This study examined four levels of sexual involvement among adolescents. Levels of sexual involvement were (1) adolescents who had experienced sexual intercourse; (2) adolescents who had been involved in petting but had never had intercourse; (3) adolescents who had made out but had never petted or had sexual intercourse; and (4) adolescents who had never made out, petted, or had sexual intercourse. The sample consisted of 308 eleventh graders from a semi-rural area of the state of Utah. Dating patterns, particularly early age at first date, were found to be significantly associated with most levels of sexual involvement. Early age at first date was associated with a high level of sexual involvement, with 90% of the adolescents who dated at age 13 or before having experienced sexual intercourse by their junior year in high school. Having a steady boyfriend or girlfriend was also associated with a higher level of sexual involvement, with 58% of those who reported having a steady dating partner reporting sexual intercourse involvement. Close relationships with family, father, and mother were more predictive of less female involvement in sexual activity than male. Relationship with mother was not significant for adolescent male sexual involvement. Having peers who approved of adolescent sexual involvement was more associated with male than female sexual activity. Higher frequency of church attendance was a strong predictor of less sexual involvement for both genders. More factors proved to be predictive of adolescent female than male sexual activity on all levels of sexual involvement. A history of sexual abuse and having high educational goals were significantly associated with female sexual involvement only.

Family participation in residential treatment for disturbed adolescents has increased over time. A general sense of this movement is that this is beneficial. However, there are no common discriptions of family involvement in residential treatment in the literature. In order to be able to better understand which components of famiy involvement are most beneficial, we need to first understand how residential treatment centers define and describe famiy involvement. This study compiled data from interviews with nine participants, one each from administration, therapy staff, and direct care staff level of three northern Utah RTCs that claimed family involvement in youth treatment at their centers.

A nonequivalent control-group longitudinal design was used to examine the effects of a leadership and diversity awareness program on adolescents knowledge of discriminatory terms, acceptance of diversity, social competence, feelings of social responsibility, and community involvement. Adolescents who did and did not attend a leadership and diversity awareness program (Anytown) completed three analogous surveys in a 12-month period. Similarly, parents of adolescents who did and did not attend the program reported on their childs social competence and community involvement. Adolescents who attended the program reported greater increases in their social competence, acceptance of diversity, feelings of social responsibility, and community involvement when compared to the control group. A comparison of females and males who attended the program revealed females scored higher than males in the areas of social competence, diversity acceptance, and social responsibility. Differences also were observed between the race/ethnic groups of program participants. The Hispanic/Latino and Nonwhite/Other race/ethnic groups reported higher diversity acceptance scores than the adolescents in the Black race/ethnic group. Additionally, parents of Anytown participants reported higher community involvement than parents of adolescents who had yet to attend the program. Discussion centers around the results and implications of these findings as well as the need to incorporate effective prejudice reduction strategies into diversity awareness programs.

The current study explored the relationship between parents perceptions of their childs middle school and parents perceptions of their own school experiences. Additionally, it was important to research how these relationships differed among variables. The variables explored were (1) race, (2) parents own educational backgrounds (level of education), and (3) socio-economic status. Based on scales commonly used in the study of parent involvement, a survey (i.e., Parent Perceptions of Schooling) was developed. The survey consisted of two parts (i.e., Part I, How I Feel About My Childs School and Part II: Parents Own School Experiences Questionnaire) and a demographic section (i.e., Part III: Demographic Information). The first two parts were divided into factors or subscales (i.e., Part I: Information, Participation, and Welcome; Part II: Teachers, Parents, Self, and School), all of which were found to have high internal consistency and reliability. The survey was administered to parents of middle school children at a middle school in Pasco County, Florida. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that none of the predictor variables significantly predicted the dependant variables. However, significant correlations emerged between (1) Information and Race-Other; (2) Information and Level of Education; (3) Participation and Level of Education; (4) Teachers and Race-Hispanic; (5) Teachers and SES; (6) Self and Level of Education; (7) School and Level of Education; and (8) School and SES. Additionally seven significant correlations were found when taking into consideration interaction affects of predictor, dependant, and moderator variables. Limitations to this study and survey research in general are discussed, as well as future directions.

