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Children and the threat of nuclear war
Title
Children and the threat of nuclear war.
Creator
Escalona, Sibylle Korsch, Child Study Association of America
Date Issued
1962
Identifier
369650, CFDT369650, ucf:5463
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/FCLA/DT/369650
ADOLESCENT MOTHERS' IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE THEIR CHILDREN'S EARLY LANGUAGE AND EMERGENT LITERACY SKILLS
Title
ADOLESCENT MOTHERS' IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE THEIR CHILDREN'S EARLY LANGUAGE AND EMERGENT LITERACY SKILLS.
Creator
Canty, Meredith C, Towson, Jacqueline, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Previous studies have examined how the language skills of children with adolescent mothers differs from children of older mothers. However, there is limited information on what specific strategies adolescent mothers utilize to increase early language and emergent literacy skills in their children. The aim of the present study is to examine adolescent mothers' use of strategies to increase the early language and emergent literacy skills of their young children. A sample of 14 adolescent...
Show morePrevious studies have examined how the language skills of children with adolescent mothers differs from children of older mothers. However, there is limited information on what specific strategies adolescent mothers utilize to increase early language and emergent literacy skills in their children. The aim of the present study is to examine adolescent mothers' use of strategies to increase the early language and emergent literacy skills of their young children. A sample of 14 adolescent mothers enrolled in a teen parenting program were surveyed on their use of common strategies that are shown to facilitate early development of language and literacy skills in young children, and they provided a self-report of their child's language development using a norm-referenced tool. A researcher developed questionnaire was used to determine the frequency of strategies used by the adolescent mothers. The MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories were used to gather child language development data to compare with the frequency of strategy usage. The measures were analyzed with ANOVAs, Pearson Correlations and Spearman's rank-order correlations to determine the significance and relationship between variables. Adolescent mothers were found to generally score low on the Self-Assessment of Language and Literacy Implementation (SALLI), with deficits specifically in the areas of Directiveness and Home Environment. The CDIs showed that the children were reported to have below average language development, and their scores were significantly related to aspects of the adolescent mother's reported implementation.
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Date Issued
2016
Identifier
CFH0000234, ucf:44677
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0000234
A NEW MEASURE OF PARENTAL SELF-EFFICACY FOR ENACTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES IN THEIR CHILDREN
Title
A NEW MEASURE OF PARENTAL SELF-EFFICACY FOR ENACTING HEALTHY LIFESTYLES IN THEIR CHILDREN.
Creator
Decker, Jonathan, Dennis, Karen, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The issue of childhood obesity has become a pandemic of increasing prevalence and concern. Many behaviors contributing to overweight and obesity, such as dietary intake and physical activity, are learned in childhood. It is known that parents are key agents for change in their children. Therefore, interventions aimed at decreasing childhood overweight and obesity should be targeted at parents. Many parents state that they know the healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors they should...
Show moreThe issue of childhood obesity has become a pandemic of increasing prevalence and concern. Many behaviors contributing to overweight and obesity, such as dietary intake and physical activity, are learned in childhood. It is known that parents are key agents for change in their children. Therefore, interventions aimed at decreasing childhood overweight and obesity should be targeted at parents. Many parents state that they know the healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors they should adopt for their children, but lack the confidence, or self-efficacy, to enact these behaviors. A review of the literature for self-efficacy for behaviors in these domains in parents, adults and children uncovered many key elements involved. A search for an instrument to measure parental self-efficacy was unsuccessful in locating such an instrument, so several instruments in related domains were analyzed for content and utility for the generation of a new questionnaire. A 34-item questionnaire to measure parental self-efficacy for enacting healthy dietary and physical activity behaviors in their children 6-11 years old was developed and tested with a sample of 146 parents of children 6-11 years old, who could read and write English and had access to a computer with the internet. Internal reliability of the total scale was 0.94 and the two factors, dietary behaviors (DB) and physical activity behaviors (PAB) were 0.93 and 0.94, respectively. Test-retest reliability was also significant (p<0.05) for individual item responses and total and subscale scores in 25 participants after 5-10 days. Factor analysis resulted in two interpretable factors (DB and PAB) which accounted for 25.3% and 16.8% of the variance, respectively. All items correlated more strongly with items on their respective subscales. Concurrent validity with theoretically similar scales was also demonstrated. This new measure was reliable and valid in this sample of parents of children 6-11 years old. Future use and further evaluation of this new measure is warranted.
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Date Issued
2010
Identifier
CFE0002983, ucf:47942
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002983
ADOLESCENT MOTHERS IN AN INTERVENTION STUDY: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF VARIABLES RELATING TO THEIR TEACHING INTERACTIONS WITH THEIR INFANTS
Title
ADOLESCENT MOTHERS IN AN INTERVENTION STUDY: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF VARIABLES RELATING TO THEIR TEACHING INTERACTIONS WITH THEIR INFANTS.
