The purpose of this project was to explore parent perceptions about their children's weight and the perceived barriers to implementing healthy eating habits and patterns of physical activity for their children.

This study proposed to explore several factors that promote foster parent satisfaction in order to preserve quality foster homes to serve the 532,000 displaced children currently in the child welfare system. A sample of 52 foster parents were surveyed to determine overall satisfaction with their foster care experience at Children's Way Foster Family Agency in San Bernardino, California. It was hypothesized that the higher the level of foster parent satisfaction, the higher rates of retention. A modified version of an existing instrument titled "Foster Parent Satisfaction Survey" was utilized in this study.

Since the inception of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act of 1998 by the United States Congress, there has been limited research conducted on parental notification policies on campuses of Higher Education concerning alcohol and drug offenses committed by students. This study surveyed parents of incoming freshmen at the University of North Texas regarding their perceptions of Parental Notification policies and their perceptions of underage alcohol offenses by gender, age, ethnicity, and parental status. The relationship between parental notification and underage alcohol offenses was also examined. This study, conducted in the summer of 2002, at the University of North Texas had 539 respondents. An instrument developed to determine parental perceptions of underage alcohol use and parental notification consisted of 20 dichotomous questions. Chi-square tests of independence were used to analyze the data because it could calculate the relationships between two sets of nominal data. Data show that most parents want to be notified in all situations involving underage alcohol offenses and their offspring. Generally, parents do not believe their offspring will use alcohol underage as they enter college and that they are not binge drinkers. Females want to be notified about their student's underage alcohol offenses at a higher rate than males. Males want to be notified at a higher rate than females if using alcohol jeopardizes housing or enrollment in school for their student. Native Americans have great concern for their students in all areas of alcohol use and binge drinking. Parents should stay actively involved in the lives of their offspring as they attend institutions of higher education as well as stay involved with the University community in which their student attends.

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate experiences, perceptions and experiences of "a school for all" in one municipality by means of a case study. The municipality is medium-sized and, for many years, has had a clearly expressed intention of providing "a school for all". This means that all pupils are included in regular comprehensive school classes, where no separate schools or groups are available for pupils with intellectual disabilities. The empirical material consists of three studies. The pilot study is a licentiate thesis published in 2007, with a societal bias and is based on web-based documentation and interviews with politicians and civil servants (n=5). This study describes regional administrators’ initiatives to promote the implementation of ”a school for all” within the entire municipality. A major finding was the importance of committed and engaged leadership.  Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) model for ecological systems constitutes the theoretical starting point. The respondents in sub-studies I and II, which are the focus in this section of the thesis, are parents (n=14) and teachers (n=8). The common denominator is children/pupils who have an intellectual disability, and study according to the curriculum for special schooling but are taught in regular comprehensive school classes. Previous research into inclusion and national policy documents are of central concern to this thesis. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is employed as an interpretative tool for the interviews. Parents discuss the benefits of "a school for all"; good role models, social relationships and opportunities for the child to develop both socially and intellectually. They also describe how they must always be prepared to fight for their child, "keeping a watchful eye" on the school, and they imply that it is never possible to "become complacent". Teachers' attitudes and knowledge are described as crucial. A few parents wanted to have the opportunity to choose a special school for children with intellectual disabilities (ID). Their arguments are presented. In the teacher interviews, a conviction emerges about the importance of "a school for all" for the pupils' self-image, social and academic development. Organizational support, in-service training and skills’ development are seen as the prerequisites for successful inclusion, as well as educational strategies such as family groups and model learning. Respondents indicate that inclusion works most satisfactorily between years 1 and 6 in the comprehensive school and is viewed more detrimentally between years 7 and 9, in order to be better viewed again in the upper secondary school (senior high school) and the reasons for this are discussed. The case study contributes to a broader understanding of  the processes of implementation and change regarding inclusion of pupils with special school status and the importance of understanding the connections and relationships between the levels within Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory which directly or indirectly affect the child’s/pupil’s development and well-being.

This study investigated the relationships among the variables of parental stress, parental attitude, and preschoolers' academic, social and emotional maturity. The purposes of the investigation were to measure the relationship between parental stress and parental attitude, and to determine whether parental attitude and parental stress differed in their ability to predict preschoolers' behavioral maturity.

