For over 20 years, the phenomenon of parental alienation and its related characteristics has been described in literature. Various clinicians independently researched and described the pathological alignment of a child within the context of divorce. In the 1980’s Richard Gardner coined this “Parental alienation syndrome” (PAS). According to Gardner PAS is characterised by a child’s profound preoccupation with criticism against a parent. This criticism is overstated and ungrounded, and it is caused by both conscious and unconscious behaviour by the alienating parent, which influences the child negatively against the alienated parent. In essence, PAS is the subjective contamination of the child’s understanding and beliefs about his/her environment. The alienating parent gives the impression that the targeted parent is unworthy, dangerous, unloving and deserving of the child’s rejection. This is done by a series of alienation strategies like bad-mouthing, blaming, limiting contact and belittling. The alienated child, as a result responds with unjustified expressions of hate and discontent towards the targeted parent. The experience of divorce can be very challenging to children. Research about the relationship between divorce and child adjustment holds that a child’s exposure to inter parental conflict and the quality of the parent-child relationship are the two major predictors of children’s adjustment during divorce. Research suggests that the negative effects of PAS may include guilt, self-hatred, distortion of reality testing, and general emotional and psychological problems. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth exploration and description of how PAS is experienced, and the possible effect it has on children from the perspective of young adults who was possible exposed to PAS as children. This was done by exploring their memories and their recalled experiences of their parents’ divorce and the possible effect on their current lives. In this study a collective exploratory/descriptive case study design was used. Nine voluntary participants, between 18 and 28 years of age, were chosen for this study by means of purposeful sampling strategies. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews that were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Transcribed data were analysed by means of thematic analysis from which themes and sub-themes were derived. Two main themes with sub-themes were identified. It was found that some of the parental behaviour evident in PAS cases may fall under specific subtypes of psychological maltreatment and leave children feeling angry, worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, incompetent and sceptical about trusting other individuals. It was found that parents who engage in alienation strategies are likely to discourage autonomous behaviour and lack nurturance and emotional responsiveness towards their children’s needs. As result children exposed to PAS learn parental love and acceptance is conditional and is based needs fulfilment of the alienating parent. These expectations are brought forward from the early relationship into adulthood and influences individual’s expectations, behaviour, and beliefs about relationships across the lifespan. The results indicate that the lack parental support, encouragement, and responsiveness may negatively influence the self-esteem, autonomy, competence, and relatedness of individuals exposed to PAS. They reported difficulties with trust, intimacy and social skills and depression as adults. / MA (Clinical Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

For over 20 years, the phenomenon of parental alienation and its related characteristics has been described in literature. Various clinicians independently researched and described the pathological alignment of a child within the context of divorce. In the 1980’s Richard Gardner coined this “Parental alienation syndrome” (PAS). According to Gardner PAS is characterised by a child’s profound preoccupation with criticism against a parent. This criticism is overstated and ungrounded, and it is caused by both conscious and unconscious behaviour by the alienating parent, which influences the child negatively against the alienated parent. In essence, PAS is the subjective contamination of the child’s understanding and beliefs about his/her environment. The alienating parent gives the impression that the targeted parent is unworthy, dangerous, unloving and deserving of the child’s rejection. This is done by a series of alienation strategies like bad-mouthing, blaming, limiting contact and belittling. The alienated child, as a result responds with unjustified expressions of hate and discontent towards the targeted parent. The experience of divorce can be very challenging to children. Research about the relationship between divorce and child adjustment holds that a child’s exposure to inter parental conflict and the quality of the parent-child relationship are the two major predictors of children’s adjustment during divorce. Research suggests that the negative effects of PAS may include guilt, self-hatred, distortion of reality testing, and general emotional and psychological problems. The aim of this study was to provide an in-depth exploration and description of how PAS is experienced, and the possible effect it has on children from the perspective of young adults who was possible exposed to PAS as children. This was done by exploring their memories and their recalled experiences of their parents’ divorce and the possible effect on their current lives. In this study a collective exploratory/descriptive case study design was used. Nine voluntary participants, between 18 and 28 years of age, were chosen for this study by means of purposeful sampling strategies. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews that were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Transcribed data were analysed by means of thematic analysis from which themes and sub-themes were derived. Two main themes with sub-themes were identified. It was found that some of the parental behaviour evident in PAS cases may fall under specific subtypes of psychological maltreatment and leave children feeling angry, worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, incompetent and sceptical about trusting other individuals. It was found that parents who engage in alienation strategies are likely to discourage autonomous behaviour and lack nurturance and emotional responsiveness towards their children’s needs. As result children exposed to PAS learn parental love and acceptance is conditional and is based needs fulfilment of the alienating parent. These expectations are brought forward from the early relationship into adulthood and influences individual’s expectations, behaviour, and beliefs about relationships across the lifespan. The results indicate that the lack parental support, encouragement, and responsiveness may negatively influence the self-esteem, autonomy, competence, and relatedness of individuals exposed to PAS. They reported difficulties with trust, intimacy and social skills and depression as adults. / MA (Clinical Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Ce projet de recherche, réalisé en collaboration avec la Fondation Mira, vise notamment à évaluer l'impact de la relation d'attachement mère-enfant sur l'établissement du lien d'attachement entre l'enfant autiste et un chien d'assistance récemment intégré dans la famille. Plus spécifiquement, l'étude cible la qualité de la relation d'attachement chez 27 enfants âgés entre 5 et 12 ans présentant un trouble envahissant du développement (autisme, trouble envahissant du développement non spécifié et Asperger). De plus, la sévérité des comportements autistes est abordée, de même que l'effet modérateur du stress parental sur la relation de l'attachement. Les modalités d'évaluation retenues sont diversifiées (entrevues, observations et questionnaires) et rendent compte de l'orientation conceptuelle du projet qui considère que l'étude de l'impact du chien sur l'enfant autiste doit de se référer à une approche écosystémique de la famille. D'ailleurs, peu de travaux de recherche ont abordé l'étude du fonctionnement quotidien de l'enfant autiste en contexte familial. Les résultats de la recherche démontrent en premier lieu que les enfants qui ont une évaluation élevée à l'indice de sévérité du trouble autistique se révèlent les plus jeunes de l'échantillon. Il s'avère également que les enfants qui ont le moins d'interaction avec l'adulte et la mère sont ceux où l'on a observé le plus de contacts avec celle-ci lors d'évaluation de l'attachement. Pour ce qui est de la contribution du stress familial, on relève une relation significative entre le degré de sévérité de l'autisme et le stress associé au rôle parental. Quant à l'attachement de l'enfant à la mère, une seule échelle corrèle significativement avec le stress, soit celle qui s'associe au contact de l'enfant avec la mère, et ce, chez les enfants plus âgés. Enfin, on relève que les comportements d'attachement de l'enfant et du chien ne corrèlent pas avec le construit d'attachement mère-enfant évalué un mois avant l'intégration de l'animal au domicile familial, mais plutôt avec le stress associé au rôle parental. Dans l'ensemble, le projet fournit une information contribuant à mieux nuancer le fonctionnement de l'enfant autiste dans son milieu familial.

