The primary aim of this research was to determine whether the home environment of secondary school children has an influence on their academic performance. A literature study was done where the major aspects of the home environment were identified: family lifestyle, parental involvement and attitude, physical living conditions. An analysis of academic performance and the factors affecting it was done. A measuring instrument was developed in order to measure the home environment in terms of being positive or negative. The results of the empirical research indicated that while home environment and age do play a significant role in the academic performance of secondary school children, gender, maternal employment, and whether the child lives permanently with both parents, did not. The educational implications of the findings and the teacher's role are discussed, and guidelines regarding the development of a home environment conducive to better academic performance are given. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

No description available.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Le nombre de familles monoparentales dirigées par des pères isolés atteint un niveau record non seulement en France mais aussi dans la majorité des pays occidentaux. Dans le cadre de la présente recherche doctorale, nous nous intéressons à la consommation familiale assurée par des pères en situation de cumul de rôles, celui du père et de la mère. Nous nous interrogeons sur la façon dont les pères isolés assurent et éprouvent l’achat familial et la sphère domestique traditionnellement perçue comme féminine. Nous identifions trois types de pères isolés selon leurs stratégies d’assurer et/ou de déléguer le rôle de la mère. Notre recherche montre que l’achat familial, les tâches domestiques ainsi que le soin des enfants constituent des éléments constructifs de l’identité paternelle de ces pères. Le shopping et la consommation familiale contribuent à la (re)construction du rôle du père. En outre, notre recherche montre que la consommation contribue à la construction d’une nouvelle famille à travers notamment la création de nouvelles relations entre les pères isolés et leurs enfants. / Nowadays, a record number of households are runned by single fathers not only in France but also in most of western societies. Our research aims to explore how single fathers experience the domestic sphere, a traditionally feminized field, while accomplishing their role of fathers. These fathers are living a situation of cumulating roles: the role of the father and the role of the mother. We identify three main categories of single fathers depending on their strategies to copy and/or delegate the role of the mother. Household duties such as shopping, cooking and housekeeping in addition to the nurturing role are experienced by many of the respondents as constructing elements of their fatherhood. Moreover, we identify the role of the marketplace and consumption in building a new family, particularly by creating new relationships between single fathers and their children.

The number of households headed by single mothers living in poverty exceeds that of all other categories of poverty-stricken households, and poverty impacts the children negatively in various ways. When single mothers choose not to continue their education, they lessen their chances of finding higher paying jobs and raising their families out of poverty. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand why some single mothers decided to continue into higher education. The study considered the decisions of 6 single mothers of young children in Montgomery County, Texas, and the obstacles they overcame while completing their education. The women were recruited from a co parenting workshop using snowball sampling. The inclusion criteria included single mothers of children ages 0-10 years old and who obtained a degree or specialized certificate. The conceptual framework was based on Bandura's concept of self-efficacy and Carspecken's critical theory. Interviews were used with the 6 women to collect data that were then transcribed, compared, coded, and thematically analyzed. Emergent themes included overcoming obstacles, receiving help from others, acting as their children's role models, dealing with the impact of the father's absence, and receiving motivation from their own parents. The social significance of this research is that it illuminates the problem of poverty among single female-headed households and increases the understanding of why some single mothers decide to continue into higher education.

The general aims of this dissertation are to analyse how family situation, and especially lone parenting, influence health and life chances in Sweden and the extent to which possible relations are influenced by socioeconomic circumstances and health selection. In two population-based cohort studies we analysed overall and cause-specific mortality (1991-95), and also severe morbidity (1991-94) from different causes among lone mothers in comparison with mothers with partners. Information on the mothers was obtained from the Swedish Population and Housing censuses of 1985 and 1990. The outcomes considered were death or utilisation of (overnight) hospital care, with data taken from population-based national health registers. In the analyses we adjusted for socioeconomic and demographic circumstances, such as socioeconomic status, country of birth, receipt of social-welfare benefit, and housing situation. To take health-selection effects into account, we adjusted for previous inpatient history (1987-90). Our findings suggest that lone motherhood entails health disadvantages with regard to mortality, severe morbidity and injury. Socioeconomic circumstances were found to play a major role in accounting for increased risks, but the risks are partly independent of both socioeconomic conditions and health selection into lone motherhood. In two further studies we analysed mortality (1991-98), severe morbidity and injury (1991-99), and also educational achievement (in 1998 at ages 24-25 of offspring), of children who had lived in lone-parent families in comparison with children in two-parent families. We mainly used data from the Swedish censuses and national health-data registers. Living in a lone parent family was found to be associated with increased risks of a variety of unfavourable outcomes: psychiatric disease, suicide/suicide attempt, injury, addiction, and low educational attainment. Relatively poor educational performance and also health disadvantages are explicable to a large extent by socioeconomic conditions, especially a lack of economic resources (as measured here by receipt of social-welfare benefit and having rented accommodation). Educational achievement among children varies with cause of lone parenthood, with the best prospects found among the children of widows/widowers. In a fifth study we analysed mortality from different causes (1991-2000) among lone fathers (fathers with and without custody of their children) and childless men (with and without partners) in comparison with cohabiting fathers with children in the household. For this purpose we linked information from the Swedish censuses of 1985 and 1990 to Sweden’s Multi-Generation Register (which contains information about all known biological relations between children and parents). Lone non-custodial fathers and lone childless men suffer from the most pronounced elevated risks, especially of death from injury or addiction, but also from all-cause mortality and death from ischaemic heart disease. Being a lone custodial father also seems to entail an increased mortality risk, although generally to a much lesser degree, and not for all outcomes studied. The elevated risks for all subgroups fell when variables assumed to control health selection and socioeconomic circumstances were introduced into the initial regression model employed. However, even following adjustments, significantly increased risks, albeit greatly attenuated, remained in all the subgroups investigated. Key Words: Single parent, single mother, single father, children, risk factor, socio-economic status, mortality, morbidity, injury, psychiatric disease, education, epidemiology, longitudinal

