The quality of the mother-child relationship during collaborative problem solving /

The quality of the mother-child relationship was examined in relation to joint planning, maternal teaching strategies, maternal emotional support, mutual positive affect and attachment security. Fifty-five grade five children and their mothers participated in a laboratory session comprised of various activities and completed questionnaires to evaluate attachment security. Joint planning and social problem solving were assessed observationally during an origami task. Problem solving effectiveness was unrelated to maternal teaching strategies, maternal encouragement and mutual positive affect. A marginally significant relationship was found between maternal encouragement and active child participation. Attachment security was found to be significantly related to sharing of responsibility during local planning, but only for child autonomous performance. An examination of conditional probabilities revealed that mutual positive affect did not increase the likelihood of subsequent mother-child dyadic regulation. However, mutual positive affect was found to be significantly related to both active child participation and dyadic regulation. The hypothesis predicting a mediational model was not supported. The implications of these findings in the theoretical and empirical literature were considered and suggestions for future research were made.

Exploring the Family Context Among Children Adopted From China: Perceptions of Pre-Adoption Factors, Post-Adoption Experiences, and the Quality of Parent-Child Relationships

Within the context of international adoption, previous research has focused on parentchild attachment relationships and various aspects of the adoption process. However, less is known about other aspects of parent-child relationships (e.g., cohesion, conflict) within internationally adoptive families. Additionally, there is a need for research that explores both parent and child perceptions of the process of adoption - including pre- and post-adoptive factors - and its connection to the quality of parent-child relationships. This research utilized a qualitatively-oriented methodology to conduct separate, in-depth interviews with 10 adoptive Canadian mothers and their adopted Chinese children (aged 9 to 11 years). Results highlight parent and child reports of mainly strong, positive relationships. Several pre-adoption experiences are examined, including institutionalization, age at the time of adoption, and parental stress/expectations. A key finding concerns the link that adoptive parents perceive between the quality of their child's pre-adoptive care (i.e., mainly early institutionalized care) and the quality of their relationship. Interestingly, this link is perceived in two different ways - either as a challenge for the parent-child relationship or as a means to strengthen it. Post-adoption experiences are also explored, including cultural socialization, creating a transracial family, discussing adoption, parental stress, and sibling involvement. A key finding involves parent and child reports that cultural socialization efforts (i.e., familiarizing children with Chinese culture) are linked to more positive parent-child relationships. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to theory and practice within the context of international adoption.

Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? Children's influence on mothers' beliefs, values, and social/cultural practices.

Obtaining mothers' perspectives and descriptions of incidents in which their child(ren) said or did something that influenced the mothers' values, beliefs, and/or social or cultural practices, that is, the content of socialization, was the primary aim of this research. Bakhtin's (2004) metatheoretical account of dialogism was used to frame this study. From a dialogic perspective utterances (for example, the utterances of children in the present study) are events or acts and are presented as one way to view the process of socialization. In part this purpose, and the decision to utilize a qualitative research orientation, was to address a call (Lollis & Kuczynski, 1997) for qualitative or microanalytic analyses to help elucidate the processes of socialization. Mothers (N=10) in this study were able to provide descriptions of incidents in which their child(ren) said or did something that influenced the mother and hence we have some description of the concept of bidirectionality, a well accepted, but undertheorized concept in developmental psychology. While the concepts of multiple sources of influence and contexts are salient areas of research in parent-child socialization, and were mentioned in the informants reporting these areas did not appear to be as salient in the mothers' accounts. Emotions and the meaning mothers 'derived' from the interactions did, however, take much more prominence in the described incidents.

Corporal punishment : understanding the debate in Canada

There has been considerable debate over whether corporal punishment against children should be prohibited in Canada. Various organizations, most notably the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law, have argued that the Canadian Government should ban the use of corporal punishment by repealing the specific section of the Canadian Criminal Code that provides parents with a legal defence to use corporal punishment against their children; this provision is outlined in Section 43 of the Criminal Code. Recently, the Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law challenged the constitutionality of Section 43 before the Supreme Court of Canada. The organization claimed Section 43 is unconstitutional. It violates children's Charter rights, such as the right to security of a person (Section 7), the right to be protected from cruel and unusual treatment (Section 12), and denies children the same protection adults receive under the law. Both the Canadian government and the Supreme Court of Canada reject the Foundation's arguments. Examining the federal government and the judicial system's rationale for refusing to remove Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code discloses how the parent-child relationship is perceived. This thesis examines how the parent-child relationship is perceived by the Canadian government and the issues that arise from such a view. This examination is essential for the comprehension of why Canada's corporal punishment law was enacted and remains in effect today.