Previous research has examined the effectiveness of placing parents on a variety of incentive programs which would increase their likeliness to participate in school related activities. That research suggested that establishing school as a reinforcing environment for parents was vital. Due to these findings, this study examined the effects of a token economy on parent involvement at a low-income elementary school. Teachers were trained in the data collection method, and parental behavior was observed on a daily, weekly and bi-weekly schedule. Measures of social validity were obtained through teacher and parent questionnaires. The data from the research study suggested that the implementation of the token economy did increase the amount of parent participation, but only on a "micro" level. Parent involvement on a larger scale such as participation in after school activities such as PTA's and other large scale school related activities were not affected.

Background and objective: Patients’ and parents’ involvement in nursing students’ pediatric clinical practice assessment is informal. This study explored patients’ and parents’ perceptions of their role in students’ formative assessment. Approach: Interviews were conducted with patients and parents admitted at the study setting who received care from a nursing student. They were transcribed verbatim. Data was analyzed using a qualitative content analysis while Lincoln and Guba’s criteria of rigor and trustworthiness were upheld. Findings: Three categories emerged from the data: 1) Patients’ and parents’ current involvement in the assessment of nursing students’ pediatric clinical practice; 2) How they would like to be involved; and 3) The benefits and challenges of their involvement. Conclusion: This study has provided an understanding of patients’ and parents’ past encounters with nursing students, the elements of care that they would want to assess, and their perceived benefits and challenges of their involvement.

This qualitative study focused on retired school principals’ involvement in special education. More specifically, it explored various ways former principals conceived of their leadership identity and accounted for their level of involvement in special education and with students identified or identifying as disabled. The following research question guided this study: How do former principals account for their involvement with special education and/or disability? The study’s subquestions were: What are principals’ accounts of being, becoming, and remaining involved with special education and/or with disability?; In what ways do principals attend to special education and/or disability?; and How do principals conceive of their leadership identity given their accounts of involvement with special education and/or disability? Narratives shared by former principals regarding what it means to be involved with special education and/or disability and relationships between conceptions of involvement and identities served as the primary source of data. These conceptions included, but were not limited to, perceived ways principals’ viewed their attentiveness and commitment to special education. In this study leadership identity was understood as a professional identity in relationship to one’s identities and in response to others’ identities. Employing a phenomenographic approach, findings were grouped into pools of meanings, labeled as categories of description, and presented in an outcome space—a visual representation of results illustrating how participants experienced and attributed variation in meaning to the research phenomenon. Findings revealed former principals accounted for their involvement with special education and/or disability through professional responses, risk-taking, and working toward the social transformation of their schools. Participants experienced involvement as active presence, critical reflection, advocacy, and resistance. Findings suggested principal involvement in special education is influenced by their experiences with disability and relationships with individuals with disabilities. Furthermore, participants experienced identity through compassion, learning, spirituality, and dis/abled-ness. This study also revealed a nexus between participants’ confidence and involvement, suggesting the greater participants’ confidence to lead in special education, the more directly involved they were with and among students with disabilities; the less confident, the more they assumed a “supportive” role leading in this area. Personal experiences with disability—that was, participants having a child with a disability and/or having a disability themselves—facilitated increased leadership involvement. Participants who conceived leadership identity through a sense of spirituality and dis/abled-ness were more inclined to take risks and work toward socially transforming their schools. Discussion of how leadership preparation programs can recruit and prepare school leaders by focusing conversations around role expectations associated with leadership in special education is provided. Future research should consider how a leader’s identity affects leadership of students with disabilities and address the unique positionality of principals who are also parents of children with disabilities.

