M.Ed. (Education and Curriculum Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study examined participants' expectations for parental and stepparental responsibilities with respect to child care. Seventy-nine female and seventy-five male participants completed the Parenting Expectations Questionnaire. Participants read a brief scenario about a first married family; a stepmother/biological father family; or a stepfather/biological mother family. They then assigned responsibility for 38 child care tasks on a 5-point scale from "man always" to "woman always". The general findings were: 1) participants assigned less responsibility to stepparents (stepmothers and stepfathers) for child care than they assigned to biological parents; 2) there was less consensus about appropriate "parental" behaviour for stepparents as compared to that for first married parents; and 3) participants with stepfamily experience assigned less responsibility to stepparents than did participants from first married families. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Child abuse has been studied for the past twenty years in an attempt to define it, delineate etiology and suggest treatment modalities. Inadequate methodological controls and therapeutic assumptions incestuously shared have resulted in a theory that defines parents as bad, sick or ignorant but definitely as the culprits. More recently, sociological explanations have been written to present a psychosocial model for abuse. The purpose of this study was to explore whether a relationship exists between child abuse and a mother's knowledge of growth and development. Two groups of single parent, female headed families were chosen in the community. Twenty-three mothers participated in a thirty card growth and development sort, derived by the author from a developmental profile by Alpern and Boll (1972), indicating their understanding of when a child could first perform the behavior. The mothers were also assigned a number on an abuse continuum. The resulting data and demographic information were correlated using a Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient and Chi-Squared Contingency analysis at the 0.05 level of significance. No significant relationship was found between level of abuse or knowledge of growth and development. Some significant associations were found within the demographic characteristics, with implications for study of variable clusters. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Nursing, School of / Graduate

This study sought to determine if participation in a home education learning program would impact the perceived levels of parental self-efficacy of parents/caregivers who participate in the completion of home-learning assignments and increase their levels of home-learning involvement practices. Also, the study examined the relationship between the parental involvement practice of completing interactive home-learning assignments and the reading comprehension achievement of first grade students. A total of 146 students and their parents/caregivers representing a convenience sample of eight first grade classes participated in the study. Four classes (n=74) were selected as the experimental group and four classes (n=72) served as the control group. . There were 72 girls in the sample and 74 boys and the median age was 6 years 6 months. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design utilizing eight existing first grade classes. It examined the effects of a home-learning support intervention program on the perceived efficacy levels of the participating parents/care¬givers, as measured by the Parent Perceptions of Parent Efficacy Scale (Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Brissie, 1992) administered on a pre/post basis. The amount and type of parent involvement in the completion of home assignments was determined by means of a locally developed instrument, the H.E.L.P. Parent Involvement Home-learning Scale, administered on a pre/post basis. Student achievement in reading comprehension was measured via the reading subtest of the Brigance, CIB-S pre and post. The elementary students and their parents/caregivers participated in an interactive home-learning intervention program for 12 weeks that required parent/caregiver assistance. Results revealed the experimental group of parents/caregivers had a significant increase in their levels of perceived self-efficacy, p<.001, from the pre to post, and also had significantly increased levels of parental involvement in seven home-learning activities, p<.001, than the control group parents/caregivers. The experimental group students demonstrated significantly higher reading levels than the control group students, p<.001. This study provided evidence that interactive home-learning activities improved the levels of parental self-efficacy and parental involvement in home-learning activities, and improved the reading comprehension of the experimental group in comparison to the control.

"Research in child development has provided many findings of great significance, but in addition to reading these facts and findings, all individuals dealing with children need to formulate a definite point of view regarding child development. This point of view should include an understanding of the importance of why children react as they do, a spirit of inquiry, a genuine interest, and a sincere attempt to analyze development correctly"--Introduction. / "August, 1951." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Sarah Lou Hammond, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 43-44).

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF EDUCATION in the Department of Foundations of Education of the Faculty of Education at the University of Zululand, 2002. / The issue of involving parents in education has been explored by several studies in the past with all pointing towards greater success than failures amongst learners whose parents work in partnership with educators. Parental involvement not only ensures maximum development of learner-motivation, but it also has an impact on the smooth running of the school. However, a gap still exists between parents and educators in black secondary schools in South Africa. This results in poor performance among matriculants in particular, and lack of commitment and responsibility among learners in general. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which parents and educators in black secondary schools work as partners in developing the culture of learning in learners. The results showed that most parents felt that they have a role to play in the education of their children. Yet they realized that they were not fully involved either due to inadequate financial and knowledge resources or trie schools did not fully involve them in their activities- This study is an ongoing attempt at making parents and educators realize the importance of partnership in the education of the child.

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