Thèse (M.Ps.) - Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2005. / "Mémoire présenté à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi comme exigence partielle de la maîtrise en psychologie offerte à l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi en vertu d'un protocole d'entente avec l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières" Comprend des réf. bibliogr. : f. 155-168. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF.

Magister Artium (Child and Family Studies) - MA(CFS) / Parental practices play a vital role in children lives. The manner in which parents interact with their children, can promotes and support the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. It could be describe as the process, whereby children learn to be responsible, and the consequences of their actions with the assistance of their parents. The aim of the study was to assess the perceptions of parental practices, which could place children at risk for abuse and neglect. This study used the quantitative method with a cross-sectional comparative design to examine and compare parental practices of parents, whose children were victims of abuse or neglect across gender, marital status and socio economic status. A sample of 163 participants (87 mothers and 76 fathers), who were either single or married and their socio economic status varied from the lower to the higher income group participated in the study. The participants completed the questionnaire, which was based on the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) and the data was analyzed by means of the Statistical Package in the Science (SPSS version 20). The results suggest that there are no significant differences between parents based on socio-economic status and marital status. However, there were significant differences between mothers‟ and fathers‟ care and overprotection.Furthermore, mothers were identified as being affectionless controlling in their parenting practices (low care and high overprotection) and fathers as affectionately constraining in their parenting practices (high care and high protection). Recommendations are provided for this study.

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are transition points that offer both opportunities and constraints on individual development. The purpose of this study is threefold: First, to examine two models (i.e., young adolescents in grades 7 and 8 and older adolescents in grade 12) of heavy episodic drinking and examine how heavy episodic drinking affects subsequent educational attainment. By utilizing two different developmental transitions, i.e., middle school to high school and high school to college, it may be possible to better understand the temporal effects of alcohol use and subsequent educational attainment. The second purpose of this study is to examine how alcohol use at Time 1 may lead to the problems in the adolescent’s immediate context due to alcohol (i.e., problems with parents, peers, romantic relationships, problems at school) and to examine if these problems affect educational attainment over and above alcohol use alone. The third purpose of this study is to examine the potential gender differences in these models. The study uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which is a large scale, nationally representative school based sample of 20,745 adolescents who were interviewed in grades 7 to 12. Two longitudinal mediational models were evaluated utilizing structural equation modeling. Binge drinking and number of days drunk were used as indicators for a latent variable of heavy episodic drinking (i.e., LHED). In the 7th and 8th grade model, direct effects of LHED were found to predict educational attainment at grade 12. Additionally, in the 7th and 8th grade sample, a mediated relationship was found whereby educational attainment was predicted by problems with parents. Problems with parents were predicted by number of days drunk in the past year. In the 12th grade sample, there were no direct effects or indirect effects of alcohol on educational attainment. This study highlights the need for using a longitudinal framework when examining heavy episodic drinking’s effects on educational attainment.

Abstract not available.

