of role play data strongly suggests that low-risk parents and parents who may be at-risk for child abuse and neglect can learn appropriate child management techniques in a relatively short period of time. Generalization of treatment effects was also demonstrated by improved responses to critical incidents not specifically targeted during training. Results also suggest that parents' knowledge of child / development was significantly improved as a function of brief, but in-depth training. Observation, at-risk, and marital satisfaction data revealed interesting, but, generally, non-significant results. Problems in the use of multiple outcome measures, recommendations for follow-up analysis, and suggestions for future research in primary and secondary prevention of child abuse and neglect are discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-10, Section: A, page: 4359. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

This paper examines the contrasting predictions of the dual-coding and depth-of-processing theories and proposes a resolution of their differences in a more generic two factor model of stimulus trace elaboration. First, the author conducts an analysis of the literature relevant to the two approaches, reviewing three major studies and finding their results inconclusive. Second, he conducts a theoretical analysis of the two positions, contrasting the memory structures and processes they propose and finding few significant differences. Third, he describes a generic two factor stimulus trace elaboration model to more adequately address the variables currently described and explained by the dual and depth theories. The author reviews five additional studies in support of the two factor model. / The characteristics of the two factor model of stimulus trace elaboration are then explored in a 2 x 4 factorial study, involving the free recall and recognition of picture and word stimulus items under four learning strategies: Control, within-item processing, between-item processing, and a mixture of within-item and between-item processing. Separate analyses of variance were performed on the recognition and recall tests. / The results of the study are as follows. First, pictures and words failed to elicit different retention scores, under either the recognition or recall conditions. This finding is inconsistent with both the dual-coding and depth-of-processing positions, but entirely consistent with stimulus trace elaboration theory. Second, there were no differences in the performance of the within-item processing, between-item processing, and mixture groups on the recognition test, although all three surpassed the control group. This finding is entirely consistent with the one factor model of stimulus trace elaboration. Third, there were no differences between the mixture and between-item processing groups, although these groups surpassed both the within-item processing and control conditions, which again were not significantly different from one another. This finding is partially consistent with the two factor model of stimulus trace elaboration. This research provides strong support for the stimulus trace elaboration theory, but only weak support for a two factor variant of that theory. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0400. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The effects of mnemonic verbalizations and formally stated rules on problem solving were investigated in the present study. Sixty eleventh-grade students each performed a computer problem-solving task (the game of NIM) in one of three treatment conditions, each comprising 20 subjects: (1) mnemonic verbalizations in which subjects were brought to verbalize mnemonic rules; (2) formal verbalizations in which subjects verbalized formal statements of rules; and (3) coached no-verbalizations condition in which subjects were orally coached in the use of the rules in detail but had no access to them for verbalization. Results indicated that (a) mnemonic verbalizations enhanced problem-solving better than a coached no-verbalizations strategy; (b) formal statements of rules were potentially more useful than a coached no-verbalizations strategy; (c) it took longer to solve problems with verbalizations than without them. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0398. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

This study established and then evaluated a microcomputer assisted program designed to change the contraceptive knowledge, attitudes and behavior of college students. Sixty-three volunteer subjects were evaluated for equivalency of background and contraceptive knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Age and university classification were found to be significantly different between the two experimental levels, a microcomputer used alone, and a microcomputer used in conjunction with a group interaction, and the baseline against which both of the treatments were evaluated, the reportedly effective group interactive program, the Male Involvement Project. The microcomputer when used alone significantly changed contraceptive knowledge but had no significant effect on either contraceptive attitudes or contraceptive behavior one month after treatment. The microcomputer used in conjuction with a group interaction significantly changed the contraceptive knowledge and all attitudes targeted; however, contraceptive behavior was not significantly different one month after treatment. When these two experimental levels were compared to the Male Involvement Project baseline an evaluation for differences between the groups proved insignificant. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-02, Section: A, page: 0399. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.