Through the use of biographical materials, and three selected works from Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte, parallels were found between their lives, character design, and the plot of their works. The lack of a mother figure in the lives of the Bronte sisters caused their upbringing to differ from that of other children, and as a result influenced their perspective of the world. Motherless female characters were found in each of the three novels by the Bronte sisters and in each instance commonalities were shared with the author of the work, to a degree that indicates that the lives that the sisters led, was the inspiration for the stories they created. After investigating whether or not the novels created by the Bronte sisters were influenced by the lack of a mother figure, the conclusion reached, is that this absence had an immense influence throughout their lives, and based on more than one account, helped shape the design of each of their respective works.

abstract: Parents die during the lives of their children. If the child is an adolescent, that death will impact the student's education immediately or in subsequent years. Findings show the death of a mother does impact the daughter's education. It is imperative educators are willing to work with the student at the time the death occurs as well as in the ensuing months. Seidman's (2006) three-interview format was used as a template for the interviews of 11 women, ranging in age from 19 to 78 and whose mothers died when the women were adolescents. The interviews were primarily conducted in one sitting, transcribed, and then analyzed for common themes that connected to the research on the topic. Those themes include grieving, the role of caring in education, the role of teacher as the second mother, mother-daughter relationships, and the impact of parent death on schooling. These themes from the data cross cut with thematic strands within the study's theoretical framework: the nurturing and empathetic role of the mother, a desire of the daughter not to be different, and the ethics of caring. Findings in this study reveal that the negative impacts of mother loss are felt in diffuse ways, such as a lack of academic or emotional encouragement. Many women discussed the need and availability of support groups including groups at colleges. One practical implication of these findings is schools need to become caring communities in which caring is the norm for all students and teachers, thereby providing all students with needed support in times of crisis. The implications for further research include the impact of the mother death on the education of daughters, how volunteering with an organization related to the cause of the mother's death assists the daughter and types of programs most important to a student's success in post-secondary education. Adolescents are in a time of great change in their lives, and for a daughter, the loss of a mother has an everlasting, life-changing impact. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2011

The number of single-parent families has increased dramatically in the world. In South Africa, this increase has partly been due to the increased number of deaths as a result of the AIDS pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore experiences of widowers as single parents. The study proposes to elevate the view of single-parent families, which classes them as stereotypes of victimization, to where such families come to represent responsible archetypes. Unstructured in-depth interviews were used to obtain data from two Black and two White widowed single fathers. Thematic content analysis was utilized to identify emerging themes from the fathers' stories. Fathers in this study challenged the deficit model's view of single parenting which claims that these families are broken. As far as its applicability is concerned, this study may be beneficial to psychotherapists, single parents and society as a whole. / Psychology / M.A.(Clinical Psychology)

The number of single-parent families has increased dramatically in the world. In South Africa, this increase has partly been due to the increased number of deaths as a result of the AIDS pandemic. The purpose of this study is to explore experiences of widowers as single parents. The study proposes to elevate the view of single-parent families, which classes them as stereotypes of victimization, to where such families come to represent responsible archetypes. Unstructured in-depth interviews were used to obtain data from two Black and two White widowed single fathers. Thematic content analysis was utilized to identify emerging themes from the fathers' stories. Fathers in this study challenged the deficit model's view of single parenting which claims that these families are broken. As far as its applicability is concerned, this study may be beneficial to psychotherapists, single parents and society as a whole. / Psychology / M.A.(Clinical Psychology)