School of Public Health

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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations.

Note: Prior to July 1, 2007, the School of Public Health was named the College of Health & Human Performance.

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Sociology, Individual and Family Studies

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 30
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    Exercising Social Class Privilege: Examining the Practices and Processes Defining Upper-Middle Class Swimming Club Culture
    (2010) DeLuca, Jaime; Andrews, David L; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Cultural theorist Pierre Bourdieu argues that social class is defined by the interplay and operation of various forms of capital and, as such, is thought to be a significant determinant of an individual's everyday experiences, understandings, and identities. He believes that participation in private sport communities, such as swimming clubs, can contribute to one's social standing by positioning "the body-for-others," distinguishing those maintaining a privileged lifestyle, and transferring valuable skills, characteristics, and social connections to children for the purposes of class reproduction (Bourdieu, 1978, p. 838). Drawing on these ideas, this research explores the inter-related social constructs of the physically active swimming body, family, and social class at the Valley View Swim and Tennis Club (a pseudonym), a private recreational swim club in an upper-middle class suburban town on the outskirts of a major mid-Atlantic city. Through four years of ethnographic engagement, including participatory lived experience, observations, and interviews with mothers and children who belong to the pool, this project examines the way in which membership at Valley View plays an integral role in daily and family lives. Invoking Bourdieu (1978, 1984, 1986), I argue that pool participation is illustrative of members taken for granted, lived experience of power and privilege. Valley View operates as a distinctive consumption choice offering families a strategic opportunity to promote, demonstrate, convert, and transmit their varied levels of capital in and through their children, with the goal of expressing distinction now, and reproducing their familial social class position for future generations. Specifically, from the maternal perspective, this research discusses how the pool functions as a physical space for children's acquisition of physical capital and the tools to live a healthy, physically active lifestyle emblematic of social class position; details the way in which pool participation is a constitutive element of the upper-middle class family habitus, and thus offers parents an opportunity to teach their children valuable social and cultural dispositions; examines how Valley View provides children with enriching, intangible experiences characteristic of their class-based privilege; and lastly, explores how club membership is an important feature of these mother's privileged everyday daily lives.
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    The Predictors of Family Cohesion and Conflict in Transracially Adoptive Families
    (2010) Jackson, Dawnyea Dominique; Leslie, Leigh A; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Transracial adoption in the United States has a short, but controversial history. Between 1971 and 2001, U.S. citizens adopted 265, 677 children from other countries. The increased prevalence and controversial history of transracial adoption makes it very important to learn more about the well being of transracially adoptive families. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the extent to which the diversity of the community in which a family lives and the parent's multiethnic experiences are predictors of family cohesion and conflict in transracially adoptive families. This relationship was examined for a sample (N=47) of Asian (n=24) Black (n=12) and Latino (n=11) participants. Results yielded no significant results, except for one interesting finding for the Latino racial/ethnic group. The results indicated that for the Latino racial/ethnic group the higher the parent's multiethnic experiences the lower the level of family cohesion, which was not in the predicted direction. The empirical implications of these findings are discussed.
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    Family Structure and Adolescent Well Being: The Mediating Effects of Family Cohesion and Parental Leadership
    (2010) Messina, Lauren A.; Leslie, Leigh; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Research comparing single-parent households to two-parent households suggests better outcomes for adolescents of two-parent households. Much of this research has narrowly focused on assessing the benefits of family structure. The current study explores the family processes of family cohesion and parental leadership as mediators of child well-being in single and two-parent families. Child well-being is assessed through using adolescent self reports of attachment style. Findings indicate no relationship between the proposed mediators, family structure, and adolescent secure attachment. Family structure did not have an impact on the potential mediating variables so mediation could not be established. The possible meaning of the lack of relationship in this sample is discussed.
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    Psychosocial Dimensions of Fatherhood Readiness in Low-Income Young Men
    (2009) Waters, Damian M; Roy, Kevin; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Researchers have a limited understanding of how men become ready for fatherhood, especially among young, low-income men in the transition to fatherhood. The present study draws a diverse sample (n = 53) enrolled in fatherhood programs in Midwestern cities. Life history interviews were conducted with the participants and grounded theory was employed to identify common themes among the narratives. Four cognitive dimensions of fatherhood readiness were identified by the current investigation: presumptive paternity and acknowledged paternity that one is a father, fatherhood vision, maturity, and men's perceptions of their provisional capacity. These contributed to the construction of narratives that describe fatherhood--trial readiness and decided readiness. Implications for social policies and programming are discussed.
