Browsing by Subject "Parents"
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Item Bottom-up technology transmission within families : how children influence their parents in the adoption and use of digital media(2012-12) Correa, Teresa; Gil de Zúñiga, Homero; Straubhaar, Joseph D.This dissertation investigated the bottom-up technology transmission process in a country with varied levels of technology diffusion, such as Chile. In particular, I explored how children act as technology brokers within their families by influencing their parents' adoption of and learning about digital media, so as to include older generations in the digital environment. In order to do this, I measured to what extent this process occurs, I proposed a typology of factors that intervene in the process and analyzed the outcomes variables related to the phenomenon. Methodologically, I used a mixed-methods research approach by combining in-depth interviews with a self-administered paper-and-pencil survey taken by dyads of one parent and one child. I analyzed 28 interviews involving one 12 to 18-year-old child and one parent or legal guardian (14 dyads) stratified by socioeconomic background, age, and gender. In addition, I conducted the parent-child survey among school-aged children and their parents in three schools, stratified by socioeconomic status. One class per cohort from 7th to 11th grades was randomly surveyed. In total, 381 students and 251 parents completed the surveys. The analyses showed that bottom-up technology transmission occurs at some degree for all the technologies investigated in this study. However, children's influence should not be overstated because they play only one part among a number of factors involved in the digital inclusion of older generations. It also established a typology of factors related to the process at different levels, including structural influences, family structure, strategies employed by youth, and psychological dispositions of parents. Specifically, the analyses consistently found that this process was more likely to occur among people from a lower socioeconomic status. Also, the transmission was associated with more fluid parent-child interactions and occurred among parents who perceived the technology to be useful. Regarding the outcome variables, it demonstrated that this phenomenon is linked, although weakly, to greater levels of perceived competence among parents and higher esteem among young people. Finally, it suggested that bottom-up technology transmission is associated with the reduction of some socioeconomic gaps in digital media use.Item Dietary quality of preschoolers' sack lunches(2015-08) Romo Palafox, Maria Jose; Briley, Margaret E.; Davis, Jaimie; Forman, Michele; Hoelscher, Deanna; Ranjit, Nalini; Roberts-Gray, CindyThe objective of this study was to analyze the dietary quality of preschoolers' content and intake of sack lunches from the Lunch is in the Bag (LIITB) Efficacy Trial. The main hypothesis was that the nutrient composition of the lunches packed by parents and the portion consumed by their preschool children were not adequate and that the dietary quality of the lunches was associated with beverage choice. For this cross-sectional study, dietary data were obtained from 30 Early Care and Education (ECE) centers in Central Texas. Foods and beverages present in lunches that parents (n=607) from the LIITB Efficacy Trial packed for their preschool child were recorded on two non-consecutive days. The average meal included 6.5 individual food items and a mean of 602.5 kcals. The macronutrient energy distribution was adequate; however, lunches contained high amounts of sugars (29% of energy) and saturated fat (11% of energy). Preschoolers consistently consumed between 61% and 79% of the food packed by their parents (p<0.01). Parents included less than the recommended amounts of dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin A, and potassium. Mean HEI total scores of lunches packed (58/100) differed from scores of lunches consumed (52/100) (p<0.01). Meals scored low for the greens and beans, total vegetables, seafood and plant proteins and whole grain HEI components. Most parents packed a beverage as part of their preschoolers' lunch; sugar sweetened beverages being the most popular choice. Beverage choice was significantly associated with the presence of vegetables, refined grains and chips in preschoolers' lunches as well as the dietary quality (p<0.05). The nutrient content of preschoolers' sack lunches were inadequate and a cause for concern. The HEI-2010 was a useful tool to measure the dietary quality of children's meals and provided statistical advantages over nutrient analysis. Specific food choices such as beverages were associated with the dietary quality the meals, beverage choice could be a viable intervention target. These findings suggest that parents of preschool children need more guidance in order to provide better foods and beverages to promote the development of healthy food preferences and eating habits.Item How representations of the parental marriage predict marital quality between partners during the