The immediate effect of maternal control of their daughter's eating is well documented. However, the longterm effect of both maternal and paternal control of eating during childhood on adults' current eating attitudes and behaviors has been a relatively unexplored area. Parents play a central role in shaping the family eating environment, which provides a context for the child's relationship with food for years to come (Birch, Fisher, Grimm-Thomas, Markey, Sawyer & Johnson, 2001). The present study focused on expanding the existing knowledge base concerning parental control over eating. Two hundred sixty-seven female adult participants completed a questionnaire packet designed to measure maternal and paternal restriction and pressure to eat during childhood, family mealtime stress during childhood, current restriction, binge eating, emotional eating, eating from external cues, and current affect during meals. Results indicated that parental pressure to eat during childhood are related to restricted eating, emotional eating, and eating from external cues during adulthood. Family mealtime stress during childhood was related to binge eating, restricted eating, emotional eating, eating from external cues, and negative affect while eating during adulthood. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are presented.

abstract: Parental over-control (excessively restrictive and regulatory parenting behaviors) has been consistently identified as a robust risk factor in the development and maintenance of child anxiety problems. However, current understanding of the parental over-control to child anxiety relation is limited by a lack of specificity. The broad ‘parental over-control’ construct represents a heterogeneous category of related but distinct parenting behaviors each of which may exert a unique effect on child anxious emotion. Still, research to date has generally failed to consider this possibility. Moreover, culturally cognizant theory and emerging empirical evidence suggest cross-ethnic (Caucasian vs. Hispanic/Latino) differences in the utilization of various parenting strategies as well as the effects of parenting behaviors on child outcomes. But, only a handful of studies have considered the potential differences in the functioning of parental over-control behaviors within a Hispanic/Latino cultural framework. Using a sample of 98 pre-adolescent children at-risk for anxiety problems, the present study sought to further explicate the association between parental over-control and child anxiety symptoms in the context of ethnic and cultural diversity. Results suggest that parents’ use of overprotection and (lack of) autonomy granting might be particularly relevant to child anxiety, compared to parental intrusiveness and behavioral control. Findings also indicate that some youth may be more vulnerable to parental over-control and suggest that cultural values may play a role in the relation between over-controlling parenting and child anxiety symptoms. Knowledge about cross-cultural variations in the relation among parental over-control behaviors and the development of anxiety symptoms is important because it can improve the cultural robustness of child anxiety theory and has potential to inform culturally sensitive child anxiety prevention and intervention efforts. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2016

This study related college students' remembered early relationships with parents to their depression symptoms and to dependent and self-critical subjective feelings. Undergraduates (N = 217, 118 female, 99 male) provided information regarding their current level of depression, overall functioning, subjective feelings of depression (Depressive Experiences Questionnaire), negative thoughts, interpersonal functioning, and recollections of their parents' behavior and attitudes. Depression symptoms were related to dependent and self-critical feelings and to recalled low parental care and high parental control. However, for women, paternal affection and, for men, paternal control, were unrelated to depression symptoms. Other results are inconclusive but, overall, provide evidence for the usefulness of Blatt's theory in assessing depression via dependent and self-critical subjective feelings.

Central to many theories of deviance and delinquency (differential association, social learning, and social bond) are peer and familial influences on deviant behavior. A conceptual framework that incorporated both peer and familial influence to address the role of cross-sex peers on female deviance was built based on a review of the literature. Using substance use as an indicator of deviance, the effects of having three forms of male associates (male friends, romantic partners, and sexual partners) on female substance use were examined. Focus was on the effects of different types of male peer relationships, how those effects differed from the effects of female peer relationships, and how parental control might be greater for girls with only female peers. The conceptual model incorporated three measures of parental control—parentally granted autonomy, parental presence at home, and time spent in shared activities with parents—that were used to test the effects of male associates on female substance use. Analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), one combined measure for male associates was regressed on female substance use while controlling for parental control measures to determine if the effects of male associates on female substance use were mediated by parental control. Results indicated that while each type of male associate increased the likelihood of female substance use, effects were stronger for romantic and sexual partners than for male friends. Female friends also increased the likelihood of substance use. While the effects of male friends did not significantly differ from the effects of female friends, the effects of romantic and sexual partners did. The effects of male associates were significant even with the inclusion of parental control measures. Though both relationships with male associates and parents significantly affected female substance use, results did not provide support for the conceptual model. With results providing greater support for theories of peer influence than parental influence, future research should continue to examine peer relationship influences on deviance, how these influences vary by type of association, and how gender effects peer influence processes.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether parents of children who attend childcare centers have different attitudes and behaviors toward shaping their child's eating habits than parents of children who stay at home, and whether these attitudes and behaviors affect their child's dietary intake and weight. Fifty parents of 3- to 5-year-old children who attended childcare centers and fifty parents of 3- to 5-year-old children who stayed at home in Central Texas participated in the study. Parents completed questionnaires designed to measure the factors they considered when choosing food for their child, and their perceived influence on, satisfaction with, responsibility for, and control over their child's eating habits. After receiving training and measuring utensils, parents completed 3-day dietary records for their child. A researcher recorded the children's food intake when they were at the childcare center. Children's height and weight were measured, and body mass index was plotted on the CDC BMIfor- age growth charts (2000). Twelve percent of childcare children were obese compared to 2 percent of stay-at-home children (p<0.05). Children in childcare consumed more energy, vegetables, fat, saturated fat, and sweetened beverages than stay-at-home children (p<0.05), mostly due to consumption at the center. Both groups met requirements for all food groups and nutrients except grains, vegetables, and vitamin E. Their diets were too high in fat, contributing 32 percent of total energy. There was no evidence that parents of children in childcare felt less responsible for, less influential on, more satisfied with, or exerted less control over their child's diet than stay-at-home parents. Parents of childcare children believed that they and the childcare center shared responsibility for their child's nutrition. They felt that time was a more important factor in choosing food for their child than did stay-at-home parents. Parents who perceived lack of time to be an obstacle had children who consumed less energy, iron, and fat during the evening hours. Parents of overweight children felt more influential on and were more satisfied with their child's diets than parents of normal weight children. No other parental attitudes were predictive of children's food intake or weight status. / text

