The effect of the death of a relative in the parental or grandparental generation upon the surviving adult children or grandchildren of the deceased was the object of this study. It was hypothesized that in cohesive families, the death of a relative created emotional "shock waves" affecting the survivors in many ways. The major consequence studied was the effect of this relative's death on the relationship stability of adult children's engagements and/or marriages. It was expected that where the death of a relative was followed by a marital relationship status change in surviving adult children, the level of perceived family cohesion would be higher than in those situations where a relative's death was not followed by a marital relationship status change. A clinical sample of adult volunteers 18 years of age or older (N = 41) was surveyed. The sample contained two groups: a group in which the death of a relative was "linked" with a relationship change within 24 months and a group in which the death of a relative was "not linked" with a relationship status change in that time period. The individuals in the two groups responded to the Moos subscale on cohesion (Moos, Insel, and Humphreys, 1974). No significant (p $<$.05) differences were found in the means of cohesion levels between the group with a death linked to a relationship status change within 24 months (N = 20) and the group without such a linkage (N = 21). Further analyses and results were discussed with regard to implications for therapy and future research. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-12, Section: B, page: 3544. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

This study explored the relationship between family members' perceptions of each other and the roles each member plays in the family (Wegscheider, 1981). In addition, this study explored differences between a clinical and non-clinical sample as it related to the variables, perceptual congruence, and role behavior. / A criterion sample of 41 intact families with only two adolescents between the ages of 12-19 was used for this study. Two questionnaires and a demographic sheet were administered and collected during a one-time visit with each family. / The findings indicate a significant relationship between the accuracy of family members' views of each other in families and their perceptions of their roles as scapegoats and/or lost children. When individuals perceived themselves as scapegoats and/or lost children in their own families of origin, or in the present family, other family members were significantly less likely to perceive them the same as these individuals perceived themselves. Families with a scapegoat and/or lost child had significantly higher levels of distortion in perception than families without these roles. / This study found no differences between clinical and non-clinical families, in relation to perceptual congruence level. In addition, no differences were found between families with or without extreme role identifications and level of perceptual congruence. / Additional findings for this study include a significant relationship between mother's full-time employment and the presence of a scapegoat and/or lost child family member. The family member that was most likely (p $<$.05) to perceive themselves as the scapegoat and/or lost child from their own families of origin was the father of the family when the mother was employed full-time. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: B, page: 2381. / Major Professor: Mary Hicks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

Divorce causes personal and cultural distress and to date there have been no cultural rituals to ease this transition. This study examined the effect of a therapeutic ritual with separated or divorced persons in therapy at FSU Marital and Family Therapy Center. The subjects included on separated family in which the parents wished reconciliation (A), one divorced individual (B), one separated individual (C), and one separated individual wishing reconciliation (D). / The hypothesis stated that a therapeutic ritual with a clinical separated or divorced couple or individual would have positive impact on specified measures of personal and interpersonal functioning. The ritual was designed by therapist and client(s) based on clinical assessment, presenting problem, client's goal, and abstract symbols presented by the client. / The research utilized single system design (AB) and after a stable baseline was established using self-report measures, a ritual was prescribed and performed at an appropriate time. Weekly tests were continued at least five weeks post-ritual, with a two week follow-up testing. For each subject, some of the following measures were selected: Attachment Scale, Divorce Reaction Inventory, Index of Clinical Stress, Index of Marital Satisfaction, Index of Family Relations, Index of Self Esteem, Clinical Anxiety Scale, Generalized Contentment Scale, Index of Sexual Satisfaction, Child's Attitude Toward Father, Child's Attitude Toward Mother, Index of Parental Attitude and an idiosyncratic measurement. Analysis was by visual inspection of the graphs of weekly scores. Individuals C showed improvement in all measures, B showed improvement in most measures, and D showed improvement in half of the measurements. Family A scores did not show improvement in the self-report tests but did improve their scores on idiosyncratic measurement and reconciled after the ritual. The hypothesis supporting the effectiveness of ritual was demonstrated in three and possibly four of the cases. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0630. / Major Professor: Craig A. Everett. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

Changes in women's work patterns and claims that men share in family responsibilities have prompted a rethinking of women's roles in the workplace and family. The current status of women's roles are addressed by studying the effects of structural and demographic factors on women's views of their work-family roles and by comparison men's views. / Data were gathered from a national sample of 3000 women and 1000 men as part of a 1985 survey of women's changing status in society. Items from the survey were summed to form an index measuring traditionalism towards women's roles. / Education, household income, occupation, employment, marital status, parental responsibility, age, race, and region are effective predictors of women's views. All except race, employment, and education also predict men's views. Gender is important with women less traditional than men. Within races, gender is especially important with black women less traditional than white women and black men as traditional as white men. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0639. / Major Professor: Patricia Yancey Martin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

