Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-163).

Diana Baumrind's identification in the 1960s of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles, as well as her demonstration of correlations between optimal developmental outcomes and the authoritative style, continue to have profound influences on how child socialization is thought about and researched. But, times have changed. Cultural psychology's assumption of intentional individuals and intentional cultures co-constructing each other allows for the possibility that historically mediated sociocultural differences between the 1960s and 1990s may have influenced childrearing practices and outcomes. For this study, instruments used by Baumrind were adapted to investigate cultural ideals and families today. Middle-class, urban, Northeastern families in which parents (n = 10) of preschool children appeared to meet criteria for the authoritative style were studied in depth. Although the ratios of nurturance and demandingness appear to be comparable in the two time periods among authoritative parents, 1990s parents show substantially more conformist and authoritarian attitudes than did their predecessors. Whereas attitudes of 1960s authoritative parents support children in speaking their minds, 1990s authoritative parents support children in minding their speech. This change is interpreted as a function of historical changes in parents' creative intuitions that optimal developmental outcomes are now less related to the 1960s discourse of agency, and more related to the 1990s agency of discourse. As a consequence, what may appear to be a matter of authoritarianism on the parts of parents is interpreted here as greater vigilance regarding the significance of speech acts for succeeding in the 21st century.

The purpose of the study was to explore parents' socialization goals and to describe the patterns of caregiver-child social interaction for the sample of 6 Chinese American toddlers, whose parents immigrated to this country recently. The theoretical framework for the study was Vygotsky's sociocultural approach which assumes that children's thinking derives from human social relations and is embedded in the sociocultural context. The study used a qualitative method of data collection and analysis. Data collection included a demographic questionnaire, two focused interviews and videotaped observations of caregiver-child interactions in everyday activities and joint play. The analysis focused on how caregivers guided and facilitated children's learning and adaptation to life in a North American setting. Parental goals were identified and five themes immerged from the interview data: a focus on learning; an emphasis on developing a loving relationship with the child; an emphasis on bringing up a moral child; an emphasis on guided independence and on adopting the values of the host culture while maintaining the values of their own cultural heritage. Links between the patterns of parent-child interaction and the parental goals were explored. The parents' conscious, creative synthesis of cultural values and practice were discussed. Implication for teachers and clinicians were suggested.

Until fairly recent history the roles of career woman and mother could not be undertaken concurrently by the majority of women, at least not while their children were young. It is, however, more the norm in modern society for working women to be actively parenting. Complications can arise as these women attempt to find a balance between their personal and professional roles. If the duties and expectations are found to be essentially the same in both venues, as they perhaps are in teaching and parenting, then the role juggling can be doubly difficult. It may also be that the familiarity of the tasks would make going from the mother role to the teacher role considerably easier. This study explores the history of the teacher/mother, the present day experience of the teacher/mother, and the perceptions these woman have concerning their two primary roles. It is the purpose of this study, using the lens of role theory, to explore the experience of teachers who are also mothers as they attempt simultaneously to tackle their roles as educators and parents. Secondary school teachers who are mothers to at least one child in school and still living in their homes were interviewed, using a phenomenological interviewing method, to determine how they perceive their roles as teachers and mothers, what importance they attach to these roles, and how they believe the two roles interact. Special attention was given to possible instances of role strain, and in particular, role conflict.

The present cross-sectional study adds to the extant literature by exploring how parenting and child behavior problems relate to elementary school children's academic achievement and engagement. Parenting was investigated as a possible mediator of the relationship between behavior problems and academic outcomes. A diverse sample of 62 children, their primary caregivers, and teachers participated in the study. Videotaped observation of parent-child dyads doing a homework task allowed the following behaviors to be studied: parental autonomy support, positive-minus-negative presence, quality of teaching, and child engagement. To assess behavior problems, parents and teachers completed behavior rating scales, and parents completed a structured interview. Children participated in language and literacy based achievement testing, and school personnel provided grades. Children who displayed higher levels of engagement performed better on measures of academic achievement. Positive parenting behaviors were associated with academic achievement and engagement. An exploratory analysis was consistent with child engagement partially mediating the relation between parenting behavior and reading achievement. Child behavior problems were related to lower engagement, but contrary to expectations, they were not related to parenting or achievement. Boys rated by teachers as displaying behavior problems, however, had lower academic achievement, but this was not the case for girls. Though parenting was not related to child behavior problems, findings did suggest that parenting and child behavior are associated with child engagement. This research points to the critical role of engagement as a component of academic success and the potential for parents to foster children's academic engagement and achievement through the parent-child relationship.

