Few studies currently exist which examine expressed emotion in depressed fathers, despite considerable evidence linking expressed emotion and depression in mothers. These findings are important as they indicate that mothers’ depressed mood is associated with an increase in child-directed critical comments and a decrease in positive comments, which have been linked to poorer child emotional and behavioural outcomes. There are limited findings exploring how depressed mood may impact fathers’ expressed emotion, and how this is in turn may impact upon the child. This paper reports findings from part of a longitudinal study examining fathers with depression in the postnatal period. The aim of this study was to determine whether child emotional and behavioural problems at age 2 years were associated with increased critical comments and decreased positive comments made by fathers (N = 143). It was predicted that fathers who were depressed when their child was 3 months or 12 months old would make more critical comments and fewer positive comments about their children at age 24 months, and that fathers’ critical comments would predict child emotional and behavioural problems at 24 months. Fathers’ depression at 12 months was found to be significantly related to child emotional and behavioural problems at 24 months. The children of fathers who made more positive comments had fewer reported emotional and behavioural difficulties at 24 months. Fathers’ positive comments were found to remain stable from 12 months to 24 months. There were no significant relationships found between fathers’ depression and the frequency of positive or critical comments. This study has implications for increasing fathers’ child-directed positive comments in order to prevent the development of child emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The relationship between fathers' and mothers' gender-role ideas and fathers' level of participation in general housework has been well documented. Data from a study in 1998 were used to explore specific aspects of this relationship. In particular, fathers' and mothers' genderrole ideas with regard to childcare (childcare ideas) was examined to see whether these ideas influence paternal childcare participation. Specifically, what impact they had on performance of childcare tasks and the time fathers spent with their children. The responses of 38 couples (76 individuals) were analyzed. No statistically significant relationships were found between the variables. The distribution of the data suggests that even though most fathers claimed to have nontraditional childcare ideas, most mothers still performed the great majority of childcare tasks.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / The absence of a father in family life is an occurrence which is experienced in almost every family. The absent-father refers to the father who, as a result of certain circumstances, cannot properly fulfill his role as father in the family circle. It appears that this phenomenon is gradually on the increase and it is apparent that parents increasingly feel the necessity to obtain guidance in respect of this particular problem. Several factors contribute towards the phenomenon of father-absence. The most general reason for this occurrence is the father's responsibility towards his occupation. The absent-father could also create the image of a father being physically present yet being psychologically absent. In this script an endeavour has been made to grasp the phenomenon of fatherly absence and the influence it could possibly have on a child. The purpose of this study is to determine, in the light of certain studies of literature and empirical research, the influence the fatherly absence has on a child. The purpose of this exercise is dual. Firstly it entails a literature study and secondly an empirical research. A relevant critical survey has been conducted in respect of the role the father plays in the family and in particular with special reference to the differential role of the father in the life of the son and daughter. The study of relevant literature further entails a critical study of fatherly absence and the influence it could have on the son and daughter.

: The construct of the ‘pre-oedipal’ paternal function, as distinct from the traditional ‘oedipal’ paternal function, is an important yet under-developed focus of study in both the field of infant development and psychoanalytic clinical practice. This thesis contributes towards the development of an integrated concept of the paternal function as well as to a deeper understanding of the different aspects of the construct and its application. A critical literature review of psychoanalytic literature on the ‘paternal function’ highlights an absence of recognition of the importance of the construct, as it is salient in the earliest period of infancy, and characterises it as fragmented and diversely understood when it is mentioned. Four aspects of the paternal function which appear to be the dominant aspects in the literature are identified and elaborated in some detail. Also noted is the tendency for the non-gendered nature of several aspects of the paternal function to be overlooked because of the regular conflation of the role of the father and the paternal function. Extending this theoretically based observation into the domain of therapeutic practice, the conceptualisations of the pre-oedipal paternal function and the extent to which it is employed as a clinical tool was garnered from a sample of self-identified psychoanalytic psychotherapists based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Interviews of the topic were conducted with eight experienced practitioners and subject to thematic analysis guided by existing theory. The findings articulated closely with the international literature which points to a nebulous understanding of the concept and a general absence of reference to it as relevant in clinical formulations. In addition, based on the interview data, some proposals as to why the paternal function poses such a definitional difficulty and why, furthermore, the paternal functionary is apparently persona non grata in the clinical setting, are discussed. Finally, the case for the usefulness of the pre-oedipal paternal function in clinical practice is elucidated through the discussion of four clinical cases, each addressing a particular aspect of the pre-oedipal paternal function. Based on both a critical review of the literature and empirical data in the form of interviews of psychotherapists, and case material, the thesis makes a cogent case for foregrounding and refining conceptual and applied understandings of the construct of the ‘pre-oedipal’ paternal function, highlighting the gendered and non gendered attributes associated with performance of a set of functions associated with the construct.

