Bibliography: leaves 119-127. / Relatively few studies have examined the difficulties of the stepmother, but research suggests that compared to other stepparents, stepmothers without their own children have the most difficult task. This preliminary study describes the difficulties of the stepmother by comparing two groups of stepmothers; those who have no experience of their own children, with those who have children of their own, either from a previous marriage or from their present marriage, or from both. A convenience sample of thirty-one volunteers, who are full-time stepmothers, constituted the sample. Subjects were limited to white middle class South Africans. A two-part, semi-structured interview was conducted on each subject: Part one consisted of open-ended questions intended to provide an overall view of the particular circumstances of the stepmother. Part two consisted of information elicited by means of psychometric testing. The McMaster Family Assessment Device is used to assess the family functioning and thereby investigate the difficulties of the stepmothers. The Rutter Child Behaviour Questionnaire is used to determine the range of behaviours with which the stepmother might need to cope. Information regarding the stepmother's early childhood relationships is elicited by means of the Adult Family Relations Test. After the interviews and tests had been scored. the subjects were divided into two groups: One comprised of twelve stepmothers who had had no experience of mothering prior to their stepmother status; the other comprised of 19 stepmothers who had either one or two children of their own. Statistical analysis was conducted on the scores derived from The Rutter Child Behavior Questionnaire (t-test) and The McMaster Family Assessment Device (Hotellings Tz). The Family Relations Test was analysed by means of percentages and standard deviations. The demographic details were presented as percentages, and where applicable. Chi squared tests were conducted. Findings suggest that stepfamily functioning in the situation where the stepmother has no children of her own is different and less healthy from that in the family where the stepmother has children of her own. These results are largely consistent with the literature, but as regards the actual difficulties that contributed to the differences between these groups,findings remain tentative.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / This study examined the attitudes displayed qy a group of stepmothers seen at a child guidance clinic toward a stepchild, his problem, and her own participation in help toward the solution of the problem. In addition it examined attitudes and relationships common to the status of stepmotherhood.

Much research conducted on stepmothers has not been racially representative. This includes Janice Nadler's (1976) research on three psychological stresses (anxiety, depression, and anger) of stepmotherhood. To investigate the stress of black stepmotherhood, this study replicated a portion of Nadler's investigation on a black sample. It was hypothesized that 1) black stepmothers would report more stress than black natural mothers; and that 2) black stepmothers would report more stress than the white stepmothers in Nadler's study. The data indicated no significant difference in the levels of stress experienced by black stepmothers and black natural mothers. Overall, white stepmothers reported more stress than black stepmothers. The former may be attributable to black stepmothers and natural mothers having the same support system, the black extended family.

Employed and non-employed stepmothers were compared on four psychological dimensions: stress, adjustment, needs, and values. Employed stepmothers were hypothesized to experience greater stress, lower adjustment, different needs, and different values. Racial and race by employment status differences along these four dimensions were also addressed.

This study deals with identifying risk factors using measuring instruments in the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters in reconstituted families. Risk factors can complicate the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters and deviate from the given criteria in this study. Extensive literature survey has been done concerning the reconstituted family, relationshlps, stepmothers, adolescent stepdaughters . and biological fathers. Research shows that the stepmother-stepdaughter relationshlp is the most complicated relationshlp within the reconstituted family and adolescent stepdaughters experience more problems adapting than stepsons. Statistics reveal that the divorce rate and therefore the number of reconstituted families is still on the increase. Literature survey shows that overwhelmingly poor relationshlps are found within the reconstituted family. Added to the risk factors that have been identified during research, professional people were also consulted in identifying the risk factors that could complicate the relationship between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters as experienced in practice. After establishing the risk factors, measuring instruments have been emperically applied to determine if the mentioned risk factors in reconstituted families can be identified. The measuring instruments include five standardised and one unstandardised questionnaires. The EPI, 16-PF and HSPQ were used to determine the characteristics in the three parties involved. The Parentchild- communication questionnaire and the Persoonlike vraelys vir hoi!rskoolleerlinge were utilised to identifY various risk factors. The unstandardised RF-Agtergrondvraelys provides background information and highlights risk factors other measuring instruments do not identifY. Arising from information gained on a spesific reconstituted family through measuring instmments, the risk factors can be carried over onto the Samevattende evalueringsblad vir risikofaktore. The biggest problems seem to be discipline and divided loyalty. The structure and conditions of each reconstituted family are unique; therefore the risk factors will differ in families. Even similar risk factors can be experienced differently by each member or other families. The uniqueness and complexity surrounding the reconstituted family is emphasised by this. The identified risk factors can be used in various fields of study that involve reconstituted families. This study is helpful in court where custody placement of minors is broached. The identified risk factors can ease in counselling and therapy . / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