Cette étude s'est intéressée à la relation entre le stress parental rapporté par les pères et la sécurité d'attachement de leur enfant. L'échantillon comprend 60 dyades père-enfant dont les enfants sont âgés entre 11 et 27 mois. La sécurité d'attachement a été évaluée par des évaluatrices formées à l'utilisation du Q-Sort Attachement de Waters et Deane (1995), suite à une période d'observation à domicile d'environ 2 heures. Le stress parental a pour sa part été évalué par le parent lui-même, à l'aide de la version abrégée de l'Indice de Stress Parental d'Abidin (1990). Les résultats démontrent qu'il existe un lien entre le stress parental et la sécurité d'attachement. Plus précisément, les pères seraient davantage sensibles au stress généré par les comportements de l'enfant (domaine enfant) et par la perception qu'ils ont de la relation qu'ils entretiennent avec leur enfant (domaine interaction parent-enfant). D'autres analyses ont permis d'explorer l'adéquation du Q-Sort Attachement auprès des dyades père-enfant. Enfin, les résultats appuient l'utilisation de cet instrument auprès d'une population masculine.

Enrollment in K-12 online courses continues to rise substantially each year (Evergreen Education Group, 2015). As the number of students taking courses online increases, the number of parents parenting in online courses also increases. This qualitative exploratory case study, bounded by the online program that was studied, was performed to better understand parents’ perceptions of their roles in online high school mathematics courses. Eighty-seven parents participated in an online questionnaire which elicited both quantitative and qualitative responses. Guided by the major tenets of symbolic interactionism theoretical framework, these responses were combined with data from six interviews to investigate why parents chose to enroll their children in online mathematics courses, their expectations pertaining to the online mathematics course, and their perceived roles and responsibilities in the online mathematics course. Through a detailed process of analyzing the questionnaire and interview data, nine themes emerged: (a) participant parents enrolled their children in online mathematics courses to remove their child from a negative social environment and to avoid distractions in the traditional setting; (b) participant parents want their children to have the flexibility to work ahead of their peers; (c) the school should provide quality curriculum and resources for teachers, students, and parents; (d) teachers should identify and address when students need help; (e) teachers should be available and approachable; (f) students should put forth their best effort; (g) students should ask for help when they experience difficulty understanding a new concept; (h) participant parents monitor to make sure their children are completing assignments and asking for help; and (i) participant parents help their children by re-teaching mathematics concepts or encouraging the child to seek help from others. This study has theoretical and practical significance by adding to literature investigating parental roles in mathematics education and providing insight on the nature of parental involvement in an online high school mathematics program. Consistent with relevant literature (Currie-Rubin & Smith, 2014; Curtis, 2013; Thurber, 2013), results of this study call upon educators to invest in efforts that enhance understanding of parents’ perspectives in an effort to strengthen parental involvement in online mathematics courses. INDEX WORDS: Mathematics, Online learning, Online mathematics, K-12 online learning, Virtual learning, Parental involvement, Parental engagement, Parental roles, Interactions, Teacher responsibilities, Student responsibilities, Success, Perceptions of success, Flexibility

Status attainment research has shown that there is a positive association between the educational expectations of parents and their children. Survey data from a nationwide sample of families was used to examine the effects of social structural conditions and patterns of family interaction on parent-child agreement on educational expectations, an indicator of parents' ability to influence their child's expectations. Agreement was hypothesized to be greatest in white families, in families where parents had high levels of education, and among parents and daughters. Empirical results showed that girls were more likely than boys to have expectations above those of their parents. Parents with at least four years of college were more likely to agree than less educated parents. Minority adolescents were also less likely to agree; this effect was not explained by racial differences in parents' education. The quantity and quality of parental defining behaviors, or effort, were also expected to be positively related to agreement. Concrete forms of parental effort fulfilled these expectations. The greater efforts of well educated parents and parents of daughters helped to explain gender and class differences in agreement. Despite minority parents' greater efforts, their children remained less likely to agree. Alienated adolescents were predicted to be more likely to have expectations below those of their parents. Adolescents whose extra-familial roles were more salient than their familial roles were also expected to be less likely to agree. Both hypotheses were supported. This study contributes to status attainment research by showing how social psychological and social structural factors jointly affect a crucial link in the process: parent-child agreement on educational expectations. Future research should seek to disentangle the effects of these processes, and explain why persistent race differences in agreement exist.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.