Family Science Review
Scholarships of Teaching and Learning
Heidi E. Stolz, Liliana Vargas, Lisa M. Clifford, Heather A. Gaedt, and Claudia F. Garcia
ABSTRACT: This study evaluates Parent Project®, a parent education program for parents of at-risk adolescents. A logic model was created to highlight the relationship between program theory and measured constructs. Results comparing pre-workshop data with Week 10 data suggested significant increases in parent-reported parental support, parental behavioral control, and youth achievement, and significant decreases in youth antisocial behavior. Youth reported significant increases in maternal and paternal support and maternal behavioral control and significant decreases in antisocial behaviors.
Debra L. Berke. Erin F. Boyd-Soisson, Ashlin N. Voorhees, and Elizabeth W. Reininga
ABSTRACT: Service-learning has been used in a variety of educational settings and is a valued aspect of education. Advocacy as service-learning, on the other hand, is not as widely known or utilized. Advocacy is “the pursuit of influencing outcomes—including public-policy and resource-allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions—that directly affect people’s lives” (Cohen, de la Vega, & Watson, 2001, p. 8). Thus, when doing advocacy, individuals engage in “a deliberate process of speaking out on issues of concern in order to exert some influence on behalf of ideas or persons” (Rengasamy, 2009, p. 1). This paper bridges the gap that exists between advocacy and service-learning, and, through a case study of a family policy class using an advocacy as service-learning assignment, explains the advantages of integrating them. The results indicate that, when combined, the two work simultaneously to give students a beneficial and positive learning experience.
Deborah C. Bailey
ABSTRACT: The process of teaching students in family studies courses presents unique challenges. With a conceptual framework that utilized a self narrative process of collecting and analyzing student engagement during a family management theory course, I was able to construct particularizing questions to explore problematic experiences with teaching. Insights into student needs were documented using research found in a scholarly search of literature that later became the basis of critical reflection of personally held beliefs. Insights from research on characteristics of millennial students, meta programme, and Baumrind’s parenting styles are presented.
Kimberly Greder, Jennifer A. Diers, and Melissa P. Schnurr
ABSTRACT: A program evaluation of the Partnering with Parents training program instructed in the traditional (face-to-face) classroom setting and online was conducted. There was a statistically significant increase in all participants’ (n =146) ratings of their parenting education competencies (i.e., knowledge and skills) from before to after the training. Those who participated in the online training rated their competencies before the training higher than those who participated in the traditional setting; however, they also rated their competencies after the training modestly lower than those who participated in the traditional setting. Qualitative analysis revealed that regardless of program delivery format, participants reported a paradigm shift in how they viewed themselves as parenting educators, as well as broadened their understanding of parenting education. Participants reported the following aspects of the program that helped to make it effective: a quality curriculum; formation of a learning community; instructor content knowledge, approachability and professionalism; and flexibility in training design (i.e., a variety of learning tools, options to attend other sites, and asynchronous online learning activities).
Research Articles
Kevin H. Gross, Linda Robinson, and Sharon M. Ballard
ABSTRACT: Maternal depression has been linked to a variety of negative developmental outcomes for children. Using data from Waves I and III of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study used a three generational model (child, mother, grandmother) to examine maternal depression as it relates to the quality of the mother- daughter relationship and children’s behaviors. The study found that young women were more likely to report feeling depressed both prior to and following childbirth when they perceived problems in relating with their own mothers. Behavior problems were more prevalent for children who had mothers with more depressive symptoms.
