Throughout the United States, approximately 2.7 million grandparents are the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) created a standard of practice and established policies to equip social workers to support grandparent caregivers. However, grandparents caring for children with autism spectrum…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of parents and educators after the implementation of an immigrant parent program in an urban middle school that lacked parental involvement support. This qualitative study used multiple data collection methods to triangulate the data. Study participants provided their contributions through…

Blind and low vision youth represent a diverse, low incidence disability student population in United States public schools. This qualitative study investigated the perspectives of four Black mothers and grandmothers, each primary caregivers of blind/low vision (BLV) children, related to their experiences with navigating the education system and…

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of parental participation through the lens of administrators who serve and parents/grandparents who have children enrolled in a low-performing elementary school. Through this understanding of the different perspectives, supports were identified that could lead to increased parental…

The study utilizes a case study approach to explore how a non-linguistically diverse suburban school district communicates and engages with multilingual families' and the families' experiences and perceptions of the district's efforts. The study is grounded in Critical Race Theory including the use of counterstories and composite narratives, and…

Raising young children in Botswana was traditionally a communal effort shared by the child's parents and the extended family members in a kinship system. However, the economic and social transformations that are taking place in Botswana have altered the traditional child upbringing to involve paid caregivers unrelated to the children or their…

Caring for a family member with intellectual developmental disability (IDD) often results in many negative impacts, such as higher levels of stress and depression, physical and/or mental issues, lower level of support, lower financial capacity, as well as less positive or more pessimistic views of their child's future, and an overall lower level…

There has been a steady increase in the United States in recent decades of grandparents raising their grandchildren. The aim of this study was to determine if depression levels of grandparents raising their grandchildren and depression levels of traditional grandparents differ. Additionally, the extent of the relationship to depression scores by…

By what means do mothers' developmental histories potentially influence their sense of maternal self-efficacy? This qualitative dissertation examines the perspectives and experiences of sixteen Japanese mothers concerning relationships with her children, her husband and her parents. Analyses in this study are based on interview transcripts and…

Urban development, the pinnacle of human land use, has drastic effects on native ecosystems and the species they contain. For the first time in recorded history there are more people living in cities than in the rural areas surrounding them. Furthermore, the global rate of urbanization continues increasing; raising serious concerns for earth's…

This study examined the relationship among grandparent support, family functioning, and parental stress on families with children with and without disabilities between the ages of 2 and 12 years. Families are viewed as an ever-changing complex system with reciprocal interactions. One possible stressor on the family system is the birth of a child…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the definition of student success as defined by the Navajo people. The data collection method used was the focus group. The data were collected from two geographical settings from two public schools located within the boundaries of the Navajo Indian Reservation. The focus group participants…

The purpose of this study was to explore the following research question: "What is the experience of Korean immigrant grandmothers in their relationships with their adolescent, U.S. born grandchildren?" In the United States, the situation of Korean immigrant grandparents is complicated because they live in two cultures. Immigrant…

This dissertation focuses on the educational aspirations and expectations of a heterogeneous group of women who were enrolled in, or had graduated from, adult education and literacy programs in Boston, Massachusetts. The research questions guiding the inquiry are: (1) Why do educationally disadvantaged women value education--how are these values…

The use of literacy during non-school hours of three African-American families was examined. This study used a qualitative research design to probe the meanings and value of literacy in the homes of three African-American families during nonschool hours, including before school, after school, weekends, holidays, and summer breaks. The structure…