Background Observational studies have shown that early nutrition influences short- and long-term health of infants. Formula-fed infants have higher protein and energy intakes and lower intakes of several biologically active components present in human milk. Some of these are present in the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM). The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of feeding term infants an experimental low energy low protein formula supplemented with bovine milk fat globule membranes. Our hypothesis was that infants fed experimental formula (EF), compared to infants fed standard formula (SF), would have outcomes more similar to a breast-fed reference (BFR) group. Methods In a double-blinded randomized controlled trial, 160 exclusively formula-fed, healthy, term infants were randomized to receive EF or SF from &lt;2 to 6 months of age. A BFR group consisted of 80 breast-fed infants. Measurements were made at baseline, 4, 6 and 12 months of age. The EF had lower energy (60 vs. 66 kcal/100 mL) and protein (1.20 vs. 1.27 g/100 mL) concentrations, and was supplemented with a bovine MFGM concentrate. Results At 12 months of age, the EF group performed better than the SF group in the cognitive domain of Bayley Scales of Infant Development, 3rd Ed. During the intervention, the EF group had a lower incidence of acute otitis media than the SF group, less use of antipyretics and the EF and SF groups differed in concentrations of s-IgG against pneumococci. The formula-fed infants regulated their intakes by increasing meal volumes. Thus, there were no differences between the EF and SF groups in energy or protein intakes, blood urea nitrogen, insulin or growth including body fat percent until 12 months of age. Pressure-to-eat score at 12 months of age was reported lower by parents of formula-fed infants than by parents of breast-fed infants, indicating a low level of parental control of feeding in the formula-fed groups. Neither high pressure-to-eat score nor high restrictive score was associated with formula feeding. During the intervention, the EF group gradually reached higher serum cholesterol concentrations than the SF group, and closer to the BFR group. At 4 months of age, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of lactobacilli in saliva between the EF and SF groups. Conclusions Supplementation of infant formula with a bovine MFGM fraction enhanced both cognitive and immunological development in formula-fed infants. Further, the intervention narrowed the gap in serum cholesterol concentrations between formula-fed and breast-fed infants. The lower energy and protein concentrations of the EF were totally compensated for by a high level of self-regulation of intake which might, at least partly, be explained by a low level of parental control of feeding in the study population. The findings are of importance for further development of infant formulas and may contribute to improved short- and long-term health outcomes for formula-fed infants.

The Internet has evolved and continues to evolve rapidly and as adults we understand the need to be careful with various issues including our privacy, scams, bullying and as adults we stumble across unwanted material that might be considered inappropriate. Children also need to be protected and this thesis will research what children do when they are online, and what protection is currently given to children. The research will also include input from teachers and parents and find out what experiences they have and what they are doing to protect children. The thesis will involve software testing to evaluate how effective parental control software is, and possibilities of it being hacked. This research will concentrate on smartphones, and in particular the Android operating system, the reason is that Android phones can be purchased cheaper than an iPhone, and therefore are more likely to be used by a child. A developer’s version of Android can also be configured to run it in a virtual machine running on a PC which makes various testing possible. The thesis will also involve reviewing other organisation’s research and findings and how it compares to my own research. The thesis will give advice on how to move forward in relation to keeping children safe online.