Global migration : patriarchy, propoganda and the well- being of women and children

This critical analysis explores the conflicted position of women as ''trailing spouses" and the effects on families who relocate globally under the auspices of a multinational corporation, by utilizing a discursive analysis of two contemporary films and available literature. Current portrayals of women and children in contemporary media provide emotional yet conflicting images of the perfect woman, wife, mother, child and family. The basic tenets of a North American patriarchal economic system are being televised around the world. Technological advancements have made it possible to advertise political agendas on a global television screen. Much of what we see is propaganda couched in films and advertisements that are designed to romantic~e the practice of deriving profits from the unpaid labor of woman and invisibility of children and child rearing. I intend to show that the materiality of trailing a spouse globally conflicts with these romanticized images and supports feminist literature that asserts the notion that mothers and children are oppressed and managed for the benefit of capital.

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Emotional Responding to Dyadic Discussions of a Disagreement as Predictors of Helping Related Subjective Well-Being in Older Mothers and Their Adult Daughters

The current study considered affect-related variables as predictors of the quality of helping relationships between older mothers and their adult daughters. Specifically, self-reported and observed emotional responses to the dyadic discussion of a disagreement between mothers and daughters, as well as baseline measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia were considered as predictors of mothers' and daughters' satisfaction with their helping relationships. Relationship satisfaction was measured by considering mothers' and daughters' subjective well-being specifically in regards to the help they gave and received. Overall, these variables predicted more variance in mothers' satisfaction with their helping relationships than daughters', and RSA (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) was a stronger predictor than the self-reported or observed emotional reactions to the dyadic discussion of a disagreement. Implications of these findings and limitations to the current study are discussed.

Acknowledging mother's lived experience of raising a child with Autism : a phenomenological inquiry

Autism is one of those human ambiguities that forces vigilant open-mindednesssometimes this open-mindedness comes without choice, for example when you become the mother of a child with autism. Recent reports indicate that Pervasive Developmental Disorders affect 1 in 150 children (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007). This also means that there are many families caring for children with autism. The purpose of this research was to explore the day to day lived experiences of mothers caring for a child with autism. With a drastic increase in children diagnosed with autism, and very little research on mothers themselves, assisting in articulating lived experiences from mothers themselves seemed like an acceptable first step. Mothers were asked to journal for a period of one month, once a week, as well as participate in a focus group. Findings from both of these techniques were analyzed using underpinnings from Amelio Giorgi and Max van Manen. General findings indicate that mothers present poignant narratives about living with their child. It becomes clear that mothers are stressed, and live a complicated and often contradictory existence. Many days are fraught with struggle, anticipation, watchful eyes, judgment and guilt. There is a constant battle waging; the one within themselves, and the one with an uninformed and uncooperative public. Given that this research contributes to an extremely small body of qualitative research on mothers, future research should continue to gain insight from mothers, without classifying or categorizing their words. Their words speak volumes. Professionals may know autism, but mothers know their children.

Childlessness in a child-centered environment : the experiences of voluntarily childless female teachers /

In the literature on voluntary childlessness there is a lack of research on the types of occupations held by women who choose not to mother and how their fertility choice influences their occupational experiences. At the same time, the experience ofwomen with regard to the childfree choice has not been adequately addressed in contemporary feminist literature. In the field of education, much has been written about the association between mothering and teaching. Thus, childfree teachers become particularly interesting since they made seemingly paradoxical choices in that they chose not to bear and rear children yet they chose an occupation in which they are surrounded by and responsible for the daily care of many children. To gain an understanding of the work-related experiences of childfree women, in-depth interviews were conducted with 7 voluntarily childless female elementary school teachers from Southern Ontario. In addition, a focus group interview in which 3 of the 7 childfree teachers participated was conducted. Findings revealed that these women's "choice" to be childless was the result of complex circumstances and multiple motivations. Also, despite their decision to forgo the traditional female role of mother, these women held surprisingly conventional beliefs with regard to family and gender roles. In addition, these childfree women at times identified themselves as mother-like when teaching, yet at other times distanced themselves as teachers from mothers. Finally, results showed that these women experienced both direct and indirect pronatalist pressures outside as well as inside the workplace as a result of their childfree status.

