Browsing by Subject "Parent and child"
Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item Exploring the influences of educational television and parent-child discussions on improving children's racial attitudes(2007-05) Simpson, Birgitte Vittrup, 1973-; Holden, George W.Much concern has been voiced about the development of prejudicial beliefs in young children. Previous research indicates that socializing agents such as parents and the media can influence children’s development of positive and negative racial attitudes. Little research has examined how parents can use educational television to introduce discussions about race with their children. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of educational television and parent-child discussions about race may have on improving White children’s attitudes towards Blacks. Ninety-three White children aged 5-7 years old and their parents participated. Parents’ and children’s racial attitudes were tested during their first visit to a research laboratory. Parents also filled out questionnaires regarding their involvement with their children’s television use and how often they engaged their children in discussions about race. Families were then randomly divided into four groups: (1) a video-only group where parents were asked to screen five educational videos (provided by the researcher) over the course of one week; (2) a video-and-discussion group where in addition to the videos, parents were given a set of topics to discuss with their children during and after the screenings; (3) a discussion-only group, where parents were required to have the discussions with their children without the use of the educational videos; and (4) a control group. All families returned to the laboratory about one week later. At the follow-up visit, children’s racial attitudes were reassessed. Three main hypotheses guided the study: (1) Children’s pre-test attitudes towards Blacks were expected to be influenced by their prior exposure to Black people, as well as their prior conversations with their parents about race, such that children with more exposure were expected to hold more positive attitudes; (2) Children who watched racially diverse programs and discussed the content with their parents were expected to show more positive attitudes towards Blacks when comparing their post-test attitude scores to their pre-test scores; (3) Children in the video-and-discussion and discussiononly groups were expected to be better able to predict their parents’ racial attitudes at post-test, compared to their own pre-test predictions and compared to children who had not had such discussions with their parents. Children who reported having Black friends showed slightly more positive evaluations of Blacks. However, neighborhood diversity was positively correlated with children’s negative evaluations of Blacks. Results revealed that parents in general were very reluctant to discuss the topic of race with their children. Only 33% of mothers and 20% of fathers reported having significant race related discussions. Many parents chose not to have such discussions because they did not want to make a “big deal” out of it, they did not think it was important to talk about, or they did not know how to approach the topic in conversation. Parents’ and children’s racial attitudes were uncorrelated, indicating that children do not automatically adopt their parents’ attitudes. However, children’s perceptions of their parents’ racial attitudes were significantly correlated with their own positive and negative attitudes towards Blacks. It appeared that parents were equally reluctant to talk about race even when specifically instructed to do so. Close to half of parents in the two discussion groups admitted that they only briefly mentioned some of the topics. Only 10% of the parents reported having more in-depth discussions with their children. This likely affected the effectiveness of the intervention, and the children in the experimental groups did not show statistically significant improvements of their racial attitudes following the intervention. Prior to the intervention, many children reported that they did not know if their parents liked Black people or if their parents would approve of them having Black friends. Children who were aware of their parents’ interracial friendships showed more positive and less negative evaluations of Blacks. Furthermore, children in the discussion groups expressed more awareness of their parents’ racial attitudes following the intervention. Implications of the results of this study are discussed.Item The Healthy Image Partnership (HIP) Parents Program: the role of parental involvement in eating disorder prevention(2006) Trost, Ariel Sarah; Gilbert, Lucia Albino; Stice, EricAfflicting 16% of adolescent girls, threshold or subthreshold bulimia nervosa is one of the most common psychiatric problems facing this population. Research suggests that an adolescent’s body image and dieting behaviors are closely related to those of her parents. Guided by the literature on the inclusion of parents in drug use and obesity prevention programs, the current study assessed the impact of educating parents as mental health agents in the pursuit of reducing the perceived sociocultural pressure to be thin, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dieting behaviors, negative affect and bulimic pathology of their adolescent daughters and improving parent-daughter communication. 