Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian parents'

In contemporary Australian workplaces there now exists many employed parents who are endeavouring to balance participation between the two central life domains of work and family. For parents living in dual-earner families, simultaneously occupying work and family roles can be difficult and has been associated with outcomes such as physical and psychological health problems and organisational behaviour deficits. In contrast, parents satisfied with their combination of work and family roles have shown positive organisational attitudes and increased psychological health. The purpose of this research was to investigate the work and family role accumulation experiences of parents living in dual-earner couple relationships, and to explore the strategies and processes used by these parents to combine their work and family roles. This research was conducted using a two-phase cross-sectional methodology, incorporating qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. In the first instance, 32 mothers and fathers from intact dual-earner couples employed in lower-level or blue-collar jobs were interviewed at length regarding their work and family role accumulation experiences. The perceptions offered by these parents illustrated the difficulties and tensions they encountered in combining their roles as well as the rewards and benefits they associated with their lifestyle choice. In finding that dual-earner parents perceived both conflict and enhancement to be associated with work and family role accumulation, these results appeared to be paradoxically explained by the two competing theories of role occupancy, the role scarcity (Goode, 1960) and role expansion hypotheses (Sieber, 1974). However, further scrutiny of the data revealed that the role scarcity and role expansion hypotheses alone were not sufficient for explaining the choices that parents made about how they distributed their time and commitment between their dual-domain responsibilities. The parents' interviews contained numerous descriptions of behaviours and thoughts that represented female care provision and male income provision. Accordingly, it was interpreted that the linkages that these dual-earner parents made between their work and family roles were entrenched within traditional gender role identities and values. This signified that these parents either valued and identified with traditional gender parental roles, or were at least willing to recognise and conform to customary gender parental role behaviour, adjusting their participation and commitment to each primary life domain accordingly. The implication of this finding was that role identity value and commitment was an underlying concept linking the conflict and enhancement outcomes. Drawing upon this grounded theoretical direction, a quantitative questionnaire was distributed to parents employed in a range of occupations. The responses from 286 dual-earner parents to measures of work and parental role identity, and their perception of work and family role occupancy demands (time and stressors), were cluster analysed. The analysis recovered a stable three-cluster typology, suggesting that dual-earner parents are not a homogeneous category of people and that different groups of parents construct their occupancy of work and family roles in substantially different ways. The parents clustered into the first group (compromisers) appeared to have reached a somewhat compromised balance between their dominant parental role identity and the demands associated with their occupation of work and family roles, reporting a moderate amount of work/family conflict and enhancement. In contrast, the parents in the second cluster group (jugglers) were described as finding it difficult to adequately balance high work and family demands and a dominant work role identity, reporting high conflict and low enhancement outcomes. The parents in the third cluster group (accommodators) were described as having achieved an accommodated balance between the meaning they derived from their work and family roles and the demands of their work and family roles, reporting significantly stronger levels of work/family enhancement and lower levels of work/family conflict in comparison with the parents in the other two groups. Further analysis of the similarities and differences between the parents in the three cluster groups revealed that significant differences occurred by group on the dependent variable systems of family environment, work and family affect, workplace and personal resources, and work and family social support. The parents clustered into the compromisers and accommodators groups, who appeared to have reached congruency between their salient role identity and role occupancy demands, demonstrated significantly stronger levels of family cohesion, higher levels of family and childcare satisfaction, and lower rates of emotional exhaustion in comparison with the parents in the jugglers group. These parents also reported access to a larger social support network, the perception of greater levels of social support, and were more satisfied with their social support network in comparison with the parents in the jugglers group. It is suggested that these findings offer support for the proposition by Kofodimos (1993) that employed parents can achieve a balanced work/family lifestyle by devoting an appropriate amount of time and energy into their work and family roles to compliment their individual needs and values. In summary, the results of this research suggest that it is fundamental for future conceptual models of 'work and family' to incorporate the measurement of an individual's personal role identity and value as well as the distributional dimension of role accumulation demands. This thesis has thus contributed to the theoretical development of work and family role accumulation research, provided an insight into coping strategies and support processes used by dual-earner parents to balance their dual-domain responsibilities, and extended the demographic and occupational scope of the work and family literature.

In contemporary Australian workplaces there now exists many employed parents who are endeavouring to balance participation between the two central life domains of work and family. For parents living in dual-earner families, simultaneously occupying work and family roles can be difficult and has been associated with outcomes such as physical and psychological health problems and organisational behaviour deficits. In contrast, parents satisfied with their combination of work and family roles have shown positive organisational attitudes and increased psychological health. The purpose of this research was to investigate the work and family role accumulation experiences of parents living in dual-earner couple relationships, and to explore the strategies and processes used by these parents to combine their work and family roles. This research was conducted using a two-phase cross-sectional methodology, incorporating qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. In the first instance, 32 mothers and fathers from intact dual-earner couples employed in lower-level or blue-collar jobs were interviewed at length regarding their work and family role accumulation experiences. The perceptions offered by these parents illustrated the difficulties and tensions they encountered in combining their roles as well as the rewards and benefits they associated with their lifestyle choice. In finding that dual-earner parents perceived both conflict and enhancement to be associated with work and family role accumulation, these results appeared to be paradoxically explained by the two competing theories of role occupancy, the role scarcity (Goode, 1960) and role expansion hypotheses (Sieber, 1974). However, further scrutiny of the data revealed that the role scarcity and role expansion hypotheses alone were not sufficient for explaining the choices that parents made about how they distributed their time and commitment between their dual-domain responsibilities. The parents' interviews contained numerous descriptions of behaviours and thoughts that represented female care provision and male income provision. Accordingly, it was interpreted that the linkages that these dual-earner parents made between their work and family roles were entrenched within traditional gender role identities and values. This signified that these parents either valued and identified with traditional gender parental roles, or were at least willing to recognise and conform to customary gender parental role behaviour, adjusting their participation and commitment to each primary life domain accordingly. The implication of this finding was that role identity value and commitment was an underlying concept linking the conflict and enhancement outcomes. Drawing upon this grounded theoretical direction, a quantitative questionnaire was distributed to parents employed in a range of occupations. The responses from 286 dual-earner parents to measures of work and parental role identity, and their perception of work and family role occupancy demands (time and stressors), were cluster analysed. The analysis recovered a stable three-cluster typology, suggesting that dual-earner parents are not a homogeneous category of people and that different groups of parents construct their occupancy of work and family roles in substantially different ways. The parents clustered into the first group (compromisers) appeared to have reached a somewhat compromised balance between their dominant parental role identity and the demands associated with their occupation of work and family roles, reporting a moderate amount of work/family conflict and enhancement. In contrast, the parents in the second cluster group (jugglers) were described as finding it difficult to adequately balance high work and family demands and a dominant work role identity, reporting high conflict and low enhancement outcomes. The parents in the third cluster group (accommodators) were described as having achieved an accommodated balance between the meaning they derived from their work and family roles and the demands of their work and family roles, reporting significantly stronger levels of work/family enhancement and lower levels of work/family conflict in comparison with the parents in the other two groups. Further analysis of the similarities and differences between the parents in the three cluster groups revealed that significant differences occurred by group on the dependent variable systems of family environment, work and family affect, workplace and personal resources, and work and family social support. The parents clustered into the compromisers and accommodators groups, who appeared to have reached congruency between their salient role identity and role occupancy demands, demonstrated significantly stronger levels of family cohesion, higher levels of family and childcare satisfaction, and lower rates of emotional exhaustion in comparison with the parents in the jugglers group. These parents also reported access to a larger social support network, the perception of greater levels of social support, and were more satisfied with their social support network in comparison with the parents in the jugglers group. It is suggested that these findings offer support for the proposition by Kofodimos (1993) that employed parents can achieve a balanced work/family lifestyle by devoting an appropriate amount of time and energy into their work and family roles to compliment their individual needs and values. In summary, the results of this research suggest that it is fundamental for future conceptual models of 'work and family' to incorporate the measurement of an individual's personal role identity and value as well as the distributional dimension of role accumulation demands. This thesis has thus contributed to the theoretical development of work and family role accumulation research, provided an insight into coping strategies and support processes used by dual-earner parents to balance their dual-domain responsibilities, and extended the demographic and occupational scope of the work and family literature.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Applied Psychology (Health)
Full Text

Parents of children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often experience emotional and behavioural difficulties that contribute to stress and conflict in their family relationships. ADHD Parent Coaching is a promising intervention for these families; however, little is known about its effectiveness. This study explored the effects parent coaching had on parents of children with ADHD using descriptive case study methodology. A secondary purpose was to measure any reduction in stress and homework problems. A workshop offering solutions to homework-related issues was conducted over two consecutive weeks. Parents who attended (N=10) were offered parent coaching, and five parents were subsequently coached over a period of six to eleven weeks. Parents’ experiences of engaging with coaching were explored using thematic analysis of an interview conducted following the intervention (N=4). They also completed a Parent Stress Index (PSI) and Homework Problem Checklist (HPC) pre and post after intervention. Themes relating to mindfulness in parenting, changed parental cognitions, awareness of parenting styles, improved parent-child relationships, impacts on the wider family, and improved self-efficacy emerged from the interviews. The PSI results indicated significantly lower total parent stress scores following intervention while HPC scores were significantly improved. The results showed that parent coaching may produce positive outcomes, including reduced parental stress, increased self-efficacy and parent mindfulness.

Since the 1970s, the gendered division of household labour has been an important issue for both academic disciplines and policy-makers. This thesis considers the gendered division of labour in relation to Australian family policy, arguing that policy has a particular significance to the production of gendered familial relations in liberal societies. Specifically, this thesis considers paid parental leave policy and its implications for the gendered division of childcare labour in Australian heterosexual households. In doing so, it contributes to scholarly discussions about the ways various approaches to family policy might enable or impede progress toward a more equitable division of childcare in Australia. Drawing from critical theory, feminist studies of liberalism and Raewyn Connell’s work on masculinity, I provide analysis of The Coalition’s Policy for Paid Parental Leave (LNP 2013) and of historical Australian family policy, considering the ways this has failed to recognise the shared responsibility of childcare labour. I argue that Australian family policy has worked to enshrine childcare responsibilities onto women and mothers. And that this history and contemporary policy framework implicitly privileges and excludes certain men. I argue that this is exemplary of the way gender hierarchies are reaffirmed by policy and the way paid parental leave policies can work to reinforce the gendered division of childcare labour. Centrally, I am interested in the power relations that are implicit in historical and contemporary Australian family policy’s positioning of women and men, mothers and fathers, and in the broader question of what good policy might look like in this area.