transition to parenthood(2004) Curran, Melissa Anne; Hazen, Nancy Lynn.This study examined how couples’ representations of the parental marriage predict emotional attunement between marital partners prenatally and following the transition to parenthood, 24 months postpartum. Couple partners (N = 121) were interviewed individually about their parents’ marriage prenatally. Two aspects of these representations were assessed: content (memories of conflict, affection, and communication in the parents’ marriage) and process (making connections between their own and their parents’ marriage and presenting a believable, consistent picture of the parents’ marriage). Emotional attunement (i.e., dyadic emotional communication and connection) was rated from couple interactions observed prenatally and at 24 months (N = 89 couples). Surra and Bohman (1991) proposed that during relatively stable times in couple relationships, individuals use lower order, automatic processing when evaluating relationships, whereas their thinking during relatively unstable times is characterized by higher order, extensive processing. Thus, it was hypothesized that individuals would automatically recreate the content of the marital patterns they recalled from childhood in their own marital interactions prenatally, since this is assumed to be a relatively stable time compared to the postnatal period. Based on attachment theory and methods (Bowlby, 1973, 1980, 1988; Main, Goldwyn, & Hesse, 2002), it was also hypothesized that individuals high on process would score higher on emotional attunement both prenatally and postnatally, since they should view their parents’ marriage more objectively and work on avoiding negative aspects of their parents’ marriage at any time. The role of content during the relatively unstable postnatal period is less clear, however. When high-processing individuals automatically draw on recollections of the parental marriage, will they recreate positive recollections, or will positive memories result in disappointment and reduced emotional attunement? Results from path analyses revealed that prenatally, husbands and wives high on process showed higher emotional attunement toward their partner. Postnatally, wives who recalled low content using high process showed a greater increase in emotional attunement toward their partner than did wives in other groups, indicating that for high processing women, anticipating some problems and stresses about marriage following the transition to parenthood may result in greater attention to the marital relationship.Item The interaction between parent perceived stress and ethnicity on weight in adolescents(2015-12) Holleman, Annie Dillon; Keith, Timothy, 1952-; Carlson, CindySince obesity has a great impact on psychological and physical health, and Latino adolescents have the highest prevalence of obesity compared to adolescents of other ethnicities, there is a need to understand what contributes to this discrepancy (CDC, 2012; Must & Strauss, 1999; Ogden et al., 2014). The purpose of this study is to investigate some of the potential causes of adolescent weight and obesity; specifically how family stress and ethnicity interact to influence adolescent weight, and thus obesity. Other variables that may be involved, such as parent preferred language, parent education level, and the adolescent’s sex, are examined as well. This document proposes recruiting parent and adolescent dyads from a variety of primary care clinics around Austin when the adolescent comes in for a yearly preventive check-up. Data on parent stress, adolescent weight, adolescent ethnicity, adolescent sex, parent education level, and parent language preference are collected. These variables will be examined to investigate the hypothesis that the weight of Hispanic adolescents is more influenced by family stress (as measured by parent stress level) than the weight of adolescents of other ethnicities.Item Parent identity and youth sport volunteerism(2012-05) Griffiths, Randall Joseph; Green, B. Christine; Chalip, Laurence; Dixon, Marlene; Bartholomew, John; Harrison, TracieYouth sport relies on parents to volunteer for positions at all levels of the organization. Among these volunteer positions, the volunteer-coach is often responsible for the creation and delivery of most services in youth sport. The current scope of youth sport would be unattainable without parents’ continuous support; therefore, recruitment and retention of these parent-volunteer-coaches is a critical task for youth sport organizations. Parents, however, do not respond to volunteer service as would be predicted from current volunteer literature (Kim, Chelladurai, & Trail, 2007). Perhaps is the behavior of volunteers in the youth sport setting is due to their identities as parents. The presence of their children in a youth sport setting has always been assumed to be a primary motivator for parents to volunteer as youth sport coaches. This research used narrative analysis (Polkinghorne, 1995), identity theory (Stryker, 1968, 2000) and inductive coding to interpret the experiences of parent-volunteer-coaches in the youth sport