81 parents of middle school girls with body image concerns were randomly assigned to either the Healthy Image Partnership (HIP) Parents Program or to a measurement-only waitlist condition. Parents assigned to the HIP Parents Program attended three weekly 90-minute workshops designed to facilitate; a) greater differentiation of the thin-ideal and the healthy-ideal; b) increased understanding of the ways parents communicate the thin-ideal to their daughters and; c) alternatives to these interactions and discourses, so as to help these parents to help their daughters improve their body image. The findings provided evidence that the HIP Parents Program reduced parent participants’ thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction and dieting behaviors as compared to the waitlist condition, with the first two of these reductions persisting at the 3-month follow-up assessment point. Results also indicated that daughter participants evidenced significant reductions in thin-ideal internalization, dieting behaviors and bulimic symptoms, though these effects did not reach significance across condition. Findings suggest that this intervention did not significantly improve communication between parents and daughters nor did it decrease negative affect among participants. Parents participating in the HIP Parents Program did report significant reductions in applied pressure to be thin, though these reductions did not reach significance across condition. Contrary to hypotheses, daughters of these participants did not report reductions in perceived pressure to be thin. The significant yet modest results of this three-session workshop represent a much needed first step in the direction of providing wrap-around programs for the prevention of eating disorders in adolescent females.Item The influence of parental bonding, male gender role conflict, and affect regulation on adult attachment avoidance : predictors of men's discomfort with intimacy(2008-08) Land, Lee Nathaniel, 1976-; Rochlen, Aaron B.Past research has indicated that masculine socialization norms contribute to avoidance of intimacy in close relationships, which has been proposed to inhibit men’s psychological adjustment. The goal of the current dissertation was to examine associations among parental bonding, gender role conflict, affect regulation capacity, and adult attachment avoidance to describe the dynamic interaction between psychological and societal influences impacting adult attachment style. The present investigation employed a developmental contextual framework used to examine attachment and psychoanalytic theories describing the evolution of characteristic male interpersonal strategies. In the current study, it was proposed that parental bonding would predict adult attachment avoidance, gender role conflict, and affect regulation capacity. It was also hypothesized that both gender role conflict and three distinct affect regulation variables would predict adult attachment avoidance. Finally, the study aimed to test a model proposing that gender role conflict and affect regulation variables mediate the relationship between parental bonding and avoidance of intimacy in romantic relationships. Two hundred and sixty-six undergraduate men completed a series of online surveys and 10 of these individuals participated in open-ended, follow-up interviews. The relationships between study variables were examined with linear regression and mediational analyses. Qualitative data regarding constructs of interest were elicited from interview respondents and interpreted for themes. Results demonstrated partial support for mediation effects, indicating that gender role conflict, emotion regulation suppression, and emotion regulation reappraisal helped to explain the association between maternal bonding care and adult attachment avoidance. In addition, interview themes related to five content areas were described and integrated with implications for future research directions and clinical applications. Results of this study identified significant mechanisms underlying the development of men’s maladaptive discomfort with intimacy in adulthood. Findings revealed through investigation of male interpersonal connections and the origins of specific emotion regulation strategies will assist researchers and clinicians to further elucidate the construct of masculinity from a developmental contextual perspective. Study outcomes indicated that masculine gender role socialization and capacity to regulate affect should be key points of intervention for therapists working with men presenting with relational difficulties linked to early parental attachments.Item "O.K., let's figure it out all together" : parents' narratives about their children's literacy learning in the home and school(2008-08) Semingson, Peggy L., 1973-; Worthy, JoThe participants in this qualitative study were parents of children in grades 1-3 who attended an elementary school in a low-income, predominantly Latino urban neighborhood. The children were identified as struggling readers through teacher nomination and standardized assessments, and they received reading and writing intervention through an in-school pullout program and through a once-a-week, afterschool University-sponsored tutoring program. The purpose of this study was to gather the views of parents about their children's experiences in literacy learning and intervention, parents’ perspective of their role in their child’s literacy learning, as well as the ways parents described their child as a literacy learner. Fourteen parents were interviewed regarding literacy practices in their homes, views of school literacy instruction, need for information on helping their children at home, and suggestions for improving home-school connections. Follow-upItem Parent-child attachment and communication styles : relations with preschoolers' peer communication styles(1995-12) Cutler, Kay Marie-Zenk; Not availableItem Parents as coping resources for adolescents with learning disabilities(2004) Hoke, Julia Kathleen; Stark, Kevin Douglas.This study uses a qualitative methodology to examine how adolescents with learning disabilities cope with stressors and the role of their parents in this process. Fifteen middle school students with learning disabilities and their parents were interviewed separately, using a semi-structured interview format. