This dissertation examines how changing neighborhoods and the rise of urban school choice policies shape the experiences of parents raising young children. Drawing on 102 interviews with parents of elementary-aged children across New York City, descriptive network and geographic data from parent surveys, and four years of ethnographic observations of school district meetings, I answer four interrelated questions. First, how do parents integrate their sense of self into their school decision-making rationales? Second, how do ideologies around intensive mothering shape the particular experiences of mothers as they navigate school decision-making? Third, how do parents construct school decision-making networks that they draw on for advice and what are the spatial and geographic features of these networks? Lastly how do parents develop assessments of economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods and how do these evaluations guide their parenting strategies and childrearing logics? Through this research, I make four theoretical contributions. I examine parent decision-making standpoints and demonstrate how parents construct their identities through school decision-making. My findings suggest that socioeconomic differences shape how parents construct their identity as they make school decisions. Working-class parents primarily draw on their past school experiences while middle-class parents integrate their stance for equity into their school decisions. I find that parents across socioeconomic background center their parenting ideals on cultivating their child’s creativity and individuality and seek schools that will nurture their child’s identity. Second, I conceptualize the particular emotional labor mothers expend as they make school decisions. I find that mothers extend emotional labor in their search for schools for their children. Working-class mothers extend emotional labor at the beginning of the application process as they attempt to navigate application procedures. Middle-class mothers extend emotional labor in later stages as they attempt to implement a strategy for enrollment. Important racial and ethnic differences also shape how mothers take on these additional burdens of care work. I find that white mothers extend emotional labor by persistently contacting school administrators to seek enrollment while mothers of color across socioeconomic background extend emotional labor in their search for schools that will reaffirm and support their children’s marginalized identities. Third my dissertation contributes to our understanding of network effects in spatial context. I put forth a theory of cumulative network effects by evaluating the spatial attributes of parents’ advice networks. I find that parents draw on advice from family members, other parents, and organizations as they make school decisions. I find that both working-class and middle-class parents are more likely to enroll their children in non-zoned schools and schools that are greater distances away when they accumulate a large and spatially dispersed network. Lastly, I link together theories on neighborhood perceptions and childrearing by demonstrating how parents’ neighborhood assessments guide their parenting strategies in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. I find that parents’ varying views of economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in turn shapes their child rearing strategies. Parents who view the neighborhood more positively, cultivate relationships with neighbors and encourage their children to do the same, while parents who view the neighborhood less favorably create distance between their family and the neighborhood. Overall, my findings demonstrate that parenting approaches have shifted as neighborhoods have undergone changes and as educational policies in urban areas have emphasized greater school choice options. I demonstrate how parenting is shaped by decision-making standpoints, longstanding ideologies about motherhood, cumulative network effects in spatial context, and parents’ neighborhood assessments.

According to previous studies, schoolwork is the major source of adolescent-parent conflicts in Mainland China. Adolescents' personal reasoning over schoolwork conflicts reveals their desire for achieving autonomy in schoolwork. Meanwhile, their avoiding and obeying conflict resolution strategies co-exist with self-assertion. Parental psychological control is found among Mainland Chinese parents in the situations about offspring's schoolwork, which has detrimental effects on children's autonomy development. With the theoretical underpinnings of social domain theory, ecological systems theory, self-determination theory and family systems theory, the present study aims to examine the patterns of adolescent-parent conflicts over schoolwork in Ningxia of Mainland China, and explore the role of parental psychological control and the development of teenagers' autonomy in schoolwork conflicts. This study adopted grounded theory approach. Convenience and snowball sampling were conducted at the initial stage of sampling while purposeful and conceptual sampling were adopted to develop the grounded theory. There were 63 parents and teenagers participating in the present research. Specifically, 28 parents and 35 adolescents joined in this research. Data was collected through semi-structured individual interview and joint interview. Coping coding, axial coding and selective coding were used to analyze data. A grounded theory on patterns of conflicts over schoolwork, as well as parental psychological control and teenagers' autonomy revealed in schoolwork conflicts is developed in this study. Adolescents' reasoning about adolescent-parent conflicts over schoolwork is reactive to parental expectation and investment. Their resolution strategies in schoolwork conflicts also respond to parents' strategies in the process of conflict resolution. Psychological control is revealed in parents' conflict resolution strategies, which brings controlled motivation revealed in children's reasoning about schoolwork conflicts. Controlled motivation discourages the development of adolescents' autonomy over schoolwork. Contributions are made to fill up the gaps of adolescent-parent conflicts over schoolwork in Chinese families, as well as the advancement of adolescents' autonomy development in the context of adolescent-parent conflicts over schoolwork in Chinese families