setting. The inductive coding analysis yielded two groups of roles available within the youth sport setting: aspirational roles and avoided roles. The narrative analysis yielded seventeen parent stories by identifying the central plot that connected important events to role choices. Five groups of stories--History, Prior Arrangements, Crucible, Right Role, and System--resulted from an examination of the similarities among the plots. Ultimately, the role choices made in response to tension in each plot led to choosing the volunteer-coach role. These results suggest that the experience of youth sport volunteer coaching is not primarily based on a relationship with the organization. These volunteer stories rarely included the organization as the most important influence on their experience; instead, parent volunteer experiences were driven by identities that led to role choices within the parent-child relationship. Role choices were not static throughout the volunteer experience; several parents continued to shift the roles played in response to changes in perceptions of the context. Youth sport organizations that recognize the impact of the parent-child relationship can design volunteer recruitment and retention programs leading to greater satisfaction for parents while at the same time fulfilling the organizational need for dedicated volunteers.Item Parental influence on Hispanic adolescent substance use(Texas Tech University, 2008-12) Munk, Adam C.; Smith, Douglas B.; Harris, Steven M.; Reifman, Alan; Whiting, Jason B.The purpose of the present study was to add to the research geared toward meeting the needs of ethnic minority families. The rapidly increasing population of Hispanics has been met with a gap in research between the needs of the Hispanic community and the ability of mental health providers to provide culturally competent services. The lack of information on Hispanic families may contribute to less cultural competence and further discrimination. In many cases, there is not sufficient training of mental health professionals to prepare them for working with Hispanic families. Therefore, it is important to add to current knowledge of ethnic and otherwise diverse populations and promote cultural competence among marriage and family therapists. Specifically, the goal of the study was to identify parental risk or protective factors for substance use among Hispanic adolescents. The secondary analysis used data from portions of the larger Youth and Family Project data set. The research analyzed parental influence on Hispanic adolescent substance use. Structural Equation Modeling was the principle statistical procedure used for analyzing the data. The parenting protective factors focused on in the present study included Parent Limit Setting, Father’s and Mother’s Monitoring, Parent-Adolescent Relationship, Father’s and Mother’s Acceptance/Support, and Parental Involvement in Peer Relationships. The parenting risk factors focused on in the present study included Parent-Adolescent Conflict, Father’s and Mother’s Inconsistence Control, Father’s and Mother’s Harsh Discipline, and Father’s and Mother’s Laissez-Faire. The present study used a subsample comprised of Hispanic participants (N=840) drawn from the larger Youth and family Project sample of 2214 adolescents in 9-12th grades from west Texas area school districts. Respondents in the Hispanic subsample included 359 males and 480 females with one missing value. The sample was made up of 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders with a mean age of 16.1 years (SD = 1.1). The Final Model contained 13 parenting-related latent constructs and one standalone indicator representing adolescent substance use. The standalone indicator included alcohol use, marijuana use, hard drug use, and tobacco use. Goodness of fit tests suggested the final model to be a good fit. The results of this study suggested that the positive parenting factors of Parent Limit Setting and Mother’s Monitoring, as perceived by Hispanic adolescents, were significant protective factors against Hispanic adolescent substance use. Additionally, the negative parenting factors of Parental Laissez-Faire and Parent-Adolescent Conflict, as perceived by the Hispanic adolescents, were significant risk factors for Hispanic adolescent substance use. Furthermore, the reduction of these significant negative parenting factors may be facilitated by increasing the significant positive parenting factors. Moreover, some unexpected findings revealed that positive parenting factors seemed to have more of an impact on Hispanic adolescent substance use than did negative parenting factors, and mothers’ parenting factors seemed to have more of an impact on Hispanic adolescent substance use than did fathers’ parenting factors.Item Parents learning online : informal education on parenting through online interactions examined from a community of practice perspective(2010-08) Matthews, Megan Renee; Schallert, Diane L.; Robinson, DanielThis study investigated the online interactions of parents using the constructs of Wenger’s (1998) community of practice theory. Parents were surveyed