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to create an integrated conceptualization of the role of parents in the coping of learning disabled adolescents. Adolescents with learning disabilities experience academic and interpersonal stressors. The level of stressors experienced by adolescents with learning disabilities seems to vary widely and is related to adolescents’ personal characteristics and their academic and social context. Adolescents in this study utilize a wide variety of coping strategies, dependent on stressor properties (e.g., duration, severity, domain), personal characteristics (e.g., emotionality, knowledge), and environmental characteristics (e.g., family climate, school setting). Based on the current data, a model was developed to explain parents’ role in adolescent coping within this population. The data suggest that parents serve as a coping resource for adolescents with learning disabilities by creating a space in which adolescents are able to develop and use independent coping strategies. Parents engage in monitoring strategies to assess their child’s academic and behavioral functioning, development, and emotional state. Information obtained through monitoring is passed through parents’ cognitive lens— parents’ attributions, knowledge, goals, and beliefs. Parents’ varying beliefs about themselves, their children, and the school system intersect to create predictable patterns of parent support. In creating a space, parents set boundaries and expectations that regulate exposure, shielding adolescents from some experiences, while allowing them access to others. Parents structure the home environment to makes various coping resources available for adolescents and influence the school system to create an environment that is safe, stable, supportive, and sufficiently challenging. Parents also respond to adolescents’ stressors by offering situation-specific coping assistance. Finally, by preparing and equipping adolescents, parents seek to provide adolescents with coping resources such as knowledge and skills.Item Parents' socialization of children's emotions and children's socioemotional adjustment : the role of adult attachment(2002-08) Boyd-Soisson, Erin Faith; Hazen, Nancy LynnThe main goal of this study was to examine how parents’ mental representations of their past attachment relationships influence the way they respond to their own children’s emotions, using hypotheses based in attachment theory. Parents’ responses to their children’s emotions and children’s emotion regulation and social and emotional adjustment over time were also examined. Finally, differences between mothers and fathers were examined. The original sample contained 125 couples. Mothers’ and Fathers’ mental representations of attachment were measured prior to giving birth to their first child. Parents’ responses to their children’s emotions were assessed during parent-child interactions when children were 2-years old, and with parental questionnaires when children were 7-years old. Children’s emotion regulation was coded at 2-years and parents and teachers reported children’s social adjustment using the Child Behavior Checklist at 7-years. Mothers’ adult attachment did not predict their responses to their children’s emotions when their children were 2- or 7-years old. Fathers’ adult attachment did predict their responses to their children’s emotions. Dismissing fathers were more minimizing and punitive toward their children’s emotions than secure fathers when children were 2-years old. Dismissing fathers, compared to secure fathers, reported more distress and punitive reactions to their children’s emotions when their children were 7-years old. In addition, the more sensitive parents were to their children’s emotions, the better their children’s emotion regulation. Less sensitive responses were related to children’s underregulation of emotions. In general, children’s emotion regulation at 2-years did not predict children’s social adjustment at 7-years, although, some child gender differences were found. Few differences were found between mothers and fathers in the way they responded to their children’s emotions.Item Physical punishment across generations : factors associated with continuity and change in subsequent generations(2008-12) Roetzel, Amy Cassandra; Jacobvitz, DeborahThis study examined as risk and protective factors which may promote or deter physical punishment use across generations. This study used self-report information from parents (N = 211) who had a child between the ages of 2-6. Additionally, the participating parents were also asked if they would like to invite one of their parents (e.g., the grandparent) to participate. Grandparents (N = 65) completed the same questionnaires as their adult child, though grandparents were asked to reflect upon when they were parenting the adult child. Four risk factors promoting physical punishment were examined: childhood histories of physical punishment, favorable attitudes towards physical punishment, feeling of anger and stress. As expected, parents’ childhood physical punishment, high feeling of anger and stress were associated with parents using physical punishment techniques with their own children. This study also investigated the salience of such risk factors in promoting physical punishment to continue, above the influence of receiving physical punishment as a child. Parents’ current favorable attitudes towards physical punishment predicted their use of physical discipline with their children, even after controlling for childhood histories of being physically punished. When parents’ childhood experiences of physical punishment and feelings of anger were considered together, parents’ childhood experiences significantly predicted using physical punishment; feelings of anger were marginally related to physical punishment practices. Similar results were found when parents’ childhood experiences and feelings of stress were considered together. Additionally, four risk factors deterring physical punishment were examined: feelings of resentment about childhood experiences of physical punishment, effective anger regulation and stress coping techniques. Parents who were spanked frequently as a child, but had low feelings of resentment about being spanked were at greater risk of using physical punishment on their child, compared to parents who were spanked frequently, but had higher feelings of resentment. Parents’ abilities to regulate their feeling of anger and cope with stress were not associated with parents less use of physical punishment. Finally, grandparents’ and parents’ reports of physical punishment use were different, with parents using less physical punishment on their child than what they experienced as a child.Item The social-cognitive underpinnings of effective caregiving(2007-05) Hawk, Carol Kozak, 1958-; Holden, George W.