Although there currently exists an in-depth empirical understanding of parents experiences and involvement in youth sport, there is an absence of published field-based intervention research specifically with sport parents (Harwood & Knight, 2015). In order to address this gap in the literature, this thesis developed a psychosocial parent education programme for British Tennis. The first study identified the education and support needs of tennis parents operating within British high performance centres (study one). Adopting a grounded theory design, data were collected through informal chats, observations, and formal interviews with parents, coaches, and ex-youth players (n=29) during a six-month period of fieldwork. Findings revealed how parents education and support needs occur across multiple levels of functioning (i.e., social, organisational, developmental, and intra-interpersonal) and are influenced by the developmental stage that parents operate in. This theoretical framework was then used as the basis for a group-based tennis parent education programme (study two). Using a qualitative organisational action research framework seven workshops were run over a 12-week period for parents with children between the ages of 5 and 10 years. Participant diaries, social validation feedback forms, and post programme focus groups (n=19) revealed perceived improvements in parents knowledge, affect, and skills across a range of learning objectives. In an attempt to improve accessibility and extend participation, the final study utilised a convergent parallel mixed methods design to examine the effectiveness of an online education programme for British tennis parents (n=38) and their perceptions of engaging in the programme (study three). Quantitative findings revealed positive directional changes in tennis parent efficacy, general parent efficacy, emotional experiences, and achievement goal orientations after completing the programme. Qualitative data provided complementary and unique insights into what worked, how, and why. Taken together, the studies within this thesis are the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of face-to-face and online sport parent education programmes. Findings also extend and advance existing recommendations and guidelines in relation to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of education programmes for sport parents. In particular, studies illustrate the importance and value of providing sport parents with accessible, proactive, structured, and developmentally appropriate education and support which addresses their stage-specific needs.

abstract: In the last decade, the number of people who own a mobile phone or portable electronic communication device has grown exponentially. Recent advances in smartphone technology have enabled mobile devices to provide applications (“mHealth apps”) to support delivering interventions, tracking health treatments, or involving a healthcare team into the treatment process and symptom monitoring. Although the popularity of mHealth apps is increasing, few lessons have been shared regarding user experience design and evaluation for such innovations as they relate to clinical outcomes. Studies assessing usability for mobile apps primarily rely on survey instruments. Though surveys are effective in determining user perception of usability and positive attitudes towards an app, they do not directly assess app feature usage, and whether feature usage and related aspects of app design are indicative of whether intended tasks are completed by users. This is significant in the area of mHealth apps, as proper utilization of the app determines compliance to a clinical study protocol. Therefore it is important to understand how design directly impacts compliance, specifically what design factors are prevalent in non-compliant users. This research studies the impact of usability features on clinical protocol compliance by applying a mixed methods approach to usability assessment, combining traditional surveys, log analysis, and clickstream analysis to determine the connection of design to outcomes. This research is novel in its construction of the mixed methods approach and in its attempt to tie usability results to impacts on clinical protocol compliance. The validation is a case study approach, applying the methods to an mHealth app developed for early prevention of anxiety in middle school students. The results of three empirical studies are shared that support the construction of the mixed methods approach. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2016

In this study the mixed methods research design was used to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of secondary school science teachers in the implementation of the new Swaziland Junior Secondary Science Curriculum (SJSSC). The interactions between the teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and classroom practices were also investigated. A total of 37 Form-1 Science teachers from 20 purposively selected schools in the Manzini region of Swaziland participated in the study. The 20 schools were located in urban, peri-urban and rural settings. The teachers responded to a survey questionnaire and a few selected teachers were interviewed and then observed teaching the new curriculum in their classrooms. The data for the study were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The findings for the study showed that teachers generally have good basic knowledge of the curriculum. A majority hold positive attitudes towards it. However, the classroom practices for almost all the teachers are inconsistent with the requirements and demands of the curriculum. Generally, the teachers’ knowledge was not transferred to their classroom practices largely because factors such as inadequate school physical resources, large class sizes, and traditional teaching methods appeared to still influence the classroom practices and mediate the relationship between the teachers’ knowledge and their classroom practices. / Dissertation (MEd (Curriculum and Instructional Design and Development))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

