Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-172).

Thesis (M.A.)--Liberty University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-237).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-172).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006. / Ralph E. LaRossa, committee chair; Elisabeth O. Burgess, Charles A. Gallagher, Romney S. Norwood, committee members. Electronic text (264 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 29, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 222-248).

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Family Studies and Social Work, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-39).

Much research conducted on stepmothers has not been racially representative. This includes Janice Nadler's (1976) research on three psychological stresses (anxiety, depression, and anger) of stepmotherhood. To investigate the stress of black stepmotherhood, this study replicated a portion of Nadler's investigation on a black sample. It was hypothesized that 1) black stepmothers would report more stress than black natural mothers; and that 2) black stepmothers would report more stress than the white stepmothers in Nadler's study. The data indicated no significant difference in the levels of stress experienced by black stepmothers and black natural mothers. Overall, white stepmothers reported more stress than black stepmothers. The former may be attributable to black stepmothers and natural mothers having the same support system, the black extended family.

This study examined differences in parenting practices and parenting stress between 44 African American maternal caregivers of children ages 6-10 with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and 25 caregivers of children without ADHD. Results indicated significant group differences on inconsistent discipline, as child ADHD significantly predicted this parenting construct. There were no mean group differences in positive parenting. Parenting stress was related to parenting practices for the caregivers of children without ADHD, but was unrelated to parenting practices among control caregivers. Child ADHD predicted several subscales of the Parenting Stress Index. However, child ADHD failed to be a significant predictor when a comorbid disruptive behavior disorder was entered in the model as a covariate. As the presence of a comorbid disruptive behavior disorder predicted parenting stress better than child ADHD for African American caregivers, treatment for such families should include a component targeting parenting stress.

This study investigates the social function of reading Urban Literature and the role the genre serves in the lives of a family of African American women. This investigation discovered that their talk about a particular Urban Literature text reveals intertextual links among multiple "texts" and that these links relate to elements of their lived worlds and cultural models. Using a case study portrait methodology, grounded in a sociocultural approach to language and literacy, this study focuses on the following questions: 1. What do the women in an all-female African American family read? Why do they read? 2. How are these African American women's self-perceptions and identities related to their family's reading practices? 3. How do the women in an all-female African American family engage and talk to one another about books as readers, individuals, and as a family? 4. How are the intertextual links they use during their talk socially constructed as they interact and react to one another? To address the first two questions, I conducted two in-depth individual interviews of the participants and analyzed their responses for evidence that reading Urban Literature is part of larger social and cultural practices related to their self-perception and their lived worlds and cultural models. In this case, reading Urban Literature serves a larger purpose than just pure entertainment. Specifically, I found that the women in this family read Urban Literature for the following social functions: (1) as a connection to urban life; (2) as a form of entertainment; (3) as a collaborative activity; and (4) as a means of constructing and defining their own identities. To address the second two questions, I joined the family for a discussion of an Urban Literature book called Rage Times Fury (2004). After documenting the conversation on video, I analyzed a 6 min 16 sec segment of the 1 hr 17 min 11 sec discussion to explore the ways the family members' talk collaboratively constructs meaning through intertextual links. The collaborative nature of their talk about Rage Times Fury reveals that this family uses intertextual links to: (1) define themselves as readers, particularly as readers of Urban Literature, and as students; (2) strengthen their bonds as members of the same family through strategies such as repetition; and (3) identify and validate their cultural models and prior lived experiences based on their shared social and historical perspectives. The analysis within this study suggests researchers can conduct more extensive studies of how African American families with adolescents engage in various literacy practices and how those practices are embedded in their social and cultural lived worlds. This study also recommends that educators should strive more to connect family literacy skills, practices, and cultural models in students' homes to instructional skills, practices, and cultural models employed in classrooms.

Parent child communications about sex play an important role in influencing adolescent’s sexual behaviors and attitudes. The present study was conducted to examine how sexual communications between African American mothers and their children change over a period of three years in the areas of sex education, communication about risk reduction, and child and parent report of responsiveness. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses found significant linear or curvilinear trajectory in communication with sons and daughters in all areas. Gender differences were found such that daughters received more communication than sons. Furthermore, daugthers’ sexual maturation was found to be associated with a decrease in the rate of decline of communication about general sex information. For sons, mothers decreased in rates of responsiveness as sons got older; however, as sons’ sexual maturation increased, rates of declining responsiveness slowed down.