Family Life Cycle Theory holds that families progress through stages interrupted by transition points. Critical Transition Theory holds that developmental and situational events disrupt a family's patterned ways of behaving frequently resulting in disorganization and reorganization, that is crisis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between critical transitions and coming to therapy. Fifteen clinical and 15 comparison families provided information about the timing of developmental and situational stressor events for three generations of their families. Developmental events included birth and infancy, preschool, schoolage and adolescent transitions. Situational stressors included leaving home, becoming financially self-sufficient, marriage, divorce, births of children, job and career changes, relocation, illness, financial hardship, retirement and death. A computer program was written and used to graph individual life lines with stressor events marked and to sum the total number of stressors for the family in a given year. The families also reported which years they felt had been particularly stressful due to disorganization and restructuring of family rules and roles. In this study three events in a year were used to indicate potential critical transitions. It was hypothesized that families in therapy would have had a critical transition in the previous year whereas this would not hold for control families. An analysis showed no significant relationship between coming to therapy and experiencing a critical transition. It was hypothesized that families' perceptions of disorganization would coincide with the timing of a critical transition. This was found to be true 35 percent of the time. There were no differences between groups in their reporting of periods of disorganization. No differences were found between clinical and control / families in the timing or frequency of stressors, or their perception of periods of family stress and disorganization. Family therapy graduate students found the Family Life Cycle Profile moderately useful as a diagnostic and didactic tool. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-03, Section: A, page: 0630. / Major Professor: Mary W. Hicks. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

<p> The qualitative multiple case study adds to the previous research regarding the orientation thoughts, context, and understandings of teachers, parents, and prekindergarten administrators when investigating parental involvement in prekindergarten. Teachers in preschools are encouraged to find ways to involve parents for higher levels of student achievement. To address the needs of improving parent participation in prekindergarten, teachers and administrators need parent information on their willingness to participate or not. In order for a school to change strategies, staff members of the organization need to understand the problem which may motivate the need for change. In this study, teachers, parents, and administrators among three prekindergarten programs share their thoughts, beliefs, and views to define the problem of parental involvement in prekindergarten. The research questions asked: Why are some parents more involved than others with their children in prekindergarten? How do parents perceive influencers which invoke their involvement? How does prekindergarten curriculum drive parent engagement? The qualitative multiple case study will aid in understanding parent perceptions about effective actions taken by schools to improve the performance of prekindergarten children. The prekindergarten stage for children includes emotional and developmental challenges that can impose hardship during kindergarten entry and beyond. </p><p>

<p>Parents and speech language pathologist (SLP) typically establish and maintain hierarchical relationships which ascribe excessive authority to the therapist, thus limiting the possibilities for dialogue and mutual learning. The SLPs discussions of children?s communication development often fail to acknowledge the contributions that parents can make, based on their knowledge and experiences with children at home. Neglecting parents? voices in communication intervention means the parents? critical role in supporting children?s communication development is overlooked. By investigating with parents their perspectives on children?s communication facilitation and social interaction experiences in and out of the home environment, this study sought to understand the relationships between parent?s beliefs and practices for communication facilitation and to model processes by which parents and SLP?s develop a reciprocal dialogue. This study draws insights into how parent initiated communication facilitation and social interaction for children with complex communication needs (CCNs) in a rural rehabilitation center in Kerala can be improved through examining a collaboratively created communication partner training program for parents and used a participatory action research approach centered on cooperative inquiry. Six parents of children younger than 6.5 years with CCNs, joined me in a six-month long co-investigation. Individually and collectively we raised questions, observed, documented, and reflected on communication facilitation strategies in and out of the homes. Weekly meetings were held involving all the participants and occasionally with individual families. Data sources included research diaries written by myself about parent?s experiences, audiotapes of meetings, participants? reflective journal entries, and children?s communication profiles constructed jointly by parents and the researcher. When children?s communication was documented based on children?s communication at home, we observed a wide variety that was not assessed in the standard communication assessments. The study?s findings provide evidence that parents can be a rich resource for SLPs and researchers. The data reveal the perceptions and practices of parents for communication facilitation. It also shows some of the real-life challenges for communication and interaction facilitation. Parents raised issues about current practices in communication interventions, misunderstandings about speech therapy, and training/teaching and learning relationships. This suggests that organizing parent training programs based on western models would be inappropriate. Through the parent practitioner research process, we were able to develop and introduce `conversation books? as a way for viewing the child as a communication partner and to provide more interaction opportunities for the children viewed as `sick child.? This process provides further evidence for the importance of including parents? knowledge and experience in the design of effective learning contexts for their children. These findings suggest that beyond the currently existent routine clinician-parent meeting (5 minute or lesser sessions, of giving instructions to parents), alternative structures for dialogue with practitioners are needed that allow for parents? critical reflection and substantive contributions to the children?s communication intervention plans.