and blogs and comments selections were examined to determine whether a communities of practice perspective would be appropriate as a construct to examine parents’ online interactions, and whether parents could gain similar benefits to those found from face-to-face parent support groups. This study provides evidence to support the utility of parents’ online interactions and the relevance of a community of practice perspective as analyzed with the components of Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice Theory.Item Parents Talking About the Birds and the Bees With Their Elementary School Aged Children: A Naturalistic Study(2013-07-22) Reichel, LoriThis dissertation presents three separate studies exploring parents? perceptions and recommendations for communicating with their third, fourth, and fifth grade children about human sexuality. First, a systematic literature review is presented summarizing past qualitative studies completed in the United States focusing on parents with children aged 18 years and under. This review summarizes (1) demographic information of parents from past studies, (2) perceived communication barriers experienced by parents regarding sexuality communication, and (3) perceived communication facilitators experienced by parents regarding sexuality communication. Second, noting the lack of research within a specific population of parents in the United States, a naturalistic study of parents with children in the third, fourth, and fifth grade is presented. Utilizing an emergent design, one-on-one interviews were conducted with 20 parents living in a town in central Texas. By coding collected data, a thematic analysis was used to summarize emergent themes. Themes included techniques parents utilized to have parent-child conversations about sexuality and discussed topics. Although different techniques and topics were raised, parents showed overall inconsistency in experiences or past discussions. Third, using data from the same 20 interviews, themes emerged from parents regarding recommendations. These included the recommendations that a booklet with age appropriate information on sexuality topics be developed for parents and parent workshops or classes covering age appropriate sexuality knowledge as well as techniques to use in parent-child communication be offered. Schools were the recommended source for these resources. Parents also shared feedback on the newly released National Sexuality Education Standards. Comparing past parent-child conversations on sexuality topics to the NSES, certain topics were discussed yet inconsistency was shown. In addition, parents disagreed on specific standards including those pertaining to the functions of reproductive parts, reproduction, and same sex orientation. Implications of this study are that parental resources are needed to help parents communicate with their children about sexuality beginning at a young age. And, for those resources already existing, including workshops, books, and on-line sources, parents need to be made aware of their existence. In addition, future research is needed to explore if younger children are learning from parent-child conversations about sexuality.Item The role of immigrant parents in children's sport development(2014-05) Chung, Kyu-soo; Green, B. ChristineParents take a powerful role to a child's sport socializing. Such roles of parents for children's sport are neither static nor constantly applied, depending on parents' cultural beliefs and values. An understanding of these dynamics is crucial for sport managers if they are to design and implement sport programs that can attract a culturally diverse group. A cross-cultural study investigated how Korean immigrant parents were different from American and Korean parents in terms of parents' influences on their children's sport participation. It was found that a parent's cultural model was a significant criterion that explained different degrees of practicing role mechanisms---parents as a provider and interpreter. Parents' acculturation accounted for the outcomes of Korean immigrants in the U.S. The in-depth interviews then explored how Korean immigrant parents supported children's sport according to their contexts and environments. It was found that they interacted with contextual factors such as family, neighborhood, school, sport organizations, work, policy and system, and cultures. These interactions were affected not only by surrounding contextual factors but also by their traditional customs and values. Being released from education fever, the Korean immigrant parents interacted more actively with the values and customs of American society. Thus, they generally implemented an American sport-friendly environment to make their children's sport happen and continue. This dissertation's combined studies demonstrate the crucial role of parents in children's sport and the effect of culture on shaping those roles. Finally, this dissertation helps build up an integrative paradigm of sport development toward expanding the field of sport participants. Culture is invisible but powerfully affects parenting. Sport parenting is a cultural