Cette thèse porte sur l’atrocité du crime de parricide dans la culture pénale de la modernité que reconfigurent les Lumières libérales du droit de punir après 1750. Entre la doctrine criminelle et les pratiques judiciaires du parlement de Paris – la plus haute cour d’appel du royaume au XVIIIe siècle –, se nouent des relations dialectiques fondamentales qui structurent ce travail. Dès la Renaissance, les traités criminels définissent le crime à partir de l’acception juridique étendue que lui confère la législation pénale romaine. Le parricidium s’étend à l’homicide d’un parent jusqu’au quatrième degré. La nature familiale du crime définit son atrocité juridique. Amplifiant l’horreur attachée aux transgressions de l’autorité paternelle, le parricide qualifie aussi toute atteinte à la personne sacrée du roi « père de son peuple ». Contaminé par la catégorie de la lèse-majesté, le crime atroce encourt la rigueur suppliciaire de châtiments extrêmes (démembrement du parricide royal, roue et poing coupé du parricide domestique). Des excès à l’empoisonnement, des cousins aux père et mère, du parricide familial au parricide du roi : dans les pratiques judiciaires du parlement de Paris (1694-1780), la diversité des faits et des parents relevant du parricide domine. La rigueur punitive s’efface pourtant devant l’atténuation du crime atroce. La majorité des accusés sont élargis au bénéfice du doute voire exonérés du dernier supplice en cas de folie. L’atténuation globale s’accompagne, dans le même temps, d’un processus d’aggravation pénale ultra restrictive, lequel s’intensifie après 1750. Dans l’arbitraire de leurs pouvoirs pénaux, les magistrats du Palais réservent la qualification pénale du parricide à l’assassinat d’un ascendant au premier degré. Le « véritable parricide » se voit reconfiguré dans la culture pénale d’Ancien Régime annonçant les codifications pénales révolutionnaires de 1791 et de 1810. / The main of this PH dissertation is to study the “parricide” as an atrocious crime in the penal culture during the liberalEnlightenment, and notably after 1750. Criminal doctrine and Parlement de Paris’s judicial practices help to build thetopics and research problem about legal punishment to this vicious offense. From Renaissance, legal treatises broadlydefine this crime in the legacy of Roman Law. Parricidium means killing a relative to the fourth degree by blood.Criminal atrocity is determined by family links. Moreover, parricide also means a crime committed against the sacredperson of king. Major criminal offence (“lèse-majesté”), the regicide is punished with extreme torments as thequartering of the body. Accordingly, the common parricide is punished by hand cutting off. Physical abuse, poisoning,cousins, father, mother and king’s parricide: in judicial practices of Parlement de Paris (1694-1780), many are thecases and parents involved in a criminal trial for “parricide”. However, penal moderation prevails quantitatively overextreme repression. In majority of cases, defendants are liberated and, if they are insane, declared non punishable. After1750, general temperance is combined with a more and increasing severity concentrated on a relative to the first degreeby blood (“ assassinat d’un ascendant au premier degré ”). The “ geniune parricide ”, so restored by this study to itsepistemological centrality of Enlightenment penal culture, gives way to the penal codification (1791, 1810), which endsthe Ancien Régime of crime and punishments.

