This thesis has considered findings from evaluations of parenting programmes which have traditionally used outcome measures of negative affect and behaviour to measure change. Drawing on the considerable body of research on parenting programmes and their theoretical basis Paper 1 advances a line of argument about the potential for incorporating measures developed from research in the area of positive psychology. Extending outcomes of interest to incorporate measures of positive affect, attitudes and behaviour has the potential to contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms of change. No studies of parenting programmes using positive outcome measures were identified. Paper 1 concludes that future research of parenting programmes could begin to investigate the role of positive emotions as mechanisms of change. Paper 2 aimed to examine session-by-session changes in gratitude, positive and negative affect, satisfaction, authenticity, self-efficacy, defeat and entrapment in parents attending a Triple P Positive Parenting program. This study found that entrapment had a significant concurrent relationship with gratitude, negative and positive affect, authenticity, and satisfaction with life. Entrapment was also found to be a significant predictor of session by session change with lower levels of entrapment predicting increases in gratitude, negative and positive affect, and satisfaction. The study concludes that reductions in entrapment are a significant predictor of increases in positive affect and attitudes in carers attending a parenting programme. Paper 3 is a critical reflection and considers both Paper 1 and Paper 2. Within this paper the approaches used, the challenges encountered, and future research are considered.

This exploratory study was designed to elicit information about family reactions to the crisis of illness and what families perceive to be helpful during this crisis. The study focused on the family crisis of incorporating back into the family a father who had experienced his first myocardial infarction. The study was conducted with a convenience sample of ten male myocardial infarction patients, their wives, and children living in the household. A semi-structured interview schedule was used with each family one to three weeks following the father's discharge from hospital. The interview data were summarized into categories and descriptive statistics were used. All 10 families described changes that had occurred in the areas of family roles, interactions, affect and structure since the father had returned home from hospital. The amounts of help received by families varied a great deal and differences of opinion were expressed within some families. Friends and home care nurses were most frequently seen as persons offering the most help to families. Receiving information and reassurance were seen as helpful during this time. In summary, the results of the study indicate that families do experience a variety of changes when a family member is ill. The quantity and quality of change are related to the family's perception of the nature of the illness, the ill member's enactment of the sick role and the degree of difference between the family's pre-illness and post-illness state. Illness, especially life-threatening illness, fosters a review of individual and family goals which can also produce change. It is also presumed that family reactions can have an effect on the course of illness. The effect is dependent upon family perceptions of the illness, the amount and kind of controls they can exercise, and the personal needs of individual family members. More research is required to identify the characteristics and temporal aspects of family reactions to illness and family effects on illness. Innovative approaches to research design and methodology are required to ensure scientific theory development and continued appreciation of the complexity of family systems. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Jurisprudence / LLD / Unrestricted

Context: The Olo (egg-milk-orange) intervention offers vulnerable pregnant women food vouchers and supplements, tools, and nutritional counselling to support healthy pregnancy outcomes. Goal: To evaluate Olo’s contribution to the nutritional intakes and eating practices, as well as participants’ appreciation of the intervention. Methods: Participants (n=30) responded to questionnaires, dietary recalls and participated in a semi-structured interview (n=10). Results: Olo reduced the proportion of participants at risk of inadequate intakes for many micronutrients, mainly due to the prenatal multivitamins rather than the food offered. Most participants (96.7%) did not follow Olo’s typical recommendations but if so, they would have hypothetically consumed an average of 746 additional calories and be at risk of excessive intakes for folic acid (80.0%) and iron (33.3%). Olo also contributed to reduce the impact of isolation and solitude. Conclusion: The Olo intervention may need to be adapted to better respond to the participants’ social and dietary needs.

Fabio Frettoli THE MODALITIES OF INTERVENTION IN FAILED STATES FROM A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE The main aim of the thesis is to analyze from a critical perspective the modalities of intervention adopted by the international community and western institutions towards the so-called "failed states". Among those who work in international organizations, state-building projects often appear to be the best way to resolve the problems that afflict failed states. Most policymakers involved believe in the application, in these situations, of the principles that characterize the well-known liberal peace theory1 . It is indeed commonly assumed that liberal internationalism, democratic institutions and free markets are the main ingredients to develop a successful state-building project in every circumstance. The general idea behind this approach is that liberal democratic and market reforms will bring stability to the area, which in turn will cause state stability and prosperity to the singular individuals. Unfortunately the international actors, in their attempt to improve the situation as fast as possible, often have ended up focusing too much on the economic structural reforms, ignoring the factors that could bring some real benefit to the bulk of the population, favoring instead the local political elites, which are...