Creator
Guzman, Janisse, Culp, Anne, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
The intent of this thesis was to study, in depth, the experiences of four adolescent mothers who underwent a home intervention program. I studied two mothers who did well with teaching their 12-month old children during play, and two mothers who did not do as well. All four mothers received weekly intervention from the time of their child's birth through 12-months of age. I studied the following variables: 1) how much time the home visitors spent on selected child development and parenting...
Show moreThe intent of this thesis was to study, in depth, the experiences of four adolescent mothers who underwent a home intervention program. I studied two mothers who did well with teaching their 12-month old children during play, and two mothers who did not do as well. All four mothers received weekly intervention from the time of their child's birth through 12-months of age. I studied the following variables: 1) how much time the home visitors spent on selected child development and parenting topics; 2) the mother's perceived social support; 3) how many community resources the mother used; and 4) if the infant was healthy and within normal developmental range. All of the mothers struggled in their lives, yet varied in the quality and time of most of the variables. It was striking how different each one was from the other. The implications of the study are important for child development specialists who can use the qualitative data within this document to better understand first time adolescent mothers in order to improve the outcomes of the home visitation services that they provide to mothers and infants. After spending time studying these four adolescent mothers, I would recommend that adolescent women not get pregnant. Adolescence is a time that is meant for experiences and self-discovery and should be spent free from a dependent child who critically needs them. Future research and funding should be spent on preventing adolescent pregnancy and ensuring that flexible curriculum be utilized by the home visitors in order to meet the varying needs of adolescent mothers.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFH0004251, ucf:44934
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004251
The relationship between caregiver intimate partner violence, posttraumatic stress, child cognitive self-development, and treatment attrition among child sexual abuse victims.
Title
The relationship between caregiver intimate partner violence, posttraumatic stress, child cognitive self-development, and treatment attrition among child sexual abuse victims.
Creator
Delorenzi, Leigh, Daire, Andrew, Young, Mark, Lambie, Glenn, Abel, Eileen, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a worldwide problem, with two-thirds of all cases going unreported. A wealth of research over the last 30 years demonstrates the negative emotional, cognitive, physical, spiritual, academic, and social effects of CSA. As a result, researchers and mental health professionals frequently attempt to measure the efficacy of treatment modalities in order to assess which treatments lead to better outcomes. However, in order to effectively study treatment outcomes,...
Show moreChild sexual abuse (CSA) is a worldwide problem, with two-thirds of all cases going unreported. A wealth of research over the last 30 years demonstrates the negative emotional, cognitive, physical, spiritual, academic, and social effects of CSA. As a result, researchers and mental health professionals frequently attempt to measure the efficacy of treatment modalities in order to assess which treatments lead to better outcomes. However, in order to effectively study treatment outcomes, researchers must be able to track the status of child functioning and symptomology before, during, and after treatment. Because high levels of treatment attrition exist among CSA victims, researchers are unable to effectively study outcomes due to large losses in research participants, loss of statistical power, and threats to external validity (Kazdin, 1990). Moreover, due to the high prevalence of concurrent family violence, caregivers with intimate partner violence are more than twice as likely to have children who are also direct victims of abuse (Kazdin, 1996). Caregivers ultimately make the decisions regarding whether or not a child stays in treatment, and therefore, it is important to examine the influence of both parent factors (e.g., intimate partner violence) and child factors (e.g., traumatization and/or disturbances in cognitive self-development) on treatment attrition. This two-pronged approach of examining both child and family characteristics simultaneously with attrition patterns offers a more complete picture for the ways concurrent family violence influences treatment than looking at child and caregiver factors separately.The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between caregiver intimate partner violence, child posttraumatic stress (Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children [TSCC]; Briere, 1996), child cognitive self-development (Trauma and Attachment Belief Scale [TABS]; Pearlman, 2003), and treatment attrition. The statistical analyses in this study included (a) Logistic Regression, (b) Poisson Regression, and (c) Chi-square Test for Independence. Elevated TSCC subscale scores in posttraumatic stress predicted both an increased number of sessions attended and increased number of sessions missed. Elevated TABS subscale scores in self-trust predicted an increased number of sessions attended and decreased number of sessions missed. Elevated TABS subscale scores of other-intimacy and self-control predicted an increased number of sessions missed. Moreover, the presence of past or current caregiver intimate partner violence predicted a decrease in number of sessions attended. While no relationship existed between child posttraumatic stress or cognitive self-development and whether a child graduated or prematurely terminated from treatment, children with parents who confirmed past or current intimate partner violence were 2.5 times more likely to prematurely terminate from treatment.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004369, ucf:49439
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004369
JUSTICE: THE USE OF FOOD, EDUCATION, AND THE LAW TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Title
JUSTICE: THE USE OF FOOD, EDUCATION, AND THE LAW TO COMBAT HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA.