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    MATERNAL EDUCATION, MATERNAL LANGUAGE ACCULTURATION, PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT, AND MATERNAL SOCIAL SUPPORT AS PREDICTORS OF THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ASIAN AMERICAN CHILDREN
    (2009) Wang, Xiaofang; Koblinsky, Sally A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Asian American families are one of the fastest growing groups of the American population. Although multiple studies point to the importance of parents in children's development, there are few empirical studies of the role of mothers and family members in the academic achievement and socioemotional development of Asian American children. Therefore, this study examined the role of maternal education, maternal language acculturation, maternal and family member involvement in home and school activities, and maternal social support in predicting the reading skills, mathematical thinking skills, peer relations, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems of Asian American children. The sample included 311 third grade Asian American children who had biological mothers of Asian heritage and whose families were participants in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K). Mothers were interviewed by telephone or in person, and direct assessments were made of children's academic skills, peer relations, and behavior problems. Secondary data analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, and hierarchical multiple regressions. Findings revealed that higher maternal education predicted better child reading and mathematical skills, poorer peer relations, and fewer internalizing behavior problems. Higher maternal language acculturation predicted poorer child mathematical thinking skills and better peer relations. Greater maternal and family involvement in school activities predicted fewer child internalizing problems. Maternal social support was not a significant predictor of any child outcomes in this group of Asian American children. Implications of the findings for developing interventions aimed at mothers of Asian heritage to enhance their children's academic achievement and socioemotional development are discussed.
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    The Associations of Depression Symptoms, Withdrawal Behaviors, and Withdrawal Cognitions with Intimate Behavior and Pleasure from Partner's Intimate Behaviors Among Clinical Couples
    (2008-05-05) Finkbeiner, Nicole; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study examined the association between withdrawing behaviors, withdrawal cognitions, and depression symptoms and both the degree of the individual's own intimate behavior and his/her pleasure from receiving intimate behavior from a partner. Results indicated that thoughts or cognitions involving the desire to distance oneself from an interaction were significantly related to lower levels of intimate behavior and lower levels of pleasure experienced from a partner's intimate behavior. Further, there was a trend toward support for the notion that individuals with higher levels of depression symptoms engage in lower levels of intimate behavior. For females, the presence of depression symptoms was associated with less pleasure experienced from a partner's intimate behavior. In contrast, avoidant behavior during conflict was not found to be associated with the initiation of intimate relationship behavior and was only associated with the amount of pleasure that females experienced from intimate behavior.
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    The Impact of Couple Therapy for Abusive Behavior on Partners' Negative Attributions about Each Other, Relationship Satisfaction, Communication Behavior, and Psychological Abuse
    (2008-05-05) Hrapczynski, Katie Marie; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Treatments for abusive behavior commonly include cognitive restructuring to modify negative attributions. Little is known about the extent to which interventions modify attributions, and whether cognitive changes are associated with behavioral and relationship satisfaction change. This study investigated the degrees to which cognitive-behavioral couple therapy (CBCT) and a usual treatment (UT) result in therapeutic changes in couples experiencing psychological and/or mild to moderate levels of physical abuse. A sample of community couples seeking assistance for relationship problems at a university-based clinic were randomly assigned to CBCT or UT. Twenty-four couples in CBCT and 26 couples in UT completed 10 weekly 90-minute sessions. This study involved analyses of pre- and post-therapy measures of psychological abuse, relationship satisfaction, communication, and negative attributions. Findings indicated that both conditions decreased psychological abuse and negative attributions, and increased relationship satisfaction. CBCT decreased negative communication. Couples therapy is an effective treatment modality for this specialized population.
