Two common forms of teaching English to English-language learners are bilingual education and sheltered English immersion. While both programs claim successful second language acquisition, other effects of the programs need to be considered. This research examines one of those effects: self-efficacy, or students' perception that they will be successful or unsuccessful in doing a specific task or acquiring a specific skill. Using archival records and semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions, this qualitative study draws on the work of Bandura (1977, 1986, 1997) to explore differences in self-efficacy between students who have participated for 5 years in a two-way Spanish-English bilingual immersion (TWBE) or an immersion/sheltered English program (SEI) at the same school. Interviews with the parents of the 11 Hispanic students allowed for comparisons of parent satisfaction with the two language programs. Findings indicated that students in both programs are similar in many ways; however there were marked differences between the two groups. Although all of the student participants considered themselves bilingual, those who were in the SEI program cannot read or write the language and use it only for social situations. Furthermore, students who have been in the TWBE program reported using practice, study, and note taking as success strategies in school, while their SEI peers used doing homework and turning it in as a success strategy. Students in TWBE reported having more successes in Spanish while their SEI peers reported struggling more in school and with Spanish. A major finding in parent interviews was that although all the parents expressed the desire that their children know Spanish, only some chose to put their children in the bilingual program. What decision processes parents use to place their children in the programs is unknown. Additionally, parents whose children were in the TWBE program reported that their children had more success experiences with home, friends, and family, the language program and with both Spanish and English. The TWBE parents also indicated that their children had more extended family members who served as models for them because their children can speak and write Spanish and thus have additional contact with extended family.

Plusieurs études ont confirmé que certains traits de personnalité des enfants et certaines attitudes et pratiques éducatives de leurs parents constituaient des prédicteurs des comportements perturbateurs à l’adolescence. Toutefois, la majorité des recherches ont adopté un modèle postulant des relations directes et indépendantes entre ces facteurs de risque et des comportements perturbateurs. Le modèle transactionnel est plus réaliste parce qu’il postule des relations bidirectionnelles à travers le temps entre ces deux facteurs de risque. Cette étude visait à vérifier l’existence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité des enfants et les attitudes parentales de leur mère mesurés à deux reprises durant l’enfance (à 6 et 7 ans), pour ensuite vérifier si les comportements perturbateurs des enfants mesurés à l’adolescence (15 ans) pouvaient être prédits par les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales. Les données utilisées proviennent d’une étude longitudinale prospective de 1000 garçons et 1000 filles évalués à plusieurs reprises de la maternelle à l’adolescence. Six traits de personnalité des enfants et deux attitudes parentales ont été évalués par les mères à 6 et 7 ans, alors que les diagnostics de troubles perturbateurs (trouble des conduites, trouble oppositionnel avec provocation, trouble de déficit de l’attention/hyperactivité) ont été évalués par les adolescents et les mères à 15 ans. Afin de tester les hypothèses de recherche, des analyses de cheminement (« path analysis ») multi-groupes basées sur la modélisation par équations structurales ont été utilisées. Les résultats ont confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales durant l’enfance. Toutefois, peu de relations étaient significatives et celles qui l’étaient étaient de faible magnitude. Les modèles multi-groupes ont par ailleurs confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles différentes selon le sexe. En ce qui concerne la prédiction des comportements perturbateurs, de façon générale, surtout les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales à 6 ans (plutôt qu’à 7 ans) ont permis de les prédire. Néanmoins, peu de relations prédictives se sont avérées significatives. En somme, cette étude est une des rares à avoir démontré la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre la personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales avec des données longitudinales. Ces résultats pourraient avoir des implications théoriques pour les modèles explicatifs des comportements perturbateurs, de même que des implications pratiques pour le dépistage des enfants à risque. / Several studies confirmed that some children’s personality traits and parental attitudes constitute risk factors of later disruptive behaviors during adolescence. However, most research has adopted a model postulating direct and independent relations between these risk factors and disruptive behaviors. The transactional model is more realistic because it postulates bidirectional relations over time between these two risk factors. Even though the transactional model is popular amongst researchers, there is in fact very little research formally demonstrating the existence of bidirectional relations with longitudinal data during childhood. This study aimed at verifying the existence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and their mothers’ parental attitudes measured on two occasions during childhood (ages 6 and 7), and later verifying if individuals’ disruptive behaviors during adolescence (age 15) could be predicted by children’s personality traits and parental attitudes. The data came from a prospective longitudinal study of 1000 boys and 1000 girls assessed on various occasions from kindergarten through adolescence. Six children’s personality traits and two parental attitudes were assessed by mothers at ages 6 and 7, while the disruptive behavior diagnostics (conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) were assessed by adolescents ant their mothers at age 15. In order to test the research hypotheses, multiple-group path analyses based on structural equations modeling were used. The results confirmed the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and parental attitudes during childhood. Nevertheless, there were few significant relations and most of them were of small size. Multiple-group models also confirmed the presence of gender-specific bidirectional relations. With regards to the prediction of disruptive behaviors, especially children’s personality traits and parental attitudes at age 6 (rather than age 7) were predictive. Nonetheless, few predictive relations turned out to be significant. Overall, this study is one of the rare to demonstrate the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality and parental attitudes with longitudinal data. These results could have theoretical implications for explanatory models of disruptive behaviors, as well as practical implications for early screening of children at risk.