Attitudes toward mental illness and the willingness to seek psychological treatment for their children among ethnic minority group parents were investigated. Participants consisted of black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian parents. All parents were given the Terrell and Terrell Cultural Mistrust Inventory, Cohen and Struening Opinions About Mental Illness Scale, Reid-Gundlach Social Services Satisfaction Scale, Fischer-Turner Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help Scale, and Ahluwalia Parents' Psychological Help-Seeking Inventory. A multiple regression model was used to explore the purpose of this study. Parental mistrust level, ethnicity, education, income level, and opinions about mental illness served as predictor variables. The criterion variables consisted of scores on the Social Services Satisfaction Scale and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. The results indicated that the most significant predictor of psychological help-seeking was parental cultural mistrust level. Parents with higher cultural mistrust levels were less likely to seek help. Education was also predictive of black and Native American parents' help-seeking attitude and willingness to seek psychological help for their children. Black and Native Americans with lower levels of education were less willing to seek treatment for their children than members of those ethnic groups with higher levels of education. Ethnicity was also related to parental willingness to seek help for their children. Hispanic and black parents expressed more willingness to seek help than Native American and Asian parents. Finally, parents' opinions about mental illness were found to be significantly related to help-seeking attitude. Parents with positive opinions about mental illness were more likely to utilize professional psychological help than those parents with negative opinions about mental illness. Some clinical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

To examine parental attitudes toward sexuality education in the home and school, sealed packets were distributed to fifth and seventh graders (N = 609) for each to deliver home to a parent. Parents were asked to express level of agreement with a series of attitude statements and to indicate the content and timing considered appropriate for sexuality instruction in the home and school. Analysis of 246 returned surveys (40% response rate) indicated that most parents trust the school to address human sexuality, though a sizeable minority of parents hold very conservative attitudes toward sexuality instruction in this setting. Results suggested that the majority of parents view school-based instruction as supplemental to instruction in the home.

Teachers and parents make considerable sacrifices to affiliate themselves with Islamic schools. As they commit to Islamic education, they acquire certain expectations that they want their school to fulfill. The purpose of this study was to explore the academic, social, and cultural expectations of five teachers and five parents in an Islamic School on the West Coast in order understand how these expectations could be fulfilled in other Islamic schools across the United States. The main research questions of this study were: What are the academic, social, and cultural expectations that parents and teachers have of their Islamic schools? To what extent are Islamic schools meeting the expectations of parents and teachers? Qualitative, phenomenological research methods were used for the design of this study along with a purposeful sampling of teachers and parents, triangulation of data sources, and a thorough coding process. Findings from the study supported that teachers and parents expected children to be knowledgeable about Islam in its broadest and deepest interpretations. Additionally, teachers and parents expected children to apply their knowledge of Islam in their everyday lives. Lastly, the degree that expectations were met depended on the support that teachers and parents received from their school community. When teachers and parents felt encouraged by school stakeholders, their expectations were generally fulfilled. Conversely, when teachers and parents felt that their needs were overlooked by school stakeholders, their expectations tended to remain unmet. Conclusions from the study explored ways to bridge the gap between met and unmet expectations of teachers and parents. Implications invited teachers and parents to move beyond expectations toward transformative educational experiences for children in Islamic schools.

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The purpose of this study was to examine parents' achievement goal orientations, attitudes about winning, and game behaviors between a youth basketball league that kept score and a youth basketball league that did not keep score. Specifically, this study sought to answer four research hypotheses. First, this study hypothesized that parental achievement goal orientation would have a significant positive relationship with type of league. Second, parents' attitudes about winning would have a positive significant relationship with type of league. Third, a significant difference would emerge between attitudes about winning and achievement goal orientations in each league. Finally, it was hypothesized that the scoring league would demonstrate significantly more negative parental behaviors than parents in the non-scoring league.A sample of 69 parents/guardians in the non-scoring league, and 42 parents/guardians in the scoring league, participated in this study. Parents' behavior was observed and recorded over four games in each league. During the final games in each league, parents were given a series of questionnaires assessing descriptive information, achievement goals, and attitudes about winning.Results using Pearson Correlations (p<.05) suggested there was no relationship between parent's achievement goals and league type, but a significant relationship did exist between parents' attitudes about winning and league type. These results indicate that although both leagues were primarily task oriented, the scoring league parents valued the concept of winning more than the non-scoring league. Additionally, a 2 x 2 x 2 Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant main effect (F=7.836, p<.0001) between parents' attitudes about winning, achievement goals, and league, confirming a difference in parental responses between each league. Because the behaviors observed in both leagues was overwhelmingly positive, parental behavior in this study did not differ according to positive or negative behaviors. Parents in both leagues demonstrated overwhelmingly positive behaviors throughout the recording process. The non-scoring league, however, displayed significantly more positive nonverbal behaviors than the scoring league. From these results, it would appear that keeping score does matter in terms of its relationship to parents' values and behaviors. / School of Physical Education