Parents play a central role in their children's education and social development and therefore can be extremely influential in children's attitudes, decisions and behaviour towards drugs. Despite this, there has been limited research to date which explores the parents' perspective and their needs in the area of drug education. This thesis reports on research which surveyed 92 parents of secondary students (Years 7-10) across ten secondary schools in the Australian Capital Territory. Two follow up focus group sessions, involving fourteen parents of secondary students, were also conducted with self-nominated parents of these respondents. The issues explored in the research include parents' concerns and knowledge of young people and drug issues, and their needs for a drug education program aimed at parents. The results show that parents see their role in drug education as a central one and are concerned about drugs in relation to their children and other young people. They are largely unaware of school drug policies and school drug education programs and want to work in closer partnership with the school and community in educating their children about drug issues. Parents identified a need for accurate and up to date information as they do not have sufficient knowledge in this area. Parents also identified a need to develop skills in dealing with adolescents and drug issues. This study provides insight into a range of parents' views on drug issues and confirms that parents would like to develop both knowledge and skills in order to support young people and reinforce school drug education programs. A number of implications of the results for the involvement of parents in drug education programs are presented, including: parent needs, strategies for delivery/ implementation and motivating factors for encouraging parental participation in such programs.

La reconnaissance joue un rôle important dans les systèmes de communication animale et plusieurs modalités sensorielles sont impliquées à cette fin. Bien que la reconnaissance mère-jeune ait été largement étudiée, il y a un manque d'information sur la reconnaissance multimodale et l'importance relative des différentes modalités dans ce processus. Dans cette thèse, j'ai exploré la communication multimodale chez un mammifère colonial - le lion de mer Australien (Neophoca cinerea). La reconnaissance mère-jeune est connue pour être multimodale chez cette espèce, mais les processus sous-jacents de la reconnaissance olfactive et visuelle, ainsi que les interactions entre les indices acoustiques, visuels et olfactifs, et leurs contributions relatives restent inconnues. Des analyses chimiques ont permis de déterminer si les profils chimiques diffèrent selon le sexe et l'âge, les colonies et les régions corporelles des animaux. La présence de similarités chimiques entre la mère et son petit suggèrent que l'appariement des phénotypes pourrait être utilisé pour la reconnaissance olfactive. J'ai examiné le rôle des indices visuels lors de la reconnaissance mère-jeune et j'ai constaté que les indices visuels spécifiques à l'âge sont utilisés par les femelles pour affiner la recherche de leur petit dans la colonie. Les jeunes ont également la capacité de distinguer divers indices visuels, qui peuvent être utilisés pour identifier les différentes classes de congénères. Enfin, j’ai pu aussi déterminer comment les indices acoustiques, olfactifs et visuels sont utilisés de manière synergique dans le processus d’identification individuel, et les résultats sont interprété dans une perspective coûts-avantages pour démêler les pressions évolutives sur chaque composante de ce système de communication. Si les différents indices sensoriels ont la capacité de transmettre des informations en isolation, leur rôle peut être différent lorsque d'autres indices sensoriels sont présents. Les résultats de cette recherche fournissent des résultats sans précédent, contribuant à une meilleure compréhension de la reconnaissance mère-jeune chez les mammifères, ainsi que des règles générales de communication chez les vertébrés
Recognition plays an important role in animal communication systems and individuals often employ different sensory modalities to enact this activity. Although recognition has been widely investigated, especially for mother-offspring interactions, there is a dearth of information about multimodal recognition and the relative importance and interactions of various sensory cues. In this thesis, I explored multimodal communication in a colonial mammal – the Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea). Communication during mother-pup reunions is known to be multimodal in this species, yet the underlying processes of olfactory and visual recognition, as well as the interactions between acoustic, visual and olfactory cues remain unclear. Through chemical analyses, I determined whether chemical profiles differ among sex and age classes, colonies, and body regions of animals. Chemical similarities between mothers and pups indicate that phenotype matching may be used by Australian sea lions for olfactory recognition. I examined the role of visual cues in mother-pup recognition and found that age-specific visual cues assist mothers to refine their search for their offspring in the colony. Pups are capable of distinguishing various visual cues that can be used in the assessment of conspecifics. Having provided baseline information about the role of sensory cues in isolation, I determined how acoustic, olfactory, and visual cues are used in a synergistic way to ensure accurate mutual recognition and then interpreted the results using a cost-benefit perspective to disentangle the evolutionary pressures on each component of this communication system. I showed that although cues have the ability to convey given information in isolation, their role may be different when other sensory cues are present. Furthermore, there is a mutual dependency in the communication system, where the limitations imposed on one participant of the dyad affect cue use by the other. These findings contribute to a better understanding of mammal mother-offspring recognition and communication mechanisms in vertebrates

While rare, suicide in children younger than 15 years is a leading cause of death globally. Childhood is presumed to be a time of happiness, with children often assumed incapable of suicide. Yet, most children understand the lethality and finality of suicidal acts by age eight. The significance of the current research lies in its focus on children. Literature has tended to focus on individuals aged 15+ years, and studies which do include children have predominately grouped children and adolescents together for analysis and discussion. No comprehensive studies on suicide in Australian children have been conducted so it is unknown what suicide risk factors are relevant. Suicide does not end with the suicidal act itself and individuals bereaved by suicide often experience a range of additional deleterious ramifications like guilt, blame, responsibility, rejection, and anger, intermingled with social responses such as social stigma and isolation. Few studies have examined the impact of a child suicide on bereaved parents, particularly the guilt, stigma, and responsibility associated with this type of death. Derived from an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project (LP0990918), the overall aim of this research program was to obtain a better understanding of the predictive factors between suicidal and non-suicidal children under the age of 15 years. An additional aim focused on the impact of the child’s suicide on parents and explores the differences and similarities in the grief experiences of parents bereaved by suicide compared to parents whose child died due to other external causes of death. In order to achieve this, the current research program involved three different, though complementary components, using both aggregate and individual-level data, employing both quantitative and qualitative methodology.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention
Griffith Health
Full Text