Creator
Grandchamps, Nicholas, Naccarato-Fromang, Gina, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Human trafficking is an ever-growing crime in this century. It is estimated that there are 29.8 million slaves around the world today�16.36% of which are located in sub-Saharan Africa. The sub-Saharan region is a region in which human trafficking is combatted ineffectively due to a lack of food, lack of access to education, lack of post-education opportunities and lack of proper legislation. This thesis explores the environment in which human trafficking is taking place in sub-Saharan...
Show moreHuman trafficking is an ever-growing crime in this century. It is estimated that there are 29.8 million slaves around the world today�16.36% of which are located in sub-Saharan Africa. The sub-Saharan region is a region in which human trafficking is combatted ineffectively due to a lack of food, lack of access to education, lack of post-education opportunities and lack of proper legislation. This thesis explores the environment in which human trafficking is taking place in sub-Saharan Africa, and proposes potential changes that will theoretically disallow human trafficking to take place in the region. The only way in which an environment conducive to trafficking in persons will ever change is through establishing partnerships amongst governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other international organizations. Through the analysis of case law from the United Nations Human Trafficking Case Law Database, data from the World Bank, the United States State Department Trafficking in Persons Reports, the United Nations Global Reports on Human Trafficking, and various reports from NGOs, this thesis evaluates the approaches taken by various governments in sub-Saharan Africa to change the environment in which human trafficking thrives. Through raising awareness of the environment of sub-Saharan Africa, and by describing three ways in which human trafficking can be combatted effectively, such as the use of food, education, and the law, this thesis contributes not only to the legal discipline, but also to helping combat trafficking in persons effectively throughout the world.
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Date Issued
2014
Identifier
CFH0004584, ucf:45203
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004584
Evaluating Improvisation as a Technique for Training Pre-Service Teachers for Inclusive Classrooms
Title
Evaluating Improvisation as a Technique for Training Pre-Service Teachers for Inclusive Classrooms.
Creator
Becker, Theresa, Hines, Rebecca, Beverly, Monifa, Hopp, Carolyn, Hamed, Kastro, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Improvisation is a construct that uses a set of minimal heuristic guidelines to create a highly flexible scaffold that fosters extemporaneous communication. Scholars from diverse domains: such as psychology, business, negotiation, and education have suggested its use as a method for preparing professionals to manage complexity and think on their feet. A review of the literature revealed that while there is substantial theoretical scholarship on using improvisation in diverse domains, little...
Show moreImprovisation is a construct that uses a set of minimal heuristic guidelines to create a highly flexible scaffold that fosters extemporaneous communication. Scholars from diverse domains: such as psychology, business, negotiation, and education have suggested its use as a method for preparing professionals to manage complexity and think on their feet. A review of the literature revealed that while there is substantial theoretical scholarship on using improvisation in diverse domains, little research has verified these assertions. This dissertation evaluated whether improvisation, a specific type of dramatic technique, was effective for training pre-service teachers in specific characteristics of teacher-child classroom interaction, communication and affective skills development. It measured the strength and direction of any potential changes such training might effect on pre-service teacher's self-efficacy for teaching and for implementing the communication skills common to improvisation and teaching while interacting with student in an inclusive classroom setting. A review of the literature on teacher self-efficacy and improvisation clarified and defined key terms, and illustrated relevant studies. This study utilized a mixed-method research design based on instructional design and development research. Matched pairs t-tests were used to analyze the self-efficacy and training skills survey data and pre-service teacher reflections and interview transcripts were used to triangulate the qualitative data. Results of the t-tests showed a significant difference in participants' self-efficacy for teaching measured before and after the improvisation training. A significant difference in means was also measured in participants' aptitude for improvisation strategies and for self-efficacy for their implementation pre-/post- training. Qualitative results from pre-service teacher class artifacts and interviews showed participants reported beneficial personal outcomes as well as confirmed using skills from the training while interacting with students. Many of the qualitative themes parallel individual question items on the teacher self-efficacy TSES scale as well as the improvisation self-efficacy scale CSAI. The self-reported changes in affective behavior such as increased self-confidence and ability to foster positive interaction with students are illustrative of changes in teacher agency. Self-reports of being able to better understand student perspectives demonstrate a change in participant ability to empathize with students. Participants who worked with both typically developing students as well as with students with disabilities reported utilizing improvisation strategies such as Yes, and..., mirroring emotions and body language, vocal prosody and establishing a narrative relationship to put the students at ease, establish a positive learning environment, encourage student contributions and foster teachable moments. The improvisation strategies showed specific benefit for participants working with nonverbal students or who had commutation difficulties, by providing the pre-service teachers with strategies for using body language, emotional mirroring, vocal prosody and acceptance to foster interaction and communication with the student.Results from this investigation appear to substantiate the benefit of using improvisation training as part of a pre-service teacher methods course for preparing teachers for inclusive elementary classrooms. Replication of the study is encouraged with teachers of differing populations to confirm and extend results.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004516, ucf:49273
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004516