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While there are numerous websites discussing attachment parenting in infancy, there are currently no interactive research-based websites devoted to attachment parenting throughout early childhood. To fill this need the author developed the Foundations of Parenting website (http://www.foundationsofparenting.org). Evaluation, a tool so far under-utilized by parenting education websites, is necessary for both quality control and improving websites. Thus, in addition to development of the website, the author also formatively evaluated the Foundations of Parenting program by using website-utilization tools and visitor feedback through an online survey to analyze utilization and visitor satisfaction. The website was well-used (674 unique visitors and 189 return visitors with a visitor page depth of 6.7 pages over a 23 day period) for a newly-created website, as can be seen by an examination of traffic rankings of small websites at www.alexa.com. The quantitative survey items assessed the usefulness of the website, the attractiveness of the website, ease of use of the website, whether the website met the participants needs, how interesting the content was, whether the website led them to reconsider former attitudes and made them aware of new things, and whether the participant had decided to do things differently due to the website. A MANOVA procedure was used to identify distinctions in these items in association with selected demographic variables, while the open-ended questions invited the survey participants to elaborate on their quantitative answers. The majority of survey participants, 75 percent, agreed or strongly agreed with the above quantitative survey items, and 87.6 percent felt that the website was useful or very useful. Thus, a large majority of users indicated that the website was useful, attractive, easy to use, interesting, helped them reconsider former attitudes, helped them become aware of new things, and influenced them to decide to do something differently. MANOVA analyses revealed website ratings varied only by ethnicity. Reports compiled by SuperStats tracked the amount of website usage as well as visitor pathways through the website, visitor page depth, the amount of time spent on the website, which pages were most popular, as well as the page depth of the most popular pages. These reports revealed that users tended to search for information they were looking for and leave instead of reading through website content from beginning to end. Participants provided helpful suggestions and feedback to improve the website. Implications of this feedback for website improvement and ideas for further research are discussed.

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The COVID-19 virus hit in 2020, affecting everyone worldwide. In America, between the time frame of April and July 2020, there was a lockdown initiated that resulted in people being forced to quarantine from others. This forced many geographically-close romantic relationships to become long-distance. This study focuses on how these romantic relationships were impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting quarantine. A survey was distributed asking 256 college students to assess their behaviors before and during the lockdown period. The communication technology used between the couples and its frequency of use was correlated with the satisfaction of the relationship. Both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods were compared and maintenance behaviors between the couples were analyzed. This study found that relationship satisfaction significantly correlated with the use of certain communication technologies, with synchronous proving more effective than asynchronous. In addition, the COVID-19 quarantine did play a role in ending relationships in some way as well as changing the maintenance behaviors couples utilized while being long-distance. This study offers a new way to look at how relationships can suffer or be maintained when couples are forced to be long-distance.

The intent of this qualitative, grounded theory study was to understand why the Nigerian (Igbo) adult immigrants in the United States provide long distance international caregiving to their elderly parents left behind in Nigeria, the challenges they encounter, and their views on long-term service care. This study was grounded in semi-structured interviews of 20 Igbo adult immigrants residing in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolis. Analysis of the literature demonstrates a lack of existent topic on long distance international caregiving to elderly parents left behind in Nigeria. Findings show that reasons for Igbo adult children immigrants providing care to their elderly parents left behind stem from filial obligation, immigrant’s position in the family, perceived vulnerability of parents, and lack of government support. Also because of cultural expectations, the participants felt obligated to reciprocate to the care their elderly parents gave to them when they were growing up. While providing long distance international care, the participants encountered some challenges like adjusting to their new country, distance, financial constraints, being available for family procreation, issues with means of communication, and legal papers and parental adjustment to life in the U.S. This study also revealed that the participants would support the Nigerian government and private sector to provide long-term service care for the aging population. The findings led to some policy recommendations.

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A weakness with the Swedish Transport Administration’s model for long-distance trips is that it onlyallows for one mode of transportation per trip. A long-distance trip usually consists of several modesof transportation, while the current model does not allow modelling of, for example, a flight with aconnecting car, bus or train transfer. This is problematic as a significant part of the generalized costof travel can be derived from an access trip.The master thesis has been devoted to studying how a model for choice of access mode anddeparture airport can be designed. The work has been limited to study long-distance trips starting inStockholm county, carried out by residents of the county. The airport choice has been limited toArlanda and Bromma Airport.In a literature review, the underlying mathematical theories which the project is based on arepresented. The theory originates from the work on discrete choice models by Daniel McFadden,which later was further developed and summarized by Kenneth Train. By studying previous researchdealing with modelling of access mode and airport choice, it can be concluded that there is noobvious approach to model design, apart from the fact that the model should be based on the logittheory.The observations on which the model is estimated are retrieved from travel surveys conductedduring 2011-2016. A cost estimate for the modes of travel included in the model has been donemanually. Travel times for all modes have been generated using the Swedish TransportAdministration’s regional base model for Stockholm County dated 2014, using the macro simulationsoftware Emme.Out of all the estimated models, one model is presented as the best and final one. It is a multinomiallogit model divided into two segments, one for business travelers and one for private travelers. Themodel is analyzed by calculating value of time, cost- and time elasticity for each of the alternatives inthe choice set. For some of the alternatives, the value of time is relatively high, which is addressed inthe concluding discussion.

The current research investigates pricing practices and consumer behavior in long-distance running events. Two studies address (1) current practices in pricing and registration policies for long-distance running events, and (2) factors that influence the decision-making process by which event organizers develop, adopt, and implement particular pricing policies. Study One involves a descriptive census of policies currently in use for a comprehensive list of running events in the United States that include races at the full or half marathon distance. Study Two adopts a multi-case study approach based on semi-structured interviews of running event organizers, supplemented by additional organizational documents, to investigate the pricing and registration policy development process. Collectively, these two studies examine the what, the why, and the how of pricing policy development in long-distance running events. Based on study findings, a conceptual model was developed incorporating major sources of influence (organizational, consumer, environmental, and event) on the pricing policy development process. This research contributes to sport management by providing deeper understanding of how participant sport, specifically long-distance running events, is priced and how pricing decisions influence consumer behaviors. Results additionally provide practical insight for running event organizers seeking to improve or enhance pricing policies and revenue management by understanding both common and atypical practices in use throughout the running event industry. Finally the current research lays a foundation for a stream of future research building on findings from two studies and data generated in the process of addressing the overarching research questions. / Tourism and Sport