Planned parenthood within the lesbian and gay communities attracts considerable attention internationally among researchers, the media, and law and policy-makers. This Australian study situates the phenomenon�also known as the �gayby boom��within the contemporary Australian socio-legal setting and the more international historical and political contexts of Gay and Women�s Liberation. It investigates how beliefs about nature, kinship, the sexed and reproductive body and political ideologies of family intersect in lesbians and gay men�s decision-making and stories of living their lives as parents. Two fields of intellectual enquiry are generative: the interest in families of choice and family practices within sociology and the post-modern anthropological critique of Western kinship in the era of assisted reproduction. This is a qualitative study informed by a critical humanist approach. It is based on in-depth and key informant interviews conducted with 20 lesbians and 15 gay men (parents, �donor/dads� and prospective parents) as well as 7 people engaged in legal, health or therapeutic support to prospective and current parents. Also incorporated into the analysis are a range of other primary sources, including a substantial media debate, submissions to an assisted reproduction law reform process and primary documents supplied by participants such as parenting agreements and letters. The study argues for the need to look beyond unitary concepts such as families of choice when theorising lesbian and gay parenthood. It is important to consider the historical, political and biographical conditions that make some notions of relatedness and decisions about having children seem more feasible, and indeed, natural than others. It explores how various notions of biological relatedness remain important in the formation of parent/child relationships, and the extent to which lesbians and gay men rely on strategic appeals to choice and biology in enacting families. Continuing constraints on who is eligible for clinically assisted reproductive technology in Australia lead to imaginative and harmonious, yet also fraught reproductive relationships.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- La Trobe University, 2006.
Research. "A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy [to the] School of Public Health, (Australian Research Centre in Sex, health and Society), Faculty of health Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria". Title of digital version: Beyond Choice : Family and Kinship in the Australian lesbian and gay 'baby boom'. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-335). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Excessive weight gain and obesity, including the non-communicable diseases related to these conditions, are major public health challenges of the 21st century. Consumption of diets rich in sugars and fat, and low in vegetables and fruits, is associated with the development of weight gain and obesity, insulin resistance and other cardio-metabolic diseases. In general, children are not meeting national dietary recommendations and the diet of children has been characterised as being low in fruit and vegetables and high in sweetened beverages, convenience and fast food. Children bring packed lunches to school in many countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US), and foods brought from home are typically of poor nutritional quality. In addition, foods in lunch boxes are likely representative of eating patterns at home. There are few interventions specifically targeting the preparation of healthful lunch boxes, and these have displayed modest outcomes. It is possible that immigrant children arrive with healthier dietary behaviours, but at least some of these behaviours deteriorate as children acculturate. Some immigrant parents adopt unhealthy dietary habits, which can impact their children’s dietary behaviours, moving away from traditional diets in favour of a Western diet pattern, rich in sugar and saturated fat, thus increasing the risk of weight gain and obesity among their children. Although totalling approximately 3% of the world’s population, immigrants are relatively underrepresented in health promotion research. Latino immigrants in the US are one of the few immigrant groups who have received significant research attention. Evidence suggest that as Latinos adapt to mainstream US culture, they often adopt less healthful eating habits, including decreased frequency of family meals and increased consumption of ultra-processed packaged foods. In 2016, there were 146,180 people born in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking Latin American countries living in Australia, their numbers having increased by 52% in the period 2006-2016. Several previous studies have indicated that some newcomers to Australia experience difficulties in adapting to the new food system and food-ways, describing how these difficulties affect their dietary behaviours. Some of this literature contains limited information on lunch box preparation practices by immigrant parents, suggesting that sociocultural factors specific to these particular groups can play a key role in families’ dietary practices. There has been a lack of high-quality evidence about the process of dietary acculturation among Latino children in Australia. What is known is that parents play a vital role in the prevention of childhood obesity. Therefore, this research program aims to understand the barriers, facilitators and factors affecting lunch box preparation among Australian Latino immigrant parents, in order to inform the development and delivery of a culturally appropriate intervention that could assist in the preparation of healthful lunch boxes for their children by addressing these factors. This thesis describes three research studies designed to address the overall research aim. The research is underpinned by a pragmatic paradigm. A pragmatic approach was suitable for this research given the complexity of designing a new intervention, and that using both quantitative and qualitative methods is necessary to enable a richer understanding of participants’ perceptions and a quantitative evaluation of the impact of the intervention. A conceptual framework was developed to assist the research process. A pragmatic research approach was used to conduct the research because it is regarded as the most common way to reconcile the opposing positivist and constructivist paradigms. The overall findings of the studies suggest that it is possible to design and deliver a culturally appropriate behaviour change intervention to improve lunch box preparation practices among Australian Latino immigrant parents. A number of factors were identified by parents as affecting lunch box preparation, including parents’ cultural food practices, the food environment, children’s food preferences and aspects of food literacy. However, several barriers to adopting healthier lunch box preparation practices were also reported, such as parents’ lack of food preparation skills and time, and the school environment, suggesting that future work to address these issues is needed. Study 1 involved three distinct systematic reviews of the literature, the aim being to investigate the available evidence on whether lunch boxes provided by Australian Latino immigrant parents to their children were generally of poor nutritional quality. However, none of the available scientific literature included Australian Latino parents. Consequently, two additional systematic reviews were conducted to provide an evidence base for the development of the intervention. Sixteen studies reviewed provided information on children’s dietary intake in Latin America and about the school lunch boxes prepared by Australian parents. In addition, an extensive, but not systematic, review of scientific literature provided information on school lunch provision by other immigrant parents in Australia. Findings from Study 1 also enabled preliminary conclusions to be drawn regarding the potential difficulties of preparing healthful lunch boxes for their children, as well as adapting to Australian food-ways. For example, with time, immigrant parents tend to adopt unhealthy dietary practices, and this is partly due to several sociocultural factors. Study 1 concluded that lunch box preparation by Australian Latino immigrant parents needed to be further explored. The findings of this review informed the development of Study 2. Study 2 involved a qualitative study to explore factors affecting school lunch box preparation by Australian Latino parents. Thirteen semi-structured individual interviews and one group interview were conducted with Australian Latino parents. The findings show that parents need support during lunch box preparation at home. Parents identified some aspects of food literacy, such as food and nutrition knowledge and food preparation skills, as important in the preparation of healthful lunch boxes. They identified numerous barriers to preparing healthful lunch boxes, which had an impact on their practices, such as lack of time and food preparation skills and unsupportive school food environment, including school canteens and not enough time allowed to eat lunch. Importantly, parents reported difficulties in adapting to Australian meal patterns, particularly getting used to the evening meal being the main meal of the day. They also reported lack of familiarity with the Australian school lunch system, and emphasised that children’s lunches are abundant and nourishing in Latin America. The findings of Study 2 informed the development of the third and final study. Study 3 was an uncontrolled before- and after-intervention study, which aimed to evaluate the feasibility of a group-based healthy lunch box intervention to support parents’ preparation of healthier lunch boxes, and used mixed methods to assess processes and outcomes. The intervention was delivered online via a social networking site to reach immigrant Australian Latino parents. The qualitative evaluation consisted of parents’ posts made by participating parents on the group’s wall during the intervention, and five semi-structured evaluation interviews at the conclusion of the intervention to evaluate its acceptability and usefulness. The quantitative evaluation consisted of pre- and post-surveys measuring parents’ food literacy levels. The qualitative component of the study confirmed most of the factors identified in Study 2, and identified barriers to behaviour change, such as children’s food preferences, lack of food preparation skills, and the school food environment, which will need to be considered in future interventions. Parents valued the group support, the experience of sharing and focus on improving in the group. For example, parents reported that learning about how other parents have managed similar situations provided them with a sense of motivation to prepare healthier lunch boxes and helped them to cope with stress and anxiety. The quantitative component of the study found that parents’ food literacy increased post-intervention, suggesting that food literacy may have an impact on parents’ lunch box preparation practices. Collectively, these three studies highlight the feasibility of an intervention and provide preliminary evidence that a culturally appropriate intervention for immigrant parents to improve lunch box preparation practices may be beneficial for parents. The intervention may be refined based on the feedback from the pilot trial and evaluated in a larger controlled trial to determine its effectiveness. For example, it is possible to create culturally appropriate and relevant education materials. This thesis provides a series of insights into culturally appropriate interventions for researchers and practitioners interested in developing culturally appropriate programmes to improve lunch box preparation practices among immigrant parents in order to reduce the prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as childhood obesity.

The increase in reality-styled programs on television and in their appeal to young viewers has not been matched by research on what motivates children to watch such programs and if there are any flow-on effects in the home for the children and their families. Current research is limited to mainly North American and European populations of adolescents and adults which reduces the application of findings to Australian children. The present mixed- methods study surveyed Australian pre-adolescent children’s (N= 38) engagement and motivation to watch the Australian series of ‘Junior Masterchef’ and if their involvement with the program was associated with cooking, food and family connectedness. Additionally, parents (N=39) of the children were surveyed to ascertain their awareness of the series, together with their perceptions of children cooking in the home and family connectedness. The children’s (N=16) and parents (N=9) experiences were further explored through focus group interviews using Thematic Analysis. Overall, three factors motivated children to watch the program: education, excitement/entertainment value and vicarious participation. Involvement with the program was not associated with cooking in the home, food engagement or family connectedness. Despite this, family connectedness was highly valued by the children. The benefit of the program for parents was increased ‘family time’ which was an important factor for their experiences of family connectedness. Parents reported their children’s interest in cooking increased when viewing ‘Junior Masterchef’, however, cleaning up and time restrictions were considerations that limited opportunities for children to actively participate.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2001.
"A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy". Bibliography : p. 224-240.

This study is the first to generate two patient satisfaction instruments, the Paediatric Surgical Patient Evaluation Questionnaire (PSPEQ, Parent form) and the Questionnaire on Children’s Surgery in Hospital (QCSH, Child form), with robust preliminary psychometric properties that capture the experiences of 5 to 10-year-old paediatric day-surgery patients and their parents in rural and metropolitan Australia. Patients’ and parents’ evaluations of Australian paediatric specialist surgical care and the impact of travel time on these evaluations was also newly investigated. The theoretical structure was generated to illustrate the interrelationships between the most salient aspects of Australian paediatric surgical care as described by parents. This was also a new contribution to knowledge, since it newly captured the holistic experience of care from seeking a referral to see the specialist through to 1 week after discharge. Evaluations of care by patients and parents were investigated to identify the important needs and issues specific to parent and child using a multiple-method approach. Participants included 214 parents (4 males, 210 females) and 58 paediatric surgical patients aged 5 to 10-years-old (159 males, 55 females). Semi-structured interviews and newly constructed questionnaires shortly after surgery uncovered attitudes and issues on services delivered during the paediatric surgical experience. In the quantitative phase of the study, exploratory factor analysis of the newly constructed PSPEQ (pron. pea - speck) resulted in a four-factor structure and included Hospital Staff, Surgeons, Hospital Facilities, and Access factors. The 41-item solution accounted for 47.2% of the score variance.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Medical Science
Griffith Health
Full Text

In 1983 a programme was initiated by the School of Education, Canberra College of Advanced Education (CCAE) and the Australian Schools Commission to enable parents to assist their own children in literacy. The children had previously been identified as experiencing difficulties in acquiring the skills of literacy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of the parents' intervention on the children's achievements in literacy, and to assess the quality of the programme by examining particular subskills taught in the course. The methods of assessment were also evaluated for their appropriateness for the circumstances. The thirty nine children in the study were the sample of fifty two children for whom there was complete information. Parents of these children began the programme in July 1985 or in March 1986. They attended a course of ten sessions over thirteen weeks in a semester. The following semester they were allocated to a teacher who was a post graduate or fourth year degree student in education, and given individual assistance from six to ten sessions, and longer if necessary. Aspects of oral reading, comprehension, writing and spelling were tested at the beginning of the programme and again in November 1986, and the results compared. Observational records were also kept and changes evaluated. In addition, oral reading was measured at the end of the parents' course, and before individual assistance commenced. Case studies were built up for every child, and the findings grouped to observe the effect of the intervention on the population. The results showed that the programme achieved its aim of giving parents the skills to assist; their own children in the acquisition of literacy. The content of the course and the subskills taught were also justified by the outcomes. Furthermore, the method of evaluation revealed specific and succinct information on which to base the intervention and to monitor progress. The research took place over 18 months, during which time teaching and progress were continual. A longitudinal study over several years would confirm the results of the research.

Thesis (LLM)--Macquarie University. Division of Law.
Bibliography: leaves 192-208.
Introduction -- The perceived problems and the new reforms -- The framework for children's matters in Australia -- Families and functions - regulating the Australian family -- Reorganising the gender hierarchy -- Men's movements, misconceptions and misidentifying the real issues -- Problems with "shared parenting": an ideal or a (rebuttable) presumption? -- Mediation not litigation -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.
In this thesis, I critically appraise the latest reforms of the Australian family law system and assess the underlying philosophy of these measures. I specifically analyse the introduction of shared parenting and mandatory family dispute resolution. My starting point is that legislative changes alone cannot be used as a means of social change. Legal models cannot function correctly if they reflect an ideal rather than social reality, and in light of the current reforms, the Australian family law system risks such a fate. The system, which presumes that parents share parental responsibility upon separation (and therefore during the intact family), does not represent social truth. It appears to make an assumption that shared parenting is the societal practice, but I believe the law is really being used to impose such an ideal. If the reforms are to be successful, I argue that substantial social and economic structural change is required, in order to break down the dichotomy between men's and women's roles, which continue to define the male role as economic and public and the female responsibility as care-giving and private. This is particularly important if the Government is genuine about its aim to make parenting gender neutral in practice and not just in theory.
The thesis demonstrates that the reform measures are a response to the perceived rather than real problems identified in the family law system, and that they are largely issues raised under the influence of fathers' rights groups. The response of the Government to remedy the system is therefore flawed as it is based on misconceived notions about the family law system. It incorrectly identifies judicial discretion as a fundamental cause of the problems and tries to replace it with a more rules-based approach to determining children's matters. I suggest that the real problems can be found in the continuance of deeply entrenched customs and gendered role constructions, and the remedies lie in their overhaul. The social culture that makes the mother the primary caregiver and allocates to the father diminished parental responsibility from the time the child is born needs to be transformed. A suitable legal response to the current impasse would be to begin by educating the public about the way the system works and provide counselling to families on how to structure their united life well before they reach the breakdown point. Assisting families while they are still functional, as opposed to when they are dysfunctional, would arguably make a large difference in how the family law system is understood. Moreover, it would be able to facilitate ongoing communication for separating couples and, most importantly, thereby uphold the best interests of the child.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
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Provision for students who are gifted is an unresolved issue in education. To meet the needs of its own academically gifted students, one primary school in Western Australia customised the Opportunity Class model used by New South Wales Primary Schools. This study focused on participants’ experiences of the school’s full-time academic Opportunity Classes. Twenty-four parents and eleven students who had firsthand experience of the program were interviewed about their experiences. Data were collected through focus groups and individual semi-structured interviews with questions designed to address ability class issues most commonly raised in the literature. In particular, participants were asked to share their personal perceptions of the program and to recollect other gifted provisions these mildly, and moderately gifted students had experienced. They were asked to consider how each met student’s academic and social-emotional needs with the focus being on the full-time ability-grouping model. Results show that despite being an academically based program, the social-emotional effects of the program were deemed by participants to be just as important. The implications were that it was possible for a range of academically gifted students to thrive in full-time ability classes and for the effects of the big-fish-little- pond effect, labelling and force choice dilemma to be reduced or eliminated in a program with the appropriate cultural and emotional support.