This study was designed to identify what, if any, communications occurred between working-class mothers, who had experience as sole supporters of families, and their adolescent daughters to socialize the daughters to the role of education in the daughters' lives. Additionally, this study was designed to determine whether there was an intergenerational transmission of educational values between working-class mothers and their daughters, and to determine if mothers are their daughters' first educational role models or mentors. The participants were a homogeneous sampling of seven Caucasian working-class mother and daughter pairs from two rural western Massachusetts mill towns. After an initial questionnaire which helped to identify prospective participants, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with the pairs and a topical guide was used to gather comparable data from all participants. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the data. Participants in this study provided insights into both multigenerational and intergenerational messages transmitted across generations and the mechanisms by which those messages were transmitted. They also provided insights into how messages from their working-class work ethic both shaped and contradicted their aspirations for success. The intersection of social class and the mothers' experiences as sole supporters revealed specific messages about working-class values and what it meant for the participants to be successful or not. The mothers in this study used these messages to purposefully push their daughters toward success, which they believed began with a four-year college degree. Finally, this study revealed that these working-class mothers were their daughters' first educational role models and mentors. However, due to gaps in procedural knowledge and the mothers' passivity in assisting daughters in obtaining information that would help them prepare for college, there became a point where most mothers became ineffective mentors, thus highlighting the need for positive role models and mentors, for both mothers and daughters. Additionally, several unarticulated contradictions emerged between the messages and with regard to the participants' desire for success. The paper concludes with a discussion about implications for future research and practice.

Filial piety has been a central concept in guiding Chinese thought on childrearing. Unfortunately, the U. S. research literature has used instruments that do not give adequate attention to this concept. The purpose of this study was to examine harmony and conflict between generations among Taiwanese families both in Taiwan and in the United States. In this study, two key dependent variables, parental attitudes toward childrearing and toward filial piety, were chosen. Comparisons of the two key variables between paternal grandfathers and fathers as well as maternal grandmothers and mothers among Taiwanese families were presented. A survey was conducted both in Taiwan and in the United States. Two attitudinal scales, the Child Training Scale and the Filial Piety Scale, designed by Chinese researchers David Y. F. Ho and his colleague were selected. The fathers of six-year-old boys as well as the mothers of six-year-old girls from two Chinese school programs in Massachusetts, U. S. A. were surveyed. Paternal grandfathers and fathers of six-year-old boys as well as maternal grandmothers and mothers of six-year-old girls among three kindergartens and two elementary schools in Kaohsiung, Taiwan were also investigated. A total of 407 copies for the Taiwanese sample and 29 copies for the US sample were collected. Parental attitudes toward the Child Training Scale and the Filial Piety Scale were highly correlated. Difference of means for the three maternal groups on the two Scales was highly significant. Comparison of means on the FP Scale between the grandparents and the parents was significant in the Taiwanese sample. In addition, difference of means between the parents in the Taiwanese sample and the Taiwanese parents in the US sample was significant on both the CT Scale and the FP Scale. Associations between the respondents' education, family structure, occupation or religion and their attitudes toward the two scales for the Taiwanese were also discussed.

