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Much of the literature relating to the history of miners has been written from a union orientated perspective. In this study a broader understanding of the lives of miners and their families is sought. Notions of community and communal belonging are central throughout the investigation. The extent of migration is considered. Clear evidence of residential clustering of migrants is uncovered. This had a significant impact upon community development within the settlements. The study acknowledges the centrality of the workplace in mining communities. Primary evidence suggests, though, that the mining workplace was not a cohesive social unit. Divisions within the workplace were as significant as those bet ween capital and labour. Longstanding, rigid divisions between grades of mining employees were uncovered which impacted upon their lives outside work. An examination of women's lives within the settlements questions the general assertion that they played an economically passive role within mining settlements. Women participated actively in the public life of the settlements through their involvement in mining disputes and other communal expressions of approbation, such as rough music. Religious and leisure activities revealed much about how individuals sought to construct their own identities and those of their settlements. Both boundaries of belonging and the triumph of custom over capitalist relations were affirmed through events such as celebrations. The study reveals the composite belonging. Individuals engaged in the annual feast nature of community a multiplicity of communities ranging from the micro-community of the family to the macro-community of the nation. The nature of individuals' communal participation was determined by factors such as their: age; gender; workplace position; and marital status. Communal belonging was fluid. Particular aspects of communal identity fluctuated in significance depending upon circumstance.

M.A. (Social Work) / Sound family life establishes the basis for social stability and is a prerequisite for a community to function orderly. As a profession, social work focuses on activities related to the provision of needs, associated with family care. It is appropriate to assume that social work is mainly concerned with problems related to marriage and family life. This study draws the attention of the profession to the important role that social work should play in growth-orientated development programmes for the family. The main object of this study falls into two categories, namely to determine whether families with normal or minor problems experience a need towards family enrichment, and to evaluate the effectiveness of a family enrichment project, which includes enrichment programmes for both the marriage and parent-child relationships. Twelve families voluntarily took part in the study for seven weeks, two hours per week. Because of the size of the experimental group, it was divided into two groups of six couples each. A family enrichment project directed at marriage and parent-child relationships was developed. The contents of the project were bases on both knowledge and skill components. The model for Human Resource Development was utilised, providing for the acquisition of skills. A manual based on Carkhuff's teaching model facilitated the family enrichment project. A pre-measurement of marriage relationships, parent-child relationships were investigated through a past-test of the mentioned variables at the conclusion of the project ...

This is a study of families that had pregnancies while they were recipients or potential recipients of public assistance.

Taking the subject of the exploration of familial tropes in the novels of Walter Scott and Jane Austen, this thesis opens by investigating the literary context in which the two authors worked, as well as offering an explanation of the methodology used, and an exploration of criticism on the topic. An in-depth analysis of the historical state of the family provides this thesis with its social and historic background, and is offered in section two. Section three explores conventional presentations of the family in the novels, and contends that even such conventional interpretations are open to complex and fluid readings. In particular, this section explores the nuances surrounding the role of marriage as a symbol of comedy, and also as the fulfilment of a bildungsroman narrative. It also contends that social virtues are key in establishing the representation of familial roles and in this context inheritance and lineage are also explored. The ways in which familial representation may be employed for subversive or controversial purposes are the subject of section four. This thesis posits that subversive readings do not negate conventional ones but rather that alternate representations of the family create multiple, not hierarchal meanings. Marriage, children, inheritance, lineage, siblingship, incest, illegitimacy and widowhood are all part of section four's investigation. Abstract! Anna Fancett Section five works as a short coda to the thesis and raises questions about the role of the narratorial voice. In particular, it argues that although some critics have assumed that the author's authority is present in any direct, unnamed third-person narrator, the voice of the narrator must never be conflated with that of the author or implied author. This section postulates that the narratorial voice destabilises both the conventional and subversive use of the family in these novels and suggests that the texts generate multiple readings. Overall this thesis demonstrates that the social, cultural and literary pressures which operated on the concept of the family in the Romantic period are manifested in a parallel complexity in the ways in which familial tropes operate in the work of Scott and Austen. However, it also shows that these two authors move beyond a merely representational engagement with social structures to provide a new and dynamic engagement with the idea of the family in the Romantic novel.

A common decline in marital functioning has been observed in couples as they adjust to first-time parenthood. This prospective, longitudinal study examined the trajectories of change in marital quality and observed warm and hostile behaviors across the transition to parenthood. Changes in patterns of marital quality were assessed to determine if they were a function of observed marital behaviors prior to childbirth or changes in observed marital behaviors across this transition. For both parent husbands and wives (N = 260 couples, 520 individuals) and nonparent husbands and wives (N = 107 couples, 214 individuals) participating in the Family Transitions Project (FTP; Conger & Conger, 2002), latent growth curve analyses were conducted on marital quality data and observed behavior data collected at two year intervals before childbirth, shortly after birth, and two years later to examine the rates of change. A general pattern of deterioration was observed for new parents in marital quality and observed warm and hostile behaviors. Observed warm and hostile behaviors prior to parenthood were significant in predicting both spouses' marital trajectories across this transition. Results from interlocked growth curves indicated that changes in observed warm and hostile behaviors did not significantly predict changes in marital quality. Finally, rates of change across four years did not significantly differ between parents and nonparents for marital quality or behavior. Clinical implications for marriage and family therapists are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2011. / Date of Defense: March 30, 2011. / Transition to parenthood, Marital quality, Behavior / Includes bibliographical references. / B. Kay Pasley, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Ming Cui, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Thomas Joiner, University Representative; Lenore McWey, Committee Member.