This study examined the effects of a parent-implemented intervention on preschool children's development of letter-naming and phonological awareness skills. Six parent-child dyads with children enrolled in a Head Start Program in West Central Florida were selected to participate in the study. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the impact of an intervention package that included activities focusing on: (1) using mnemonics to learn letter names and (2) developing phonological awareness of the onsets of words through parent questioning and feedback. Phonological awareness development was measured using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills First Sound Fluency (DIBELS-FSF) and letter-naming ability was measured using the DIBELS Letter Knowledge (DIBELS-LK) probes. Results showed that five of the six students responded favorably to the intervention, increasing their growth rate on at least one of the two measures. The final child showed little change in trends across the phases. Additionally, data was collected regarding intervention integrity of intervention implementation as well as social validity, or the acceptance and usefulness, of the intervention. Intervention integrity data revealed that the majority of parents completed the intervention with high levels of fidelity, although variability across parents was noted. Social validity data indicated that the parents found the program helpful and effective. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

For years statistical analysis has been applied to different areas of the natural and applied sciences to determine the degree of confidence that can be placed in research results. This work is a good example of how statistics can be applied to toxicology to enable conclusions and inferences to be made about important areas of interest such as the drugs and driving situation in New Zealand. Two thousand uninjured drivers (Study 1) who had provided an evidential blood alcohol sample, were also tested for cannabis, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines and morphine to determine the incidence of drug use by drinking drivers. To determine the proportion of drivers killed in car crashes who had used drugs and/or alcohol, two hundred and twenty nine fatally injured drivers (Study 2) were tested for alcohol, cannabis, methamphetamine, morphine, benzodiazepines and neutral and basic medicinal drugs that might have an effect on driving performance. Alcohol, cannabis and their combination were found to be the most prevalent drugs used by drivers. The analytical methodologies used were developed and validated by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd., where this work was carried out. These techniques involved liquid-liquid and liquid-solid extractions, immunoassays and chromatographic techniques for screening and confirmation assays. The statistical analysis of the results was done under the supervision of the Institute's biostatistician. An approach to cannabis culpability, intended to elucidate the role of this drug in car crashes, was applied to the Study 2 results. The number of samples collected during one year of research was not sufficient to enable statistically robust conclusions to be drawn. Cannabis use is illegal in New Zealand but drugs (different to alcohol) are not regularly tested at the roadside. This work as part of a cross-departmental project titled Drinking and drugged driver control: delineating the problem is expected to support the establishment of strategies designed to reduce the road toll and possibly include the screening of non-alcohol drugs in serious and fatally injured drivers.

Little is known about how employees in New Zealand companies view their organisation’s involvement in community-based initiatives that attempt to address areas of social needs. Understanding what people and organisations think from their frame of reference (Taylor & Bodgan, 1998) on ways of contributing to enhance community wellbeing is of high importance within a nation growing in diversity, and where everyone needs to fully participate in building a harmonious society (Ministry of Social Development, 2005; Swanson, 2002). Despite abundant extant research and many models already developed, frameworks in this area are fragmented. A case study approach has been adopted using one New Zealand Company to test a preliminary framework, Stakeholders and Organisational Enablers Relationship (SOER) Model, that analyses “the nature of relationships in terms of processes and outcomes for the business and its stakeholders” (Jones & Wicks, 1999, p. 207). From investigating the company’s community involvement from the employees’ perspective, results indicate that this particular company is engaging with the community, supporting and empowering employees to participate in the company’s community programme and thereby making a difference in the community by giving to the community. However, in general terms, solving recurring social, economic, political and psychological issues that influence social wellbeing requires cooperation between public, private, and voluntary sectors of the community (New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand Ministry of Social Development, New Zealand Dept of Labour, & New Zealand Dept of Statistics, 2003; Roberts & King, 1989; Steane, 1999). While the results from the case company reported in this study demonstrate that community engagement is being taken seriously by exemplary private sector companies, generalisation of these findings would require further cross-sectional research across industries and organisations from all sectors: private, public and voluntary.