Childhood immunization is acknowledged as being a crucial health intervention for children. Immunization rates of children may vary depending on their parents' knowledge and attitudes about the issue. The focus of this study is on parents' knowledge and attitudes about immunization, and employs Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory. A questionnaire was administered to 233 parents in India to explore the issues of parental immunization knowledge and attitudes. Correlates of parental knowledge and attitudes that were explored included gender, education, respondents' immunization status, and children's immunization status. Sources of parental knowledge about immunization were also examined. Overall, parents in this sample had a high level of awareness and positive attitudes about immunization. Parents' knowledge about immunization was correlated with their attitudes on immunization. Gender was correlated with parents' knowledge about immunization, but not their attitudes, with females having greater awareness about immunization than males. Parental education, parental immunization status, and children's immunization status were positively correlated with both knowledge and attitudes about immunization. Doctors and health care settings were the major sources of information abo ut immunization for parents in this sample. Implications for research, policy, and education are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of children toward the dental visit. A group of children who had undergone dental treatment with the use of nitrous oxide-oxygen served as the experimental group while children who had received dental treatment without the use of nitrous oxide-oxygen served as the control group. Attitudes toward the dental experience among these two groups were compared to determine any differences or similarities due to the type of treatment used. Data were also collected on the parents of the children to determine whether the child's attitude toward the dental visit tended to reflect the attitude toward dentistry as expressed by the accompanying parent. Forty- five children between the ages of four and ten years old were asked t o identify a hypothetical child depicted in three specific situations as being either "Happy" or "Sad." The three situations were defined as follows : (1) A child coming from the ice cream shop, (2) A child who just cut a finger, and (3) A child just leaving the dentist's office. The parents in this study were asked to rate their anxiety related to visiting the dentist as being either ( 1) very relaxed, (2) generally relaxed, (3) generally anxious, or (4) very anxious. No significant difference was established between the nitrous oxide-oxygen children and the nonnitrous oxide group in relation to their attitudes toward the dental experience. No significant relationship was noted between the child's attitude and the respective parent's attitude in relation to the dental visit. A significant relationship between the boys and the girls was noted in the "Happy" classification group when the sex of the child was compared to the child's point of reference as given in the hypothetical dental situation.

A vast majority of individuals involve themselves in an intimate relationship at one time or another. This studly looks at a new, but increasing, forum of relationship development, that of the Internet. More specifically, this study addresses various stages of Internet relationship development, and deception individual 's use during the process of forming and maintaining these relationships. This research gathered quantitative and qualitative information from 134 individuals involved in online relationships. The quantitative analyses provided only a few significant findings and it is suggested that the current methods of measuring deception are inadequate and do not appear to represent the types of deception that may be employed by those developing relationships on the Internet. The qualitative findings indicate that over half the people in this study report using deception in their Internet relationships and there appear to be different motivations for doing so.

Many children have insufficient early literacy experiences and fail to obtain proficient emergent literacy before they enter kindergarten. Reading to young children has been positively linked to improving their emergent literacy. Numerous factors influence how engaged children are while being read to including the adult’s prosody, receptive vocabulary, and the home literacy environment. Using a quantitative quasiexperimental design, this study sought to understand the association among prosody, child engagement (emotional, cognitive, behavioral-eye, and behavioral-body), receptive vocabulary, and the home literacy environment. The sample included 76 3-5 year-old children from local child care centers and their parents. To understand the relationship between prosody and engagement, children were randomly assigned to watch a story with typical or high prosody. Emotional, cognitive, behavioral-eye, and behavioral-body engagement measures were used to understand how engaged children were in the story. Children’s receptive vocabulary was assessed, and parents completed a home literacy survey. The moderating effects of receptive vocabulary and the home literacy environment (i.e., how much time parents spent reading to children and children’s TV time) between prosody and each type of engagement was examined. Children’s engagement did not differ between typical and high prosody stories. A statistically significant relationship was found between the cognitive and behavioral-eye r(74) = .44, p < .01, cognitive and behavioral-body r(74) = .30, p < .01, and behavioral-eye and behavioral-body engagement measures r(74) = .72, p < .01. Receptive vocabulary and the home literacy environment did not moderate the relationship between story prosody and any type of engagement.

The purpose of this study was to describe the incidence of repeat filers in Utah and estimate the extent that repeat filers may be abusing the bankruptcy system. This study sought to develop a profile of repeat filers . Demographic and financial variables were examined to detem1ine their association with abuser/nonabuser status. In this study, abuse of bankruptcy was characterized only by the timing and number of filings over 20 years. Debtors with three filings in a 2-year period or less and debtors with four or more total filings were classified as abusers. Nonabusers were defined as debtors who filed only once as well as debtors who had two or three scattered filings over the 20-year period. About I I% of the total sample appeared to be abusing the bankruptcy system by filing repeatedly. The majority (76.2%) of the I 997 cases filed by abusers were dismissed while only 23.8% received a discharge of their unsecured debts. Only five (2.9%) of the I 71 abusers who filed chapter I 3 in I 997 completed their payment plan and received a discharge of their debts. The logistic regression model found chapter (7 versus 13), filing status, unsecured debt, and monthly income to be the most significant variables in estimating abuse. Males and females filing alone were nearly 50% less likely than joint filers to be abusers. Chapter 13 debtors are nearly five times as likely to be abusers when compared to chapter 7 debtors. Filers who had unsecured debt levels above the median were less likely to be abusers, and filers who had incomes above the median were almost twice as likely to be abusers. Realistic repayment plans that pay careful attention to construction of budgets and a financial counselor to work with debtors who miss payments is one approach to combating abuse by repeat filing. Judges may need to discipline attorneys who file cases repeatedly. Perhaps a new Code is not what we need to combat abusers; instead, closer monitoring of cases by trustees, more responsible attorneys, and more responsible lending are needed.