product. Cultural differences are not easily bridged, though the key is in how we understand such differences.Item Stressors and strengths in families of adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)(Texas Tech University, 2006-12) Corwin, Melinda D.; Mulsow, Miriam; Feng, Du; Bell, Nancy J.; Bean, Roy A.The present study explored issues related to adolescents with ADHD and the families in which they belong from a developmental contextual and lifespan perspective. Both deficits- and strengths-based approaches were used to investigate parental perceptions of family stressors and available family resources; and individual family members' (adolescents with ADHD, mothers, fathers, and sibling adolescents) perceptions of positive and negative family characteristics and feelings relative to ADHD. Additionally, the target adolescents’ perspectives on the meaning of ADHD in their lives and personal and family resources and strengths were examined. Forty adolescents diagnosed with some form of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and their household family members (mother, father, and/or adolescent sibling) participated. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to analyze family-level data. Results revealed that the number of family members with ADHD did not significantly affect all family members' reports of general family stressors, strains, and distress; however, it did significantly affect reports from mothers in terms of perceived family resources and opinions specific to ADHD: Mothers (but not fathers) reported significantly more resources when only the target adolescent had ADHD and fewer resources when additional family members had the disorder. Also, mothers reported more non-supportive factors, such as teachers and relatives not understanding ADHD, when more than one member of the family had ADHD. Additionally, fathers reported more supportive factors, such as adolescents being creative, when only one member of the family had ADHD. The adolescents with ADHD perceived their own strengths as getting along well with others, having high energy levels, and/or being involved with music. By using a mixed research design, the present study integrated quantitative and qualitative information to provide a better understanding of the hassles that adolescents with ADHD encounter, as well as the resources and strengths they use to meet their environmental challenges at this particular point along their developmental paths.Item The Effect of Adolescent-Parent Relationships on Adolescent Religiosity(2013-12-06) Clanton, Thomas RayThe relationship between adolescents and their parents has a significant impact on their positive development into adulthood. This study analyzes data from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) in order to determine if an adolescent?s relationship with his or her parents has an impact on the religiosity of adolescents between the ages of 17-24 years old. This study contends that religion can be an important aspect of positive youth development for older adolescents. Utilizing data from the NSYR, two major factors describing adolescent religiosity were discovered: adolescent religious importance and adolescent respect for religion. The adolescent-parent relationship factors of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent relationships were tested against the two factors of adolescent religiosity to determine the effect of adolescent-parent relationships on adolescent religiosity. The study determined that adolescent-parent relationships have only a minimal effect on adolescent religiosity of adolescents 17-24 years old. This is an important finding that provides researchers and practitioners a glimpse into the influences of religion on older adolescents.Item The effects of parent education and authoritarian attitudes on parenting skills(Texas Tech University, 1990-05) Johnson, Julia ChristineThe role of parenting is multidimensional as it is a complex and diverse experience. Parenting has been described as one of the most difficult tasks with the least amount of preparation. Perhaps it is for this reason that much concern is given to parent education and intervention. The types of intervention that are available to parents range from open-ended discussion groups (Auerbach 1968, Hereford 1963) to highly structured and systematic training programs aimed at specific targeted behaviors (Carkhuff, 1971). Between these two polarities are several popular standardized programs. These include Parent Effectiveness Training (Gordon, 1970), Adlerian Parent Study Groups (Berrett, 1975), Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (Dinkmeyer & McKay, 197 6), Parent Involvement Program (McGuiness & Glasser, 1978), and many others. These interventions are directed toward teaching parents specific techniques from a particular theoretical orientation which explicitly or implicitly holds itself up as the one true approach. The "do's" of one approach are often the "don'ts" of another.Item THE ROLE OF ALTERED WINDOW VIEWS ON FEELINGS AND PREFERENCES OF PEDIATRIC PATIENTS AND