The study focused on testing a web-based parenting course called FosterParentCollege.com (FPC) Culturally Competent Parenting for parents who were fostering or adopting children transracially. Transracial parenting means parents who have adopted or are fostering a child of a different race than themselves. It is important for parents who are foster or adopting transracially to learn about resources when it comes to culturally competent parenting due to the positive impact culturally competent parenting has on children. Research study findings have indicated that transracial children who receive racial-ethnic socialization (a type of culturally competent parenting) demonstrate positive outcomes such as better self-esteem and psychological adjustment. This study utilized a mixed methods pre-test post-test treatment and control group design. The purpose was to determine if there was a difference in parent scores on openness to cultural receptivity after completing the course in comparison to parents taking the control course. Additionally, parents who participated in the treatment course completed two-month follow-up interviews to assess if they self-reported applying techniques learned from the culturally competent parenting course. Results of the study indicated that parents enrolled in the treatment course had significantly higher scores for openness to cultural receptivity after completing the course than before. Themes identified in the qualitative interviews indicated parents’ efforts to learn more about cultural competency. Implications and limitations are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / March 20, 2018. / Child welfare, Cultural competence, Foster care, Parent-child relations, Transracial adoption, Web-based training / Includes bibliographical references. / Lenore McWey, Professor Directing Dissertation; Angela Canto, University Representative; Melinda Gonzales-Backen, Committee Member; Ming Cui, Committee Member.

This study examines the international flow of ideas and goods in eighteenth and nineteenth century New England port towns through the experience of a Boston-based commercial network. It traces the evolution of the commercial network established by the intertwined Perkins, Forbes, and Sturgis families of Boston from its foundations in the Atlantic fur trade in the 1740s to the crises of succession in the early 1840s. The allied Perkins firms and families established one of the most successful American trading networks of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and as such it provides fertile ground for investigating mercantile strategies in early America. An analysis of the Perkins family's commercial network yields three core insights. First, the Perkinses illuminate the ways in which American mercantile strategies shaped global capitalism. The strategies and practices of American merchants and mariners contributed to a growing international critique of mercantilist principles and chartered trading monopolies. While the Perkinses did not consider themselves "free traders," British observers did. Their penchant for smuggling and seeking out niches of trade created by competing mercantilist trading companies meant that to critics of British mercantilist policies, American merchants had an unfair advantage that only the liberalization of trade policy could rectify. Following the Perkinses allows for a reconsideration of the Anglo-American relationship in the East Indies, especially China. For example, the special relationships the Perkinses established with the Wu family of Canton as well as the London-based Baring Brothers & Co. proved critical to their success in business. Yet these relationships developed out of the Perkinses' geopolitical position as Americans. Further, the project shows that family life, gendered ideals, and particular visions of the life cycle were central to how Americans came to terms with expanding trade and evolving markets. In the late eighteenth century, Americans began to exalt family as a sentimental unit whose central aims were personal fulfillment and the raising of future citizens. But this new ideology of family masked the institution's continued political and economic utility. Family has never been the promised "haven from the heartless world" of market perils; in fact, well into the nineteenth century it was the opposite: family was a core market institution used for protection from risk and speculation. Even as the Perkinses embraced the speculative potential of commerce and investment, familial and gendered ideals shaped how they understood profit, risk, and even what it meant to be a merchant. Finally, in recent years, scholars have integrated New England into the Atlantic World; I demonstrate the importance of New Englanders in shaping American involvement in Asia and the Pacific as well. The Pacific continues to be a central space of American empire and influence, from former colonies to trust territories. Its history merits a more robust place in American historical consciousness.

Employment trade-offs are defined as the sacrifices that employees make in their job because of their family/dependent care responsibilities (Mennino & Brayfield, 2002). They represent an employee's decision to restrict their work responsibilities and devote their time and attention to their family when time and attention cannot be given to both their work and family responsibilities. Research on employment trade-offs has been primarily theoretical and qualitative, with the few empirical studies primarily examining demographic and attitudinal correlates to an employee's decision to participate in employment trade-offs without considering the mediating mechanisms between these variables and employment trade-offs. This dissertation extended the literature on employment trade-offs by examining family-work conflict as a mediator of the relationship between family and work domain variables and an employee's decision to engage in employment trade-offs among Federal government employees. This study also investigated the relationship of participating in employment trade-offs to workplace withdrawal behaviors, family-friendly benefit utilization, and turnover intentions. The family domain variables include dependent care responsibilities and childcare characteristics, while the work domain variables include organizational supports. The 2006 Federal Employee Dependent Care Survey (U. S. Office of Personnel Management, 2006) was analyzed and hypotheses were tested using both multiple regression and logistic regression analyses. The results showed that family-work conflict partially mediated the relationship between the variables of type of care responsibilities, perceived job schedule flexibility, childcare arrangement satisfaction, childcare quality, and childcare costs and employment trade-offs. Multigenerational caregiving responsibilities, number of dependents, and supervisor support were not related to family-work conflict and no mediation effect for family-work conflict was established between these variables and employment trade-offs. Analyses also found that family-work conflict was positively related to employment trade-offs, workplace withdrawal behaviors, and family-friendly benefit utilization. In addition, employment trade-offs were positively related to workplace withdrawal behaviors and family-friendly benefit utilization, suggesting that individuals do implement a variety of family adaptive strategies to manage competing work and family demands. Finally, employment trade-offs were found to be positively related to turnover intentions. Contributions to the work-family literature, implications for practice, future research directions, and limitations of the study are discussed.