The challenge of leadership in the public sector has far reaching implications for the entire society given its role in the regulation of the affairs of any society. The complexities of the public sector decision making and operations as well as their implications require good leadership. Therefore the identification of leadership potential at all levels is crucial in order to design the interventions to develop the potential further. Studies have shown that there is not a lot of research done in the area of leadership potential identification especially in the public sector. This is also because, until recently, there has been no widely accepted framework for identification of leadership potential that is applicable at all levels. A model of identifying leadership potential has recently been published and this model has been applied in the identification of leadership potential in the Australian public sector. This study aims to assess the leadership potential of the public sector managers from an intentional change perspective. This was done through a determination of the relationship between the three concepts of ideal self, leadership potential as well as the current performance of managers in the public sector. Furthermore, an assessment of the required organizational support to improve awareness of ideal self by the employees and managers was done. 95 responses from a variety of middle and senior managers in the Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa were collected and analysed. The analysis included Principle Component Analysis and Correlations to assess the relationships between these three constructs. Also 12 interviews with middle managers (level 11-12) across most departmental functions were conducted and analysed. The results indicated that there does not appear to be any statistically significant relationship between performance scores and ideal self as well as performance scores and leadership potential. They, however, indicated that there is a statistically significant relationship between the ideal self and the leadership potential. Furthermore, the results showed that to improve the awareness of the ideal self by the employees and managers and thereby increase their leadership potential, the organization needs to consider a few things. Those are, training and organizational culture; conversations with managers; coaching and mentoring; clear succession planning and rotation; opportunity or space to innovate. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

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This mixed methods study sought to refine the causal explanations for racial disparities in mental health care by exploring with youth of color (YOC, ages 12–21) how they became candidates for psychiatric care (“candidacy”). The thesis focused on developing and testing hypotheses about the Candidacy Model (CM) as a mediator of the relationships between mental health needs, racism, and health care utilization; examining those relationships when the candidate for care was represented by an agent; and characterizing how YOC and their agents experienced the assertion and adjudication stages of CM during a psychiatric emergency services visit. Despite a rich and growing literature on patient and environmental factors associated with lower access to psychiatric services, health services research in the United States has paid little attention to how YOC actualize their candidacy for mental health services. The CM suggests that vulnerable populations must negotiate with health care systems to have their needs considered medically treatable and to experience treatment in conditions that are congruent with their lifestyles. Theorizing that CM acts as a mediator between healthcare needs, racism, and treatment, this thesis explored how the specific stages of CM influenced mental health outcomes for YOC. The hypothesized relationships between candidacy, needs, racism, and utilization were tested using data from two national surveys, and in two different contexts: among young adults (ages 18-21) and among adolescents (ages 12–17) whose candidacy was co-constructed with their guardians. Through qualitative research (interviews and observation), over two years the research team explored with YOC and their guardians how current and prior candidacy experience influenced their use of psychiatric emergency services, an undesirable source of mental health care, and often the last resort for patients unable to access ongoing care. I found limited evidence that CM stages mediated the relationship between health care needs and treatment. Experiencing racism decreased the likelihood of being a successful candidate for care. Explorations with YOC and guardians found that people of color were marginalized when their assertions were ignored and when they were excluded from mental health care decision making. Repeat visits to the psychiatric emergency room reflected a negotiation strategy, in which the YOC and guardian triangulate and learn over time how to negotiate for a desired outcome. This thesis deepens knowledge of CM and of the role of negotiations in mental health care access for YOC, providing theoretical insights that will inform interventions to improve mental health equity. / 2025-08-23T00:00:00Z

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<p> This mixed methods study seeks to explain women's decision making regarding intimate partner violence disclosure in urban emergency departments. It contributed to an overall program of research led by Dr. H.L. MacMillan examining the effectiveness of screening in health care settings to reduce violence and improve the quality of women's lives.</p> <p> The study included a randomized, controlled trial with a quantitative sub-analysis and a grounded theory approach. The trial goal was to evaluate whether routine screening for IPV in health care settings, as compared to usual care, does more good than harm. The quantitative sub-analysis included 1,182 participants from three trial emergency departments. In the sample, 1.9% were exposed to intimate partner violence disclosed to the health care provider. Of those who disclosed, 62.9% were positive on both the screening tool and criterion standard. The grounded theory phase involved 19 participants and sought to examine the problems that trial participants associated with intimate partner violence disclosure and the processes they used to resolve them.</p> <p> "Being found out" was the basic social psychological problem that influenced women's decisions against disclosure. This led to a three-phase process where participants attempted to "minimize their risks." The basic social psychological process included: (a) deciding to seek health care, (b) evaluating trust in the clinician, and (c) establishing internal readiness for disclosure. Participants stated that the emergency department was not an ideal place to disclose violence due to overcrowding, chaos, long wait times, and a lack of privacy. Results indicated that abused women wanted clinicians to offer empathy and support, and to minimize the intrusion caused by assessment. Clinician education is required to improve communication, client engagement and comfort discussing intimate partner violence. Future research could explore the barriers and facilitators to care quality and patient satisfaction among abused women seeking emergency care.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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No description available.