A study was carried out to assess the effect of parental absence upon a child's subsequent verbal and numerical aptitude. The primary focus was on father-separated children (both male and female), but small samples of students who had been separated from mother or from both parents were included. Age of separation (up to six years old), and length of separation (three months or longer), were the primary independent variables investigated. The necessary information was obtained from questionnaires that were mailed to approximately 1,000 first year University of B.C. students (academic session 1967-68). The age and length of separation was subsequently verified in a separate letter to the parents. Verbal and numerical aptitude was measured by the Cooperative School and College Ability Test (SCAT), and the achievement scores obtained in first year university English and Mathematics courses. The father-separated male students demonstrated greater aptitude in verbal abilities relative to numerical abilities. The length of the separation was insignificant, but a separation after the child was eighteen months old produced a greater increase in verbal skills (relative to numerical ability), than a separation before eighteen months. Father-separated male students attained a higher mean score in the first year English course than students from intact homes. There was no significant difference between mean mathematical scores obtained by the two groups. The presence or absence of brothers in the homes of father-separated males did not significantly affect aptitude development. Father-separated female students demonstrated greater proficiency in verbal abilities relative to numerical abilities. This superiority of verbal aptitude relative to numerical aptitude was significantly higher than that demonstrated by girls who had not been separated from a parent. The results for the two independent variables, age and length of separation, were similar to those observed for males. The samples of students who were separated from mother or both parents during childhood were too small to permit meaningful analyses. Some interesting trends in the data were discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

High school males from fatherless households are less likely to receive the needed support to succeed in school than their peers from two parent households (Astone and McLanahan, 1991). Research indicated that the biological father's influence will sway the male child's overall development (Jones, 2004). This qualitative study explores the connections between fatherless households and school achievement among high school males. Its purpose is to enlighten school leadership about strategies for assisting high school males from fatherless households with obstacles that may affect their school performance. The grounded theory study includes findings from one-on-one interviews of seven adult males from fatherless households, ages 28 and older, with varying careers, education, and marital status backgrounds who currently work or previously worked in some capacity with high school males from fatherless households. During the interview, common words, responses, shared experiences, and patterns emerged that identified factors that contribute to the academic outcomes of high school male students. Findings include the following: 1) Relationships with the biological father, biological mother, as well as the relationship between the father and mother, have a positive or negative emotional effect on high school males; 2) High school experiences and factors, such as academics, attendance, discipline, and various obstacles were impacted by fatherless households; 3) The influences of biological and other adult males are critical to the academic success of high school males from fatherless households; 4) There are positive and negative factors that affect high school males from fatherless households; and 5) Various roles, strategies, and programs contribute to the academic success of high school males from fatherless households. In addition to these findings, this study identifies further research needed for educators to explore other facets of high school males from fatherless households and school performance. / Ed. D. / This research study explores the connections between fatherless households and school achievement among high school males. Its purpose is to enlighten school leadership, parents, and community about strategies for assisting high school males from fatherless households with obstacles that may affect their school performance. The study includes findings from one-on-one interviews of seven adult males from fatherless households, ages 28 and older, with varying careers, education, and marital status backgrounds who currently work or previously worked in some capacity with high school males from fatherless households. During the interview, common words, responses, shared experiences, and patterns emerged that identified factors that contribute to the academic outcomes of high school male students. Findings include the following: 1) Relationships with the biological father, biological mother, as well as the relationship between the father and mother, have a positive or negative emotional effect on high school males; 2) High school experiences and factors, such as academics, attendance, discipline, and various obstacles were impacted by fatherless households; 3) The influences of biological and other adult males are critical to the academic success of high school males from fatherless households; 4) There are positive and negative factors that affect the high school males from fatherless households; and 5) Various roles, strategies, and programs will contribute to the academic success of high school males from fatherless households. In addition to the findings, this study identifies further research needed to explore other facets of high school males from fatherless households and school performance.

謝靜雯. / 論文(碩士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院人類學學部, 1996. / 參考文献 : leaves 137-146. / Xie Jingwen. / Chapter 第一章 --- 導論：單親家庭與「女性」的建構 / Chapter 一 --- 硏究課題 --- p.1 / Chapter 二 --- 文獻回顧 --- p.3 / Chapter 三 --- 理論架構 --- p.8 / Chapter 四 --- 硏究方法 --- p.15 / Chapter 五 --- 論文大綱 --- p.18 / Chapter 第二章 --- 香港的單親家庭 / Chapter 一 --- 單親家庭的定義 --- p.20 / Chapter 二 --- 單親家庭在香港：數據與現況 --- p.24 / Chapter 三 --- 香港單親家庭與社會福利制度 --- p.33 / Chapter 四 --- 爲單親家庭提供服務的組織： 自願性組織與非政府的社會服務機構 --- p.34 / Chapter 第三章 --- 家庭的再思：母與女日常的互動 / Chapter 一 --- 家庭與性別建構的關係 --- p.39 / Chapter 二 --- 以父爲中心的家庭結構中女性的身 份與地位 --- p.42 / Chapter 三 --- 嬗變中的「女性」：今日與傳統 --- p.46 / 建構的「女性」：「賢妻」 --- p.48 / 建構的「女性」：「良母」、「孝女」 --- p.55 / 單親家庭的分工與性別建構 --- p.67 / Chapter 四 --- 小結 --- p.69 / Chapter 第四章 --- 公眾論述：「單親家庭」的塑造 / Chapter 一 --- 電視劇集 --- p.74 / Chapter 二 --- 廣告 --- p.88 / Chapter 三 --- 報章 --- p.100 / Chapter 四 --- 小結 --- p.113 / Chapter 第五章 --- 社會福利政策與單親家庭中的性別建構 / Chapter 一 --- 社會福利政策：「家爲本位」、 「男主外、女主內」 --- p.115 / Chapter 二 --- 社會福利制度與性別建構 --- p.119 / Chapter 三 --- 小結 --- p.126 / Chapter 第六章 --- 總結：「社會問題」建構 / Chapter 一 --- 性別觀念的反思與轉變中的家庭槪念 --- p.127 / Chapter 二 --- 「社會問題」的建構 --- p.131 / Chapter 三 --- 女性的本質 --- p.134 / 參考書目 --- p.137

