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The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of School Home Links activity guide homework on kindergarten Texas Primary Reading Inventory scores. Student Texas Primary Reading Inventory (TPRI) scores were obtained and analyzed for gains in score from the Middle of Year (MOY) and End of Year (EOY) administration. Parents were provided School Home Links Activity Guide Homework to use with their child on a weekly basis for twelve weeks. This group formed an experimental group. A control group did not receive SHL activity guide homework. For the control and experimental group each student's letter/sound score was entered into SPSS for the MOY and EOY TPRI, and average gains were calculated. Groups of students were isolated and analyzed for gain based upon participation in a district reading program, and/or high or low parental involvement in SHL activity guide homework. Research in the upper grades shows that homework completion and parent involvement positively affect student achievement. Students whose parents are involved in their education reap many benefits. These benefits include higher academic achievement (Davies, 1991). Fuller & Olsen (1998), Davies (1991), and Epstein (1995) believe parent involvement is a stronger indicator of student achievement than socioeconomic status, parent education, ethnicity, or any other indicator. The research supports the use of homework for upper grades. The results of this study remain inconclusive for kindergarten age students. This study shows that there is no statistically significant difference between experimental and control group kindergarten TPRI scores when homework is an independent variable.

Procedural pain is still under managed in practice, resulting in immediate and long-term negative sequellae for children. Accreditation guidelines identify health care professionals as responsible for providing procedural pain management, however recent evidence supports the idea that parents can be assisted to provide effective pain management through non-pharmacological strategies. Using Appreciative Inquiry, twelve nurses were interviewed about their knowledge of the evidence, work context, and factors that facilitate their ability to engage parents in procedural pain management. Focus groups verified the findings and made suggestions for practical application. From the data, four predominant patterns emerged: 1) Establishing meaningful interpersonal connections; 2) Fostering a culture of collaboration; 3) Pain as a priority – moving from a philosophy to a standard; 4) Sustaining practices through advanced knowledge and skills. Findings will contribute to the literature that guides education, policies, and standards that engage all resources to promote more effective pain relieving practices.

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The effects of marital separation or divorce on children have been widely researched, often relying on clinical samples, and the short-term and long-term consequences have been documented. Research findings are divergent: some studies suggest that adolescents are not adversely affected while other studies show that adolescents' functioning is affected in a permanent way by parental separation. Ambert and Saucier (1983) reviewed adolescents' perceptions of parents, controlling for gender and parental marital status. Their findings suggested that adolescents perceive their parents differently on the basis of marital status and gender. / Inspired by Ambert and Saucier's research, this exploratory study was based on interviews with eighteen adolescents, in an attempt to understand how family composition and gender influences adolescent perceptions of parents. The subjects were from divorced and intact families and the results were analyzed qualitatively. It was assumed that adjustment to parental separation or divorce would be reflected in the adolescents' perceptions of their parents. / Contrary to expectations, the findings of this study indicated that adolescents from both intact and divorced families perceived their parents in a similar way. These findings are attributed to several factors, including the absence of interparental hostility, the length of time since the separation and economic stability within these families.

Manitoba, like all provinces since the 1990s, has put forth efforts to increase parental input into local school decision making. Despite efforts, parents struggle to gain the recognition and support required to be true stakeholders in school governance. Six members of parent-centred school partnership councils (PSPCs) were interviewed in this qualitative study to determine the role and potential of such councils in three rural Manitoba public schools. This study suggests that the strong efforts since the 1990s for Manitoba schools to have parents as true partners in shared governance has not fully been realized.