Genom detta arbete demonstreras hur man, genom att kombinera tillgängliga gratistjänster, samt med lite egen kod, kan åstadkomma en prototyp av ett säkert och barnanpassat heltäckande system för användande av Android-enheter. Internettrafik från den mobila enheten dirigeras genom VPN-tunnel till hemmanätverket vilket ger minskad attackyta och minskad avlyssningsrisk, och genom användning av DNS-filtrering kan olämpliga webbsidor på förhand blockeras. Enheten kan användas för samtal (och med ytterligare modifiering SMS) men inkommande samtal från icke-godkända avsändarnummer, samt SMS blockeras. Genom Applocker, en sorts låsmekanism för applikationsåtkomst, förhindras olämpliga applikationer att installeras eller användas på enheten, likväl som inställningar förhindras att ändras av annan än administratör. Genom användande av en App-launcher kan begränsningen stramas åt ytterligare. Den sammantagna lösningen renderar i ett system där en Smartphone på ett fördelaktigt sätt kan handhas av barn och där utvalda funktioner går att använda på vanligt sätt men där, i förväg spärrade, funktioner har eliminerats från enheten. Vad som krävs utöver en Smartphone, är ett fungerande hemmanätverk och en enklare - alltid påslagen - ”server”-dator, förslagsvis en Raspberry Pi. / In this work, the ability to create a prototype for a throughout secure and childproof system for Android is shown. This is done by combining already available products combined with some own code. Internet traffic is being pushed through a VPN tunnel to an already existing LAN in the own home. This mitigates the risks of eavesdropping attacks and other threats, and by using DNS Filtering, unwanted web pages can be blocked beforehand. The mobile unit can be used for calls (and with further development SMS) but incoming calls from unknown numbers, and SMS, will be blocked. With the addition of Applocker, a sort of locking mechanism for software access, the use of unwanted application will be restricted. By adding a custom App-Launcer, this restriction can be even more firm. The complete solution brings a system where the Smartphone preferably can be handled by a child and where chosen functions can be used in their regular manner but where, predetermined, functions has been eliminated from the unit – or is only accessible by the administrator. What is needed for this prototype, besides of a Smartphone, is a working LAN in the home, and an always-on computer that acts like a server, preferably a Raspberry Pi.

abstract: Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) was used to study the role of child individual, parental, and environmental predictors of anxiety across childhood and adolescence. Longitudinal growth modeling was used to examine the influence of behavioral inhibition, parental control, parental anxiety and stressful life events on the developmental progression of anxiety from 4 to 15 years of age. Based on these data, it appears that there are significant developmental differences between the role of child individual, parental and environmental risk factors. These results highlight the importance of considering developmental factors when assessing and targeting risk for anxiety. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Psychology 2012

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / The phenomenon juvenile delinquency is an enormous concern for communities in the ZFM district, Northern Cape, South Africa. Juvenile offences have increased since 2010 in this area. From existing theories, it is clear that the causes of this phenomenon are complex and interrelated. Some of these contributing factors are rooted in the character of the delinquent and his or her family. Other factors are peer, community or economic related. Against this background, it is clear that each community/area should be individually assessed concerning its contributing factors as these factors can differ from community to community, individual to individual and family to family. Thus, the research question: What are the psychosocial contributing factors of juvenile delinquency in the ZFM district, Northern Cape, South Africa? The research goal of this study was to determine the psychosocial factors contributing to juvenile delinquency in the ZFM region in the Northern Cape, South Africa. The objectives to arrive to the aim were to explore and describe the psychosocial factors contributing to juvenile delinquency in the ZFM region in the Northern Cape, South Africa and to make recommendations for interventions through probation services by probation officers and the Department of Social Development in the Northern Cape, South Africa. A qualitative approach was used, with an exploratory, descriptive design. Non- probability; purposive sampling was used to select probation officers from the Department of Social Development in the ZFM district in the Northern Cape. These Probation officers have each identified a parent of a juvenile in their caseloads. Because both parents of delinquents and probation officer’s perceptions are shaped by their own context, social constructivism was used as theoretical framework. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews with a checklist. The spiral for data analysis was used to analyse data, which was then clustered in themes, sub- themes and categories. Probation officers, participants identified a range of familial and community contributing factors to juvenile delinquency, and emphasises the interplay between these factors. Their also stressed the issue of parental control and guidance. Participants further indicated that harsh and ineffective parental discipline, lack of parental involvement, family conflict, child abuse and/or neglect and rejection by parents have also been identified as important factors related to delinquent behaviour. Another finding was that single parents, especially single mothers and the lack of a father figure are a great risk factor for juvenile delinquency. Parents also stressed the issue of their lack of control due to peer dependence and the juvenile’s involvement in alcohol and drugs. Probation officers also stressed the lack of parental involvement, continuous communication & parental guidance as some of the important contributing factors of delinquent behaviour amongst children. Parents also indicated a general lack of close relationship amongst family members, as well as emotional insecurity, and the inability to control their children. Both parents and probation officers agreed that peer pressure is a mayor risk factor concerning juvenile delinquency.