Widows and their fatherless children are commonly perceived to be the most deserving category amongst the poor. The frequent exhortations in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament clearly and constantly reminded the early Christian Church of the divine expectations God had enjoined upon them in this matter. There appears to be no obstacle, theological or moral, to perceiving them as worthy recipients of Christian charity and pastoral care. Yet the results of this study show that in the early centuries of the church the fatherless family was invisible to its leadership. They were not perceived as needy people deserving support but were regarded as a problem, rather than real human beings. Ambiguous material in the Gospels and in the other writings of the New Testament, where references to them are sparse and sometimes unsympathetic, allowed creativity of interpretation to occur permitting evasion of the giving of straightforward support, and instead facilitated greater management and control by the clergy. Their informal self-organisation and methods of mutual self-help were increasingly eroded. The only extensive study of the support of the fatherless family in Roman society and the Church is the four volume habilitation thesis of Jens-Uwe Krause, Witwen und Waisen im Römischen Reich, published between 1994-1995. This large study deals with the long period 200 BCE – 600 CE diachronically. Apart from the 2009 collection of essays edited by Sabine R. Hübner and David M. Ratzan. Growing up Fatherless in Antiquity, which deals mainly with elite, political, and literary figures rather than the poor, little else has been written on the fatherless child in antiquity. The issue of whether 1 Timothy 5:3-16 and similar later material are referring to an ‘Order’ of widows, typified by Bonnie Thurston’s 1989 book, The Widows: A Women's Ministry in the Early Church, has proved a major diversion. Recent work by Steven Friesen and Bruce Longenecker reinforce the conception of the composition of the early church as being primarily that of the poor. My focus is on the neglected area of pastoral care of the poor fatherless family within the earliest church, concentrating on the first 300 years CE. The existence of the poor fatherless family created financial, social and moral difficulties for the church leadership, which forced them to devise novel ways to deal with the duties encumbering them. How could they control these sexually experienced, but vulnerable and dependent, women with their young children? One way was to re-define them as something else. The first method, and the most successful, was to split them up into two distinct groups, old people and full orphans, each requiring a different approach. Another strategy was to make widows represent someone or something other than themselves. Their alter egos will be shown to be human, literary or theological. The third trend observed was an effort towards extinguishing the voice of women. If women and fatherless children were to epitomise something else other than themselves, then their own self-perceived reality had to be kept well hidden. They could not be allowed to speak or socialise. If they did speak their words had to be rendered unheard or to be of no effect. Finally, the young fatherless children of widows have no voice and consequently have been rendered invisible. They do not appear in the Gospels. In the rest of the New Testament and the writings of the early church fathers, they receive little more than a cursory mention as part of a literary trope, or are transformed into barely mentioned full orphans.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-118).

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy: Public Management (Peacebuilding), Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / The majority of South African children are growing up in households where the father is dead or absent. As a result, unless there is some other father figure in their lives, they do not experience fathering directly and so have a limited education in what it means to be a father. Given the extent of violence of various forms throughout the country, there is an urgent need to bring up children who are educated in values such as nonviolence and who will model and impart such values to their own children. The overall aim of this research is to investigate how to build the capacity of young men to be responsible, loving and nonviolent fathers. The research design included three components (exploration of the experiences and attitudes of young men regarding their own fathers), action research (in the form of devising a training programme in responsible, loving and nonviolent fathering, and implementing it with three groups of young men) and evaluation (of the effects of the training on attitudes which, it is hoped, will translate into positive fathering behaviour in the longer term). The short term outcome of the training indicates that changes in attitude in positive directions did take place for a significant minority of the trainees and suggests that training programmes of this type can be socially beneficial. / D

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

M.Ed. (Adolescence Guidance) / This qualitative study described and explored the experiences of adolescents in rural Limpopo Province who never met their biological fathers in their lifetime. The theoretical framework supporting this study is the 'family systems theory' which affirm that individuals' patterns were sustained by interactions with other individuals with whom the individual had regular contact. The roles of fathers and mothers are not duplicated, but in their separation keep the family system intact (Youniss & Smollar, 1998:82) ...

This study hypothesized that fathers and surrogates (male role models) contribute a unique set of factors that help guide African American male youths (N=496) during their normal developmental stages. This study hypothesized that surrogate caregivers would have an impact on the overall level of delinquent behavior of this population. A path analysis tested direct and mediated effects of exposure to violence on delinquent behavior, with anger/aggression level as a potential mediator for all three levels of caregiver presence or absence as a moderator. In the analysis of archival data from 496 African American male youths, the findings did not support these hypotheses consistently. Exposure to family violence as a mediator consistently predicted level of anger, and level of anger negatively predicted delinquent behavior for the fatherless sample. However, exposure did not have a direct positive effect on delinquent behavior in any of the three samples. Implications of these findings as well as other unpredicted findings with these three groups are explored.