This research explored whether individual interactions with a robotic cat could improve quality of life for persons living with advanced dementia. The research was conducted with five women residents in a Manitoba personal care home. Theories of personhood, agitation, and nurturance provided the conceptual framework. Ethnographic research methods included video-recorded observations of each resident with the cat, semi-structured interviews with staff and family, participant observation and three sets of agitation inventories (CMAI). Findings suggested agitation was reduced, socialization increased and, with pet loving residents, nurturant behaviour was evident. The cat, as a device for increased social attention, created positive results with the non-pet lovers. Advanced dementia did not prevent the women from indicating choice. The study concluded that a robotic cat could be a useful resource for persons with advanced dementia, dependent upon prior life-style and personal choice.

This research explored whether individual interactions with a robotic cat could improve quality of life for persons living with advanced dementia. The research was conducted with five women residents in a Manitoba personal care home. Theories of personhood, agitation, and nurturance provided the conceptual framework. Ethnographic research methods included video-recorded observations of each resident with the cat, semi-structured interviews with staff and family, participant observation and three sets of agitation inventories (CMAI). Findings suggested agitation was reduced, socialization increased and, with pet loving residents, nurturant behaviour was evident. The cat, as a device for increased social attention, created positive results with the non-pet lovers. Advanced dementia did not prevent the women from indicating choice. The study concluded that a robotic cat could be a useful resource for persons with advanced dementia, dependent upon prior life-style and personal choice.

The present study examines how mothering and fathering impact child academic outcomes in divorced and intact families, and if there are unique influences of mothering and fathering variables for sons and daughters. An ethnically diverse sample of 1,714 university students from Florida International University (n=1371) and Florida State University (n=343) responded to measures on a questionnaire that included the Nurturant Fathering and Mothering Scales (Finley & Schwartz, 2004; Schwartz & Finley, 2005; Finley & Schwartz, 2006), the Mother and Father Involvement Scales (Finley, Mira, & Schwartz, 2008), demographic measures, and academic outcome measures. In intact families, mothering and fathering variables were significantly correlated with each other, and positively correlated with child academic outcomes including grades, GPA, academic satisfaction, and academic importance. In divorced families, mothering and fathering variables were not correlated with each other. Furthermore, when analyzing divorced families, significant effects were found for both parent and child gender. Mothering variables were found to have the greatest positive impact for sons’ academic outcomes. Maternal nurturance and maternal involvement were correlated positively with academic outcomes for sons from divorced families and accounted for 3-4% of the unique variance explained. Consistently, desired mother involvement, how much involvement the child wished they had received, was negatively correlated with academic outcomes for sons from divorced families and accounted for 10-15% of the unique variance explained. This means that when the amount of maternal involvement that sons in divorced families received matched or exceeded their desired level of involvement, sons had more positive academic outcomes including grades, GPA, satisfaction with academics and academic importance. This suggests that in intact family forms, nurturant and involved mothering and fathering have a positive effect on academic outcomes for sons and daughters. In divorced family forms, the effects of fathering on child academic outcomes were not significant. Therefore, in divorced families, the positive effects fathering on academic outcomes of sons and daughters drop out, and mothers are uniquely important for sons’ academic success.

This research study was an examination of the relationship between mother nurturance and involvement and the Christian formation of adolescents. Mother involvement was measured according to the adolescent's perception in twenty domains of motherhood. Eight domains of Christian formation were evaluated using the Spiritual Formation Inventory (SFI) developed by Brad Waggoner. The literature review includes a biblical theological foundation for motherhood, mother nurturance and involvement literature, and an examination of adolescence. The chasm between the sociological and biblical theological fields of research was bridged through the presentation of mutual perspectives on adolescent development. The research produced several important results. First, the results suggest that mother nurturance was significantly correlated with all SFI domains/subscales except with the Building Relationship domain and the overall SFI score. Second, the results suggest that higher perceived mother involvement could lead to significant increases in SFI subscales and overall SFI scores. Third, the results suggest that desired mother involvement was not significantly related with SFI subscales/domains and the overall SFI. Fourth, the results imply that males have, on average, higher overall SFI scores than females. Fifth, with age, gradual decreases in the Seeking God, Building Relationship, and Doctrine domains/subscales scores were observed as age increases. Similar observations were found for the overall SFI score. This appears to consistently be a direct consequence of age. The effect of type of adolescence was also observed to be significant for such domains (that is, early adolescents had higher scores in these domains than late adolescents). Finally, the qualitative interviews suggested five common themes from the respondents' answers: (1) "She was there for me when I needed her," (2) "She helped shape my character," (3) "She taught me how to live," (4) "She helped shape my faith," and (5) "She was supportive of me." Though answers varied, the three central themes were presence, support, and teaching.

Children who live within the U.S. military community have unique experiences. In addition to the foundational processes related to child development, military-dependent youths are subject to military specific stressors (MSS) such as frequent relocation, adjustment to new school environments, and parental separation due to deployment. Some research suggests these experiences build resiliency, whereas others suggest they undermine it. Due to these mixed findings there is a gap in the research. This study examines the extent to which military stressors are associated with attachment insecurity, and whether these links are dependent on the military dependent youth’s perception of their mother’s degree of nurturing behavior during times of stress. We expect that the positive association between MSS and attachment insecurity will be weakened when individuals report higher maternal nurturance. As data collection is not yet complete, preliminary results will be shared at the conference. Estimated date of completion is March 1, 2019.

This study examined the perception of parental nurturance, the parental identification, and the sex-role orientation of women who had been sexually abused as children. Its purpose was to explore these aspects of a woman's relationship with her parents and the subsequent sex role development, as it relates to the presence or absence of sexual abuse in the relationship. Eighty women averaging 31 years of age volunteered to participate in the study. The women represented three distinct populations with respect to the question of sexual abuse. The first group reported never having been sexually abused (Nonabused). The second group reported having been sexually abused by their father or stepfather (Father Abused). The third group reported having been sexually abused by someone other than their father or stepfather (Other Abused). As predicted, perceived parental nurturance was significantly lower for members of the Father Abused group than for the remaining two groups. In addition, the Nonabused group reported the highest nurturance scores of the three groups. Contrary to expectation, there was no difference between the parent identification patterns of the three groups. Support was provided for the prediction that women who had been sexually abused by their fathers were more likely to express undifferentiated sex roles than androgynous ones. Women not abused by their fathers were more likely to express androgynous sex roles than undifferentiated ones. Limitations of the study and implications of the results were discussed.