The master thesis "Parents and marketing forms targeted at children: awareness, attitudes and educational approaches" describes marketing and advertisement methods that aims towards children and also parental perception of these methods. The children's segment is quite popular in the marketing industry, mainly because young consumption behaviour is easily affected. Parents play a big role in influencing children's perception, which is why I chose to focus on parents as well. Parents need to know about these advertisement and marketing's forms if they want to influence their children in a correct way. The theoretical part of the thesis describes characteristics of media education in the family, marketing forms aimed on children, approaches and strategies of parents in media education and also the reaction of children to the given advertising forms. The practical part discusses the description of the chosen research technique, namely qualitative research consisting of semi-structured in-depth interviews. The aim of these in-depth interviews was to find out the level of orientation of preschool children in the child-targeted marketing forms. The goal was to establish their attitudes towards these advertising forms and describe how they approach this area in the education of their children. Negative...

Plusieurs études ont confirmé que certains traits de personnalité des enfants et certaines attitudes et pratiques éducatives de leurs parents constituaient des prédicteurs des comportements perturbateurs à l’adolescence. Toutefois, la majorité des recherches ont adopté un modèle postulant des relations directes et indépendantes entre ces facteurs de risque et des comportements perturbateurs. Le modèle transactionnel est plus réaliste parce qu’il postule des relations bidirectionnelles à travers le temps entre ces deux facteurs de risque. Cette étude visait à vérifier l’existence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité des enfants et les attitudes parentales de leur mère mesurés à deux reprises durant l’enfance (à 6 et 7 ans), pour ensuite vérifier si les comportements perturbateurs des enfants mesurés à l’adolescence (15 ans) pouvaient être prédits par les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales. Les données utilisées proviennent d’une étude longitudinale prospective de 1000 garçons et 1000 filles évalués à plusieurs reprises de la maternelle à l’adolescence. Six traits de personnalité des enfants et deux attitudes parentales ont été évalués par les mères à 6 et 7 ans, alors que les diagnostics de troubles perturbateurs (trouble des conduites, trouble oppositionnel avec provocation, trouble de déficit de l’attention/hyperactivité) ont été évalués par les adolescents et les mères à 15 ans. Afin de tester les hypothèses de recherche, des analyses de cheminement (« path analysis ») multi-groupes basées sur la modélisation par équations structurales ont été utilisées. Les résultats ont confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre les traits de personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales durant l’enfance. Toutefois, peu de relations étaient significatives et celles qui l’étaient étaient de faible magnitude. Les modèles multi-groupes ont par ailleurs confirmé la présence de relations bidirectionnelles différentes selon le sexe. En ce qui concerne la prédiction des comportements perturbateurs, de façon générale, surtout les traits de personnalité et les attitudes parentales à 6 ans (plutôt qu’à 7 ans) ont permis de les prédire. Néanmoins, peu de relations prédictives se sont avérées significatives. En somme, cette étude est une des rares à avoir démontré la présence de relations bidirectionnelles entre la personnalité de l’enfant et les attitudes parentales avec des données longitudinales. Ces résultats pourraient avoir des implications théoriques pour les modèles explicatifs des comportements perturbateurs, de même que des implications pratiques pour le dépistage des enfants à risque. / Several studies confirmed that some children’s personality traits and parental attitudes constitute risk factors of later disruptive behaviors during adolescence. However, most research has adopted a model postulating direct and independent relations between these risk factors and disruptive behaviors. The transactional model is more realistic because it postulates bidirectional relations over time between these two risk factors. Even though the transactional model is popular amongst researchers, there is in fact very little research formally demonstrating the existence of bidirectional relations with longitudinal data during childhood. This study aimed at verifying the existence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and their mothers’ parental attitudes measured on two occasions during childhood (ages 6 and 7), and later verifying if individuals’ disruptive behaviors during adolescence (age 15) could be predicted by children’s personality traits and parental attitudes. The data came from a prospective longitudinal study of 1000 boys and 1000 girls assessed on various occasions from kindergarten through adolescence. Six children’s personality traits and two parental attitudes were assessed by mothers at ages 6 and 7, while the disruptive behavior diagnostics (conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) were assessed by adolescents ant their mothers at age 15. In order to test the research hypotheses, multiple-group path analyses based on structural equations modeling were used. The results confirmed the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality traits and parental attitudes during childhood. Nevertheless, there were few significant relations and most of them were of small size. Multiple-group models also confirmed the presence of gender-specific bidirectional relations. With regards to the prediction of disruptive behaviors, especially children’s personality traits and parental attitudes at age 6 (rather than age 7) were predictive. Nonetheless, few predictive relations turned out to be significant. Overall, this study is one of the rare to demonstrate the presence of bidirectional relations between children’s personality and parental attitudes with longitudinal data. These results could have theoretical implications for explanatory models of disruptive behaviors, as well as practical implications for early screening of children at risk.