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

本研究旨在探討單親就業家長所面臨之工作與家庭平衡問題，並就性別觀點，針對男女單親家長所具有之正式與非正式支持系統差異進行檢視，以進一步探究影響支持其工作與家庭角色平衡之因素。本研究之方法，係以育有未滿18歲未成年子女之十一位單親就業家長為研究對象，包含五位男性與六位女性，採用深度訪談法進行質化資料分析。主要研究結果如下： 一、工作與家庭平衡概況方面：無論男女單親家長均面臨較高的工作與家庭平衡困境，但女性單親家長因家庭角色影響工作角色之程度較男性單親為高，而男性單親家長因工作角色影響家庭角色之程度則較女性單親為高。 二、工作與家庭平衡支持方面：非正式系統中，男性單親獲得工作與家庭角色平衡支持的程度較女性單親為高；正式系統中，男性單親在企業職場獲得較高工作角色支持，而女性單親則是在政府社會服務與結構性非正式系統中獲得較高的工作與家庭平衡支持。 三、工作與家庭平衡能力之影響因素方面：托顧服務及請休假制度均有助於單親家長取得家庭角色之平衡，工作彈性化措施則有助於單親家長取得工作角色之平衡；此外，傳統父系社會觀念直接影響男女單親家長取得非正式系統對支持家庭角色平衡之性別差異，職業取向則間接影響男女單親家長取得企業職場支持工作角色平衡之性別差異。 　　最後，根據上述研究結果，本文參考歐美先進國家之友善單親相關政策與方案，嘗試對政府之社會與勞動部門、非營利之單親服務機構及企業組織，就政策面與實務面分別提出相關改善建議，以供未來研究政策規劃與執行之參考。 關鍵詞：單親家長、工作與家庭平衡、友善家庭政策、社會支持系統、性別差異 / The purpose of this study is to investigate the work and family balance challenges of employed single parents in Taiwan. From the gender perspective, this study also examines the differences between single fathers and single mothers in formal and informal support systems. Further, this thesis explores the impact of the factors which support the single parents to balance their work and family roles. Adopting in-depth interview, this study interviews employed single parents who raise children under 18, including five fathers and six mothers. The main findings of this research are as follows: 1. Both single fathers and mothers face higher work-family balance difficulties, but single mothers’ family-work conflicts are higher than single fathers, while single fathers’ work-family conflicts are higher than single mothers. 2. Single fathers have more informal support resources to the balance of work and family roles than single mothers, and also get more support on job than single mothers from companies. Instead, single mothers get more resources from government’s social services and structured informal system to balance work and family roles than single fathers. 3. Family care service and leave program are both useful to help single parents to obtain the balances between work and family, and the measures of work flexibility are helpful for single parents to balance their job roles. In addition, under the informal systems, the patriarchal concept of traditional Chinese society affects gender differences directly in terms of single parents’ balance of family roles. On the other side, career orientation affects gender differences indirectly to obtain the balance of job roles in companies. According to the study, this thesis makes some suggestions on policy planning and implementation for government's social and labor departments, nonprofit organizations as well as companies. Keywords: single parent, work and family balance, family-friendly policies, social support system, gender difference

Extra-marital affairs seem to be rampant among Seventh-day Adventist adult membership in Botswana. To determine the extent of the problem, to investigate the causative factors and to suggest ways in which individuals and families can be helped, has been the motivation for this study. It was discovered that 11.8% of married adults in the survey had at least one secret sexual partner, and 42.6% of singles had an illegal sexual partner(s). Seventh-day Adventist adults' sexuality in Botswana is characterized by hetero-sexual, multiple partners. Some of the contributing factors are economic, cultural and spiritual. Despite the prevailing influences, the majority of the adults (68%) still disagree with lax sexual behavior. This gives hope to work for their restoration and empowerment. Two key areas that were seen to be critical in empowering them were the family and spirituality. A psycho-spiritual program called, Harmonious Development, is being suggested for a systematic, educational, holistic and lifelong empowerment. This model is based on the psycho-educational theory developed by W.J. Schoeman for adult training. / SCH: HUM, SOC SCIENC and THEO / DTH (SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY)