Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Community Psychology in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2006. / The present study investigated the role that is played by family members in helping psychiatric patients cope with their illnesses. Twenty-seven psychiatric patients participated in the study. Of these, eighteen had been admitted to the local hospital for various complaints, and had been referred to the psychologist for psychotherapy. Nine participants were seen during private consultation sessions with the author/researcher. A convenient sample was used in that the criterion for inclusion of participants in the sample was based on patients suffering from certain psychiatric illnesses for example mood disorders, psychotic disorders or anxiety disorders. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The questionnaire covered participants' biographical information, details about psychiatric patients' illness such as their initial reactions to the diagnosis, knowledge about the illness, the level of support they received from family members and the community and the perceived causes of the illness. The procedure for data collection involved directed conversations in which patients reflected on their experiences both in and out of the hospital, for example the level of support they received from the family and community members, and information about their psychiatric conditions after being discharged from hospital. In addition, family members were asked to express their feelings and perceptions about the patients' conditions including the challenges they encountered as a result of having a family member with a psychiatric illness. The results of the study were that many psychiatric patients reacted with shock, fear and confusion to their illness diagnosis. Many also appeared to have some knowledge of the illness, including the belief by some that they had been bewitched. Some of the patients were unemployed as a result of being mentally ill, and this led to financial strains in the family. The main finding of the study was that most psychiatric patients still continue to be discriminated against in the communities in which they live. Most family members, however, were found to be supportive to their mentally ill relative. Some of the challenges faced by family members included a lack of knowledge about the illnesses affecting their relatives. The results of the study are generally consistent with the findings by other investigators regarding the important role that is played by family members in helping their relatives cope with psychiatric illnesses. In addition the study highlighted an urgent need by the government to improve mental health services by, among other things, providing adequately qualified professionals who may facilitate the process of integrating mentally ill persons with their communities.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to understand positive profiles, if any, of African-American male role models through analyzing descriptive data. The central hypothesis of the study proposed that adult African-American males had a significant impact on the formation of young African-American males' family lives, neighborhood values, religious lives, educational progress, and career choices. This research contributes to an understanding of how young African-American males perceive role models in building positive relationships. In addition, this study elicits much needed data that could provide a basis for developing strategies for both securing role models for young African-American males and producing programs designed to protect young African-American males from drug usage, violence, and dropping out of school. More importantly, this study contributes to the effort to raise educational achievement among young African-American males by exploring and defining the nature of African-American male role models. This exploration yields information on unique needs of African-American males. It establishes that problems within the home, community, and school contribute to the stagnation of African-American males as a group and the weakening of the African-American community as a whole. It further establishes possible incentives, strategies, and guides for selecting and placing African-American males in classrooms and community programs as role models. The major findings of the study were that African-American male role models are indeed key in promoting self-esteem, occupational development, community involvement, and family life in positive ways. Qualitative methodology was used in this study through the grounded theory approach. In-depth, unstructured interviews were conducted by the investigator to gather data from the participants. Through the use of grounded theory, what was relevant to the study was allowed to emerge. The grounded theory approach relies on the inquiring mind of the investigator. Data was analyzed through an ordering process guided by open coding for the generalization of patterns, themes, and categories. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between female counselors’ work-family conflict and their demographic (i.e., ethnicity, age, educational level, and annual household income), occupational (i.e., ethnicity, age, educational level, and annual household income), and family (i.e., marital/partner status; number of children at home under the age of 18; age of youngest child; care of elderly, ill, or disabled family members; source of support; and support) characteristics. Super’s (1990) Life-Space Life-Span theory provided a framework to understand female counselors’ engagement in multiple roles in work and family and the conflict that can result in two directions: work interfering with family (WIF), and family interfering with work (FIW) (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992). Female counselors were contacted through electronic email communication in which they received a link to access the online survey that totaled 51 questions. Female counselors from the state of Louisiana and Alabama participated in the survey for a sample size of 266. Pearson’s correlation indicated significant relationships for WIF and the following variables: (a) annual household income, (b) hours per week spent in employment, (c) counseling license, (d) workplace flexibility, (e) autonomy, (f) marital/partner status, and (g) source of support. For FIW, significant relationships were found for the following variables: (a) autonomy; (b) number of children at home under the age of 18; (c) age of the youngest child; (d) care of elderly, ill, or disabled family members; (e) hours per week spent in home chores and errands; and (f) support. Autonomy and hours per week spent in employment significantly predicted female counselors’ WIF scores. Autonomy; age of the youngest child; care of elderly, ill, or disabled family members; and support predicted female counselors’ FIW scores.