This report analyses the NHES: 2005 data to present the state of American education in reference to “adult” participation in education. Psychosocial interaction theory is applied to the social event of attaining adulthood to analyze and report the propensity of American adults to participate in non-compulsory adult education. The review of the literature of perceptual demographic variables of adult attainment: age, prior education, subordinate responsibility, child-age dependent care, marital status, job stability, and home ownership. The analysis compares the data of participants and non-participants of non-compulsory adult education using binomial logistic regression analysis with tests, for a 95% confidence level and .05 significance. Included is a discussion of how appropriately aligned development opportunities and experiences may further increase education effectiveness and performance outcomes.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Kristen Bottema-Beutel / Autism is often framed using a deficit lens with ableist beliefs and medical model perspectives promoting the curing, treatment, or camouflaging of autistic characteristics. This contributes to poor outcomes experienced by many within the autistic community, including but not limited to victimization at higher rates (Fisher & Lounds Taylor, 2016; Nansel et al., 2001), lower satisfaction with quality of life in work, education, and relationships (Barneveld et al., 2014), suicidal ideation at higher frequencies (Mayes et al., 2013), and low self-esteem and high depression and anxiety (Cooper et al., 2017). Increased efforts are necessary to better understand how to support positive autistic identity development. This dissertation is comprised of three papers outlined below, aimed at exploring autistic identity. Paper 1 sought to analyze how autistic adults without a formal autism diagnosis construct autistic identities in the narratives they tell about disclosure or talking to other about being autistic. Through interviewing using participant-preferred modalities, narratives were elicited from 15 self-identified autistic adults. Narratives were thematically and then discursively examined using Bamberg’s 3-level model of positioning (Bamberg, 1997). Analysis showed that positioning techniques like reported speech, double-voiced discourse, and juxtaposition of characters were used by participants to reveal doubt experienced in self-identifying, claim autistic membership, and assert autism expertise. For autistic adults without formal diagnosis, discussing autism and sharing their autistic identification can be a challenging experience. Understanding how these exchanges are narrated can offer insight on how to better support and affirm self-identified autistic adults. Paper 2 examined the experiences of autistic adolescents and their caregivers of engaging in talk about autism. Adopting a multiperspectival interpretative phenomenological analytic (IPA) approach, 3 parent-child dyads were recruited and individually interviewed. Parents and adolescents were treated as separate participant groups and analysis of individual interviews was followed by cross-case analysis to identify group experiential themes. Adolescents found that conversations with their mothers impacted their autistic identity by strengthening perceived areas of difficulty related to autism and helping them to better understand themselves and conceptualizing autism. Caregivers noted that conversations about autism with their child felt natural, were spaces to frame autism in particular ways, and were opportunities to guide them through challenging social situations and offer support. This IPA study contributes to autism research in describing the psychosocial experience of autism-related talk between parent and child, appreciating the multiple perspectives involved in these interactions. Using hierarchical regression and mediation models, Paper 3 identified the relationships between (a) awareness and knowledge about autism, (b) orientation to neurodiversity perspectives, (c) level of outness, (d) autism-related stigma consciousness, (e) autistic identity, and (f) mental well-being of autistic adults. A sample of 169 participants completed an online survey comprised of measures indexing these constructs. Autism awareness and knowledge, alignment with neurodiversity perspectives, outness, and stigma consciousness were predictive of autistic identity when controlling for gender, sexuality, and number of years knowing about autistic status. When entered into the regression model together, only orientation to neurodiversity perspectives uniquely predicted autistic identity. Additionally, results showed that autistic identity mediated the relationship between stigma-related consciousness and mental wellbeing. This work offers direction for promoting positive autistic identity development. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The current study examines how risk factors such as psychopathology and risky sexual behavior may impact quality of life negatively and how protective factors such as perceived positive parenting, social support, and self-efficacy may impact quality of life positively. The sample consisted of 507 participants aged 18 to 29 years enrolled at a southeastern university. Results indicate that higher levels of risky sexual behavior were associated with higher levels of psychopathology; lower scores on all quality of life subscales; and lower levels of perceived positive parenting, social support, and selfefficacy. Higher scores on all quality of life subscales were associated with higher levels of perceived positive parenting, social support, and self-efficacy and lower levels of psychopathology. When all factors were examined in a regression, the effects of perceived positive parenting, social support, and self-efficacy on quality of life were greater than the effects of RSB and psychopathology.

To date, research has established that parents continue to play a significant role in the lives of their emerging adult children. For example, parents continue to engage in parenting practices, such as providing ongoing, intensive support to their emerging adult children; however, few studies have examined the strategies that parents use when their children do not comply with their commands. Emerging evidence suggests parents do engage in discipline practices during this time and the use of harsh discipline (i.e., physical aggression) is associated with negative mental health outcomes for emerging adults. However, to our knowledge, no measure of discipline strategies used in emerging adulthood exists. Thus, the current study developed and examined the psychometric properties of the Domains of Young Adult Discipline Scale (DYADS), a multi-item measure of parental discipline strategies used during emerging adulthood. Results of CFAs revealed the best fitting model contained 25-items and spanned 4 domains of discipline. The final DYADS correlated as expected with existing parenting measures as well as a gross measure of emerging adult mental health. Implications for future research are discussed.

Parenting practices and discipline practices impact children’s lives in many ways, particularly children’s behaviors and outcomes. Positive parenting practices including authoritative parenting, non-violent discipline practices, and consistency are associated with positive psychological adjustment. Research demonstrates that negative parenting practices including authoritarian and permissive parenting, harsh discipline practices, and inconsistency are related to childhood maladjustment. The current study aimed to examine the relationships among parenting practices, discipline practices, consistency, and emerging adult psychological adjustment. Results indicated that positive parenting, positive discipline, and consistent practices are negatively correlated with emerging adult maladjustment. The current study found no differences between mothers and fathers for parenting practices, discipline practices, or consistency. Lastly, it was found that consistency acts as a partial mediator between parenting and discipline practices and psychological outcome and is a strong predictor of psychological adjustment.