This thesis examines the issue of parent participation and cultural diversity in the Australian special education context. Previous research in the U.S. had suggested that the low participation by parents of culturally diverse backgrounds was due to cultural barriers that hindered their partnership with professionals. In reviewing and critiquing this previous research, it became clear that the key concepts of collaboration, disability and culture required reconceptualisation. The theoretical tools deployed in this reconceptualisation are drawn from sociocultural theory and ethnomethodology. Seventeen parents of Chinese and Vietnamese backgrounds and 20 professionals were interviewed regarding the provision of special education for children attending either a special school or special education unit. Follow-up interviews were carried out to probe specific issues related to the salience of culture in parent-professional communication, their understanding of disability, and barriers to parent participation. In addition, the communication books that were passed between parents and professionals on a regular basis were obtained for 7 of the children. These books provide a unique insight into the way parents and professionals accomplished the category of Child-with-a-disability during their entries regarding the mundane practicalities of school and home. In suspending judgment about parent-professional collaboration, this thesis adopts the multiple foci of sociocultural analysis to gain a critical understanding of parent-professional relationships through time and across personal, interpersonal, community and institutional settings. Within this framework, this thesis found that parents and professionals prefer and enact a 'communicating' type of parent participation. Their preferences seemed to depend on a range of circumstances such as their work commitments, financial resources, language resources and changing educational goals for the child. The approach taken in the thesis also affords the specification of diverse models of collaboration (e.g. obliging/directing, influencing/complying, respectful distancing, coordinating, collaborating), each of which may be regarded as worthwhile and acceptable in specific local circumstances. This study found that overall the parent-professional relationship was a trust-given one in which participants unproblematically regarded the professionals as experts. The professionals' reports revealed them to be doing accounting work - creating a moral view of the good parent and good professional. The emphasis on context in both sociocultural and ethnomethodological approaches reframes parental and professional discourse about disability as being context-driven. In employing Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) to examine parents' and professionals' descriptions of the child in the communication book and the research interviews, positive as well as negative attributes of the child were obtained. Interpreting the findings in terms of the context of home and school reveals how negative attributes of the child became foregrounded. For example, the orientation to the child as lacking capacity to remember was an outcome of parents and professionals orienting to their (institutional) roles and responsibilities to manage the practicalities of school. The comparison of views reveals strong agreement between the parents and professionals about the child. Interpreting the data based on the task-at-hand of particular data collection settings provides one explanation. For instance, the communication book is a site where parents and professionals align with each other to co-construct a version of the child. Culture is not treated as a static set of traits and behavioural norms that accounts for the communication difficulties between Western-trained professionals and culturally-diverse parents. Rather, culture is theorised in this thesis as an evolving set of semiotic resources and repertoires of practice that participants draw upon and enact in their everyday activities. Using MCA, the ways in which participants deployed cultural categories, the social ends achieved by such deployment, and the attributes they assigned to these cultural categories, are documented. This approach takes cultural difference to be a resource that people use to account for conflicts, rather than as a determining cause of conflict. The documentation of how participants legitimised their explanations to add credibility to their accounts captures their moment-by-moment cultural categorisation work. In comparison to prior research, the significance of this approach is that it looks seriously at the parents' and professionals' mundane and enacted notions of collaboration and participation, the child with a disability, and culture. This thesis has interwoven several data sources and applied complementary analytics in order to reveal and understand some of the everyday complexity of cross-cultural parent professional interaction in the special education context. There is reason to look carefully at the daily achievements of the participants for it is where the intricacies of a phenomenon lie.

This thesis examines the issue of parent participation and cultural diversity in the Australian special education context. Previous research in the U.S. had suggested that the low participation by parents of culturally diverse backgrounds was due to cultural barriers that hindered their partnership with professionals. In reviewing and critiquing this previous research, it became clear that the key concepts of collaboration, disability and culture required reconceptualisation. The theoretical tools deployed in this reconceptualisation are drawn from sociocultural theory and ethnomethodology. Seventeen parents of Chinese and Vietnamese backgrounds and 20 professionals were interviewed regarding the provision of special education for children attending either a special school or special education unit. Follow-up interviews were carried out to probe specific issues related to the salience of culture in parent-professional communication, their understanding of disability, and barriers to parent participation. In addition, the communication books that were passed between parents and professionals on a regular basis were obtained for 7 of the children. These books provide a unique insight into the way parents and professionals accomplished the category of Child-with-a-disability during their entries regarding the mundane practicalities of school and home. In suspending judgment about parent-professional collaboration, this thesis adopts the multiple foci of sociocultural analysis to gain a critical understanding of parent-professional relationships through time and across personal, interpersonal, community and institutional settings. Within this framework, this thesis found that parents and professionals prefer and enact a 'communicating' type of parent participation. Their preferences seemed to depend on a range of circumstances such as their work commitments, financial resources, language resources and changing educational goals for the child. The approach taken in the thesis also affords the specification of diverse models of collaboration (e.g. obliging/directing, influencing/complying, respectful distancing, coordinating, collaborating), each of which may be regarded as worthwhile and acceptable in specific local circumstances. This study found that overall the parent-professional relationship was a trust-given one in which participants unproblematically regarded the professionals as experts. The professionals' reports revealed them to be doing accounting work - creating a moral view of the good parent and good professional. The emphasis on context in both sociocultural and ethnomethodological approaches reframes parental and professional discourse about disability as being context-driven. In employing Membership Categorisation Analysis (MCA) to examine parents' and professionals' descriptions of the child in the communication book and the research interviews, positive as well as negative attributes of the child were obtained. Interpreting the findings in terms of the context of home and school reveals how negative attributes of the child became foregrounded. For example, the orientation to the child as lacking capacity to remember was an outcome of parents and professionals orienting to their (institutional) roles and responsibilities to manage the practicalities of school. The comparison of views reveals strong agreement between the parents and professionals about the child. Interpreting the data based on the task-at-hand of particular data collection settings provides one explanation. For instance, the communication book is a site where parents and professionals align with each other to co-construct a version of the child. Culture is not treated as a static set of traits and behavioural norms that accounts for the communication difficulties between Western-trained professionals and culturally-diverse parents. Rather, culture is theorised in this thesis as an evolving set of semiotic resources and repertoires of practice that participants draw upon and enact in their everyday activities. Using MCA, the ways in which participants deployed cultural categories, the social ends achieved by such deployment, and the attributes they assigned to these cultural categories, are documented. This approach takes cultural difference to be a resource that people use to account for conflicts, rather than as a determining cause of conflict. The documentation of how participants legitimised their explanations to add credibility to their accounts captures their moment-by-moment cultural categorisation work. In comparison to prior research, the significance of this approach is that it looks seriously at the parents' and professionals' mundane and enacted notions of collaboration and participation, the child with a disability, and culture. This thesis has interwoven several data sources and applied complementary analytics in order to reveal and understand some of the everyday complexity of cross-cultural parent professional interaction in the special education context. There is reason to look carefully at the daily achievements of the participants for it is where the intricacies of a phenomenon lie.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Education and Professional Studies
Full Text

The International Baccalaureate® (IB) aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. It consists of four programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme (DP) and the Career-related Programme (CP). IB programmes have an increasing presence in the field of education worldwide. This case study examines the perceptions of students, parents, teachers and administrators (including school principals) of the value and impact of the PYP for Australian students’ education. Two schools were selected for this research: one independent/fee-paying private school and one independent public school. The value and impact of the PYP for the students was examined in relation to the understanding of the key principles of the International Baccalaureate that are embedded within the framework of the PYP. This research explores both the effectiveness of delivery of the IB PYP and the extent to which Bourdieu’s concept of cultural and social capital influenced its implementation and selection in the two schools. A qualitative case study research methodology was adopted to examine the perceptions of students, teachers, administrators and parents of the value and impact of the PYP in the two schools selected. Qualitative data was gathered through a series of in- depth interviews, focus groups and observations. Key features of the PYP that contributed to the perceived value and impact of the programme for the students included the philosophy, pedagogy, and curriculum of the programme. Leadership and management, the roles of teachers and parents, and the participation of students in the two schools studied were also significant in creating value from the PYP framework. The study concluded that the perceived value and impact of the PYP was determined by the extent to which key features of the PYP and the IB were embraced and enabled by the school environment, and that the PYP was providing an opportunity to produce cultural and social capital. The study highlighted the IB principles and contributing factors that play a vital role in effective implementation of the PYP and in creating value for students. Possible areas for future research include: the long- term impact of the PYP on students in continuing their education, the development of values through the demonstration of key components of the learner profile, and the impact on student outcomes.