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    The Relations Among Maternal Depression, Parenting Behaviors, and Adolescents' Perceptions of Family Functioning: The Moderating Effect of Mothers' Couple Relationship Status
    (2008-05-05) Drescher, Amanda; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study examined relations among maternal depression, parenting behaviors, and adolescents' perceptions of family functioning. It also investigated whether parenting behavior mediated the relation between maternal depression and adolescents' perceptions of family functioning, as well as whether mother's couple relationship status moderated the relation between depression and parenting behavior. Maternal depression was not associated with adolescents' perceptions of family functioning. Maternal depression was associated with authoritarian and permissive parenting but not with authoritative parenting. Authoritarian and permissive parenting was associated with adolescents' perceptions of less positive family functioning, whereas authoritative parenting was associated with perceptions of more positive family functioning. Parenting behavior did not mediate between maternal depression and adolescents' perceptions of family functioning. Overall, mother's couple relationship status did not moderate the relation between maternal depression and parenting behavior; but there was a trend for the relation between depression and permissive parenting to be stronger when mothers were unpartnered.
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    Gender Differences In Parenting, Adolescent Functioning, and The Relation Between Parenting and Adolescent Functioning In Urban Mainland Chinese Families
    (2008-04-28) Quach, Andrew; Epstein, Norman; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    ABSTRACT Adolescents living in Mainland China generally experience high levels of demands from their parents to perform well in school, and this may negatively impact Chinese adolescents' psychological functioning (Siu & Watkins, 1997). Secondary data from 997 urban Mainland Chinese high school students from four Beijing schools were used to examine relations of parental warmth and parental control with adolescent academic achievement, depression, and anxiety. The present study also examined whether adolescent functioning and associations between parental behaviors and adolescent functioning differed by gender of the parent and child. Independent t-tests, correlations, and multiple regression analyses found no significant gender differences in adolescent academic achievement, depression, and anxiety. Overall, father's and mother's warmth were positively associated with academic achievement and negatively associated with depression and anxiety, whereas parental control was negatively associated with academic achievement and positively associated with depression and anxiety. Paternal and maternal warmth moderated the association between paternal and maternal control and boys' and girls' depression and anxiety. There were minimal gender differences in the associations between parental behaviors and adolescent functioning. Only maternal and paternal pressure had a stronger association with boys' depression than with girls' depression. Results suggest the importance of using warmth in the parent-child dyad, especially regarding academic expectations for boys, and not basing behaviors on preconceived notions of gender roles.
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    Maternal mental health, education, acculturation, and social support as predictors of the parenting of Asian American and Asian immigrant mothers
    (2007-08-06) Ji, Cheng Shuang; Koblinsky, Sally A.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Currently 5% of the American population is of Asian descent, and Asian families are among the fastest growing groups of immigrant families in the United States. However, the family science literature has few studies of the parenting practices of Asian American and Asian immigrant mothers, including factors that may contribute to differences in the way these parents are raising their children. To address this gap, the current study used an ecological/risk and resiliency framework to examine factors that may predict the parenting involvement, parenting practices, and parenting aggravation of mothers from Asian heritage. Specifically, this study examined the role of three potential protective factors--maternal education, acculturation, and social support--and one potential risk factor, maternal depressive symptoms, in predicting mothers' expectations for their children's academic achievement, involvement in children's home and school activities, provision of cognitive stimulation and emotional support, use of harsh discipline, and aggravation in the parenting role. This study employed secondary data analysis using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, Third Grade Database. The sample included 462 mothers of Asian descent who were born in the United States or foreign countries, and who had a third grade child. Mothers were interviewed by telephone or in person. Multiple regression analyses examined the role of maternal depression, education, acculturation, and social support in predicting the seven measures of parenting. Findings revealed that more depressive symptoms were predictive of greater parenting aggravation and lower emotional support for the child. Higher maternal education was linked to higher academic expectations and greater cognitive stimulation of the child, as well greater family involvement in school activities. One measure of acculturation, mother's use of English in the home, was associated with greater school involvement, lower use of harsh discipline, and less parenting aggravation. Finally, social support emerged as one of the strongest predictors of parenting behavior, and was related to more involvement in home and school activities, more cognitive stimulation and emotional support, and less use of harsh discipline. Implications of the findings for fostering positive parenting among mothers of Asian heritage are discussed.