Thesis (Ph.D.)--Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1998. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-08, Section: A, page: 2874. Chair: Cynthia Radnitz.

Since the earliest days of the Christian Church, ordained ministers and priests have accompanied soldiers into battle. The religious presence in the war machine has been the subject of many debates, particularly those involving the conflict of ethics presented by the representation of a gospel of peace and love participating in a profession of violence and killing. New Zealand is a secular country with a relatively well-developed system of secular pastoral care services. However the New Zealand Defence Force continues to request the churches' involvement in the military and those churches which respond continue to participate in work which appears contrary to their teaching. This study examines the relationship of church and military. It investigates the place of the church in the New Zealand Defence Force through an examination of the appropriate literature and other relevant information, and an empirical survey of the work and views of current, and some retired, chaplains. The global military scenario has changed in recent years with the development of war technology. The New Zealand military focus is now largely directed towards policing New Zealand's economic zone and the preservation of independence of smaller neighbouring island states, while its active service role is one of participation in international peace-enforcement and peacekeeping. This thesis considers these changes and looks at the possible effects they may have on the future of military chaplaincy within the secular, multicultural context of the New Zealand state. The study concludes with a rationale for the presence of the Christian Church in the New Zealand Defense Force and presents issues which the current chaplaincy-providing churches need to consider if they wish to continue to provide effective chaplaincy for the military.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology / Stephen L. Benton; Adrienne Leslie-Toogood / There is growing concern over the academic performance of student athletes in today’s institutions of higher education. Across all media, the public is constantly reminded that the success rate of student athletes is not what it should be. One hypothesis for this poor performance is that athletes are not as well prepared to go to college as their non-athletic counterparts. This could be attributed to low high school academic standards, or high school teachers allowing athletes to underperform due to their status as an athlete, or a lack of time for studying due to sport participation. The NCAA mandates certain academic standards for entrance into college, yet athletes still struggle to maintain passing grades, with some failing to graduate. Most college students are admitted to college based on their potential to benefit from an institution’s programs and educational opportunities. In many institutions, especially at the Division I level, student athletes are admitted for their potential to provide benefits for the institutions. This study compared the college graduating GPA of athletes and nonathletes relative to ACT score to determine if athletes were underperforming in college. Additionally the effect of gender, ethnicity and type of sport was examined. This study used hierarchical regression equations to examine these effects. When looking at athletes only, type of sport, gender, and ethnicity had very little influence on graduating GPA. When examining all students, ACT test scores were significantly related to college graduating GPA.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / John A. Hortin / This study focused on migrant parent involvement in the educational experience of their children. Specifically, the study investigated parent involvement in the domains of (1) Community Setting, (2) School Setting, (3) and Home Setting, and its relationship to student achievement in reading and mathematics assessments. Research has clearly indicated that parent involvement in the education processes of children is a critical facet to their academic success. Nevertheless, research has also indicated that parent involvement programming in educational institutions has been structured to address a stable, middle class, language and culturally homogeneous patron. Given the dynamics that impact migrant families, districts that are heavily impacted by migrant families must ameliorate parent involvement programming to address the unique needs of migrant families and their children. The participants in the study comprised 51 migrant families. The response rate for participation in the study consisted of 25% of the total migrant population within the school district. Data were gathered through a survey and an interview. Four research hypotheses were identified and tested. The procedure employed to test the strength of the relationship between the individual domains and the scores was the Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation. Additionally, a two-tailed test was used as the procedure for all hypotheses tested. The results indicated that there was not a significant relationship between the domains and student achievement scores. Nevertheless, there was variability among the students' achievement scores despite the level of involvement demonstrated by the parents. Therefore, based on the range of scores, student success was not predicated on the level of engagement that parents demonstrated on the survey. Other factors accounted for the academic success or failure of the student. These factors may have included constraints such as teacher training and dispositions, the level of second language development that the child possessed, and the resiliency of the student. Nevertheless, for students within the same family, where one student scored extremely high and the other child scored extremely low, parent involvement could have been the deciding variable that could have assisted the low scoring child succeed academically, if the parent training had taken into consideration the factors that impact migrant families.

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The current study sought to explore play therapists' barriers to engaging parents in their clinical work as well as understand the relationship between play therapist characteristics and their attitudes toward parents. Using a demographic questionnaire, Therapist Barriers to Engaging Parents (TBEP), and the Counseling Self- Estimate Inventory (COSE), 136 members of the Association for Play Therapy were surveyed to explore predictors to engaging with parents. Overall, play therapists reported low scores on barriers to engaging parents indicating play therapists are likely to report positive attitudes toward working with parents. Through two multiple regression analyses measuring the predictive value of self-efficacy subscales including Dealing with Difficult Clients and Counseling Process, play therapist identification as a parent, years of experience, and hours of training on parent engagement, both models demonstrated statistically significant findings with large effect sizes. This study found that play therapist self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of play therapists' attitudes toward parents accounting for approximately 80% of the variance in the models. Play therapists' identification as a parent as well as years of practice also predicted their barriers to engaging parents. Hours of training in parent engagement had no relationship to TBEP scores. Implications for practice include a need to provide play therapists with training experiences that involve working with parents directly rather than traditional training models, as well as attend to general counseling self-efficacy of play therapists. Implications for future research as well as limitations are discussed.

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