<p>Throughout American history, parental involvement has been a ?hot topic? in American education. Parents have great influence on their children?s schooling. Chinese immigrants are one of the largest populations in the United States, which introduces new challenges for American teachers. Along with the increasing numbers of Chinese in the United States, many American teachers have limited knowledge and resources to help them. Using Joyce Epstein?s six types of parental involvement and Grolnick and Slowiaczek?s three dimensions of parental involvement as a theoretical framework, this study investigated 10 Chinese immigrant parents in northwest America. The purpose of this study was to explore how Chinese immigrant parents? heritage, culture, and beliefs affect their understanding of American education. In addition, this study explored the factors that affect Chinese immigrant parents? participation in their children?s cognitive development.

Thesis, PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

<p> The purpose of this qualitative exploratory single case study was to explore how parents and teachers perceive the influence of socioeconomic status on parental involvement in suburban southern Georgia elementary schools. Two research questions were posed to fulfill the purpose of this study: How do parents perceive the influence of socioeconomic status on parental involvement in suburban southern Georgia elementary schools? and How do teachers perceive the influence of socioeconomic status on parental involvement in suburban southern Georgia elementary schools? Epstein&rsquo;s Framework for Parent Involvement and Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler&rsquo;s Model of Parent Involvement served as the theoretical foundations. Purposive sampling was used to select 22 parent and 59 teacher participants. Data collection comprised of semi-structured interviews of parents and teachers, questionnaires, and archival review of school documents to triangulate the data. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. Thematic analysis identified five themes: Defining Parent Involvement, Perception of Socioeconomic Status, Communication Methods, Perception of Involvement, and School Environment. Findings of this study revealed that elementary parents and teachers in South Georgia have differing perceptions of the influence of socioeconomic status on parent involvement. Overall, data revealed that while parent and teacher perceptions varied, they indicated that communication and the school environment were the most pertinent factors to their involvement. The implications for this study implicate that sharing the results of this study with both parents and teachers could possibly clarify expectations of each group and open a dialogue. </p><p>

<p> This study examined the relationship between intentional father involvement and intergenerational transmission of Christian faith (ITCF) among Evangelical Presbyterian families in South Korea. Although God has assigned fathers as the leaders of the family who should assume the primary responsibility for their children&rsquo;s spiritual formation, many Korean evangelical fathers have overlooked their responsibility. In the meantime, the number of Korean youth who identified as Christians has been decreasing. While there are many studies that have examined parental or maternal influence on faith transmission, not enough empirical studies focused on the role of fathers on ITCF. Moreover, there was sparse, if any, literature that dealt with the relationship between intentional father involvement and ITCF among Korean families. </p><p> Based on review the of theoretical, empirical, and theological literature, this study selected and examined the relationships among four major variables: fathers&rsquo; religiosity, fathers&rsquo; attitude on their role as a father, intentional father involvement with their children, and family faith activities. In addition to the major variables, some demographic variables were also analyzed to better understand the sample and to compare with the preceding literature. </p><p> The target population was Korean Evangelical Presbyterian fathers in South Korea, residing with their children from kindergarteners to middle schoolers (approximate ages from 4 to 14). In this study, a total of 388 fathers from 33 Evangelical Korean Presbyterian churches participated by answering via personal mobile devices an online survey questionnaire (Survey Monkey^&reg;) that measured intentional father involvement (Inventory of Father Involvement), fathering attitude (Theistic Sanctification of Parenting Scale), religiosity (Religious Commitment Inventory-10), family faith activities (Faith Activities In The Home Scale), as well as some demographic background data. The collected data were analyzed through the Spearman&rsquo;s Rank Order correlations, Mann-Whitney&rsquo;s <i>U</i> test, and Kruskal-Wallis <i> H</i> test. </p><p> The results of this study showed that Korean Evangelical Presbyterian fathers&rsquo; intentional involvement in childrearing is associated with intergenerational faith transmission as measured by the frequency of family faith activities at home. The significant results of this study can be summarized as follows: (a) Korean Evangelical Presbyterian fathers highly valued their religious faith and their role as a father, and moderately participated in childrearing, yet they did not actively practice family faith activities; (b) Korean Evangelical fathers&rsquo; personal religiosity, attitude on their role as a father, intentional paternal involvement with their children, and family faith activities were significantly correlated; and (c) fathers&rsquo; graduate level of education, their church offices as pastors/evangelists, and their experience of parenting class attendance were correlated with family faith activities. </p><p> Based on the results of this study, several implications were suggested in order to encourage families and church leaders to help fathers more actively participate in the process of faith transmission. Also, some limitations, and future research recommendations based on the limitations were suggested. </p><p>

<p> Findings in the study indicated slight differences in the resilience and academic performance of high school children who had a parent deployed with the military. Although some sample sizes were too small to calculate some statistics, it is evident that there needs to be more research to eliminate the possibility that some significances by chance. Conflict is decreasing, but there are still many military services and missions in the immediate future deserving of the Commands attention to the impact on military high school dependents during the deployment process. The academics findings of this study suggested additional research to be implemented to examine the direction of the impact of deployment on the military dependents resilience, academic performance and parent-child relationship.</p><p>

