<p> Common themes that arise in working with adolescent mothers are the lack of involvement from incarcerated adolescent fathers and the scarcity of services available for them. This grant proposal targets incarcerated adolescent fathers and their families to establish healthy, long-lasting relationships through the provisions of educational and parenting skills. Children with adolescent fathers who are incarcerated suffer the most consequences. Thus, efforts promoting father involvement intent to also ameliorate child abuse, neglect, and maltreatment. Parenting Skills for Young Dads in Detention (PSYDD), provides psycho-educational and supportive services through a 10-week program, along with a father-child relationship-building component to focus on improving the quality of relationships between the fathers, their children, and the mothers of their children. The proposed program will promote the strengthening of family ties. The actual funding and submission of this grant proposal were not requirements for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant and obtain funding for a program on education and awareness of teen dating violence. A half-day workshop will be repeated weekly for 5 months for caregivers of high school students in Sun Valley, California. The workshops will provide caregivers with education and parenting strategies about teen dating violence. The program will also include a community resource fair, which will be open to Sun Valley and surrounding areas. Local agencies will be invited to attend and participate in the fair. Program outcomes will be assessed using pre- and post-surveys of knowledge of dating violence. The actual submission and funding of the grant was not a requirement for completion of this thesis project.</p>

<p> Respite care is a social support service that gives parents of people with intellectual disabilities a short break from the constant stress of giving care&mdash;an outside provider temporarily fills the caregiving role. Utilized by families of various socio-cultural backgrounds, little research to date examines respite efficacy holistically in different contexts. Through ethnographic research in the homes and communities of three families over six months of service utilization, meaningful patterns have emerged regarding the planning, perceptions, use, and expected outcomes of respite care. Findings include that parental satisfaction is associated with how parents make plans, if they find the care provider trustworthy, and how completely they and their adult children are able to achieve respite plans. In sum, service efficacy depends largely upon the degree to which parents feel in control of the entire respite experience.</p>

<p> <i><b>Study Aims:</b></i> With adoption becoming more common in Hong Kong, the present study was conducted to gain an understanding of the opinions of Hong Kong adoptive parents regarding adoption disclosure to their child. Multiple research questions were investigated that may interest both the general public and those associated with adoption. Reasons for adoption disclosure, gender differences, and whether high or low Asian values have a significant influence were examined. <i><b>Method:</b></i> Fifty-four participants (18 men and 31 women) were recruited from Mother's Choice (a Hong Kong NGO). They were asked to complete a Disclosure Questionnaire, which determines the opinions and attitudes of adoptive parents on disclosure that was developed for use in this specific study, and the Asian Values Scale, which can be divided into five subscales (i.e., Collectivism, Conformity to Norms, Emotional Self-Control, Family Recognition Through Achievement, and Humility). <i><b>Results:</b></i> Majority of the participants reported that infertility was their main reason for the adoption and that they disclose because the child has the right to know. In addition, the majority strongly feel that disclosing will save future trauma and will not affect their relationship. The overwhelming majority of parents (94.4%, 51 out of 54) are planning to or already have disclosed the adoptive status to their child. Two participants (3.7%) are not planning to disclose and one (1.9%) did not answer. The 51 participants were then asked a follow up question regarding whether they would still disclose if it were guaranteed that their child would never find out about his/her adoptive status and ten of them changed their mind and one did not answer. Some gender differences were found and there were a few significant items where participants who responded differently on Disclosure Questionnaire items also varied on Asian values. <i><b> Conclusions:</b></i> This study is important to further understand Hong Kong's adoption population. Although there are limitations due to sample size and convenient sampling, this study is a beginning in the exploration of opinions of adoptive parents towards disclosure. As the majority of participants adopted due to infertility, more care and counseling should be provided targeting infertile couples to explore infertility, the possibility of adoption, and what the adoption means to them. This is especially important in Hong Kong, where infertility may be seen as culturally deviant as the purpose of marriage is to parent (Ko, 2001). With the cultural and social stigma of infertility, many couples may choose to remain secretive and thus perhaps keep a subsequent adoption secretive as well. It can be concluded that adoption disclosure is a complicated action that requires a lot of consideration and preparation. However, even with this, thoughts and feelings may continue to conflict with each other as it is a complex process.</p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> adoption, disclosure, Hong Kong, Asian Values Scale</p>