Many of these poems are largely concerned with women and are told through the voices of women. Most of the poems are concerned with relationships, specifically romantic and familial. The last portion of the manuscript has Popular culture as its subject, though many of them are also romantic.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

Balancing a successful career with a family life can be challenging and impact on a person's satisfaction in their work and family roles, affecting not only the person but their partner and children as well. This study examined the influence of social support from family and work associates on the role satisfaction of female and male managers, and their children's adjustment. Participants were 96 male and 100 female managers and their families. The first aim of this study was to examine the relative importance of work and family support for satisfaction in the roles of paid worker, spouse and parent. Findings showed that social support had a domain-specific effect, with work support associated with job satisfaction, and family support associated with marital and parenting satisfaction. The second aim of the study was to evaluate gender differences in perceived social support, and the association of support with role satisfaction. Although there were considerable differences in the managers' work and family arrangements, female managers and male managers reported receiving similar levels of work and family support, and the strength of the relationship between social support and role satisfaction was similar for both genders. The final aim of the study was to examine the role of social support in the larger family system, as research has mainly focussed on the influence of social support on the support recipient. This study extended research on the relationship between social support and role satisfaction, by showing that family support was not only associated to managers' role satisfaction, but also to managers' interactions with their children, and their children's adjustment. Work support on the other hand, was related to job satisfaction, but not to parent-child interactions and child adjustment. The findings from this study could inform clinicians' treatment of families with children experiencing problems by addressing the relationship of family support with child adjustment. Findings could also inform governments' work and family agendas, which generally focus on providing assistance to employers with the development of workplace policies to improve work-family balance. Governments should also promote the role of family support, and provide information for families on how to arrange household and childcare tasks and provide support to each other to facilitate work-family balance. Furthermore, the current study showed that work support is positively related to employee's job satisfaction, which is important for employees as well as employers. Employers can promote supportive relationships among employees through establishing networking opportunities for their employees, such as breakfast meetings, workshops and seminars, and business planning days. This study showed that some people can have it all - a satisfying and successful career, a happy marriage, and fulfilling parenthood - and social support appears to play a significant role in achieving this.

Almost every year, Aboriginal communities are evacuated from northern regions of Canada to nearby cities because of threats due to forest fires and flooding. In this thesis, I present the perspectives of twenty members of the Hatchet Lake First Nation, who were evacuated from Wollaston Lake in northern Saskatchewan during the summer of 2011. My main research question is, how do residents of Wollaston Lake describe experiences of disruptions to well-being and distress during the evacuation and in the evacuation centers? My methods are qualitative, as I conducted open-ended interviews and participant observation while residing in the community for six weeks during the summer of 2012. Following the approaches of Geertz (2000), Garro (2000), and Mattingly (1998), I engaged in a narrative analysis of these data. Three main themes are evident in community members’ discussions of their experiences. First, participants focus on the ways that the fire and displacement disrupted the well-being of fellow community members and, to a lesser degree, their relationships with the land surrounding their town, and their roles within the community. Residents of Wollaston Lake portray a version of well-being that is rooted in the social, rather than individual, self. The second theme relates to family roles, as mothers, fathers, adult children, and guardians describe the various ways that these roles were disrupted during the fire and evacuation, and the distress elicited by these disruptions. These narratives are indicative of the discrepancies between the circumstances experienced during the fire and evacuation, and the values and behaviors that they associate with family roles. The third theme relates to expectations and blame, as community members recall the various ways that the evacuation failed to meet their expectations, and they attribute blame to those that they deem responsible for these inadequacies. Specifically, community members focus on expectations relating to the handling of the threat of fire, the organization of the evacuation, and their interactions with members of the host communities. These findings indicate the incongruities between current emergency management practices in Saskatchewan and the needs of this community. The implication of these findings is that, in order to minimize distress during future disasters, organizers must develop plans that account for the distinct social norms and vulnerabilities of the communities with which they work.

This study explored the experiences of employed South African Hindu mothers. The purpose of the exploration was to better understand the coping strategies that these mothers used to deal with their work and family role expectations. South African Hindu mothers are a subset of people who originate from traditional or collectivistic, cultural backgrounds, yet, live in a society in which workplaces subscribe to mainly, Western business practices. By exploring the coping strategies of this collectivistic cultural group in South Africa, the implications are relevant to what is known about coping with work and family demands. Secondary analysis of qualitative data led to the findings of this research. Twenty, unstructured, in-depth interviews allowed participants to share their stories as they wanted. From these stories, findings were that South African Hindu mothers used internal psychological processes, and, external processes to cope with their family and work demands. Internal processes included, reappraisal, ideals on duty, guilt, gratitude and acceptance. External processes included coping by externalising feelings, being supported by others, and, planning and organising. The research considers the influence of cultural norms and traditions juxtaposed by a modern way of living in relation to coping with the demands of work and family expectations. Future studies may benefit from building knowledge on how collectivism shapes coping and what is known about coping for additional, collectivistic cultural groups, particularly, within the South African context