The educational systems of many Asian countries, and in the context of this project China in particular, are widely perceived by governments and their citizens as superior to the Australian educational system. This perception is due in part to the analysis of successive studies undertaken by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA publish performance tables which demonstrate that the performance of students who took the test in China appears higher than that of students who took the test in Australia. Included in the PISA report is a direct comparison of the levels of Mathematics achievement between non-immigrant students and immigrant students who completed the PISA Mathematics test in several countries, including Australia. The PISA comparison of mathematics test results reveals that students in Australian schools who have Chinese-born parents outperform Chinese students studying in China; the analysis would therefore seem to contradict the perception that the educational system of China is superior to the educational system in Australia. Previous research into the specific practices and involvement of Chinese-born parents in Australia is very limited. Research has also been mainly quantitative with many studies relying on mass PISA data or using data from high school students or older. This study makes a key contribution by focusing on primary age students at the earliest stage of their formal education. Using sociocultural theory as a framework, the purpose of this research study was to examine the attitudes and behaviour of Chinese students and their parents in Australia, to test whether these may be responsible in some part for the comparatively high achievement levels of students with Chinese-born parents. By using an exploratory qualitative case study approach, it aimed to provide an understanding of the nature of the possible social-cultural influences. Data were collected by way of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with individual participants, including parents, students, and a specialist tutor of Chinese students. This study also establishes that the families in this study express what might be considered traditional culturally Chinese attitudes and beliefs. As a result of these cultural influences it is perhaps the key finding from this study that even primary school students at the earliest stage of their formal education engage in the types of behaviour, and express attitudes, which have been demonstrated to impact most on student achievement. The findings support the Cultural-Historical Assumption which posits that cultural values and beliefs are responsible for student behaviour and performance. The Policies and Structures Assumption, which suggests that educational systems and education policies are the best explanation for differences in student achievement between countries and regions, is not supported. This is important because the broader implication is that non-Chinese students in Australia can achieve similarly if they and their parents approach learning with the same levels of expectation and engagement as their Chinese counterparts.
Thesis (Masters)
Master of Education and Professional Studies Research (MEdProfStRes)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
Full Text

Newly licensed drivers on a provisional or intermediate licence have the highest crash risk when compared with any other group of drivers. In comparison, learner drivers have the lowest crash risk. Graduated driver licensing is one countermeasure that has been demonstrated to effectively reduce the crashes of novice drivers. This thesis examined the graduated driver licensing systems in two Australian states in order to better understand the behaviour of learner drivers, provisional drivers and the supervisors of learner drivers. By doing this, the thesis investigated the personal, social and environmental influences on novice driver behaviour as well as providing effective baseline data against which to measure subsequent changes to the licensing systems. In the first study, conducted prior to the changes to the graduated driver licensing system introduced in mid-2007, drivers who had recently obtained their provisional licence in Queensland and New South Wales were interviewed by telephone regarding their experiences while driving on their learner licence. Of the 687 eligible people approached to participate at driver licensing centres, 392 completed the study representing a response rate of 57.1 per cent. At the time the data was collected, New South Wales represented a more extensive graduated driver licensing system when compared with Queensland. The results suggested that requiring learners to complete a mandated number of hours of supervised practice impacts on the amount of hours that learners report completing. While most learners from New South Wales reported meeting the requirement to complete 50 hours of practice, it appears that many stopped practising soon after this goal was achieved. In contrast, learners from Queensland, who were not required to complete a specific number of hours at the time of the survey, tended to fall into three groups. The first group appeared to complete the minimum number of hours required to pass the test (less than 26 hours), the second group completed 26 to 50 hours of supervised practice while the third group completed significantly more practice than the first two groups (over 100 hours of supervised practice). Learner drivers in both states reported generally complying with the road laws and were unlikely to report that they had been caught breaking the road rules. They also indicated that they planned to obey the road laws once they obtained their provisional licence. However, they were less likely to intend to comply with recommended actions to reduce crash risk such as limiting their driving at night. This study also identified that there were relatively low levels of unaccompanied driving (approximately 15 per cent of the sample), very few driving offences committed (five per cent of the sample) and that learner drivers tended to use a mix of private and professional supervisors (although the majority of practice is undertaken with private supervisors). Consistent with the international literature, this study identified that very few learner drivers had experienced a crash (six per cent) while on their learner licence. The second study was also conducted prior to changes to the graduated driver licensing system and involved follow up interviews with the participants of the first study after they had approximately 21 months driving experience on their provisional licence. Of the 392 participants that completed the first study, 233 participants completed the second interview (representing a response rate of 59.4 per cent). As with the first study, at the time the data was collected, New South Wales had a more extensive graduated driver licensing system than Queensland. For instance, novice drivers from New South Wales were required to progress through two provisional licence phases (P1 and P2) while there was only one provisional licence phase in Queensland. Among the participants in this second study, almost all provisional drivers (97.9 per cent) owned or had access to a vehicle for regular driving. They reported that they were unlikely to break road rules, such as driving after a couple of drinks, but were also unlikely to comply with recommended actions, such as limiting their driving at night. When their provisional driving behaviour was compared to the stated intentions from the first study, the results suggested that their intentions were not a strong predictor of their subsequent behaviour. Their perception of risk associated with driving declined from when they first obtained their learner licence to when they had acquired provisional driving experience. Just over 25 per cent of participants in study two reported that they had been caught committing driving offences while on their provisional licence. Nearly one-third of participants had crashed while driving on a provisional licence, although few of these crashes resulted in injuries or hospitalisations. To complement the first two studies, the third study examined the experiences of supervisors of learner drivers, as well as their perceptions of their learner’s experiences. This study was undertaken after the introduction of the new graduated driver licensing systems in Queensland and New South Wales in mid- 2007, providing insights into the impacts of these changes from the perspective of supervisors. The third study involved an internet survey of 552 supervisors of learner drivers. Within the sample, approximately 50 per cent of participants supervised their own child. Other supervisors of the learner drivers included other parents or stepparents, professional driving instructors and siblings. For two-thirds of the sample, this was the first learner driver that they had supervised. Participants had provided an average of 54.82 hours (sd = 67.19) of supervision. Seventy-three per cent of participants indicated that their learners’ logbooks were accurate or very accurate in most cases, although parents were more likely than non-parents to report that their learners’ logbook was accurate (F (1,546) = 7.74, p = .006). There was no difference between parents and non-parents regarding whether they believed the log book system was effective (F (1,546) = .01, p = .913). The majority of the sample reported that their learner driver had had some professional driving lessons. Notwithstanding this, a significant proportion (72.5 per cent) believed that parents should be either very involved or involved in teaching their child to drive, with parents being more likely than non-parents to hold this belief. In the post mid-2007 graduated driver licensing system, Queensland learner drivers are able to record three hours of supervised practice in their log book for every hour that is completed with a professional driving instructor, up to a total of ten hours. Despite this, there was no difference identified between Queensland and New South Wales participants regarding the amount of time that they reported their learners spent with professional driving instructors (X2(1) = 2.56, p = .110). Supervisors from New South Wales were more likely to ensure that their learner driver complied with the road laws. Additionally, with the exception of drug driving laws, New South Wales supervisors believed it was more important to teach safety-related behaviours such as remaining within the speed limit, car control and hazard perception than those from Queensland. This may be indicative of more intensive road safety educational efforts in New South Wales or the longer time that graduated driver licensing has operated in that jurisdiction. However, other factors may have contributed to these findings and further research is required to explore the issue. In addition, supervisors reported that their learner driver was involved in very few crashes (3.4 per cent) and offences (2.7 per cent). This relatively low reported crash rate is similar to that identified in the first study. Most of the graduated driver licensing research to date has been applied in nature and lacked a strong theoretical foundation. These studies used Akers’ social learning theory to explore the self-reported behaviour of novice drivers and their supervisors. This theory was selected as it has previously been found to provide a relatively comprehensive framework for explaining a range of driver behaviours including novice driver behaviour. Sensation seeking was also used in the first two studies to complement the non-social rewards component of Akers’ social learning theory. This program of research identified that both Akers’ social learning theory and sensation seeking were useful in predicting the behaviour of learner and provisional drivers over and above socio-demographic factors. Within the first study, Akers’ social learning theory accounted for an additional 22 per cent of the variance in learner driver compliance with the law, over and above a range of socio-demographic factors such as age, gender and income. The two constructs within Akers’ theory which were significant predictors of learner driver compliance were the behavioural dimension of differential association relating to friends, and anticipated rewards. Sensation seeking predicted an additional six per cent of the variance in learner driver compliance with the law. When considering a learner driver’s intention to comply with the law while driving on a provisional licence, Akers’ social learning theory accounted for an additional 10 per cent of the variance above socio-demographic factors with anticipated rewards being a significant predictor. Sensation seeking predicted an additional four per cent of the variance. The results suggest that the more rewards individuals anticipate for complying with the law, the more likely they are to obey the road rules. Further research is needed to identify which specific rewards are most likely to encourage novice drivers’ compliance with the law. In the second study, Akers’ social learning theory predicted an additional 40 per cent of the variance in self-reported compliance with road rules over and above socio-demographic factors while sensation seeking accounted for an additional five per cent of the variance. A number of Aker’s social learning theory constructs significantly predicted provisional driver compliance with the law, including the behavioural dimension of differential association for friends, the normative dimension of differential association, personal attitudes and anticipated punishments. The consistent prediction of additional variance by sensation seeking over and above the variables within Akers’ social learning theory in both studies one and two suggests that sensation seeking is not fully captured within the non social rewards dimension of Akers’ social learning theory, at least for novice drivers. It appears that novice drivers are strongly influenced by the desire to engage in new and intense experiences. While socio-demographic factors and the perception of risk associated with driving had an important role in predicting the behaviour of the supervisors of learner drivers, Akers’ social learning theory provided further levels of prediction over and above these factors. The Akers’ social learning theory variables predicted an additional 14 per cent of the variance in the extent to which supervisors ensured that their learners complied with the law and an additional eight per cent of the variance in the supervisors’ provision of a range of practice experiences. The normative dimension of differential association, personal attitudes towards the use of professional driving instructors and anticipated rewards were significant predictors for supervisors ensuring that their learner complied with the road laws, while the normative dimension was important for range of practice. This suggests that supervisors who engage with other supervisors who ensure their learner complies with the road laws and provide a range of practice to their own learners are more likely to also engage in these behaviours. Within this program of research, there were several limitations including the method of recruitment of participants within the first study, the lower participation rate in the second study, an inability to calculate a response rate for study three and the use of self-report data for all three studies. Within the first study, participants were only recruited from larger driver licensing centres to ensure that there was a sufficient throughput of drivers to approach. This may have biased the results due to the possible differences in learners that obtain their licences in locations with smaller licensing centres. Only 59.4 per cent of the sample in the first study completed the second study. This may be a limitation if there was a common reason why those not participating were unable to complete the interview leading to a systematic impact on the results. The third study used a combination of a convenience and snowball sampling which meant that it was not possible to calculate a response rate. All three studies used self-report data which, in many cases, is considered a limitation. However, self-report data may be the only method that can be used to obtain some information. This program of research has a number of implications for countermeasures in both the learner licence phase and the provisional licence phase. During the learner phase, licensing authorities need to carefully consider the number of hours that they mandate learner drivers must complete before they obtain their provisional driving licence. If they mandate an insufficient number of hours, there may be inadvertent negative effects as a result of setting too low a limit. This research suggests that logbooks may be a useful tool for learners and their supervisors in recording and structuring their supervised practice. However, it would appear that the usage rates for logbooks will remain low if they remain voluntary. One strategy for achieving larger amounts of supervised practice is for learner drivers and their supervisors to make supervised practice part of their everyday activities. As well as assisting the learner driver to accumulate the required number of hours of supervised practice, it would ensure that they gain experience in the types of environments that they will probably encounter when driving unaccompanied in the future, such as to and from education or work commitments. There is also a need for policy processes to ensure that parents and professional driving instructors communicate effectively regarding the learner driver’s progress. This is required as most learners spend at least some time with a professional instructor despite receiving significant amounts of practice with a private supervisor. However, many supervisors did not discuss their learner’s progress with the driving instructor. During the provisional phase, there is a need to strengthen countermeasures to address the high crash risk of these drivers. Although many of these crashes are minor, most involve at least one other vehicle. Therefore, there are social and economic benefits to reducing these crashes. If the new, post-2007 graduated driver licensing systems do not significantly reduce crash risk, there may be a need to introduce further provisional licence restrictions such as separate night driving and peer passenger restrictions (as opposed to the hybrid version of these two restrictions operating in both Queensland and New South Wales). Provisional drivers appear to be more likely to obey some provisional licence laws, such as lower blood alcohol content limits, than others such as speed limits. Therefore, there may be a need to introduce countermeasures to encourage provisional drivers to comply with specific restrictions. When combined, these studies provided significant information regarding graduated driver licensing programs. This program of research has investigated graduated driver licensing utilising a cross-sectional and longitudinal design in order to develop our understanding of the experiences of novice drivers that progress through the system in order to help reduce crash risk once novice drivers commence driving by themselves.