Bakgrund: Cerebral pares (CP) är den vanligaste fysiska funktionsnedsättningen bland barn. Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) syftar till att öka funktion i den nedsatta handen. Det finns en kunskapslucka kring föräldrars upplevelser av CIMT-träning i barnets vardag. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka och beskriva upplevelser av CIMT via funktionell terapi bland föräldrar till barn med spastisk hemiplegisk cerebral pares, med fokus på föräldramedverkan, genomförande och följsamhet. Metod: Designen var en kvalitativ intervjustudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Metodansatsen var en induktiv kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Nio föräldrar från sju familjer deltog i studien. Föräldrarna hade barn i åldrarna fyra till sju år med Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) 1. Studien resulterade i fyra huvudkategorier; Hinder som måste övervinnas, Draghjälp och stöd, Hantera förväntningar och Lösningar för att få träning att fungera i vardagskontexten, med tillhörande underkategorier. Resultatet visade att tiden är det största hindret och att inblandning av lek är den bästa lösningen att få till träningen i vardagen. Egna förväntningar på sig själv och vikten av yttre stöd beskrevs. Föräldramedverkan visades vara avgörande för genomförande av interventionen. Konklusion: Det är av vikt att ta vara på föräldrarnas upplevelser för bästa genomförande och för att gynna följsamhet vid CIMT. Resultatet kan användas för att utveckla interventionen inom aktuell region.

Little research has been conducted to understand the role that parents play in children learning to code even though coding has become a necessary skill for students to successfully study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) subjects. After identifying five factors that would influence parental perceptions, we developed a survey and administered it to parents of elementary aged children. We validated the survey using a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. To be considered valid, factors needed to meet three of the following four fit statistics: RSMEA < 0.08, SRMR < 0.08, CFI > 0.9, TLI > 0.9. Items needed to have a factor loading > 0.3 with a significance of < 0.05. The results confirmed two factors, Parent & Child Interaction with Technology and Parents' Attitudes Towards Coding and Gender. The parent's coding experience and age, child coding experience, and living in the Western United States are significant in predicting the Parent & Child Interaction with Technology factor. The child's grade level and experience coding and living in a suburban area in the Western United States are significant in predicting the Parents' Attitudes Towards Coding and Gender factor. Although these factors proved significant, difficulties with the data make the model limited and additional revisions to the survey are needed. The revised survey will need to be administered again to validate a more robust model.

The current study developed a comprehensive theoretical framework of joint multiple contextual influences (JMCI framework) to guide empirical investigation of combine influences of social contexts on children's academic outcomes. Drawn from several general frameworks, four models of joint social influences were proposed: Independent, Interactive, Differential, and Sequential. Using a motivational framework, all four models were tested empirically for joint effects of parents and teachers on children's self-perceptions (relatedness, competence, and autonomy) and classroom engagement. Overall, this study provided some empirical support for every category of models proposed in the JMCI framework. The joint influences of parents and teachers on children's self-perceptions were mostly independent and unique. Most joint influences were additive: one social context couldn't buffer or amplify the effects of the other context. Only joint effects of Non-Supportive parents and Supportive teachers interacted in their influences on children's competence: Supportive teachers were able to safeguard and counterbalance the negative influences of Non-Supportive parents. The study also indicated that self-system processes are possible pathways through which parents and teachers exert their influences on children's academic engagement and that this influence depends on the age of the developing child. The study also suggested that children's engagement may be a mechanism that mediates the relationship between parents' and teachers' contexts.

