O presente estudo teve por objetivo investigar a experiência e a prática da paternidade na adolescência, desde a gestação até o primeiro ano de vida do bebê. Participaram deste estudo três casais de adolescentes, cuja gestação estava no terceiro trimestre no momento do primeiro contato. Os participantes tinham idades entre 16 e 19 anos e, no momento da gestação, estavam namorando ou morando juntos, e eram de nível sócio-econômico baixo. Foi utilizado um delineamento de estudo de caso coletivo (Stake, 1994), de caráter longitudinal, sendo cada caso investigado em três diferentes etapas: terceiro trimestre de gestação, após três meses e após um ano de vida do bebê. Os relatos dos participantes foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo qualitativa e agrupados em torno de dois eixos temáticos: experiência e prática da paternidade. Em relação à experiência da paternidade, os resultados revelaram que os pais do presente estudo relataram mudanças importantes em suas vidas com o advento da paternidade, as quais foram também confirmadas pelos relatos maternos, com destaque para a percepção das mães de uma maior responsabilidade e maturidade dos companheiros com a chegada das filhas. No que diz respeito à prática da paternidade e, mais especificamente, ao envolvimento paterno, os jovens pais mostraram-se, de modo geral, bastante envolvidos na vida de suas filhas. Entretanto, tal participação parecia dar-se mais no nível das brincadeiras e do sustento da família do que em relação às tarefas de cuidado, que ficavam mais à cargo das mães. Foram identificadas importantes repercussões da paternidade sobre a vida destes jovens, em especial no que diz respeito à situação laboral e ao aumento da responsabilidade. Já no que diz respeito ao exercício da função paterna, os pais foram identificados como importantes fontes de apoio emocional para suas jovens companheiras, tanto no período da gestação, quanto no puerpério, apesar de algumas dificuldades em relação ao exercício de outras funções tenham sido identificadas. No entanto, apesar das dificuldades, os participantes do presente estudo, embora jovens, avaliavam positivamente suas experiências de paternidade e, de modo geral, mostravam-se envolvidos e implicados em sua prática enquanto pais, pelo menos ao longo do primeiro ano de vida de suas filhas. / This study aimed to investigate the experience and practice of fatherhood in adolescence from pregnancy through the infant’s first year. The study included three teenage couples in the third trimester of pregnancy at the time the first contact. Participants were 16 to 19 years old and were dating or living together, and were of low socioeconomic status. A collective-case study design (Stake, 1994) was used in which each case was investigated longitudinally at three different stages: the third trimester of pregnancy, and at infant´s third month and first year. The participants answers were analysed through qualitative content analysis and grouped around two central themes: experience and practice of fatherhood. In relation to the experience of fatherhood, results revealed that, in spite of being young, fatherhood brought significant changes in fathers´ lives , which were also identified in maternal reports, especially in mother’s perception of a greater responsibility and maturity of the spouses withthe arrival of their daughters. With regard to the practice of fatherhood and, more specifically, paternal involvement, young parents of this study were generally quite involved in their daughters’ lives. However, such participation seemed to be more on the level of play and breadwinner than in relation to care tasks, which were more the mothers’ responsibility. A significant impact of fatherhood was identified on these teenagers’ lives, especially concerning employment status and increased responsibility. As far as paternal role exercise is concerned, the fathers of this study were identified as important sources of emotional support to their young wives, both during pregnancy and the puerperium, despite some difficulties in relation to the exercise of other functions. Although being young, participants of the present studies evaluated positively their experience of fatherhood and, in general, were engaged and involved in their practice as parents, at least in their daughther’s first year.

Este trabalho investigou o envolvimento de pais de bebês nos seis primeiros meses de frequência à creche. Baseado no conceito de envolvimento paterno, buscou-se investigar as transformações na interação, disponibilidade e responsabilidade dos pais sobre seus bebês com a entrada na creche. Para tanto, por meio de um estudo de caso coletivo de caráter longitudinal, quatro pais responderam a entrevistas em três momentos de coleta de dados, a saber: entrada do bebê na creche, um mês após a entrada e 6 meses após o ingresso na escola de educação infantil. Análise de conteúdo qualitativa indicou que tanto a creche quanto o desenvolvimento do bebê foram aliados do pai para a retomada do trabalho e da vida pessoal. O pai passou a interagir menos de acordo com os aspectos maternos da interação, uma exigência que vai muitas vezes além das suas capacidades. O presente estudo mostra a importância de se levar em consideração as necessidades e capacidades do pai que está envolvido no cuidado ao bebê. / This study investigated father involvement with their babies during the first six months in a child care center. Based on the concept of father involvement, we aimed to investigate the changes in fathers’ interaction, availability and responsibility concerning their babies over time. To this end, through a collective case study, with a longitudinal design, four fathers answered an interview in three times of data collection: entry in the child care center, one month and six months later. Qualitative content analysis indicated that the day care center and the baby's development helped the father to turn more to his work and to recover his personal life. The father was able to interact less according to the maternal aspects of the interaction, which may be beyond his capacity. The present study shows the importance of taking into consideration the needs and capacity of fathers involved in infant care.