En quoi le montage juif sur le père tel qu’il articule la procréation au mariage et à la circoncision renfermerait-il jusque dans sa propre élaboration un savoir sur la psychose qu’il conviendrait d'interroger afin de préciser la vérité qui se rapporte à la paternité ? Pour répondre à cette interrogation, nous nous sommes appuyés sur deux exemples prélevés dans le texte juif. L’un dans le Talmud ; il s’agit de la douzième Michna du troisième chapitre du Talmud de Babylone, Traité Kedouchin qui fait autorité et qui sert de référence pour établir le lien de filiation et la transmission de l’identité juive. L’autre exemple se rapporte à la Haggadah de Pessah, le texte du récit de la sortie d’Egypte lu le soir de la Pâque juive, en prenant appui sur le cas de « celui qui ne sait pas questionner ». En effet, à la différence des trois autres enfants mentionnés également dans ce texte, le cas de « celui qui ne sait pas questionner » est le seul pour lequel l’interlocuteur cessera étonnamment d’être « Ata » qui désigne en hébreu le toi masculin, ici le père, pour être remplacé par « at » qui désigne le toi féminin. A telle enseigne que pour cet enfant, la marque du féminin puisse venir témoigner d’une absence de savoir sur la différence des sexes et donc d’une incertitude quant à son identité sexuelle qui semble dessiner l’horizon de la clinique des psychoses / How the Jewish montage, which links the procreation to wedding and circumcision, will contain, even in his own development, knowledge about psychosis that we should ask about, to precise the truth about fatherhood? To answer this question, we leaned on two examples from the Jewish text. One example is from the Talmud; it’ s about the twelfth Mishna of the third chapter from the Babylon Talmud which is authoritative and serve as reference to establish the link of parentage and the transmission of the Jewish identity. The other example refers to the Passover Haggadah, the story text of the release from Egypt which is read the night of Passover, leaning on the case of the “one who does not know how to ask a question”. Indeed, unlike the three others children also mentioned in this text, the case of the “one who does not know how to ask a question” is the only one for which the interlocutor will surprisingly stop being “ata”- which indicate in Hebrew the male “you”, here the father - to be replaced by “at” which indicate the female “you”. To such an extent that for this child, the sign of the feminine could testify to an absence of knowledge on sex differences and thus, of an uncertainty regarding to his sexual identity which seems to appear like the clinic of psychosis.

Parent cognitions, including parent attributions for and perceptions of children's behaviors , are related to negative parent-child interactions and have been hypothesized to negatively affect treatment outcome in parent training studies. Specifically, parents who attribute children's disruptive behaviors to internal, stable, uncontrollable, and global causes and believe that they are not personally responsible for their children's behavior are less likely to engage in positive interactions with their children and successfully manage child behavior. Additionally, parents who expect their children to demonstrate aversive behavior and perceive their children's neutral behaviors as aversive are less likely to engage in positive interactions with their children and successfully manage child behavior. Parent well-being and child behavior have been examined in relation to parent attributions and perceptions, with previous studies generally indicating that decreased parent well being and increased child behavior problems are associated with more negative parent attributions and perceptions. Though parent attributions and perceptions have been investigated in previous studies, there are gaps and inconsistencies within the literature. Specifically, previous studies have not consistently considered both maternal and paternal attributions for and perceptions of child and parent behaviors, and the relationship between parent-rated and researcher-rated child behaviors has not consistently been examined. This study examined parent attributions and parent perceptions related to child and parent behaviors within the parent-child interactions of 25 mothers, 15 fathers, and their children. The results of this study provide support for relationships between parents' attributions and parent-reported child behavior problems and parent well being. Additionally, significant relationships were found between parent perceptions of parent and child behaviors and parent-reported child behavior problems and parent well being. Furthermore, this study identified differences in parent attributions and parent-child interactions between mothers and fathers, with mothers viewing themselves as more responsible for compliant and noncompliant child behaviors and mothers sharing both more positive and negative interactions with children than fathers . Conclusions and clinical implications of these findings are provided.

This project explores the effect eighteenth century reproductive theory had on Laurence Sterne�s use of satire in <i>The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman</i> (1759 - 1767). Particular focus will be on the impact of the paternal and maternal imagination on the developing fetus, sexual facts and misconceptions common to eighteenth-century readers, as well as the changes in the gender dynamic of the birthing process (the man-midwife debate). There has been a lack of critical attention specifically on Tristram Shandy and its textual debt to medical treatises, midwifery texts, and folkloric medical tracts. Beyond this, I believe that the visual images also published in these works to be of great value in understanding the socio-historic background to sex and reproduction in the eighteenth century. I propose that the reader should look beyond the child-like antics of Walter and instead focus on Elizabeth as patient and Tristram as �experiment� within the historical-medical context of their contemporary culture. By expanding the context of relevant cultural materials that would have been available to Sterne, it is possible to read certain portions of the novel as a timeline of pregnancy through conception, gestation, and ultimately birth. I wish to examine the physical development not only of Tristram the character but also Tristram the novel, as the parallels between its creation and birth are obvious to even the most casual reader. Images of the autonomous fetus were quite well disseminated at this time and could be used to understand Tristram as a pseudo-fetal narrator, an author trapped somewhere in between a self-reliant free embryo writing and a grown man imprisoned by the calamities that befell him in-utero.

