<p> Living wholeheartedly is an act of service to the world, and living wholly as I explore in this dissertation, means welcoming the darkness. This dissertation explores the transformative value of the darkness and the power of facing the personal shadow, what it means to live a wholehearted life, and the light of knowing that connects us to ourselves and each other, and is found in the darkness of one's experience. The stories of those I gathered, including my own, are at the heart of this dissertation. This study takes an heuristic, auto-ethnographic, narrative approach and continues the ancient conversation about the transformative power of seeking wholeness through stories of my own, and those of six teachers, devoted to living an engaged and wholehearted life.</p>

<p>Although systemic research on National Guard and Reserve (NGR) spouses and families does not exist, the situation is due to change given the expansive role of NGR service members in combat operations over the last decade. In addition, research exploring the effects of deployment on family resilience and social support is limited. The present study employed a predictive correlational design to determine the relationship between resilience and social support for NGR families and five predictor variables (distance from a military base or unit, number of children in the home, employment status of the spouse, rank of the service member, and neighborhood tenure). A sample of 110 spouses of NGR service members with a history of deployment from across 36 states completed a web-based survey instrument. No significant relationships were found between resilience or social support for NGR spouses and any of the five predictor variables. In addition, the results indicate that resilience in NGR spouses is moderately high, as is the level of social support. </p>

<p> The lived experience of husbands caring for wives with dementia was investigated in order to develop a better understanding of their caregiver burden. The conceptual background for the study originated in the work of philosophical phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and Edith Stein with particular attention to their theories of inter-subjectivity and empathy. Amadeo Giorgi's Descriptive Phenomenological Method in Psychology was used for study design and analysis. Results suggest an enduring connectedness of the couples and their bonds throughout the shifting of roles and emotions as the dementia progresses. Implications for nursing include the need to employ interventions respectful of the persistence of affective awareness in those with the dementia even towards end-stage and the resulting importance of situational assessment of decisional capacity. </p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and practice of corporal punishment (CP) among Filipino parents and the factors that may impact their use of harsh punishment. Thirty-five parents, between the ages of 33 and 55 years old, participated in a group survey that was held in Manila, Philippines. </p><p> It was predicted that CP, as a form of discipline, would be prevalent among Filipino parents; it was also predicted that CP would be higher among parents of low economic status and that there were mitigating factors that impact Filipino parents' use of CP. Based on quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected, this study did not support all three hypotheses, although it showed that the use of CP was relatively high at 37%. </p><p> This study may provide evidence of a need for social support for both parents and children through family intervention programs and parenting training. </p>

<p> This quantitative study explored the differences in paternal and maternal involvement based on the gender of the child, age of the child (between 0-36 months), and developmental domains in an 8 week period after parents received weekly child development intervention offered by a government funded agency in Southern California for parents of infants/toddlers. A total of 60 parents, 30 female and 30 male, participated in the study. Data was collected from weekly "parent participation forms" submitted by parents to the agency for about 6 months prior to the beginning of the study. The findings revealed some important differences in paternal and maternal involvement and rejected many of the existing stereotypes about lack of paternal involvement in young children's lives. Sampled fathers in the study were found to be more involved in developmental activities in most of the 10 domains of development examined by the study. Their involvement included children of both genders and ages (infants, mobile infants, and toddlers). The findings also indicated that maternal involvement was very close to paternal involvement in some domains especially with infants.</p>

<p> The present study aimed to investigate the impact of psychological resilience and daily stressors on physical activity levels among mothers completing a three-month physical activity program. The sample consisted of 30 low-income mothers recruited to participate in a larger community-based physical activity intervention study. It was expected that women higher in resilience would participate in more physical activity over the program than women lower in resilience, and women lower in resilience would be more negatively affected by daily stressors than those higher in resilience, resulting in less physical activity over the program. However, results showed a pattern that among the women lower in resilience, those experiencing a higher severity of daily stressors throughout the program participated in more physical activity than those experiencing a lower severity of daily stressors. Implications for targeting mothers to use physical activity as a coping mechanism are discussed.</p>

<p> Teenage foster youth are at risk of having problems with early pregnancy because they are exposed to child abuse at home and in foster care. Teenagers need mentors to provide them with sex education on safe sex and skill building. This grant project seeks funding for a teen mentoring program called Project Teenage Mentoring through the State Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), Family and Youth Service Bureau (FYSB) that awards grants to agencies to help teach young people about abstinence and contraception. The agency where the mentoring program will take place will be the Assistance League of Los Angeles in Hollywood, California. Project Teenage Mentoring's goal is to prevent foster youth from becoming pregnant by working in collaboration with the Department of Children and Family Services and providing mentoring services to foster youth to prevent teenage pregnancy.</p>

<p> This quantitative study was a correlational exploration of cultural beliefs and behaviors related to family, work, and social activities, and their impact on marital satisfaction among first- and second-generation Haitian immigrants to the United States. Eighty respondents completed a marital satisfaction survey and a cultural beliefs and behaviors survey of 150 questions each. Of the 80 participants, 40 were first-generation and the other 40 were second-generation immigrants. All of the participants were 18 years old and older, lived in an urban area, and were married. It was hypothesized that first-generation Haitian Americans would score higher than their second-generation counterparts regarding interdependent cultural beliefs and behaviors specific to family, work, and social activities, which would positively correlate with marital satisfaction. It was also hypothesized that second-generation Haitian Americans would score higher than their first-generation counterparts regarding independent cultural beliefs and behaviors specific to family, work, and social activities. It was expected that these scores would positively correlate with marital satisfaction. The relationships between the variables were explored through the performance of descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The results of the analysis of variance indicated no significant differences in marital satisfaction scores between first and second-generation Haitians. In addition, the multiple regression analysis indicated that cultural beliefs and behaviors associated with social activities, family, and work were not significantly related to marital satisfaction for either first or second-generation Haitian immigrants.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1988. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-09, Section: B, page: 4066. Chairperson: Karl Mueller.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1992. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-07, Section: B, page: 3918. Chairperson: Ben Tong.