Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1964.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1964.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (S.T.D.)--Catholic University of America, 1924. / Biography. Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-116).

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

M.A. (Clinical Social Work) / This research involves exploring how middle childhood boys at a primary school experience the phenomenon of growing up with an absent father both functionally and psychosocially. The absent father being defined as a living father who does not live with his son and has chosen to be uninvolved in a financial, physical, emotional or spiritual way and has little contact with his son. The goal of the study was to investigate the effect of absent fathers on middle childhood boys and to gain an understanding of how they view the absence of a father in their lives. The objectives included exploring the experience of the boys in growing up with an absent father, to determine the boy’s perception of how their father’s absence has impacted on their lives, as well as to make recommendations for social work and other social service practitioners. A qualitative approach was selected for this study with a view to allowing participants to give rich descriptions of their individual experiences of growing up with an absent father. It is an exploratory study, informed by phenomenology. Exploratory, as it necessitated gaining insight into a situation and phenomenological as it entailed describing the participants experience of their life story. The research population for this study was defined as all boys in Grade Seven at the primary school. The boys were aged between twelve and thirteen. Purposive sampling was used as it allowed the researcher to select the participants based on necessary and relevant criteria. Five participants were selected as the researcher believed that it would give a sufficient overview of the phenomenon being researched and would reach data saturation. The interviews were all started with the same request namely, “Tell me about your relationship with your father?” Thereafter a semi-structured interview schedule was used as a backup tool when relevant questions needed to be asked. Participants were prepared for the interviews prior to the commencement of the study. Data was analysed according to a phenomenological method namely, Familiarisation; Immersion/Bracketing; Inducing Themes; Coding; Elaboration and Interpretation. These procedures were followed until a full description of the participants’ experience of absent fathers was disclosed. Four themes namely, emotions, loss, self-esteem and the single mother were identified ...

No description available.

Until recently, most parent-child research has focused on the mother-child dyad or the father-infant or young child relationship. The present study investigated strengths of the father-young adult relationship with respect to the following variables: individuation, intimacy, intimidation, age, marital status, gender and birth order. College students at a large mid-Atlantic university and their fathers completed instruments regarding the above aspects of their relationship. The instruments administered were the Personal Authority in the Family System Questionnaire (PAFS-Q) and the Family Assessment Measure (FAM-III). Correlation, analysis of variance, and step-wise multiple regression were used for statistical analysis. Results indicated that fathers and young-adult children had significantly different perceptions of the dyadic relationship strength. There was a strong relationship between intergenerational individuation and intimacy with relationship strength. Birth order proved to be a significant factor in the assessment of intimacy, intimidation and relationship strength. Individuation and intimacy were the only variables that explained a Significant percentage of variance in dyadic relationship strength. Explanations for the findings, therapeutic implications, and suggestions for future research were explored. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was the assessment during pregnancy of women's ratings of the desirability of selected behaviors affecting the marital relationship. One sample of women was studied longitudinally to determine values in each trimester and changes across time. Data were obtained on 70 women in the first trimester, 57 of these in the second and 51 in the third trimester. A second sample of 30 women in the third trimester was used to ascertain any effect on the primary sample of the multiple ratings. In addition to rating the desirability of the behaviors, each woman also indicated her satisfaction with her husband's performance of the behavior. The desirability of and satisfaction with the performance were the two multiplicative components of the Gestational Behavior Index (Ge.B.I.). Also completed were a demographic data form; the Interpersonal Conflict Scale (IPC) to ascertain construct validity; and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS) to determine social desirability response bias. The women rated the behaviors in a range from less than 1 to over 300. These ratings did not change across trimesters for the acceptant subscale but did change for the attentive, approbative, attendant, affection and total. There were no differences between ratings of first time mothers and women already mothers. Internal consistency was assessed using Pearsonian correlations and coefficients alpha and theta. Theta coefficients for subscales were .53 to .70; alpha coefficients were even lower, indicating that the behaviors were not parallel. The reliability and stability coefficients advocated by Heise (1969) were calculated to estimate stability. Desirability was less stable between the first and second than between the second and third trimester. In terms of validity, the hypothesized inverse relationship between the IPC and the Ge.B.I. was obtained, with correlations ranging from -.37 to -.76 (p < .05). Social desirability response bias was not a factor in subjects' responses. Most correlations between the Ge.B.I. subscale and total, the IPC subscale and total and the MC-SDS were nonsignificant. When significant correlations did occur, the magnitude was quite small, from .27 to .47 for the Ge.B.I. and -.35 for the IPC (p < .05).

No description available.