The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a large, sedentary, omnivorous passerine. In some populations, individuals live in groups, and some of these groups breed cooperatively. The white-backed magpie (G. t. tyrannica) from the south-eastern corner of the continent, has had relatively little study, and few details are known of its mating system, social structure, and method of parental care. I conducted an observational study on a population of white-backed magpies, recording details of their demography, dispersal, breeding system, and parental care. In conjunction, I conducted a genetic analysis of the population, to determine if the genetic mating system matched the observed social system, to detect instances of extra-group mating, and to sex juvenile birds. Extra-pair paternity (EPP) is a common feature of the mating systems of many birds. The rate of EPP may vary between species, races and populations. I made a comparison of extra-group paternity (EGP) rates between two races of the Australian magpie, to determine if similar mating systems were being employed. The two populations had similar social structure, but differed in group size and dispersal. I predicted that dispersal differences would have a profound effect on the rate of EGP between the populations, as the population with the lower rate of dispersal and higher chance of breeding with a close relative would engage in EGPs more frequently. Eight microsatellite loci were used to determine parentage in the white-backed Australian magpie. The rate of EGP was found to be 44%. Dispersal rates were estimated from observational data. Over half of the juvenile magpie cohort from the previous breeding season leave the territorial group. These results contrast sharply with the results found by other researchers in a population of western Australian magpies (G t. dorsalis). In this population, 82% EGP is recorded and dispersal of juveniles is close to nil. The results indicate that dispersal rate is a potentially important predictor of rates of extra-group fertilisations between populations of this species, and suggest that females maximise their reproductive output by avoiding breeding with close kin. The reproductive success of a male bird is often correlated with measurable traits that predict his intrinsic quality. Females are thought to select mates based on their quality to gain their 'good genes'. Male Australian magpies of the white-backed race were trapped in two breeding seasons. Measurements were taken of morphometric and other characteristics in order to discover whether particular traits of males were associated with: a) number of fledglings produced in the territory per season; b) percentage of offspring sired in the territory; and c) whether females select males for their 'good genes'. The only variable that was correlated with number of territorial offspring was feather lice load. Males with high numbers of lice were less likely to produce territorial fledglings in one season and across both seasons. Males of inferior quality may be subject to increased conspecific territorial intrusions, leading to more time spent on defence, more failed breeding attempts, less time allocated to grooming and thus high parasite loads. Males that produced many territorial fledglings were more likely to gain genetic paternity of at least some of them, although again this was significant for only one season. Also, across both seasons, a high number of females in the group was correlated with increased paternity within the group. The general lack of correlation between the variables and level of genetic paternity may be due to females engaging in extra-group mating primarily to avoid breeding with a close relative rather than to choose a quality male. In this scenario, males would not have to be 'high quality', but merely genetically different to the female's social mate. Extra-group paternity (EGP) can affect paternal effort. It may also influence the helping effort of auxiliary birds in cooperatively breeding species. If helping is driven by kin selection, helpers should decline to provision unrelated young. Relatedness becomes difficult to assess however, when females mate outside the group. Alternative rewards may then become important in helper decisions. In my study population of Australian magpies, 38% of fledglings were sired by males outside the territorial group. In a second population (G. t. dorsalis), 82% of fledglings were sired by extra-group males. I observed within-group male and helper feeding effort over three breeding seasons in the first population and obtained data recorded over a single season in the second population. In both populations, males provisioned young regardless of relatedness, as did helpers. Males provisioned less than the nesting female on average. Paternal effort did not reduce with an increase in the rate of EGP between populations. In the population with intermediate levels of EGP, the white-backed magpies, I observed helpers in about half of the sampled territories that produced fledglings. Helpers did not increase the production of young. In the population with high levels of EGP, western magpies, I detected helping behaviour in proportionally more territories. It appears that Australian magpie helpers provide help in order to pay 'rent' and remain on the natal territory. I discuss these results in light of the differences between the two races of magpie and the major theories regarding male parenting decisions and helper activity. Finally, I examine the relatively high rates of EGP's in the Australian magpie from a phylogenetic perspective. Although inbreeding avoidance is strongly supported by this study as the major reason EGP is so common in magpie populations, there may be an element of phylogenetic inertia that maintains the frequency of this behavioural trait. I comment upon the use of single-population estimates of species EGP rates in comparative analyses, given the intraspecific variation discovered between Australian magpie populations. Future directions for the study of mate choice in the Australian magpie are outlined with a proposal to study variation at the major histocompatibility complex between mated pairs.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian School of Environmental Studies
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The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a large, sedentary, omnivorous passerine. In some populations, individuals live in groups, and some of these groups breed cooperatively. The white-backed magpie (G. t. tyrannica) from the south-eastern corner of the continent, has had relatively little study, and few details are known of its mating system, social structure, and method of parental care. I conducted an observational study on a population of white-backed magpies, recording details of their demography, dispersal, breeding system, and parental care. In conjunction, I conducted a genetic analysis of the population, to determine if the genetic mating system matched the observed social system, to detect instances of extra-group mating, and to sex juvenile birds. Extra-pair paternity (EPP) is a common feature of the mating systems of many birds. The rate of EPP may vary between species, races and populations. I made a comparison of extra-group paternity (EGP) rates between two races of the Australian magpie, to determine if similar mating systems were being employed. The two populations had similar social structure, but differed in group size and dispersal. I predicted that dispersal differences would have a profound effect on the rate of EGP between the populations, as the population with the lower rate of dispersal and higher chance of breeding with a close relative would engage in EGPs more frequently. Eight microsatellite loci were used to determine parentage in the white-backed Australian magpie. The rate of EGP was found to be 44%. Dispersal rates were estimated from observational data. Over half of the juvenile magpie cohort from the previous breeding season leave the territorial group. These results contrast sharply with the results found by other researchers in a population of western Australian magpies (G t. dorsalis). In this population, 82% EGP is recorded and dispersal of juveniles is close to nil. The results indicate that dispersal rate is a potentially important predictor of rates of extra-group fertilisations between populations of this species, and suggest that females maximise their reproductive output by avoiding breeding with close kin. The reproductive success of a male bird is often correlated with measurable traits that predict his intrinsic quality. Females are thought to select mates based on their quality to gain their 'good genes'. Male Australian magpies of the white-backed race were trapped in two breeding seasons. Measurements were taken of morphometric and other characteristics in order to discover whether particular traits of males were associated with: a) number of fledglings produced in the territory per season; b) percentage of offspring sired in the territory; and c) whether females select males for their 'good genes'. The only variable that was correlated with number of territorial offspring was feather lice load. Males with high numbers of lice were less likely to produce territorial fledglings in one season and across both seasons. Males of inferior quality may be subject to increased conspecific territorial intrusions, leading to more time spent on defence, more failed breeding attempts, less time allocated to grooming and thus high parasite loads. Males that produced many territorial fledglings were more likely to gain genetic paternity of at least some of them, although again this was significant for only one season. Also, across both seasons, a high number of females in the group was correlated with increased paternity within the group. The general lack of correlation between the variables and level of genetic paternity may be due to females engaging in extra-group mating primarily to avoid breeding with a close relative rather than to choose a quality male. In this scenario, males would not have to be 'high quality', but merely genetically different to the female's social mate. Extra-group paternity (EGP) can affect paternal effort. It may also influence the helping effort of auxiliary birds in cooperatively breeding species. If helping is driven by kin selection, helpers should decline to provision unrelated young. Relatedness becomes difficult to assess however, when females mate outside the group. Alternative rewards may then become important in helper decisions. In my study population of Australian magpies, 38% of fledglings were sired by males outside the territorial group. In a second population (G. t. dorsalis), 82% of fledglings were sired by extra-group males. I observed within-group male and helper feeding effort over three breeding seasons in the first population and obtained data recorded over a single season in the second population. In both populations, males provisioned young regardless of relatedness, as did helpers. Males provisioned less than the nesting female on average. Paternal effort did not reduce with an increase in the rate of EGP between populations. In the population with intermediate levels of EGP, the white-backed magpies, I observed helpers in about half of the sampled territories that produced fledglings. Helpers did not increase the production of young. In the population with high levels of EGP, western magpies, I detected helping behaviour in proportionally more territories. It appears that Australian magpie helpers provide help in order to pay 'rent' and remain on the natal territory. I discuss these results in light of the differences between the two races of magpie and the major theories regarding male parenting decisions and helper activity. Finally, I examine the relatively high rates of EGP's in the Australian magpie from a phylogenetic perspective. Although inbreeding avoidance is strongly supported by this study as the major reason EGP is so common in magpie populations, there may be an element of phylogenetic inertia that maintains the frequency of this behavioural trait. I comment upon the use of single-population estimates of species EGP rates in comparative analyses, given the intraspecific variation discovered between Australian magpie populations. Future directions for the study of mate choice in the Australian magpie are outlined with a proposal to study variation at the major histocompatibility complex between mated pairs.