The purpose of this study was to document and assess the consequences of implementing employee involvement in a manufacturing setting. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study utilized information from various sources of data including archives, interview, and questionnaire data for a three to four year period. Time series comparisons were used. The results indicated that production increased initially, but then dropped back to original level. Quality of products increased and continued to improve gradually. The highest rate of improvement was observed in safety. An attempt was made to measure current level of commitment at the plant but was unsuccessful due to a low return rate of questionnaires. Overall, data collected partially support the hypotheses. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

Tourism has become an essential attribute of modern society that has an effect on the world and its citizens. On the other hand, tourism can also be blamed for an increase in environmental and social stress. Hence the need for a more sustainable tourism industry was advocated; thus the birth of alternative forms of tourism such as urban ecotourism, responsible tourism and community-based tourism. Urban ecotourism has been identified as a method of sustainable tourism that is expected to subsidise to both conservation and development in urban areas. This requires input and cooperation from various stakeholders. One of the most important stakeholders in this process is the local community. Thus, when there is collaboration with host communities in urban ecotourism projects, these projects convert to become community development. These projects such as urban parks are vital assets within the local community as they assist in addressing a broader range of environmental and societal issues. However, these instrumental resources are often ignored, resulting in a loss of potential benefits.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aims to understand the experience of adolescent parenthood and father involvement in child care.Three lower-class teenage parents who were first time parents of a healthy baby took part in this study. The instruments used were two semi-structured interviews, one of them about parenting and other child care, especially created to reach the objectives of the study. These interviews were conducted in two periods: immediately after birth and six months after it. For this an outline of longitudinal collective case study was used in such way pointing out the particularities and similarities between the cases. The results were organized in three studies. A theoretical study discusses teenage father involvement in child care through the bioecological theory of human development. An empirical study aiming to understand how lower-class adolescents perceive the transition to parenthood. A third study, also empirical one, that seeks to understand father involvement in child care when parents are teenagers. All the main results found in all three studies indicate that knowing the personal, family and social characteristics of teenage parents and the relationship patterns established in different environments in which they participate are of utmost importance. This understanding promotes better awareness of the variables which affect the experience of parenthood during adolescence and parental involvement in child care. / O objetivo deste estudo é compreender a vivência da paternidade adolescente e o envolvimento paterno em práticas de cuidados oferecidos ao bebê. Participaram do estudo três pais adolescentes de camadas populares, pais pela primeira vez de um bebê saudável. Os instrumentos utilizados foram duas entrevistas semiestruturadas, sendo uma delas sobre paternidade e a outra sobre práticas de cuidados ao bebê, criadas especialmente para atender os objetivos do estudo. Estas entrevistas foram realizadas em dois momentos: logo após o nascimento e aos seis meses de vida do bebê. Foi utilizado um delineamento de estudo de caso coletivo, de caráter longitudinal, dando atenção às particularidades e semelhanças entre os casos. Os resultados foram organizados em três estudos. Um estudo teórico que busca discutir, através da teoria bioecológica do desenvolvimento humano, o envolvimento paterno de adolescentes com as práticas de cuidados ao bebê. Um estudo empírico com o objetivo de compreender como adolescentes de classes populares percebem a transição para a paternidade. Um terceiro estudo, também de caráter empírico, que busca compreender o envolvimento paterno de pais adolescentes em práticas de cuidados ao bebê. O conjunto dos principais resultados encontrados nos três estudos indica a importância de se conhecer as características pessoais, familiares e sociais dos pais adolescentes e o padrão de relações estabelecidas nos diferentes ambientes dos quais participam. Esta compreensão favorece o entendimento das variáveis que interferem na vivência da paternidade durante a adolescência e no envolvimento paterno em práticas de cuidados oferecidos ao bebê.

