The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal employment contributed to the general inadequacy of the adolescent's evening meal, and to examine the attitudes of adolescents regarding the mother's role in evening meal preparation. A questionnaire was administered to 1180 high school students in a suburban area of Dallas-Ft.Worth in May, 1987. The hypotheses were tested using Chi square, Pearson product moment correlation, and Anova. Results indicated that maternal employment affects adolescent evening meals in the number of meals offered per week, fully prepared by mother, and eaten away from home. The amount of adolescent participation in meal preparation was higher for the employed group. Attitudes are different between the sexes and those with employed and unemployed mothers.

Current government statistics show that the fastest growing ages for exclusion in English schools is in children between five and seven years old (DfE, 2013). This trend of young children being excluded for behaviour difficulties can have long term consequences for the children and their families, and has costs to society (Castle & Parsons, 1997). It has also been found that children with challenging behaviour can attract less sympathy than other areas of difficulty (Ofsted, 2010). There is limited research regarding parents' experiences of engaging with school staff when issues are raised about their child's behaviour, particularly when the children are being referred to external agencies. In the present study, three mothers of young children, whose child had been referred to the Educational Psychology Service for challenging behaviour, were interviewed. The method used to examine the interview data is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as it aims to explore the experiences of the mothers from their interpretation of the situation. Although the mothers had diverse experiences of working with school staff and external professionals with regard to their child's challenging behaviour they provided evidence for five key superordinate themes, which are: development of shared understanding; the child as an individual; the role of being a parent; finding solutions; and social perceptions of behaviour. Implications for theory are discussed in order to further develop a model of working with parents which challenges some the inherent disempowerment and difficulties of managing within the compulsory education system. Implications for practice are explored to consider how school staff and professionals need to develop their communication strategies to enable parents to have access to information, to actively listen to the views of parents, and for parents to be actively involved and work collaboratively in the child's best interests. Further research to identify the relative influence of themes in the present findings would enable targeting of resources to improve the outcomes for young children with challenging behaviour in school.

The present study present study explored the relationships among language use, phonological skill, and vocabulary development for 36 Cuban and Puerto Rican ELL preschoolers. Family-level variables included mother's education level and mother's language ability. Three-way ANOVAs were used to investigate the relationships among child- and family-level variables and children's performance on articulation (completeness of phonetic inventory (CPI) and proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP)) and language measures (Picture Vocabulary (PV) and Memory for Sentences (MS) subtests of the WLPB-R) in English and Spanish. Regression and correlational analyses were conducted to describe relationships between variables. Findings indicated that children in all language groups (predominantly English speaking, predominantly Spanish speaking and bilingual) demonstrated strong phonological skills, as measured by CPI and PWP, in both languages. Strength in phonological skill appeared to be related to frequency of language use, especially in English. Similarities in children's phonetic inventories across languages suggested that exposure to two languages does not interfere with phonological development in ELL children. The fact that English and Spanish share many of the same phonemes may contribute to this finding. Results for the PWPs were consistent with the findings from the CPI analyses. PWPs were found to predict children's English vocabulary level in the early stages of dual language learning. A predictive relationship was found between mother's English language ability and child's phonological skill, suggesting that when more English was used in the home, children exhibited greater English phonological production skills. In addition, mother's Spanish language ability was shown to predict child's Spanish vocabulary knowledge. This finding supports the use of the native language in the home. While phonological skill was a strength, language skills, as measured by the PV and MS subtests, were significantly below average. With the exception of the PE group in English, all children performed more than 1.5 standard deviations below the mean for both subtests in both languages, suggesting that they are not acquiring sufficient vocabulary knowledge to support academic learning in either language. It is suggested that delivery of adequate vocabulary instruction that meets the needs of these ELL children requires collaboration between teachers and speech-language pathologists.

The rates of childhood obesity remain high in spite of the enormous efforts dedicated to tackling the disease. This dissertation investigates the effect of two of its causes, including parental time and children's obesity risk behaviors. Trends in these causes have changed over time and might explain changes in obesity. The two factors are analyzed separately given the differences in impact process and concentration of literature. The data for the investigation is drawn from the Parental Time, Role Strains, Coping, and Children's Diet and Nutrition project. In examining parental time, the attention is directed towards the mother's actual time spent with the child which has been associated with reduction in child weight status. The major aim is to test and correct for the problem of endogeneity stemming from unobserved health factors that can distort any meaningful causal impact of maternal time on child weight status. Using the household production theory, parental time allocation decisions towards child health are modeled and analyzed using instrument variable (IV) methods. Results indicate that the effect of mother's time allocation reduces child weight status. Her decision to allocate time to the child is affected by unseen factors. Father's work to family spillover was found to be a valid instrument for mother's time with the child. Results were robust across different estimators. In analyzing the relationship between childhood obesity risk behaviors and weight status, this study focuses on three child practices including breakfast intake, fast food consumption and sleep patterns. The main aim was to score their joint impact, while at the same time accounting for contextual factors. This work adopted the ecological systems framework which accommodates multiple factors. Based on this theory, a simultaneous system of equations considering child weight status, risk behavior and contextual factors was set up and analyzed using 3SLS. Findings indicated that dietary behaviors remain a major factor in affecting weight status. In addition, feedback mechanism from child weight status will influence the diet pattern adopted by the child. Sleep sufficiency had no effect on child weight status.