<p> The purpose ofthis project was to establish a system of structured parental involvement utilizing parent liaisons in Verde Elementary and Peres Elementary Schools within the West Contra Costa Unified School District in Northern California. This system would facilitate parental engagement in the educational process of the students.</p><p> The target population, urban students of poverty and color, has been shown to have lower levels of academic achievement and high school graduation rates than other students. Parental involvement has been shown to enhance academic achievement and to benefit families, schools, and communities. The primary goal of the program is to increase the level of engagement of all parents within the school by actively reaching out to them, with the assumption that increased parental involvement will increase student performance, attendance, retention, and graduation rates. The concept of cultural humility will serve as the central theoretical framework which guides the establishment and operation of all aspects of this project. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not required for successful completion of this project. </p>

<p> Separate theories of leadership roles and parenting styles have been richly developed and explored, but the relationship between the two is an area in need of further research. The various skills garnered through leadership experience can be instrumental for parents in managing and resolving family conflict, thereby increasing family resiliency. The willingness to address conflict directly versus the avoidance of conflict has been summarized into specific patterns that all groups, including families, progress through; however, the degree to which parents initiate reconciliatory actions needs further detailed analysis. Additionally, insight on the importance of parents modeling positive coping strategies will be derived through proper conflict management as a learned adaptive behavior for children. The intent of this grounded theory qualitative study was to explore potential overlap between leadership roles and parenting styles, and how the use of constructive conflict management strategies develops family resiliency. Through the use of semi-structured interviews, this overlap between leadership, parenting, and conflict management was analyzed. Each participant provided a response to open-ended questions regarding their leadership experience, role as a leader in their family, and their perception of family conflict. Next they described how they would respond to hypothetical scenarios incorporating various degrees and approaches to conflict. All the responses were coded and analyzed for themes that resulted in a new theory on family resiliency based on parents' use of minor levels of conflict to teach children the life skills necessary to cope with greater confrontational situations, such as crises or potentially traumatic events. </p>

<p> African American grandmothers raising grandchildren is a rapidly increasing phenomenon that merits further exploration. This phenomenological research study examined the lived experiences of 10 single, low-income, African American grandmothers raising grandchildren. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the personal experiences of this population from the perspective of the grandmothers. The results from this study provide professional working with this population additional insight into the challenges and needs African American grandmother caregivers encounter. Through the use of semi-structured, open-ended conversational interviews, data was gathered to provided in-depth information about the complexities and distinctive needs of this family unit. Using a step-by-step phenomenological data analysis process, five themes emerged: Loss of Personal Self, Main Supporter: Church, Cognitive Dissonance, Second Chance Feelings, and Psychosocial Stressors. The findings from this study provide additional knowledge for mental health professionals, public policy makers and academicians working with this population to help decrease service barriers.</p>

<p> Past research has shown that entrainment facilitates social bonding in intimates and strangers. The current study investigated if synchronicity in romantic couples is disrupted by relationship discord. Rocking chair movements were used as an objective measure of synchronicity. Couples rocked together for 3 minutes to assess their baseline synchronicity, and again for 3 minutes after inducing a threat to the relationship in one member of each couple. It was hypothesized that satisfied couples would be more entrained than dissatisfied couples at baseline, as well as after inducing a relationship threat. Results indicated no significant difference in rocking between satisfied and dissatisfied couples at baseline. However, results supported that synchronicity was significantly disrupted in dissatisfied couples, but not satisfied couples, after the threat was induced. These results suggest that relationship satisfaction acts as a buffer to relationship threats and/or that satisfied couples are more likely to remain entrained even in the face of hardship.</p>

<p> Abstract not available.</p>

In this work, I make three very important assertions. First, whites were fanatical about keeping black men and white women sexually separated. In the white mind, no contamination of the Caucasian race could result unless white women came into sexual contact with black men. As a result, whites used both lawful and extra-legal methods to keep black men from their white women, despite taking sexual licenses with black women. Second, whites assumed that black men desired white women sexually. This assumption increased white hysteria and strengthened the resolve of whites to keep blacks segregated and subjugated. Finally, although whites assumed that blacks wanted to sexually intermingle, black leaders repeatedly disavowed any desire to do so. Blacks were content with being black and had no aspirations of losing their color or their culture.