Despite decades of research about educational interventions to correct parents' childhood fever management their knowledge remains poor and practices continue to be based on beliefs about harmful outcomes. The purpose of this thesis was to 1) identify Australian parents' fever management knowledge, attitudes, practices and methods of learning to manage fever and 2) undertake a theoretical exploration of the determinants of parents' intentions to reduce fever using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Two studies were undertaken: a qualitative study with 15 parents; and survey of 401 Queensland parents with a child aged between 6 months and 5 years. Parents determine childhood fever through behavioural changes they have learnt to associate with fever. Few were aware of the immunological beneficial effects associated with fever and most believed fever harmful causing febrile convulsions and brain damage. To prevent harm they monitored temperatures, used antipyretics, dressed children in light clothing and sponged them with tepid, cool or cold water. Despite believing antipyretics harmful most parents reduced temperatures of 38.3 degrees Celsius ± 0.6 degrees Celsius with antipyretics, alternating two antipyretics when fever was not reduced or returned. In addition to temperature reduction antipyretics were used to reduce distress or general unwellness and pain or discomfort. Multiple factors were used to determine antipyretic dosage including temperature, irritability and illness severity. Over one-third of parents had overdosed their child with too frequent antipyretic administration; more frequently with ibuprofen than paracetamol, 12:1. Fever management information was learnt from numerous sources. Doctors were the most frequently reported followed by personal experience. With the variety of information sources nearly half received conflicting information about how to manage fever increasing concerns and creating uncertainty about how to best care for their child. Despite this many believed they knew how to manage fever. Some parents' practices changed over time as a result of either positive or negative experiences with fever indicating more positive or negative attitudes toward fever. Positive experiences reduced antipyretic and medical service use; negative ones had the adverse effect with increase in antipyretic use including alternating antipyretics and double dosing with one antipyretic. Child medication behaviours also influenced attitudes and practice intentions. Parents of children who readily took antipyretics had more negative attitudes and intended to reduce their child's next fever with antipyretics. Negative attitudes were a significant determinant of fever management intentions. Parents' practices were strongly influenced by their perception that doctors and partners expected them to reduce fever. This expectation from partners is understandable; from doctors it is not and indicates doctors' propensity to recommend reducing fever. There is an urgent need to identify doctors' fever management beliefs and rationales for practice recommendations. Parents also learn to manage fever from nurses and pharmacists; their beliefs and management rationales must also be determined and addressed. There is an urgent need to educate parents about evidence-based fever management and reduce their unnecessary antipyretic use. They must be encouraged to delay antipyretic administration using them to reduce pain rather than fever. Findings from this thesis have identified the determinants of parents' intentions to reduce fever; negative attitudes and normative influences and positive child medication behaviours. Future studies should examine the efficiency and cost effectiveness of fever management educational programs for parents using different presentation methods in multiple settings.

The present study explored the interaction between paediatric asthma and family functioning, within the context of family systems theory. Eight families, each with an asthmatic child between the ages of 8 and 15, were included in this study. In each case, the parents were interviewed and completed a quantitative measure, the Family Assessment Device, The results indicated that each family has a unique way of functioning and of integrating the child's asthma into its lifestyle. Factors found to be involved in the mutual impact of paediatric asthma and family functioning were the size of the family, the severity of the child's condition, the ways in which the family copes with the stress of asthma, communication patterns between parents, compliance with family rules and boundaries, and the affective responsiveness and involvement of family members. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Main purpose of this thesis is to pursue the question whether it is possible to find differences (and if so, which) in attitudes towards computer (or rather digital) games resulting from various family socio-cultural backgrounds and gender. In order to explore this, the thesis analyzes selected gaming behaviors along with the socio-cultural environment and gender stereotypes shaping the gamers. The research study focuses mainly on gamers' preference in choosing the game type, reflection of their approach and ways of dealing with this phenomenon exhibited by their parents. This thesis does not aim to state any general theory; it is rather attempting to offer specific insight into this issue. Keywords: digital games, computer games, games' classification, computer games entertainment, parental attitudes towards gaming, family socio-cultural standard, gender stereotypes, computer games usefulness/ harmfulness in its consumers, virtual communication in computer games.

The present study explored the interaction between paediatric asthma and family functioning, within the context of family systems theory. Eight families, each with an asthmatic child between the ages of 8 and 15, were included in this study. In each case, the parents were interviewed and completed a quantitative measure, the Family Assessment Device, The results indicated that each family has a unique way of functioning and of integrating the child's asthma into its lifestyle. Factors found to be involved in the mutual impact of paediatric asthma and family functioning were the size of the family, the severity of the child's condition, the ways in which the family copes with the stress of asthma, communication patterns between parents, compliance with family rules and boundaries, and the affective responsiveness and involvement of family members. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)