This dissertation investigates the development of early modern Japanese joruri puppet theater in the eighteenth century, focusing on representations of female characters in the works of three major playwrights. Joruri developed as a theatrical form combining chanting, music, and puppetry that was regularly performed for urban commoners. The plays were also commercially printed for leisure reading. The genre achieved immense popularity and exercised significant influence over early modern popular consciousness. The contemporary bakufu government licensed theaters and controlled what could appear on stage. In the shadow of this censorship, joruri developed genre conventions that reinforced the social order based on Confucian ideals, a strict class and gender hierarchy in which individuals were of less importance than the family, clan, or state. For this reason, joruri is often viewed as becoming progressively more formulaic and conservative. However, I argue that joruri playwrights straddled the fence between preserving a formula that reinforces the Confucian ethical order and its rigid gender and class hierarchy in order to avoid being banned and subverting it to speak to the audiences' anxieties about authority and the existing societal order. The instances of subversion often involved renegotiation of the genre conventions surrounding female characters whose tribulations arose from their low positions in the social order and whose tragic circumstances were highlighted by the drama. By examining the representations of innovative female characters by three major playwrights over the course of joruri's development, I show that the essence of these plays lies in these moments when joruri creates an alternative world where the repressed voice emerges, gender and class expectations are revisited, and the societal status quo is called into question. Chapter One provides an overview of the history of joruri, particularly in relation to women, its major playwrights and theaters, and its formal conventions. Chapter Two focuses on the representations of prostitutes as heroines in love suicide plays by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724). I argue that Chikamatsu subverted the contemporary class and gender hierarchy by depicting prostitutes, who were at the bottom of the social hierarchy, as morally exemplary romantic heroines. Chapter Three examines the recurrent representations of stepmothers in Namiki Sosuke's (1695-1751) plays in the context of the existing conventional representations of stepmothers in joruri. I argue that Sosuke's unconventionally realistic depictions of the dark psychology and transgressive behavior of seemingly-exemplary stepmothers highlight the conflict between individual desire and social obligation and call into question the absolute priority of social obligation. Chapter Four examines the work of Chikamatsu Hanji (1725-1783) written during a time when joruri and kabuki were engaged in a particularly strong cycle of mutual influence and borrowing. I argue that Hanji's reinvention of provincial daughters as unconventionally outspoken in the female realm of love, and yet pawns in the male realm of politics, subtly criticizes societal norms that subordinate the value of the individual to the maintenance of the social order. Through examination of how each playwright established and renegotiated joruri's genre conventions in creating his innovative female characters, this dissertation sheds light on the multiple functions of joruri: as didactic theater, popular entertainment, and a site for subtle criticism where early modern conceptions of gender and class and societal norms were reexamined and reimagined.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-77). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-77). Also available on the Internet.