The increasing diversity of the U.S. population presents a challenge to providers of early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities, and their families. Information is needed about the cultural contexts of families with infants with disabilities which is currently lacking in the literature in special education. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation, in-depth interviews, and field notes, with member checks and peer debriefing for establishing trustworthiness, this study gathered information about the context of parenting an infant with developmental disabilities in Cork, Ireland during 1993. The primary respondents for this study were sixteen mothers of children between the ages of twelve and forty months, who had recently received a diagnosis which implied some degree of developmental disability. The findings reveal a process of adaptation and coping by the respondents that was informed by their cultural beliefs following their infant's diagnosis. A conceptual framework that described this process was proposed after being constructed during inductive data analysis. Within this framework, a three stage process of adaptation was identified. Specifically, the most salient aspects of the Irish culture that affected these mothers' adaptation were cultural models of motherhood, rules about not talking about problems and needing to "get on with it", and a need to address problems in the present without trying to predict the future. The clarity of the infant's diagnosis was directly related to the respondent's rate of adaptation. The respondents described their ability to cope with a profound strength and conviction that reflected their perceptions of self-reliance, optimism, and competence. The results of this study indicate the critical role and influence of culture on coping and adaptation in parents of children with disabilities. The implications of these findings for policy, research and practice in early intervention are presented.

Over the last 15 years, approximately 12,000 Somali immigrants and refugees have settled in the capital region of Ottawa-Carleton. According to a study of Somali youth (Ali, 1995), about seventy percent (70%) of the Somalis in Ottawa-Carleton are between 1 and 17 years old. The Ottawa Board of Education reported that in 1993, thirty three percent of all immigrant and refugee students were Somalis. While schools have been successful in helping a significant portion of these students to succeed in their learning, evidence shows that many are disconnected from productive learning. As establishing constructive connections between the home environment and the school environment is an important and crucial step to improve the educational opportunities for students who are at risk of failure, a study of the parents' perceptions is warranted. The main purpose of this study, therefore, was to investigate the Somali parents' perceptions of the school and non-school learning conditions that help or hinder the education of their children in Ottawa high schools. A survey questionnaire was used to collect the data from a sample of diverse Somali parents. The diversity of the sample is in terms of gender, level of education, employment, marital status, number of years in Canada, and number of children. Specifically, four research questions guided this study: (1) What do Somali parents consider to be the school and non-school learning conditions that help the education of their children who are succeeding in their learning? (2) What do Somali parents consider to be the school and non-school conditions that hinder the education of their children who are at risk of failure in learning? (3) What are parents perceptions of the school personnel's willingness to involve immigrant parents in educational decision-making? (4) What recommendations do Somali parents make to improve learning conditions for all children? Data were drawn from the survey responses of 85 Somali parents whose children attend high schools in Ottawa. Findings indicate that parents are concerned about the lack of diversity and multicultural instructional materials in schools. While parent responses regarding the treatment of their children in schools vary widely, there is a consensus among the parents that guidance counselors are not sensitive to the needs of immigrant students. Findings also indicated that parents expressed the schools' limited effort and interest in involving immigrant parents in school committees. Lack of effective communication is an other concern raised by parents. Most of participating parents stated that the only time they get a call from school is when there is a problem. Some expressed the schools unwillingness to communicate with parents even when a parent takes the initiative and visits the school of his or her child.

This Diploma thesis examines the issue of family constellations school directors. It explores the family constellation directors of different types of schools. Starts from the premise that school heads comes from a similar initial family environment and that there is no difference between family constellations directors of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools. Basic starting point has become from research results of family constellations school principals in the Czech Republic, which uncover their characteristics.The theoretical part of the thesis starts with an explanation of basic terms, as well as maps of the individual differences-influence of heredity, family, education and environment. It also discusses the analysis of family constellations and their impact on the conduct and behavior of man. The research is based on a mixed research design. There is included both qualitative and quantitative phase of research. The entire research work is kept aim the work and research questions. They are looking for answers to what are the family constellation headmasters and if there is any similarity with head teachers and if there are differences in family constellations with directors of various types of schools. The conclusion provides an overview of family constellations school directors. The...