Increasing numbers of Australian children are being classified as overweight or obese. Given the health complications associated with excess weight, interventions to prevent children becoming overweight are crucial. Despite literature showing that parents shape their children’s food and exercise habits, no child obesity prevention programs have directly targeted parents. Moreover, although fear appeals have been used across several health promotion areas to change attitudes and behaviours, they have not been incorporated into an obesity preventive program. This study addressed these gaps by testing whether fear-based obesity simulations, targeted at parents as a tool for preventing childhood obesity, was more effective than an educational obesity message. The study was designed in two stages, with the first piloting the effectiveness of the simulations and an obesity message on a small sample of parents. Stage 2 tested a larger sample of parents and incorporated modifications from the pilot. In Stage 1, nine parents were randomly assigned to a Simulation or Education Presentation. Parents completed interviews and questionnaires at three different time points over a week. SPANOVAs revealed no significant improvements in attitudes, intentions, motivations, fears, and knowledge about obesity prevention for the Simulation compared to the Education Presentation. This contrasted to interview findings which indicated that parents found the Simulation Presentation more effective and changed their attitudes and behaviours compared to the Education Presentation. These findings highlighted important outcomes and informed the development of Stage 2. A qualitative approach was more effective in eliciting parental responses to their presentation; the education information may have been “too effective” and masked any impact of the simulations; and potential limitations regarding the insensitivity of the Likert scale, used to measure changes in parent responses to the questionnaire, may have mitigated any significant effects being found. The purpose of Stage 2 was to explore any impact of the simulations only through in depth parent interviews, and to use objective pedometer, food and anthropometric measures to triangulate and enhance the interview findings. Twenty four different parents were assigned to a photo or non-photo group. Parents and children completed interviews, anthropometric measurements, food records, and pedometer counts at three time points over eight weeks. Quantitative analyses found no significant improvements in children’s pedometer scores, food intake, and achievement of activity and diet recommendations, or in parent intention to change their children’s eating and exercise habits for the photo compared to the non-photo group. Many children failed to meet daily food and activity guidelines by the end of the study. This contrasts markedly to interview findings stating that: parents made improvements to their children’s diet and exercise patterns and, for parents who didn’t make changes, this was attributed to perceptions that they were already doing the right thing for their children. This disparity in results revealed an important yet underexplored issue for interventions targeting weight-related lifestyle changes. This focuses on levels of parental awareness about their children’s dietary adequacy and activity levels, and bridging the gap between what one perceives they are doing versus the reality of what is actually happening. This discrepancy may have mitigated any impact of the simulations through a false sense of adequacy and parent risk levels toward their children developing obesity.

Introduction Providing useful discharge information is a key priority for Emergency Department staff, especially when children are discharged from hospital because they are vulnerable, relying on their parents or guardians for the care. If these carers do not fully understand the discharge information, their child’s health and wellbeing may be compromised. For example, parents may make medication errors, with a risk that their child may not receive the appropriate dosage at the right time. Children may experience oligoanalgesia or be over-medicated for pain. Parents may not understand the signs that indicate they need to seek further medical attention for their child or return unnecessarily to busy EDs, which may increase health costs. A better understanding of the provision of discharge information in ED may reduce these risks. Aims The aim of this thesis is to explore the provision of discharge information to parents to assist in managing their child’s care post discharge from the ED. This thesis explores: 1. Factors in the ED that support the provision and understanding of discharge information to parents. 2. ED nurses’ perceptions of factors that influence parents’ understanding of discharge information 3. Parents’ perceptions of the discharge information they received from the ED. Methods This thesis has been guided by the philosophy of pragmatism and the Donabedian Model of Quality of Care conceptual framework. The mixed methods convergent parallel design used for this research, conceptualised as a “triangulation” design where quantitative and qualitative data are used to obtain triangulated results about a single topic. Triangulation data were collected through multiple methods and from four different studies: (i) document analysis; (ii) non-participant observation in the ED; (iii) focus groups with ED nurses; and (iv) a survey of parents of children attending the ED. The setting for data collection was a children’s ED at a tertiary referral hospital in Queensland, Australia. Data from each method were analysed separately, and then compared and integrated. Descriptive methods were used to analyse quantitative data, while thematic analysis was applied to qualitative data. Findings For the first time, the provision of the discharge information for parents in Australian ED has been explored using the Donabedian Model of Quality of care. This model provides direction in exploring the structural issues, processes, and outcomes domain of the provision discharge information. A thematic analysis of the findings from the 4 studies identified three key circumstances under which parents’ understanding of discharge information could be compromised or promoted. These circumstances are reflected in three themes: (i) the structures that support the provision of discharge information resources for parents; (ii) the impact of waiting times; and (iii) the structures and processes that underpin the model of care in the ED, and which guide the role of the ED staff in minimising the risk of parents’ misunderstanding information provided to them. Conclusion This thesis has investigated the structures, processes and outcomes relating to parents’ understanding of discharge information in an ED setting. Recommendations on strategies and future research to improve the provision of discharge information have been outlined. Ultimately, the findings from this study could inform future research endeavours to help ED staff and parents provide a high quality of care for children following discharge from the ED.

Parental time pressure, in terms of actual workload and subjective reports, is high and likely to increase in the future, with ongoing implications for personal wellbeing. The combination of parenting young children and maternal employment, in particular, gives rise to greater time pressure in families. Although characterised by increasing diversity, two of the most time pressured family types, dual-earner and lone parent families are central features in the Australian demographic landscape. In view of predominant social and cultural trends, the ‘problem’ of time pressure is deep-rooted and set to grow. While the need to address ‘work-family balance’ is prominent in political and social life, the relationship between time pressure and wellbeing has not been well quantified and we know little about how that relationship works in families. At the heart of the time pressure problem, is a potential threat to the healthy development of children. This thesis, then, is broadly concerned with the nature of time pressure and its relationship with parental wellbeing when they are caring for young children.The central aim of the thesis is to determine whether time pressure has a significant impact on the self-reported wellbeing of parents with young children. There are four main research questions. Time pressure is defined as being both objective (‘parental time use’) and subjective in nature (‘parental perceptions about their time’). The questions are: (1) What is the relationship between parental time use and parental perceptions about their time? (2) How do parental time use and parental perceptions about their time relate to their self-reported wellbeing? (3) Are the effects of parental time use and parental perceptions about their time on self-reported wellbeing modified by other perceived stressors and psychological coping resources? (4) What are the predictors of self-perceived time pressure? Because of their broad scope, each of these questions is given further focus by the stating of specific sub-components.The study draws from several selected theoretical perspectives and models around the influence of time on individual health and wellbeing. Because the experience of time pressure has multiple interacting levels of influence from the individual through to family, work, and community settings and more widely from the social, political and cultural environment, the thesis is underpinned by ecological theory. To allow for the meaningful and practical measurement of time pressure within different contexts, the Family and Community Resource Framework was adopted. The Framework views time as a resource that can be utilized and traded by families with other resources of human, financial, psychological and social capital to enable family functioning and individual wellbeing. Then, to make sense of the pathways of influence, subjective time pressure was conceptualized as a psychosocial factor within an epidemiological model of the social determinants of health. These theoretical perspectives in combination are woven throughout the thesis as both a guide and a means of interpreting results.In addressing the broad research gaps around time pressure and parental wellbeing, the study took a population perspective and a quantitative methodological approach. A sub sample of parents with young children (at least one resident child aged less than six) was drawn from Wave Two of the Household Income and Labor Dynamics of Australia (HILDA) Study, conducted in 2002. Acknowledging the key role of gender and employment status in the experience of time pressure, all analysis was undertaken separately for employed mothers (n=451), non-employed mothers (n=512) and employed fathers (n=686). At another level that recognizes the influence of family structure and joint employment arrangements, analysis was undertaken for parents in ‘dual-earner families’ (n=346), ‘traditional families’ (n=321) and ‘lone mother families’ (n=145). This approach addressed the specific deficiency of quantitative studies of time pressure (objective and subjective) among families at the population level.The concepts of “parental wellbeing”, “parental time use”, and “parental perceptions about their time” were all operationalized by a set of self-reported measures. Parental wellbeing was captured by the mental health, vitality and general health subscales of the MOS-Short-Form 36 allowing for variation in positive health states. Parental time use (objective time pressure) was measured by their self-reported estimates of average weekly hours in paid work, household work (sum of indoor and outdoor activities, and chores) and of their time spent with children. Furthermore, these three estimates were summed to provide two measures of total workload. Parental time perceptions (subjective time pressure) were quantified by questions about their paid work hour preferences and satisfaction, perceived fairness in their share of housework and childcare, satisfaction with their amount of free time, and primarily by their self-perceived time pressure. The study also drew on indicators of job quality, financial wellbeing, parenting stress and perceived social support to examine the modifying role of other psychological resources on the relationship between time pressure and wellbeing. The bulk of analyses utilized multivariate linear regression techniques to examine the simultaneous effects of time use and parental perceptions about their time on mental health, general health and vitality, with adjustment for family characteristics and indicators of human and financial capital.Primarily, the thesis concludes that time pressure has a significant negative impact on the wellbeing of many Australian parents with young children, in particular, when they are employed. ‘Self-perceived time pressure’ proves to be a complex issue as high levels were associated with large amounts of paid work and household work; with perceptions of unfairness in household work and childcare; with low free time satisfaction; with higher levels of job and parenting stress, and lower levels of perceived social support. The thesis provides conclusive evidence that a high level of self-perceived time pressure lowers the mental health, vitality and general health of all parents. For employed parents, low levels of satisfaction with their paid work hours, and for all parents, low levels of satisfaction with their free time hours had an additional detrimental effect on their mental health and vitality. In contrast, there was little evidence overall that parental distribution of time to specific activities, or that a greater total workload independently contributed to lower wellbeing. Unpredictably, employed mothers had better wellbeing when they spent a relatively large amount of time with their children. Furthermore, a high level of self-perceived time pressure exerted a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of some employed parents even after adjustment for other reported stressors around work and family life. Additionally, there was evidence that among the most highly time pressured mothers a higher level of perceived social support did little to buffer the impact of time pressure on aspects of their wellbeing. Integral to the findings is the evidence that family employment arrangements and structure alter the meaning of time pressure and its relationship to parental wellbeing.These conclusions raise the question of how to avoid time-pressured circumstances in Australian families, and how to support and resource parents who are already feeling chronically pressed for time. The very nature of time pressure implies multiple levels and points of intervention at the policy, community, workplace, family and individual level. Avoiding time pressure in families requires continued policy directions aimed at creating flexibility and choice in how parents divide their time between work and family with safeguards against excessive hours in paid work. Furthermore, the findings prompt the need for an expanded policy to one that includes leisure or time for oneself and the facilitation of parental time with children. From a preventive perspective, specific and early intervention at a family level from pre-conception through to antenatal and early parenting programs will help to facilitate a gender equitable approach to the division of labour. Among employed parents, correlations between self-perceived time pressure and their perceived stress and complexity of paid work suggest a greater role for workplaces in preventing and identifying psychosocial stress among employees. Inherently more difficult is identifying and supporting parents who are already feeling the strain. The prevalence of perceived time pressures and the strong negative association with parental wellbeing suggests the need for a public health response. The urgency for action lays in the potential damage to the relationship between the parent and developing child. Fundamentally, all strategies should be aimed at giving parents back a sense of control over their time.The thesis lays a foundation for ongoing research examining the effects of paid and unpaid work patterns, free time and perceived time pressures on parental, child and family wellbeing over time.