<p> Altruistic behavior has been conceptualized from a variety of perspectives. One approach to understanding altruism involves understanding the contextual factors that influence it. Parenting style is a source of early learning that greatly influences a child&rsquo;s social functioning. The flexible connectedness offers three potential mechanisms by which parenting may influence altruism: perspective taking, empathic concern, and psychological flexibility. The current study examined perceived parenting style as a predictor of altruism and the flexible connectedness factors as potential mediators of this relationship. In the context of decision-making tasks involving monetary allocations (i.e., dictator and reciprocity tasks), authoritarian parenting predicted increases in altruism, and permissive parenting predicted decreases in altruism. In the context of a volunteer form, parental care predicted decreases in altruism. Parenting style was consistently associated with only psychological flexibility of the flexible connectedness factors, such that parental care was associated with increased flexibility and parental overprotection was associated with decreased flexibility. None of the flexible connected factors predicted altruism alone, but psychological flexibility moderated the relationship between empathic concern and altruism on the reciprocity task such that increases in psychological flexibility were associated with a stronger negative relationship between empathic concern and altruism. The current study&rsquo;s results suggest that inflexible parenting (i.e., authoritarian parenting and permissive) may influence how we treat others in unexpected ways, sometimes benefiting society at a cost to the individual.</p><p>

<p> The Small Circles program was developed as a prevention and intervention demonstration project. It was designed as a new approach to meeting the needs of a vulnerable population with barriers to necessary services, teen mothers and their infants. The goals of the program are the reduction of child abuse and/or neglect and fostering typical development in the infants. Teen parents face gaps in and barriers to services including lack of time as well as paucities of available mental health care, parent child development groups, and dependable transportation. Small Circles is designed to fill those gaps and overcome those barriers by placing the program within shelters for teen parents and their children in Massachusetts. The program has two interacting modalities: dyadic therapy with the teen and her infant and a parent child development group. Each component takes place once a week for four weeks. The program goals would be met through a focus on the development of a positive and flexible attachment relationship through a parallel process with the therapist and teen and the teen and her infant. The demonstration project was developed through an extensive review of the literature and a survey of currently available programs that serve this population. It was evaluated by four expert reviewers, each with a particular area of expertise. The reviewers&rsquo; feedback was overall favorable with relevant suggestions for revision. Feedback was provided that the program would be improved by an emphasis on developing the precursors to attachment that are measurable, a focus on intervention alone rather than a combination with prevention, and by highlighting interventions that are evidence based. These suggestions for revision will move the initial effort to a measurable, flexible program that works to meet the criteria for its targets and goals, and ultimately provides the best services and outcomes for the teen families.</p><p>

Balancing the responsibilities of a job and a family is a critical problem for many people in contemporary society. One of the central questions researchers ask is, what job trade-offs do women make to help them balance jobs and children? The purpose of this study is to extend that question to men. Using qualitative and quantitative data collected from fathers in the United States, Canada, and Australia, I investigated how gender as a social structure influences the job trade-offs fathers make as they juggle the responsibilities of their jobs and their children. I recruited study participants through fathering web sites on the Internet and collected data via an on-line survey and standardized follow-up e-mail interviews. A content analysis of the fathering web sites reveals that web sites in the United States reflect the underlying assumption that job-family issues are a dilemma for individual fathers whereas web sites in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom address job-family balance as a social issue as well as an individual problem. Analysis of the survey and interview data show that fathers make career trade-offs as well as everyday job accommodations to be involved with their children. Fathers cite time, travel considerations, and flexible workplace conditions as primary reasons for changing jobs and declining promotions. Logistic regression and Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses of the survey results reveal that working long hours, having a male-dominated job, flexible working conditions, the ages of his children, his attitude toward gendered behavior, his education, his religion, and his level of involvement affect the type of job accommodations a father makes as well as the magnitude of job-family juggling he does. More importantly, my research also provides evidence that gender as a social structure constrains fathers' behaviors. For example, fathers receive encouragement and support when they are somewhat involved with their children, but disapproval and skepticism when they assume primary caregiving responsibility for their children. In addition, there are contradictory ideological assumptions regarding gender and caregiving, for example, fathers and mothers have the same caregiving capabilities but, at the same time, fathers and mothers have different caregiving responsibilities / acase@tulane.edu