Objective: This study explored the effectiveness of a parent-implemented, focused stimulation program on the speech characteristics of children younger than 3 years with cleft lip and palate. The research questions included the following: (1) Can parents be trained to deliver an early intervention (EI) program for children with cleft palate? (2) Does a parent-implemented EI program result in positive changes in speech characteristics? Participants: Ten mother-child pairs in which the child had cleft lip and palate (CLP) and 10 mother-child pairs in which the child did not have a cleft (NCLP). The children ranged in age from 14 to 36 months of age and were matched between the CLP and the NCLP groups for vocabulary size, age, and socioeconomic status. Main Outcome Measures: Group differences (CLP and the NCLP) for preintervention and postintervention language and speech measures were compared. Results: The results of this study showed that the mothers could be trained to deliver the intervention reliably. Furthermore, the results indicated that the intervention resulted in increased sound inventories, increased speech accuracy, and reduced use of glottal stops for the children with clefts. Conclusions: While the intervention resulted in speech gains for the children with clefts, speech measures did not exceed those made by the children without clefts. The results of the study have implications for service delivery models where the services of speech-language pathologists are limited.

The purpose of this study was to test the premise that feedabck intervention cues differentially direct attention to a level of a processing hierarcy proposed by Kluger and DeNisi (1996). The hierarchy consists of task details, task motivation (general task), or meta-task processes (attention to "self"). Feedback designed to initiate different level of processing was manipulated and performance on a typing task was measured. The relationship between the feedback manipulation and performance was analyzed through analysis of covariance and repeated measures analysis of variance. For the analysis of covariance, the assumption of equality of slopes was violated, so data were analyzed through an ATI design. The feedback manipulation was associated with changes in performance, and these changes depended on ability. / Master of Science

The rising number of women who are overweight or obese living in Canada is concerning because an excess weight can lead to serious health problems. Nearly 65% of women living in Canada are considered overweight or obese. Regular physical activity (PA) participation is beneficial and can help women manage their weight. Considering women who are overweight or obese are generally physically inactive, interventions drawing on theory are warranted to promote PA. This thesis reports on the protocol and results of a randomized controlled trial that was conducted to assess the effect of a self-determination theory-based eHealth intervention on PA among women who were overweight or obese with low levels of PA. The full protocol for this study is described in Chapter 3: Protocol Manuscript and the results of the primary objective are presented in Chapter 4: Results Manuscript. Reflections on the lessons I have learned while implementing a clinical trial are presented in Chapter 5: Lessons Learned. Briefly, the selfdetermination theory-based eHealth intervention provided (A) six weekly behavioural support emails, (B) a wearable activity tracker, and (C) a copy of the Canadian PA guidelines. The primary objective of this study was to determine if participants who received the combined intervention (A+B+C) increased their PA levels from baseline to post-intervention. The secondary objective was to assess if this combined intervention leads to greater change in PA than those who received an intervention including (B+C) or only (C). It was hypothesized that participants in the combined intervention would increase their PA from baseline to postintervention, and that this increase would be greater than the increase observed among those who received an intervention including (B+C) or only (C). In addition, measures of constructs embedded in self-determination theory (i.e., basic psychological need satisfaction and thwarting, motivational regulations) and wellbeing (i.e., affect, vitality, wellbeing) were included to address tertiary objectives of examining if there are differences in changes in these constructs between groups. Participants were recruited between September 2018 and March 2019. Data were collected using self-report and direct measures three times: at baseline (week 0), postintervention (week 7), and at follow-up (week 21). Data from forty-six women (Mage=37.72±11.87 years, MBMI=31.55±5.96 kg/m2 ) were analyzed. Mean PA at baseline across all participants was 1148.12±1091.03 metabolic equivalent minutes (MET-minutes) per week. In relation to the primary study objective, PA increased from baseline to post-intervention (F=17.95, p.05) and the interaction between group and time (p>.05) were not significant. In summary, participants in this study showed a large and significant increase in PA, but the three different interventions did not have a differential impact on change in PA. Discussion of the findings regarding the primary and secondary objectives, and the potential implications of the tertiary objective, will provide insight into which combination of intervention components may be more effective at promoting PA among insufficiently active women who are overweight or obese, and thus inform the design of future interventions aiming to promote PA.

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Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.