Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-76).

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / This is a review of the body of literature about teenage sexuality, pregnancy, abortion, parent-adolescent communication, and parental involvement laws. The literature review focused on current United State's policies on teenage abortion and the effects of parental involvement laws and judicial bypass. A review of other nations' policies regarding teenage sexuality, pregnancy, and abortion and the outcomes of these policies is given and compared to the policies of the United States. Proponents' reasons for parental involvement laws are explored. Current research on the effects that parental involvement laws have on adolescents and their families, adolescents' abilities to make informed decisions about abortion, and characteristics of teenage girls who choose abortion is reviewed. The need for more research on teenage sexuality, parent-adolescent communication, and the effectiveness of parental involvement laws are identified. Implications for family life educators for the prevention of teenage pregnancy as well as interventions for family life educators in the event of adolescent pregnancy and abortion are provided. Implications for the need to review current parental involvement policies and the need to apply research to these policies are also recommended.

M.A. / South Africa has an exceptionally high divorce rate. The stressful nature of parental separation and divorce results in higher susceptibility of children to psychological, social, academical and health problems. Parental ability to deal with the divorce transition largely influences the long term adjustment of children after divorce. An effective empirically researched based parentfocused educational programme which addresses the most essential divorce related issues and the effects thereof on children, can be of exceptional value. Supplying parents with sufficient knowledge and information regarding divorce as a process, as well as the way it effects children of different ages en developmental stages, will assist the parents in making better choices concerning the children. By educating parents about the effect of prolonged interparental conflict on children and by supplying them with constructive conflict management skills, the negative consequences of divorce on children may be minimised or even eliminated. In this study an educational programme (k.i.d.s.) was assessed by using a one group pretest- postest design. K.i.d.s. is a short, informative and user friendly educational programme. It comprises two, two hour sessions, scheduled two weeks apart. Statistical significance was achieved when pretest-posttest results were compared regarding knowledge on conflict and the divorce process. Participants also reported a significant decline regarding negative conflict behaviour. An overall high level of consumer satisfaction with the program was reported. Despite the small study sample, the positive results of this study proves the k.i.d.s. program to be a potential promising preventative and intervention method for use with divorcing parents. / Mrs. H.F. Ellis

The purpose of this study is to determine some means of strengthening the already established program of Home and Family Life Education with adults in the Dallas Independent Schools, Dallas, Texas.

It was the quest for answers to such questions which prompted this study. It is an effort to discover what young people in an out of school think about their training for family living. It is an effort to compare their opinions with those of adults and to evaluate them in terms of feasibility, goals, and sound learning experiences. It was expected that the material provided by this study would give direction to the development of a program of family life education in a community.

While there are numerous websites discussing attachment parenting in infancy, there are currently no interactive research-based websites devoted to attachment parenting throughout early childhood. To fill this need the author developed the Foundations of Parenting website (http://www.foundationsofparenting.org). Evaluation, a tool so far under-utilized by parenting education websites, is necessary for both quality control and improving websites. Thus, in addition to development of the website, the author also formatively evaluated the Foundations of Parenting program by using website-utilization tools and visitor feedback through an online survey to analyze utilization and visitor satisfaction. The website was well-used (674 unique visitors and 189 return visitors with a visitor page depth of 6.7 pages over a 23 day period) for a newly-created website, as can be seen by an examination of traffic rankings of small websites at www.alexa.com. The quantitative survey items assessed the usefulness of the website, the attractiveness of the website, ease of use of the website, whether the website met the participants needs, how interesting the content was, whether the website led them to reconsider former attitudes and made them aware of new things, and whether the participant had decided to do things differently due to the website. A MANOVA procedure was used to identify distinctions in these items in association with selected demographic variables, while the open-ended questions invited the survey participants to elaborate on their quantitative answers. The majority of survey participants, 75 percent, agreed or strongly agreed with the above quantitative survey items, and 87.6 percent felt that the website was useful or very useful. Thus, a large majority of users indicated that the website was useful, attractive, easy to use, interesting, helped them reconsider former attitudes, helped them become aware of new things, and influenced them to decide to do something differently. MANOVA analyses revealed website ratings varied only by ethnicity. Reports compiled by SuperStats tracked the amount of website usage as well as visitor pathways through the website, visitor page depth, the amount of time spent on the website, which pages were most popular, as well as the page depth of the most popular pages. These reports revealed that users tended to search for information they were looking for and leave instead of reading through website content from beginning to end. Participants provided helpful suggestions and feedback to improve the website. Implications of this feedback for website improvement and ideas for further research are discussed.