This study sought to evaluate role-plays assessments with adult role-players as a measure of parents' skill acquisition as taught in the Incredible Years (IY) program. Parent performance during the role-play assessments was compared to parent performance during parent-child interactions. Experiment 1 of this study included role- 6 play assessments for the IY program in a multiple-baseline design across 6 skills with pre and post parent-child interactions. Participants were 7 parents with children between the ages of 2 and 8 years. The parent-child interactions were also scored using the Dyadic Parent Interaction Coding System (DPICS). The effectiveness of the role-play assessments as a measure of skill acquisition as demonstrated by an increase in scores only after the skill is formally taught in the program, and similarity between behavior during the role-play assessments and behavior during the parent-child interactions, was not possible due to lack of data and participant attrition. Using a repeated measures design, Experiment 2 addressed limitations of Experiment 1 by utilizing 4 participants with no involvement in the IY program. Role-play assessments and parent-child interactions were conducted 5 times (1 time per week) with 1 training session for the skill area with the lowest scores across the first 3 baseline sessions during the 41 h observation. Results demonstrated differences between parent behavior with an adult role-player compared to their child with variable responding in both the child and structured and role-play assessments during baseline. Increases were observed during both post-training sessions with increases in the final session for the parent-child interactions for the selected skill area for 3 of the 4 participants. These data suggest that the role-plays are sensitive to detecting behavior change; however, the parents' behavior with an adult role player may differ from behavior with their children.

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No description available.

The purpose of this research study was to increase the overall achievement gains of my students who are currently receiving overall grades below a 69% in my middle school mathematics class by promoting parental involvement. The purpose of my action-research study was to answer the following three research questions: 1. What changes occur in students‟ test scores and overall grades when a variety of parental contacts are made over a six-week period? 2. How can I promote parental involvement? 3. What can I do to educate parents on how to become more effectively involved in their child‟s education? To answer these questions I selected ten parents, whose children were currently receiving grades below a 69% in 7th grade mathematics and who have not contacted me after the first nine weeks of the semester. I used three different methods to contact the parents, phones call, emails, and notes in students‟ planners. All three methods showed a lack of parental feedback and involvement. Nevertheless, five students showed an increase in the second marking period, four showed a decrease, and one stayed the same.

Research has shown that there is a positive correlation with student performance when there are members of the family, primarily a parent, who are actively involved with the student and their education. The following action research plan was designed to determine how increasing parental involvement affected student performance in a scientific inquiry program. This was done by offering "parenting a middle school student" workshops, encouraging family run practices at home, and inviting parents to attend a class with their student. This research was conducted in a large middle school in a central Florida school district with two 7th grade classrooms. One classroom served as the control group, while the second served as the experimental group. The teacher researcher was responsible for increasing communication with the parents in regards to student behavior and/or performance. Implementation of increased communications are associated with keeping parents informed, however they only work to increase student performance if the parent uses the increased communication and applies the information to use at home. Analysis of the data indicated that there was no difference between the two classes. The majority of the invited parents in the experimental group did not participate in the parent workshops. Students in the experimental groups showed little or no difference in grades on the post unit exam or in their overall grades. Additional research with smaller sampling sizes would be a recommendation of this researcher. When working with an average of one hundred and twenty students on a regular basis, working with twenty five sets of parents to increase communication was a daunting task. The researcher would recommend having an experimental group of no more than ten for future ii i studies. Although a small sample may be sufficient for a descriptive study, it's recognized that a small sample will likely not have sufficient power to detect statistically significant differences if they exist.