Childhood overweight/obesity (CHO) is a serious health concern for children and adolescents. Despite increased efforts to prevent CHO, prevalence rates have actually increased. Evidence suggests that parents are critical to successful interventions to reduce CHO among children. While research efforts aimed at parental inclusion have increased, limited research has been conducted to investigate fathers’ perception of CHO, or their influences on their children’s health. The objective of this two-phase study was to answer three research questions: a) How does the extant literature operationalize African American parental perceptions of childhood overweight/obesity? b) What are African American fathers’ perceptions of CHO? and c) How do African American fathers perceive CHO in relation to their own child’s weight status? Evidence-based studies reveal that fathers have the potential to play a significant role in CHO prevention. Phase one (literature review) revealed that published studies on parental perception of CHO either exclude fathers, include them only in data collection, and/or report no results specific to paternal perception. Thus, an exploratory qualitative study was needed to explore African American fathers’ perceptions of CHO. In phase two (qualitative study), four fathers were interviewed about their perceptions of CHO and how they contextualize this problem. The results indicated fathers believe that weight categories are racially & culturally insensitive and do not account for individual health status or differences in body/bone structure, and that parents with overweight children are financially disadvantaged, irresponsible and overworked. Fathers also indicated that colloquial terms (e.g., chunky, husky, big-boned, thick) were commonly substituted medical definitions for overweight and that child/teen sports participation was motivated by health, as well as non-health related benefits (e.g., competitiveness, educational scholarships). Further, fathers’ identification of CHO is subjective and includes visual means and parental assessment of health status (e.g., child mobility/activity levels). Implications of this study are that additional studies are needed to clarify fathers’ roles in CHO and that future studies should consider complex familial structures, as well as reframe prevention efforts to focus on optimal child health as opposed to weight labeling and focusing on parents’ accuracy in identifying weight categories.

Although there is evidence that children of depressed parents are far more likely to suffer from depression than other children (Hammen & Brennan, 2003), the majority of research examining links between parents’ depression and adolescent depression has focused on maternal depression, minimizing or ignoring the potential influence of paternal depression. Thus, the goals of the proposed study were 1) to examine both maternal and paternal depressive symptoms in relation to adolescents’ depressive symptoms over time, 2) to explore possible gender differences in how teens are affected by maternal versus paternal depressive symptoms, and 3) to investigate the role of parent-teen relationship quality. This study used data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which includes measures of each parents’ depressive symptoms, taken when children were in 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 10th grades, and adolescent depressive symptoms measured at grades 5, 6, and 10. Results of path analyses using a cross-lagged panel design revealed that paternal depressive symptoms significantly predicted changes in adolescent depressive symptoms from grade 5 to 6 and 6 to grade 10. Although maternal depressive symptoms were not significantly associated with female adolescents’ depressive symptoms, mothers’ depressive symptoms predicted male adolescents’ depressive symptoms at grade 5. Models revealed a reciprocal influence of female adolescents’ depressive symptoms and paternal depressive symptoms. Furthermore, models of indirect effects suggest that the relationship of maternal depressive symptoms at grade 3 and male teens’ depressive symptoms had an enduring effect on males’ depressive symptoms through grades 6 and 10. This was also found for the association of paternal depressive symptoms and subsequent female teens’ symptoms. Finally, moderation analyses revealed a significant interaction of maternal depressive symptoms and mother-teen relationship quality predicting female teens’ subsequent depressive symptoms such that females who had high-quality relationships with highly depressed mothers were more likely to be depressed themselves, whereas female teens’ depressive symptoms were lowest if they had high quality relationships with mothers who reported low levels of depressive symptoms. The present study highlights the need for systems-based approaches to working with families in which one or more family members experience depressive symptoms. / text