Specifically, the study was designed to operationalize and test a systems model of management for (1) the independent effects of input and throughput in the prediction of output, as well as (2) the causal relationships among the composite input and throughput variables in the prediction of output. Demands, material resources, and human resources comprised input, including time use over a seven day period aggregated into four categories. Using Varimax rotated principal components analysis, eight factors were extracted from 34 items assessing managerial behavior. The resulting dimension scale scores represented throughput in the model. Output, by definition. encompasses individual satisfaction. Using Varimax rotated principal components analysis, seven factors were extracted from 19 questions assessing life satisfaction. The resulting dimension scores. representing satisfaction with personal belongingness, economic status, family. household production, personal autonomy. self-esteem, and educational attainment, were the dependent variables for the subsequent analysis. An additional dependent variable assessing satisfaction with life was calculated. Regresssion analyses and related F tests revealed that the equations incorporating input and throughput from both numbers of the couple were superior to those using predictor variables from only one spouse. Similar analysis revealed that inclusion of throughput significantly increased the explanation of variance for both spouses. Significant predictor variables were aggregated into input and throughput composites for path analysis of the causal relationship. Results provided some support for the proposition that output is a function of input and throughput. The direct effects of input on output were consistently stronger than the indirect effects as mediated by throughput. In general. results of the study supported the model specification and relationships. Results clearly verified the prediction of satisfaction as an output. Explanation of variance for the wives generally exceeded that for the husbands. The diversity of the aspects of life satisfaction supported the proposed broad applicability of management theory. / Ph. D.

This study examines the relationship between substance abuse and the need for parent skills training. Predicted is that adults in substance abuse treatment are likely to be in need of parent skills training. Previous research has associated the lack of parent skills with inept parenting practices that often leads to developmental problems in children.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Melinda Markham / The number of grandparents who are taking over the responsibility of raising their grandchildren is increasing over time. Despite society’s reliance on them, society is failing to meet the needs of these families. Grandparents consistently lack the necessary resources that could reduce and minimize their stress in what is usually an unexpected family situation. Family Life Education has failed to meet the needs of grandfamilies. Using Family Stress Theory as a theoretical framework, this study asked the question How can Family Life Education be used as a resource for grandparents raising grandchildren to avoid crisis? Focus groups and individual interviews were used to gather qualitative data from grandparents who are currently raising their grandchildren near a midwestern university. Findings suggest grandparents raising grandchildren could benefit from education regarding finding resources and answers to questions as they navigate the many systems they are involved with, communicating and guiding their grandchildren, balancing and maintaining the shifting family dynamics and changing family relationships, information regarding the growth and development of children across the lifespan, and education regarding content that is unique to their family situation. However there are multiple barriers that participants identified toward the utilization of FLE. Ultimately, there is a lack of collaboration among services for grandparents raising grandchildren and they lack support that could potentially come from support groups. Impact and implications for practice, research and policy were discussed. Strengths and limitations of the study were also presented.

Master of Science / Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / This study investigates the domains and boundaries of sexuality education between two educational fields: sexuality education and family life education. The goal was to understand how scholars and practitioners in these fields conceptualize sexuality education. The journalistic questions of Who, What, When, For whom, and Why were identified within each field by using the constant comparative method to complete a content analysis of publications by scholars and by interviewing certified professionals in each field. Through the lens of Social Constructionism Theory and a Phenomenological Approach, this study helped clarify the similarities and differences of two professional fields, in turn, advancing each field. Results indicated that sexuality education and family life education are similar in many ways; it is the approach that each takes that makes them different. Sexuality education takes a holistic approach while family life education takes a contextual approach when teaching sexuality education. This approach, in turn, affects the rest of the education, including the domains that were identified.