In-session client involvement (i.e., participation in in-session therapeutic tasks) is hypothesized to be a necessary component of youth therapy and associated with positive outcomes. However, research on in-session client involvement has been slowed by definitional problems. At present, the field has not yet adopted a single definition of client involvement that is applicable across different theoretical orientations, which has impacted the measurement of this construct. To remedy this problem, the field needs to adopt a definition of in-session client involvement that includes important components (i.e., behavioral, affective, and cognitive) of this construct that applies across different theoretical orientations and use this definition to guide instrument development. The current study reports on the development and initial psychometric assessment of the Therapy Process Observational Coding Scale – Involvement (TPOCS-I), an observational measure designed to capture in-session involvement for youth therapy. Treatment sessions (N = 895) were drawn from (a) 55 youth (ages 7-13 years; M = 9.89, SD = 1.71; 51.5% Caucasian; 58.8% male) who received standard cognitive-behavioral therapy, modular therapy, or usual care for youth anxiety; and (b) 51 youth (ages 7-14; M = 10.35, SD = 1.89; 86.3% Caucasian; 60.8% male) receiving standard cognitive behavioral therapy for youth anxiety. Sessions were independently scored by seven coders using observational instruments designed to assess involvement, alliance, therapist competence, and therapist interventions. Interrater reliability – intraclass correlation coefficients (2,2)—for the item scores averaged 0.73 (SD = 0.08) and 0.82 (SD = 0.08) for the Kendall and Child STEPS samples, respectively. The TPOCS-I scale and subscale (Behavioral, Affective, Cognitive, Positive, Negative) scores failed to demonstrate discriminant validity from the alliance. The use of two subscale configurations (i.e., Behavioral, Affective, Cognitive; and Positive, Negative) was not supported. These findings are discussed and future directions including measure development in a sample of youth with diverse diagnoses and the use of different perspectives in the measurement of in-session involvement.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Family structure is related to educational attainment; it is evident that individuals from two- parent homes complete on average more years of schooling and are more likely to graduate from high school, attend University and complete University as compared to peers raised in single-parent families. Parental characteristics such as educational level, income and parents, aspirations for their children are variables said to influence schooling outcomes of South African learners. Children from disadvantaged families are less likely to graduate from high school and attend an institution of higher learning. The aim of this study was to explore and describe how single parenting in a disadvantaged community influences a learner's decision to enrol at a higher education institution. An explorative and descriptive research design grounded in a qualitative research approach was utilised. Research participants were purposively selected from two senior secondary schools in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Three sets of data, namely (a) grade 12 learners raised by single parents (b) parents of these learners, and (c) principals and grade 12 Life Orientation teachers were collected for greater insight of this situation. Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and field notes were used to collect the data. Tech's eight steps of data analysis were used. Ethical considerations such as confidentiality, voluntary participation, and informed consent from learners, parents, teachers and informed assent from learners younger than 18 years of age were adhered to. The greatest influences to enrolling into a higher education institution and the type of institution were family structure and the learner's socio-economic status. Learners feel responsible for taking care of their parents and siblings; therefore feel obligated to work after high school. Those that have the desire to study further are concerned about how they will finance their studies. The Department of Education (DoE) needs to conduct a needs assessment and provide schools with the resources they need. This includes teachers and administrative staff. The resources schools have influence school outcomes. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to do an analysis of what the barriers to enrolling into university and college are at the various schools. When they have identified these barriers they need to tailor-make their information sessions with high school learners so that they have all the necessary information before they assume enrolling at higher education institutions is inconceivable. Schools need to provide the necessary information about university and college; including available funding to learners and their parents from earlier grades. This will be of use to those who genuinely want to study further but are concerned about finances.

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ motivational beliefs for involvement in a Comprehensive School Health approach (locally called Healthy Active Schools, or HAS) at their child’s school. Literature suggests that parents’ role construction and parents’ self-efficacy are the most salient influences on parents’ decision to become involved at their child’s school. Twelve parents involved at two urban public elementary schools were interviewed. Questions were based on Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement (1995, 1997, 2005c). Qualitative multiple case study analysis additionally utilized Penner’s (2002) model of sustained volunteerism and Bandura’s collective efficacy theory (1997, 2000; Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2004) to clarify findings. Results suggest most parents’ strong active role construction and negative valence grounded their parent-focused role orientation. School case study analysis revealed that the principal’s leadership, the structure of the HAS committee and the school’s climate uniquely influenced parents’ beliefs. Individual parent case analysis revealed four distinct patterns of parents’ motivational beliefs for HAS involvement. Future research is warranted to further examine the decisive impact of parents’ health and prosocial values on their decision to become involved specific to a CSH approach type of involvement. Additional case studies in local schools, school districts and provinces are recommended to illuminate unique contextual influences and the potential for the emergence of collective efficacy; including consideration for parents’ belief construct general invitations from the school would contribute to gaining a deeper understanding within this domain. Finally, the link between parents’ motivational beliefs of empowerment and their sustained motivation for involvement needs to be explored further.