PARENTS(2013-05) Pinson, Michelle; Gaines, Kristi; Pati, Debajyoti; Colwell, Malinda J.While research pertaining to hospitalized patients is available, the majority of the information pertains to preferences and opinions of adult patients. In regards to pediatric patients, most existing research is gathered from the opinions of the guardians or the pediatric floor nurses. In terms of total research, a small percentage of data is actually gathered from hospitalized children. Existing research has shown that children perceive the hospital environment as stressful, which can lead to negative physiological and psychological effects. Currently, there is a fair amount of research available exploring what specifically within the built environment causes the patient to feel stress and what can reduce the perceived stress of the patient, but mostly relating to adult patients. One design feature that has been shown to reduce the perceived patient stress and improve the overall hospital experience is positive distractions, which can include access to nature and art. The purpose of this study is to explore altered window views, feelings the altered views evoke, and preferences of the patients and parents. Decals featuring representational nature scenes were applied to windows of a local pediatric hospital to create the altered window view. Surveys were administered evaluating the preferences and opinions of both the patient and their parent. The rooms featuring the window decals were found to have a promote positive feelings for both the patients and the parents. A majority of the parents in the rooms with the decals believed that the decals had a positive influence on their feelings and their child's feelings, and almost all would prefer to have a room using decals again in the future. The patients in the rooms without the window decals appeared to have a less positive experience and appeared to only moderately like the view from their window, which were identical. Most of the parents in the rooms without decals did not believe that their child enjoyed the view from their patient room. This study should provide a greater understanding on ways that positive distractions, such as altered window views, can influence a patient's experience. The findings could lead to enhanced window views as well as future research to better understand the impact of the application of decals.Item Total quality management and parenting styles: a test of the spillover model(Texas Tech University, 1997-12) Chisholm, Karrie A.Work and family are two of the primary components of adult life. The relationship among dimensions of work and family life are of increasing importance as more families are confronted with demands from both environments. As of 1993, 50% of all families in the U.S. were being maintained by two or more workers (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996), with the proportion of working families expected to increase. Such statistics indicate that the importance of examining work/family relationships is greater than ever before. Although researchers have examined work and family issues for several decades, much of the research focused on these domains independently. Research on work examined the relationship between job characteristics and worker outcomes. For example, Gecas and Seff (1989) found that complexity of work was positively related to self-evaluations. Other dimensions of the work environment, such as supervisors' consideration behaviors, task variety, and job stmcture, are positively related to work quality and satisfaction (Martin & Hanson, 1985; Gilmore, Beehr, & Richter, 1979). In tum, work characteristics such as routinization, low autonomy, close supervision, and low demand for complex work, were inversely related to self-esteem, personal control, and intellectual flexibility (Gecas & Seff, 1989; Mortimer & Borman, 1988; Kohn & Schooler, 1973).Item Voices of parents in poverty : what do low-income parents need to support their young children?(2015-08) McManus, Molly Ellen; Suizzo, Marie-Anne; Schallert, DianeThis paper examines the needs of low-income parents in supporting the development, education, and well-being of their young children using a collective case study design informed by multivocal ethnography. Findings were obtained from a collective case study by analyzing qualitative interview data from fourteen participants including three mothers, three teachers, three administrators, two district leaders, and three policymakers. The overall findings suggest that preschool administrators were the most aligned in their understanding of low-income parents' needs as expressed by parents, whereas teachers, district leaders, and policymakers were much less aligned with parents' perceptions. Furthermore, the needs identified by low-income parents fell into the basic needs categories of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, whereas needs identified by individuals in positions of power fell into the growth needs category. Finally, individuals in positions of power all identified needs such as training, classes, or workshops that emphasized knowledge transfer from an expert to low-income parents.