Young adults are moving back into their family homes and are now living with their parents. Common terms for the adult children include "previously launched adult" and "incompletely launched adult." I used data from Wave 3 (2001 to 2003) of the National Survey of Families and Households to analyze the relationship between different life course and family development variables and the launching status of young adults. This dissertation specifically uses the dependent variable "launching status" of either previously launched or failure to launch. I undertake two multinomial logistic regression models with the dependent variable "launching status." I then proceed to a replication of the original analysis with two other multinomial logistic regression models, using the dependent variable "launching status" and the data gathered from Wave 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households (1992 to 1994). I conclude with a descriptive analysis of the 2009 American Community Survey to describe current trends of adult child and parent co-residence. The first analysis uses various life course variables as independent variables and then introduces control variables into the models. The second analysis uses various family development and family structure variables and then introduces control variables into the models. After running the two models using the Wave 3 data, I determined that the life course variables had a significant relationship with launching status, and the family development variables did not prove to be very significantly related to launching status. The replication of the Wave 3 analysis with the Wave 2 data showed similar results. Like the original analysis, the life course variables were significantly related to launching status, whereas the family development variables were not significantly related to launching status. The descriptive results using the American Community Survey data show that a majority of young adults who are living at home are between the ages of 18 and 24, are male, are White and non-Hispanic, and have a high school education or less. The major contribution of this research is that it differentiates between those who have never left the family home and those who left and then returned. This is the first study, to my knowledge, to do so.

Somalia has undergone a prolonged period of civil war, lawlessness and turmoil, which has resulted in many people becoming displaced, and a number of those displaced people have migrated to New Zealand as refugees. This thesis is a study of communication and collaboration between Somali refugee families and their children’s schools in Christchurch, New Zealand in the light of their experiences pre and post-resettlement in New Zealand. This was to take into account recommendations of the UNHCR Handbook for best practice. Informed by interviews with 40 Somali parents, 15 Somali secondary students, two school principals, and 15 teachers, the thesis examines collaboration with schools in the context of the families’ experiences in their home country, the flight process, the refugee camps and the migration and resettlement in New Zealand. Data were gathered using questionnaires, individual interviews, focus groups, observation, and document analysis, and subjected to a qualitative analysis. The study revealed a remarkable degree of heterogeneity among Somali refugee families who have been settling in Christchurch over fourteen years. Many diverse factors were identified such as gender, previous socio-economic status, urban versus rural origins, level of English language, poverty, employable work skills, and refugee experiences such as the level of trauma, all of which have impacted on the capacity of individuals and families to adjust during their resettlement. Many refugees were identified as having undergone major trauma during the civil war and refugee flight process. These experiences have affected the integration of many into their new society, but this study found that those with the greatest apparent level of recognised need and vulnerability were those with the poorest communication skill. This resulted in their having a poor relationship with schools and left them quite alienated. For many such families the only interface with their local school was being summoned to discuss the infractions of their children and any subsequent disciplinary measures. Therefore, one of the greatest needs to improve communication and collaboration was identified as the ability to learn the English language. Other barriers to successful communication and collaboration included issues associated with racism, cultural awareness, teacher workload, lack of acknowledgement of refugees’ special needs in school policies, teachers’ low expectations of refugee parents, intimidating school environments, ambiguous information, the Somali oral culture, parents’ financial hardship, parents’ lack of transport, parents’ workload, inadequate housing and the families’ high mobility. There are currently neither national policies nor adequate resources to facilitate refugees improving their English language skills, nor to support schools in other aspects of their communication and collaboration with refugee families, and this study suggests that the absence of guidelines and resourcing is another key factor behind the poor engagement between the families and schools. Schools and their teachers also need good professional development that takes account of the diverse needs of these families in order to help build and strengthen better working relationships with refugee families. The thesis goes on to discuss the current models of parent-school collaboration, and it concludes by presenting a proposed new empowerment model of parent-school collaboration which is tailored to help support refugee families. Key tenets of the proposed new model are that there must be principals who provide committed leadership and support, by meeting and welcoming parents when children are enrolled, providing follow-up meetings after enrolment, and developing structures, policies and guidelines to promote parent-school collaboration. They need to provide adequate resources to educate school personnel and mainstream parents about the refugees’ culture and experiences, and a designate a co-ordinator with responsibility for creating an inclusive environment with positive ethnic relations, while conducting monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of these measures on communication and collaboration. The model also suggests that there should be greater inter-agency co-ordination and co-operation between the schools and organisations such as health services, social services, WINZ, NZIS and the Police. Implementing the proposed model would build on existing social capital to result in adults and children who are more actively involved not only in education, but also in health care and social and recreational activities where the school is the hub for empowering those families which are most at risk.