It is well known that physical activity can bring many benefits to people as they become older. In addition, a great deal is known about the personal and environmental motivators and barriers for older adults engaging in physical activity, yet policy imperatives have failed to deliver the change in activity levels required to even relatively modest levels of activity. This study has sought to ascertain the effect of involving older adults in the design, delivery, implementation and promotion of interventions to promote physical activity amongst their age group. Through a two phase design the study has sought to find out what the essential ingredients of a successful intervention to promote physical activity would be, before applying some of these findings to the promotion of interventions and considering their effect. The first phase of the study consisted of a qualitative study to identify older adults’ views and experiences. Some 61 older adults, aged between 49 and 87 years, were involved in 11 focus groups and 12 individual semi-structured interviews. Participants were asked why they engaged in physical activities, or what might encourage them to do so. The study was designed to identify the essential elements of a successful physical activity intervention. The second phase of the study, an action research project evolving from the qualitative study, involved older adults who were running community groups and physical activity sessions in their local areas and were keen to increase membership numbers. The Action Research Group, consisting of six older adults, two community development workers and the researcher, identified a number of problems to address as part of the study. New promotional literature for the community groups was developed, using the findings from the first study. Easy access, enjoyment, fun and affordability were highlighted on posters and leaflets that were distributed in the local communities. The studies established that there are various factors that make engaging in physical activities accessible and appealing to older adults. Participants reported that activities must be flexible; affordable; accessible; sociable; enjoyable and that engagement is seasonal. Factors relating to personality and lifestyle were also important. Not feeling the need to be active, and being unmotivated to do so, cannot be easily influenced by external promotion of physical activity. However, ensuring that activities are as easy as possible to engage in could help to encourage older adults to try activities that they might otherwise rule out. The health benefits of physical activity were far less important to the participants than the social benefits. Involving older adults in the promotion of activities, focussing on the characteristics of activities that appeal to them, had some success. Difficulties in appealing to older adults across a broad age range emerged, as many participants in both studies were put off attending any activity labelled as for ‘over 50s’. They did not identify themselves as ‘over 50’. Both studies highlighted the additional difficulty of attracting men to existing activity groups and sessions. A multilevel, social ecological model is presented, which highlights the influences on engagement in physical activity at individual and environmental levels. The future promotion of physical activity should focus on the social benefits and enjoyment that can be gained through participation, rather than on potential health benefits. How activities are labelled and promoted requires careful consideration and local older adults should be involved in local interventions. Community groups delivering interventions must receive tangible support.

Current trends in participative democracy suggest that the use of stakeholder involvement in decision making will increase in the next decade and beyond. The evolution towards stakeholder involvement is driven mainly by stakeholders’ expectation to participate in decision making on issues that affect them. The current view of international radiation protection organisations is that the stakeholders have a right to participate in decision making, but the changes to the current system of radiation protection decision making will only occur slowly through build up of positive experiences and appreciation of benefits provided by stakeholder involvement.The benefits of stakeholder involvement have already been observed in decision making in issues ranging from new nuclear build to dealing with radiological emergencies, but unsuccessful stakeholder involvement programmes have also been observed. In order to integrate stakeholder involvement further into radiation protection decision making it is important to incorporate and implement lessons learnt from both successful and unsuccessful stakeholder programmes, and understand when stakeholder involvement can be applied. My research into clearance of low radioactivity materials shows that stakeholder involvement can be applied in planned exposure situations as defined by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). Involvement of stakeholders in planned exposure situation decision making should, however, be limited to issues with high level of reputation risk or wide ranging impacts of multiple stakeholder groups.To assess whether stakeholder involvement can be applied in the other exposure situations defined by the ICRP as emergency and existing exposure situations, the other part of my research focused on radiological emergencies. The research demonstrated that stakeholder aided decision making already has a place in solving cooperative problems of emergency management, but there is still further scope to apply stakeholder involvement in coordination of emergency management. The research shows that there is scope to integrate stakeholder involvement further into radiation protection decision making, but this must be done in a planned and organised manner.