PhD (Health Sciences) / Department of Advanced Nursing Science / STRACT Background: The implementation of the World Health Organisation maternal health care guidelines in African countries has resulted in the reduction of maternal deaths by half since 1990. As a result, between 1990-2013, maternal mortality ratio declined by only 2.6% per year and this is far from the annual decline of 5.5% required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ninety percent of women are dying from preventable maternal conditions and most of them are from the low and middle-income areas. The 2011-2013 Saving Mothers Report indicates that the Limpopo Province was ranked number three on the Maternal Mortality Rate in South Africa. Hence, this study sought to assess the implementation of maternal health care guidelines by professional nurses in Limpopo Province. Method: A convergent parallel mixed-methods design study was used. Phase 1 entailed parallel collection of qualitative and quantitative data. In this approach, self-administered questionnaires were used in the quantitative research method and an in-depth interview in qualitative research method. Data were collected from Maternal Health Care Managers, Professional Nurses and Operational Managers working in Primary Health Care Facilities of the Vhembe and Mopani Districts. Systematic methods to sample managers and midwives through the Slovan formula was used. Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the University of Venda Research Ethics Committee and permission to conduct the study at the Primary Health Care facilities was obtained from the Limpopo Province Department of Health and Health District Offices. Data analyses were done separately using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences for quantitative data and Tesch’s open-coding methods for qualitative data. Validity, reliability and trustworthiness were ensured through a pilot study and by critical appraisal and peer review of the research instruments by experts in the field of maternal health. Results: The study revealed that midwives experienced difficulty when providing care to women presenting with postpartum haemorrhage and pre-eclampsia or eclampsia. Difficulty in the management was confirmed by 36% of respondents. Some participants lacked knowledge on the management of women with postpartum haemorrhage, Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia and this was also indicated by 30% of respondents. Shortage of staff led to work overload, especially if one midwife was left alone to provide care to patients in the facility. Furthermore, midwives experienced delayed ambulance services when in need of referring women who required urgent attention to the next level. Delayed ambulance was indicated also by 80,4% of respondents ad this contributed to the midwives’ frustrations hence poor maternal outcomes. High risk women failed to return to the hospital and others hide their previous history of complications and hence experienced abrupt postpartum haemorrhage leading to poor implementation of maternal health guidelines. Phase 2 dealt with the development of the strategy to facilitate implementation of maternal health guidelines in Limpopo Province using the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis, identified from the collected data. Phase 3 comprised the validation of the strategy, which was conducted using a quantitative research design. Meetings were held with Maternal Health Care Managers, Midwives and Operational Managers working at Primary Health Care Facilities of Vhembe and Mopani districts. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed for respondents to complete and data were analysed using descriptive analysis. Almost all respondents (95%) agreed that the developed strategy was suitable and applicable for midwifery practice. Maternal Health Care Managers, Midwives and Operational Managers made suggestions that will enhance the developed strategy. Recommendations: Continuous education and in-service training must be done in order to capacitate midwives with knowledge of the management of women with postpartum haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. The curriculum for Midwifery training must be strengthened and must include enrolled nurses. Health education to women must be strengthened and they must be encouraged to give the correct history in order to reduce maternal mortality rate. / NRF

There is much information about the incidence of adolescent pregnancy yet little attention has been directed to how this process will interrupt the working towards or completion of the developmental tasks of adolescence. It is our belief that completion of these tasks is crucial in relation to moving into the next stage, adulthood. Public interest and concern for the contemporary needs of pregnant adolescents and school age parents as a special group is still fairly novel. Survey findings revealed that adolescent parents still have great need for infant day care services, direct financial assistance, housing arrangements, education, and parenting education. In this study, a service provider to teenage adolescents who are pregnant, Salem Teen Mother's Program, was examined in depth to assess the components of their program which assist with working toward completion of the tasks. Additionally, we looked at two cohorts of girls. Those that accepted and those that rejected the offered services at the Teen Mother's Program and developed a profile on each girl consisting of the following traits: age, marital status, religious preference, employment status, and race; the purpose being, to compare the two groups to see if there are reasons why they accept or reject participation in the program. Following completion of the profile, we then looked at the elements of the Teen Mother's Program and how they generally address the tasks. The review of the literature examines why teens get pregnant, statistics on pregnancy, an explanation of how various programs have helped, and the medical risks associated with teenage pregnancy. A description of the Salem Teen Mother's Program is presented.

No description available.

The primary purpose of this study is to determine what influence, if any, the age of the mother at the time of a child's birth has on the child's intelligence, educational growth, personal characteristics, and behavior.

Yes / Aim of research: to describe TV viewing trajectories from age 5 to 40 months

Traditionally, research involving single African American mothers (SAAMs) has been conducted using problem-focused or cultural deficit models with the emphases on the disadvantages. Consequently, little is known about how these women view their experiences as single mothers concerning their resilience and maternal self-efficacy. Using a snowball sampling method, 15 SAAMs were recruited to participate in this phenomenological study. This study employed a subject-intensive theoretical framework. Face-to-face interviews (using a questionnaire), participant observation, and a focus group were the methods used to capture the essence of the SAAMs' abilities to thrive despite the challenges associated with single parenting. All encounters were audiotaped and the data were manually transcribed. Theming was used to analyze the data of the study. Twelve themes emerged, along with a set of sub-themes. The findings provided narratives from the SAAMs regarding the unique challenges of culture, parenting styles and skills, and social supports that enabled them to navigate their children through adversities. All of the participants identified God and faith as the heart of successful parenting. This study contributes to the cultivation of positive social change by offering sound literature that dispels the myths and stereotypes traditionally associated with these mothers and their children. The study also reaffirms the necessity of culturally-relevant models of study and qualitative methods of research, as they tend to provide a more positive and holistic perspective of the phenomenon. Moreover, these findings give a voice and encouragement to SAAMs to become stakeholders in the underpinning of support groups for younger SAAMs and their children in the use of resilience and maternal self-efficacy.