Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Interviewing eighteen older parents (aged 65 and older) with two or more children for this project established support for the emotional experience of intergenerational ambivalence. Seventy-five parent-child relationships were discussed. Two major themes arose over what healthy, independently living parents feel ambivalent about in their relationships with their midlife children. The first theme focused on how parents simultaneously felt sadness and pride about the busyness of their children's lives. In some respects, parents sensed themselves left out of their children's everyday life, yet they accepted these feelings with a gratified knowledge that their children were functioning adults in society. The second theme of intergenerational ambivalence that surfaced from the interviews was the issue of respecting and negotiating boundaries around spheres of influence. Parents oscillated between positive and negative feelings and thoughts about the appropriateness of offering advice to children. Parents shared conflicted thoughts about stepping back, allowing their children to live their own lives even if they disapproved of certain aspects of it. A few parents shared situations when they felt they did interfere and overstepped their right to comment on their children's life decisions. This theme centered around four issues: financial matters, core beliefs of politics and religion, romantic partnerships, and parenting styles. This study also examined management strategies parents used to sort out and think through complex feelings and thoughts about their midlife children. A contribution this project gives to the emergence of intergenerational ambivalence as a theoretical concept of study in parent-child relations over the lifecourse is the experience of older mothers and fathers. I found no evidence parents experienced qualitatively different emotions because of their gender. Instead, the underlying experience of intergenerational ambivalence was very similar for mothers and fathers. From the results presented in this study, mixed emotions seem to be a natural and normative experience in late life. Older parents experienced ambivalence on a psychological level. Conflicting inner thoughts and mixed emotions resulted from everyday interactions and conversations with midlife children. / Graduation date: 2004

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Marriage, Family, and Human Development, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-38).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-347). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisor: R. Rogers Kobak, Dept. of Psychology. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2001. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-98). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ71619.

This thesis presents an exploration of the possibility of women's past experiences of childhood sexual abuse having the status of belonging in Christian communities. This is the result of the observation that in literature and in practice, these experiences are regarded and treated in a way that distances and alienates them from the core values and practices of these places. The thesis is both critical and constructive in exploring how past experiences of childhood sexual abuse can be understood and articulated in ways that facilitate their exclusion from or their belonging in Christian communities. Prioritising the perspectives of women who have been sexually abused as children, and recognising the vulnerability of these perspectives when placed alongside more dominant views, I situate the study among feminist theologies that allow the topic to be explored in such a way that allocates a place of significance to voices and perspectives that are not heard or respected in other locations. Having outlined the roots of the questions I am asking, I set out the features of my location and approach and discuss my choice and interpretation of sources (chapter one). Following a critique and rejection of the dominant discourse of psychiatry as a vocabulary in which the significance of childhood sexual abuse is commonly understood (chapter two), I allow space for a detailed reading of three autobiographical accounts of experiences of childhood sexual abuse (chapter three). From here I develop two theologically significant ideas emerging from these accounts, to show the possibility of articulating and understanding these experiences in terms that belong in Christian communities (chapter four). I then turn to look at how the issue of childhood sexual abuse has been treated in Christian communities (chapter five), exploring the long silences of churches on this subject, and explaining how this impedes the extent to which women who have been sexually abused might be able to belong in these communities. I argue for the importance of hearing these women's voices alongside those of others so that they can belong in Christian communities alongside those who are more commonly heard. From this perspective of considering how these experiences belong in Christian community, I turn to look at the way that the question of forgiveness is understood and approached in relation to childhood sexual abuse (chapter six). I argue that although speaking of forgiveness is in theory a way of speaking about childhood sexual abuse that connects this experience with a theological concept that is meaningful in Christian communities, unless the specifics of the language of forgiveness are carefully and thoughtfully presented, in fact speaking of forgiveness may result in further alienation rather than belonging. I conclude (chapter seven) by suggesting that currently it is problematic to suppose that the formally structured churches are places in which experiences of childhood sexual abuse could safely belong. Finally, I point to the real possibility of these experiences finding a home in Christian community outside formal churches; that in spite of the churches' failures and slow responses, it is possible for women's past experiences of childhood sexual abuse to belong safely in Christian community.

Childhood sexual abuse is a serious problem with potential for long term impact on the victims. A history of CSA is associated with psychological distress in adult survivors (Hund & Espelage, 2005). There are risk factors and protective factors that can mediate these effects. One protective factor that has been found to be the best predictor of outcome is adaptive coping, However, there is no known measure with well-established psychometric properties that assesses for adaptive coping behaviors. The Solution Focus Recovery Scale was developed to assess adaptive coping in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault. The SFRS has some preliminary data to support the reliability and validity of the measure (Kruczek & Vitanza, 1999; Kruczek & Ægisdóttir, 2005). The current study will help to continue to establish the psychometric properties of the SFRS so that it can be used as an outcome measure for future research and in treatment. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

In the past decade there has been growing recognition that a sexual abuse history may manifest during health care examinations. More recently, awareness has been raised about a possible link between a history of sexual abuse and traumatic labour and birth. It is theoretically likely that the intimacy of labour and birth for women with a history of sexual abuse may trigger post-traumatic stress symptomatology. In this cross sectional study, a survey method was used to establish prevalence of sexual abuse and to measure obstetric outcomes, birth experience and birth trauma in a cohort of women who have recently given birth and to test whether there are associations between sexual abuse and birth outcomes. Eighty-five women whose 3½ to 5 year old children attend kindergarten participated. Lifetime sexual abuse was found to be a common experience for study participants. One out of every three women disclosed an experience of sexual abuse in her lifetime. A history of sexual abuse was not associated with adverse labour and birth outcomes; however women with a positive sexual abuse history were more likely to report postnatal depression. A quarter of the women had PTSD symptoms but overall, women had positive birth experiences and felt well supported. Many women are able to overcome traumatic abuse experiences and successfully cope with birth, an event that may potentially replicate the dynamics of sexual abuse. Further research is needed to identify women who may be at high risk for traumatic birth experiences. Undertaking screening for sexual abuse in the antenatal period in a safe environment may provide reassurance for women and enable identification of those women at high risk for abuse related traumatic birth experiences.

Thesis (Psy.D.)--California School of Professional Psychology, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references.