The purpose was to determine how husbands and wives who had been separated because of the war in Vietnam perceived ea ch other during separation. Martial roles were used as the vehicle to convey perception. A random sample of Jl couples was selected from among the married officers and enlisted men of Marine All Weather Attack Squadron 225 which was based at DaNang, South Vietnam. A questionnaire des igned to determine perception of spouse was sent to men in Vietnam and to their wives who resided in various parts of the United States. The major findings are summarized as follows: l. Correlation of roles ranked in order of importance before and after separation by respondents was significant at or beyond the .05 level for all roles except that of mother. This indicates that there was really very little change in the importance of roles during separation. Tne mother role was most variable. 2. Husbands were significantly more accurate than wives in duplicating the ranking of roles by spouse. 3. Both husbands and wives were significantly more accurate predicting the role ranking of the other before separation than they were in predicting how the other would rank his roles after separation. 4. Wives were more congruent than husbands in perception of the spouse in roles they ranked as being highly important for the spouse. 5. Men who had children tended to be congruent between thought patterns about their wives and the roles they ranked as important for them. They usually ranked the roles of wife and mother high and often thought of their wives in these roles. This congruency did not exist with the men who had no children. 6 . There was significantly greater marital satisfaction before separation. 7. Perception of very high marital satisfaction after separation indicates that ideolization or glossing of the absent situation and absent person occurred.

The relational processes of sacrifice and self-care both influence every human relationship and as such, every human has to learn how to engage in them. Families are one of the many communities in which one must address sacrifice and self-care. This study provides a qualitative exploration of the relational processes of sacrifice and self-care among a sample of 198 highly religious (Abrahamic faiths) families. In-depth analyses explored motivations, types, and related family processes among family relationships. Five themes from the data about how families perceived and addressed the relational processes of sacrifice and self-care are discussed: (1) tensions between sacrifice and self-care, (2) motivations of sacrifice and/or self-care, (3) types of sacrifice, (4) types of self-care, and (5) processes in faith and family relationships. The ways that participants discussed struggling to address these processes are discussed along with why these ideas are important for marriages and families.

No description available.

At a time when welfare regimes in Anglophone countries are being reshaped to reflect neoliberal ideology, there is little by way of empirical, qualitative research which directly addresses the question of how jobless families live or are affected by their circumstances, particularly in regional Australia. This study combines a consideration of questions of social structure as they pertain to jobless families at the theoretical level with an ethnographic journey into their life worlds. It aims to understand the impact of long-term joblessness upon the families and to explore the interconnections between system and life world.I adopt Layder’s (1997, 1998) theoretical and methodological formulations as the most appropriate means to underpin an investigation of this nature. The study is comprehensively situated within a structural context which examines discourses and events that have exerted an influence on our present social arrangements, including an analysis of relevant social policy. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with two non-purposive samples and analysed using a modified Grounded Theory approach as advocated by Layder (1998).It was found that the current welfare regime helps to stabilise the capitalist global economy and does at least provide a precarious stability for those excluded from the labour market. Whilst families receiving long-term income support are not a homogeneous group, they are subject to hidden injuries in common. The linkages between system and life world are theorised in terms of the displacement principle, which holds that the displacement of a problem does not solve it, but merely relocates it elsewhere. It is used to explain both large-scale displacements as well as micro processes occurring within jobless families. Long-term joblessness is found often to have destructive consequences for intimacy, though family structure may remain intact. This is partly due to a welfare regime which disrespects its beneficiaries. I argue that social policy must be informed by an alternative discourse which includes social or welfare rights as a part of human rights, based upon recognition of mutual interdependency and an ethic of care. This is vital if future policy directions are to accord equal respect to all citizens.

Wilderness therapy is a unique approach to therapy that incorporates nature and experiential learning as a part of the therapeutic process. Wilderness therapy has proven to be a successful means of treatment, but research suggests the importance of family involvement for sustainable change post-wilderness therapy treatment. Wilderness family therapy was created as a result of this research; however, limited research reflects the experience and outcomes of wilderness therapy that includes more intense family involvement. Moreover, research lacks data collected from the therapists within the wilderness family therapy programs. Because the therapist plays an integral role in the success of treatment, it is important to consider the therapist’s experience of providing wilderness therapy, especially wilderness family therapy. The present study used a qualitative phenomenological approach to reach a greater understanding of the experience of wilderness family therapists. Results revealed six major themes that describe this experience including personal background, the role of a wilderness family therapist, positive and affirming experiences, difficult and challenging experiences, advantages of a wilderness family therapy approach, and limitations of a wilderness family therapy approach. Finally, a description was provided that portrays the essence of the experience of a wilderness family therapist.