This study deals with identifying risk factors using measuring instruments in the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters in reconstituted families. Risk factors can complicate the relationshlp between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters and deviate from the given criteria in this study. Extensive literature survey has been done concerning the reconstituted family, relationshlps, stepmothers, adolescent stepdaughters . and biological fathers. Research shows that the stepmother-stepdaughter relationshlp is the most complicated relationshlp within the reconstituted family and adolescent stepdaughters experience more problems adapting than stepsons. Statistics reveal that the divorce rate and therefore the number of reconstituted families is still on the increase. Literature survey shows that overwhelmingly poor relationshlps are found within the reconstituted family. Added to the risk factors that have been identified during research, professional people were also consulted in identifying the risk factors that could complicate the relationship between stepmothers and adolescent stepdaughters as experienced in practice. After establishing the risk factors, measuring instruments have been emperically applied to determine if the mentioned risk factors in reconstituted families can be identified. The measuring instruments include five standardised and one unstandardised questionnaires. The EPI, 16-PF and HSPQ were used to determine the characteristics in the three parties involved. The Parentchild- communication questionnaire and the Persoonlike vraelys vir hoi!rskoolleerlinge were utilised to identifY various risk factors. The unstandardised RF-Agtergrondvraelys provides background information and highlights risk factors other measuring instruments do not identifY. Arising from information gained on a spesific reconstituted family through measuring instmments, the risk factors can be carried over onto the Samevattende evalueringsblad vir risikofaktore. The biggest problems seem to be discipline and divided loyalty. The structure and conditions of each reconstituted family are unique; therefore the risk factors will differ in families. Even similar risk factors can be experienced differently by each member or other families. The uniqueness and complexity surrounding the reconstituted family is emphasised by this. The identified risk factors can be used in various fields of study that involve reconstituted families. This study is helpful in court where custody placement of minors is broached. The identified risk factors can ease in counselling and therapy . / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

A orfandade é um tema bastante recorrente na literatura infantil e juvenil. Desde as antigas narrativas orais, como os contos de fadas, por exemplo, o arquétipo do órfão é revisitado regularmente na construção de diferentes personagens, sendo mantida, porém, uma estrutura básica predominante, principalmente no que concerne à sua trajetória. Investigar a recorrência dessa temática, partindo da análise de alguns contos populares até alcançar as mais recentes obras voltadas para o público jovem, foi um dos objetivos desta pesquisa. Uma outra meta foi estabelecer paralelos e divergências entre as figuras secundárias que compõem essas narrativas, como as madrinhas, as madrastas, os irmãos, os amigos, os seres mágicos, entre outros, e focalizar o papel que elas desempenham na trajetória do órfão, agindo ora como \"desvios\", ora como \"atalhos\" em seu caminho. Um terceiro propósito da dissertação foi estudar a circulação da personagem órfã contemporânea entre a literatura e outras mídias, como as histórias em quadrinhos (HQ) e o cinema. Para isso, tomamos três personagens da ficção criadas originalmente para três diferentes suportes - Harry Potter (literatura), Peter Parker (HQ) e Luke Skywalker (cinema) - e procuramos estabelecer similaridades e divergências em três momentos de seus percursos: partida, iniciação e retorno. Ao compararmos as trajetórias desses três heróis órfãos, podemos perceber as visíveis intersecções entre elas e somos levados a crer que, mesmo modificadas pelos estilos literários e pelas mídias que lhes servem de suporte, essas personagens solitárias conservam, contudo, a essência das características de seu remoto substrato popular, proveniente da oralidade. / Orphanhood is quite a common theme in Children\'s Literature. From the old oral stories, as the fairy tales, for instance, the orphan archetype is regularly used in order to build different characters, keeping, however, a predominant basic structure, chiefly with regard to his path. Investigating the frequency of such a theme starting from the analysis of some popular tales and finally reaching the most recent works, offered to young people, was one of the purposes of this research. Another aim was to establish parallels and divergences ocurring to secondary characters that take part in those narratives, as the godmothers, stepmothers, brothers and sisters, magic creatures, among others, and focusing the role they play in the development of the orphan course, acting sometimes as \"sidetracks\", sometimes as \"shortcuts\" in his way. A third goal of this work was to study the circulation of the contemporary orphan character both in literature and other mass media, as comics and movies. For this purpose we chose three fiction characters, created originally for three different supports - Harry Potter (literature), Peter Parker (comics) and Luke Skywlaker (movies) - and tried to show similarities and differences in three moments of their route: start, initiation and return. Comparing the footsteps of those three orphan heroes, we may note the visible intersections among them and take into account that, even changed by literary style and mass media which support them, those solitary characters keep, nevertheless, the essence of the characteristics of their ancient popular substractum, coming from orality.