Parental goals among Italian-Canadian and Anglo-Canadian families : their connection to socialization practices and the quality of parent-young adult relationship /

Parenting goals are the behavioral, cognitive, and affective outcomes that parents implicitly or explicitly strive to achieve during specific interactions with their children. In the present study, intergenerational parenting practices and goals in Italian-Canadian and Anglo-Canadian families were examined. The association between parenting goals, parents' socialization practices, and the quality of relationship between parent and child were investigated. Participants included individuals ranging in age from 1 8-26 years and their mothers from Anglo-Canadian (n= 31) and Italian-Canadian families (n= 50). The young adults and their mothers were asked to imagine how their respective parents would have reacted to five hypothetical vignettes depicting difficult parent-child interactions. Young adults and their mothers were also asked to rate the importance of parenting goals within these parent-child situations. In addition, young adults assessed the perceived quality of their present relationships with each parent. Cultural differences were revealed such that Italian-Canadian parents endorsed more authoritarian parenting strategies and relationship-centered goals than Anglo-Canadian parents. However, Italian-Canadian and Anglo-Canadian parents were not found to differ on their endorsement of parent-centered goals. Italian-Canadian parents' who did use authoritarian strategies were found to have young-adult children who perceived their relationship with their parents as less satisfying, intimate, affectionate and having relatively high levels of conflict than parents who did not use authoritarian strategies. Anglo-Canadian parents' authoritative strategies were correlated with a better perceived relationship quality by young-adult children.

A social-cognitive model of monitoring and its relationship to behaviour in a naturalistic observation : development and individual differences

years 8 months) and 24 older (M == 7 years 4 months) children. A Monitoring Process Model (MPM) was developed and tested in order to ascertain at which component process ofthe MPM age differences would emerge. The MPM had four components: (1) assessment; (2) evaluation; (3) planning; and (4) behavioural control. The MPM was assessed directly using a referential communication task in which the children were asked to make a series of five Lego buildings (a baseline condition and one building for each MPM component). Children listened to instructions from one experimenter while a second experimenter in the room (a confederate) intetjected varying levels ofverbal feedback in order to assist the children and control the component ofthe MPM. This design allowed us to determine at which "stage" ofprocessing children would most likely have difficulty monitoring themselves in this social-cognitive task. Developmental differences were obselVed for the evaluation, planning and behavioural control components suggesting that older children were able to be more successful with the more explicit metacomponents. Interestingly, however, there was no age difference in terms ofLego task success in the baseline condition suggesting that without the intelVention ofthe confederate younger children monitored the task about as well as older children. This pattern ofresults indicates that the younger children were disrupted by the feedback rather than helped. On the other hand, the older children were able to incorporate the feedback offered by the confederate into a plan ofaction. Another aim ofthis study was to assess similar processing components to those investigated by the MPM Lego task in a more naturalistic observation. Together the use ofthe Lego Task ( a social cognitive task) and the naturalistic social interaction allowed for the appraisal of cross-domain continuities and discontinuities in monitoring behaviours. In this vein, analyses were undertaken in order to ascertain whether or not successful performance in the MPM Lego Task would predict cross-domain competence in the more naturalistic social interchange. Indeed, success in the two latter components ofthe MPM (planning and behavioural control) was related to overall competence in the naturalistic task. However, this cross-domain prediction was not evident for all levels ofthe naturalistic interchange suggesting that the nature ofthe feedback a child receives is an important determinant ofresponse competency. Individual difference measures reflecting the children's general cognitive capacity (Working Memory and Digit Span) and verbal ability (vocabulary) were also taken in an effort to account for more variance in the prediction oftask success. However, these individual difference measures did not serve to enhance the prediction oftask performance in either the Lego Task or the naturalistic task. Similarly, parental responses to questionnaires pertaining to their child's temperament and social experience also failed to increase prediction oftask performance. On-line measures ofthe children's engagement, positive affect and anxiety also failed to predict competence ratings.

A Foucaultian analysis of power relations in child protection case work with youth and families

This thesis takes some steps in examining the child protection system from a position that is rarely discussed. Specifically, I explore how Foucault's concept of disciplinary power can be used to demonstrate how power operates within the client/worker relationship. This relationship is shown to be quite complex with power flowing bidirectionally, rather than hierarchically. Instead of viewing power imbalances as a function of state control, I show how the client/worker relationship is constituted by the worker, the client, the organization and the social body. A postmodern auto ethnography is used to document my journey as I expose the disciplinary practices and instruments that I was subject to and used with my clients. 2 Given that the child protection system is constantly shifting and changing in order to improve its ability to safeguard children a greater emphasis is required to examine how workers operate within this complex, overwhelming and multi-dimensional world. This thesis has shown that by engaging in a reflexive examination of my position of power different approaches to making intervention beneficial to all involved become available. This is important if child protection work aims to work with clients rather than on clients.