<p> Obesity is the scourge of a large percentage of American youths today imposing devastating health consequences. Poor family functioning has been associated with being overweight among adolescents. Family-based weight management programs that enhance family functioning while providing nutritional and exercise counseling may be beneficial. Improved family functioning (cohesion, conflict, moral religious emphasis) may be associated with lower familial stress which may improve lifestyle habits and thereby reduce obesity and its risk factors. Shapedown is an eight-week weight management program for overweight children and adolescents designed to help improve nutrition, physical activity habits and family functioning by incorporating cognitive, behavioral, affective, and relationship techniques. Previous research has not investigated whether changes in weight and other risk factors following participation in the program are related to any family function change. The current study assessed perceived family functioning among overweight adolescents and evaluated the Shapedown program to assess the relationship between changes in family functioning scores and in anthropometric measures (BMI and waist-hip ratio). Fifty-six, predominantly Hispanic overweight adolescents, aged 10&ndash;16 years, participated in Shapedown interventions in San Mateo County, California. This study uncovered differences in overweight adolescents&rsquo; perceived family functioning as it relates to parents marital status, age, family size, and race. The Shapedown intervention was associated with reduced BMI and decreased waist-hip-ratio among overweight adolescents, however, this study did not find a correlation between changes in BMI and changes in family functioning nor changes in waist-hip ratio and family functioning.</p><p>

<p> This study explores the role of interracial parents in the development of racial identity in their mixed race children by examining how conversations surrounding race in a mixed race family relate to the ways children in that family racially identify. In addition, the study explores how parents&rsquo; understandings and perceptions of their own racial identity and their child&rsquo;s racial identity affect the way their child feels about race. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on self-identified interracial parents and their mixed race children between the ages of 4 to 9 years old based on themes regarding mixed race identity including family&rsquo;s identity, racial awareness of the child, dual socialization, and sociocultural factors. This study found that parents early experiences growing up, phenotypic expression of parent and child, current political climate, stereotypes and influence of schools had related to the ways in which parents discussed race with their children. More research must be done on mixed race identity, particularly outside of Black/White dichotomies.</p><p>

<p> Parental roles and societal definitions of the concept of &ldquo;parent&rdquo; have changed over the history of U.S. public education. Concomitantly, there has been a marked debate among experts about the importance and effectiveness of parental involvement in education. In addressing this issue, research has concentrated on both the focus (what) and locus (where) of parental involvement but has seldom addressed the conjunction of focus and locus. This expert judgment study on parental involvement in adolescent education expands on the contemporary context of the parental role and offers a framework that demonstrates this multifaceted, contemporary view. This hypothesis-generating, two-phase study relied on Repertory Grid technique to develop a set of social construals shared by 22 individual case study participants, teacher experts who teach adolescent students (Grades 7 through 12) on Long Island. The second phase used an anonymous, online survey asking a larger sample of teacher experts (<i>n</i> = 238) to determine which social construct poles best describe ideal and typical parental behaviors in terms of effective parental involvement. Latent class analysis revealed heterogeneity in teachers&rsquo; experiences with typical parents but a shared, homogenous view of ideal parental behaviors. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed systematic patterns in degree level and school type to predict class membership in the latent classes describing typical parental involvement behaviors. This detailed analysis of the expert judgments and conceptions of teachers about effective parental involvement in adolescent education concluded with implications for educational theory, research, policy, and future practice.</p><p>

<p> Over the past two decades reported rates of autism have steadily risen. The current incidence is 1 in 68 children. While autism can be reliably diagnosed at 18 months in most children with the condition, specialized autism treatment rarely begins before a child&rsquo;s third or fourth birthday. As screening and diagnosis procedures improve so does the need for effective early interventions for autism. Researchers and professionals have expressed a growing concern over the need for effective early interventions for infants and toddlers with autism. At the same time, there is a dearth of qualitative research exploring the needs and experiences of parents with a very young child with autism. Employing a phenomenological framework, the purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experiences of parents of a young child with autism receiving early special education services. Unstructured interviews and photo elicitation were used to generate rich, detailed descriptions of the phenomenon. Data analysis from photographic images and narrative dialogues illuminated six essential themes across participants: (a) parents as pioneers: forging the way for future families; (b) making the journey as a family; (c) navigating uncharted service systems; (d) overcoming challenges and obstacles; (e) resilience, ingenuity and hope; and (f) reflecting on the first three years and looking forward. Participants expressed that they felt this study gave them a &ldquo;voice&rdquo; in the research literature. This study is one of the first to investigate the lived experiences of parents as they seek and secure autism services for their child under five with autism.</p><p>

<p> This qualitative phenomenological interview study investigated the barriers faced by Latino Spanish speakers with limited English proficiency (LEP) when seeking to obtain a diagnosis and special education resources for their children. This minority population faces several barriers that may be linked to a later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among Latino children; however, limited research has focused on the identification of these barriers and factors that contribute to a later ASD diagnosis in Latino families. Five Latina Spanish-speaking mothers with LEP were included in this study. Two 1-hour interviews were conducted per participant. The results showed barriers associated with the health care system, culture beliefs, cultural differences in the view of disability, limited health literacy, LEP, lack of ASD knowledge, and lack of competent interpreters. </p><p>