Examining the potential application of childhood stature in assessing adolescent overweight and obesity

Background: Increasing Overweight and Obesity (OwOb) prevalence in pediatric populations is becoming a public health concern in many countries. The purpose of this study was to determine if childhood stature components, particularly the Leg Length Index (LLI = [height - sitting height]! height), were useful in assessing risk of OwOb in adolescence. Methods: Data was from a longitudinal study conducted in south Ontario since 2004. Approximately 2360 students had body composition measurements including sitting height and standing height at baseline. Among them, 1167 children (573 girls, 594 boys) who had weight and height measured at the 5 th year follow-up, were included in this analysis. OwOb was defined using age and sex specific BMI (kg!m 2 ) cut-off points corresponding to adults' BMI ~ 25. Results: Overall, 34% (n=298) of adolescents were considered as OwOb. The results from logistic regression analysis indicated that with 1 unit increase in LLI the odds of OwOb decreased 24% (Odds Ratio, [95% Confidence Interval], 0.76, [0.66-0.87]) after adjusted for age, sex and baseline waist circumference. Further adjusting for birth weight, birth order, breastfeeding, child's physical activity, maternal smoking, education, mother's age at birth and mother's BMI, did not change the relationship. Our results also indicated that mother's smoking status is associated with LLI. Discussion: Although LLI measured at childhood in this study is related to OwOb risk in adolescents, the underlying mechanism is unclear and further study is needed.

Turning points : meaning-making and its association with psychological well-being, academic achievement and parental relationship quality among adolescents

There is substantial research linking meaning-making ability and psychological well-being in the context of turning point events. Still, an important research question remains: whether individuals who report meaning-making and psychological well-being were already better adjusted psychologically, prior to the experience of their turning point. In addition, the role of meaning-making on academic achievement and parental relationship quality has received little empirical attention although both variables have been shown to be positively associated with positive adjustment among adolescents. This longitudinal study examined differences in psychological well-being, academic achievement, and parental relationship quality between adolescents who reported meaning-making (lessons or insights) and those who reported no meaning-making within their turning point narratives. Participants were 803 (52% female) grade 12 adolescents, 26% (N = 209) of whom had reported experiencing a turning point. Participants also completed measures on the outcome variables (psychological well-being, academic achievement, and parental relationship quality) 3 years prior, when they were in grade 9. MANOVA results indicated that, of the participants who experienced a turning point, adolescents who reported meaning-making reported significantly higher psychological wellbeing and more positive parental relationship quality than adolescents who reported no meaningmaking. Importantly, these two groups did not differ on the outcome variables prior to their experience of a turning point event when they were in grade 9. Academic achievement scores did not differ significantly between adolescents who reported meaning-making and those who reported no meaning-making. These findings highlight the importance of meaning-making in relation to positive adjustment subsequent to a turning point among adolescents.

The relationship between working alliance and treatment outcomes in remedial instruction for older dyslexic children

Research in psychotherapy has demonstrated that a positive working alliance between therapist and client leads to positive treatment outcomes. Though its focus is in the area of psychotherapy, the concept of working alliance holds significant value to the area of education. Current applications of the theory in educational settings have looked at relationships between teacher and students in the broad context of classroom interaction and found significant promise. The present study investigates the application of the theory of working alliance in a sample of older reading disabled children. The study examined the psychometric properties of the Reading Alliance Scale for Children (RASC) and for Teachers (RAST) in relation to student reading ability and motivation. A sample of 254 (66.1 % male, 33.9% female) grade 6-8 students (mean age 12.7 years) were enrolled in a remedial reading program for reading disabled children. The average standard score across multiple reading measures was more than 1 SD below age-level expectations. Students responded to measures of reading achievement and motivation at pretest, after 70 hours (post 70) of remediation and at the end of the program (post 125). All participants completed measures on the working alliance relationship at post 70 and post 125. Results showed that teacher reports were most predictive of outcome compared to student reports of the working alliance relationship. Working alliance was correlated with posttest reading ability and motivation. Male students and Black students obtained the weakest working alliance reports from their teacher. Overall, findings support the view that students' relationships with teachers provide an important component of success in the classroom.

The lived experience of mothering a child with autism: a hermeneutic phenomenological understanding

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a complex developmental disorder with increasing prevalence. Despite the significant role of mothers, often seen as primary caregivers, there is limited understanding of this experience. The purpose of this study was to explore the everyday experience of mothers with children with autism. Accounts of lived experience were collected through research conversations with six mothers and analyzed using van Manen’s (1990) orientation to hermeneutic phenomenology. The main themes include: It Can’t Be Autism, The Womb is Extended, The Locus of Other, and The Womb is Now and is Forever. The findings suggest that mothers experienced a transformation from mother to mother with a child with autism; one that mirrors the transformation from woman to mother (Bergum, 1989). In this transformation, mothers move from suspicion of the potential diagnosis to acceptance that they are mothers with children whose needs define them and potentially, mothers whose wombs are forever extended.