The Australian Special Forces (SF) members have faced considerable adversity with combat deployments to Afghanistan as an elite operational unit of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). There have been 40 combat deaths since 2001 and despite the significant research available on bereavement and violent death, to date there is a gap in the literature to guide the provision of bereavement support for spouses and parents of those SF members killed in action. Contemporary qualitative research into combat related bereavement has found a number of themes which gave meaning to bereavement outcomes found in the non-SF context and recommended that future studies in this field be extended to include SF bereavement. This study used a qualitative transcendental phenomenological design for the study of the bereavement experiences including perceptions of social support of widows and parents of SF members killed in action (KIA) in Afghanistan. In stressing the importance of the lived experiences of participants the purpose was to understand the lived experiences through the use of semi-structured face to face interviews. The journey of this research depicts a two phase study in which the first phase was unsuccessful in the recruitment of bereaved SF spouses and in the second phase the potential bereaved parent participants withdrew before the interview stage. Remaining true to phenomenological inquiry the focus of the researcher returned to the phenomenological paradigm for guidance on the way forward. It was a journey which reflected that in phenomenological inquiry the story should be allowed to tell itself. The resulting extension to this study featured a thematic information analysis of this study. Using the Moustakas (1994) modified van Kaam analysis model, four dominant themes emerged to explain the recruitment challenges of this study. The extracted themes included the SF as a hard to reach population; specific bereavement research challenges; research methods and design and, the ethics review processes. These were used to explain the phenomena of research challenges in the SF context. The outcome of this study is discussed in the context of the themes and guidance for future research in SF combat related bereavement.

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Doctor of Philosophy

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Doctor of Philosophy

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Doctor of Philosophy

Home education is a growing phenomenon in Australia. It is the practice whereby parents engage in the full time education of their children at home. This study used a phenomenographic approach to identify and analyse how home educating parents conceive of their roles as home educators. Data analysis presented an outcome space of the parents‘ qualitatively different conceptions of their roles as home educators. This outcome space exemplifies the phenomenon of the roles of parent home educators. This thesis reports on the qualitatively different ways in which a group of 27 home educating parents viewed their roles in the education of their children. Four categories of description of parent home educator roles emerged from the analysis. These parents saw themselves in the role of a (1) learner, as they needed to gain knowledge and skills in order to both commence and to continue home education. Further, they perceived of themselves as (2) partners, usually with their spouse, in an educational partnership, which provided the family‘s educational infrastructure. They also saw themselves in the role of (3) teachers of their children, facilitating their education and development. Finally, they conceived of themselves as (4) educational pioneers in their communities. These four categories were linked and differentiated from each other by three key themes or dimensions of variation. These were the themes of (1) educational influence; (2) educational example; and (3) spirituality, which impacted both their families and the wider community. The findings of the study indicate that home educators experience their roles in four critically different ways, each of which contributes to their family educational enterprise. The findings suggest that home educators, are bona fide educators and that they access parental qualities that provide a form of education which differs from the educational practices characteristic of the majority of Australians. The study has the potential to generate further understandings of home education for home educators and for the wider community. It may also inform policy makers in the fields of education, social welfare, and the law, where there is a vested interest in the education and welfare of children and families.

This research investigates home literacy education practices of Taiwanese families in Australia. As Taiwanese immigrants represent the largest ¡°Chinese Australian¡± subgroup to have settled in the state of Queensland, teachers in this state often face the challenges of cultural differences between Australian schools and Taiwanese homes. Extensive work by previous researchers suggests that understanding the cultural and linguistic differences that influence how an immigrant child views and interacts with his/her environment is a possible way to minimise the challenges. Cultural practices start from infancy and at home. Therefore, this study is focused on young children who are around the age of four to five. It is a study that examines the form of literacy education that is enacted and valued by Taiwanese parents in Australia. Specifically, this study analyses ¡°what literacy knowledge and skill is taught at home?¡±, ¡°how is it taught?¡± and ¡°why is it taught?¡± The study is framed in Pierre Bourdieu.s theory of social practice that defines literacy from a sociological perspective. The aim is to understand the practices through which literacy is taught in the Taiwanese homes. Practices of literacy education are culturally embedded. Accordingly, the study shows the culturally specialised ways of learning and knowing that are enacted in the study homes. The study entailed four case studies that draw on: observations and recording of the interactions between the study parent and child in their literacy events; interviews and dialogues with the parents involved; and a collection of photographs of the children.s linguistic resources and artefacts. The methodological arguments and design addressed the complexity of home literacy education where Taiwanese parents raise children in their own cultural ways while adapting to a new country in an immigrant context. In other words, the methodology not only involves cultural practices, but also involves change and continuity in home literacy practices. Bernstein.s theory of pedagogic discourse was used to undertake a detailed analysis of parents. selection and organisation of content for home literacy education, and the evaluative criteria they established for the selected literacy knowledge and skill. This analysis showed how parents selected and controlled the interactions in their child.s literacy learning. Bernstein.s theory of pedagogic discourse was used also to analyse change and continuity in home literacy practice, specifically, the concepts of ¡°classification¡± and ¡°framing¡±. The design of this study aimed to gain an understanding of parents. literacy teaching in an immigrant context. The study found that parents tended to value and enact traditional practices, yet most of the parents were also searching for innovative ideas for their adult-structured learning. Home literacy education of Taiwanese families in this study was found to be complex, multi-faceted and influenced in an ongoing way by external factors. Implications for educators and recommendations for future study are provided. The findings of this study offer early childhood teachers in Australia understandings that will help them build knowledge about home literacy education of Taiwanese Australian families.

Despite widespread interest in patterns of parenting after separation in Australia, the gaps in our knowledge remain large and fundamental. Most studies, including those overseas, have taken a quantitative tack, measuring the frequency and overall amount of face-to-face contact between children and non-resident parents (mostly fathers). But obviously there is more to parent�child contact than just time. The nature and quality of the interaction are also important � perhaps even more so. Recently there has been a push towards recognising and describing both qualitative and quantitative differences in the many ways that parental sharing of time with children can occur after divorce. This thesis attempts to identify and explore some of these differences by comparing five different patterns of care: (i) 50/50 shared care, (ii) little or no contact, (iii) holiday-only contact, (iv) daytime-only contact, and (v) �standard� contact (thought to occur every-other-weekend and half of each school holidays). A representative snapshot of parent�child contact schedules after separation is presented to provide some of the detail of arrangements within this typology. Two (complementary) types of data are used: qualitative data from a series of focus groups with separated parents, and quantitative data from three large representative samples of separated/divorced parents in Australia. Joining the dots between the various pieces of data, there is much to suggest that family dynamics in tandem with demographic factors temper the form that parent�child contact takes, with different combinations of factors clearly linked to qualitatively different patterns of postseparation parenting. While separating parents need to be encouraged to think more laterally about what arrangements might work best for their children and themselves, the data presented suggest that some parents in Australia are already being very creative and there is much diversity of arrangements. The central argument running through this dissertation is that arrangements that allow children to experience fluid, meaningful time with each parent are critical for children�s and parents� wellbeing. The ideas and data presented here � especially some of the more creative timesharing schedules developed by parents � are likely to be a useful resource for separated parents, and the family law professionals they approach for assistance, to reflect on when developing or refining parenting arrangements after divorce.

This research focussed on families in which at least one parent was a long-term cannabis user; I explored family members’ perceptions of the benefits and harms of cannabis use and the strategies parents used to minimise cannabis-related harm to themselves and their children. In depth, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 43 individuals from 13 families, producing a series of family case studies that enabled examination of multiple perspectives within each family. In Study 1, I used an interpretive framework guided by Miles and Huberman’s (1994) thematic content analysis technique to analyse interview data, while study 2 yielded detailed descriptive vignettes that examined how the use of cannabis played out in particular families. Cannabis users have been portrayed as stereotypically lazy, unhealthy, deviant, and criminal. However, this was not the case with the current sample, whose lifestyles revolved around employment and family life. Parents claimed to use cannabis in a responsible way that minimised harm to self and family. Few reported personal experiences of harm and most did not believe that their children had been adversely affected by their use of cannabis. Nonetheless, children’s awareness of parental cannabis use, and access to the parent’s cannabis supply, occurred at a younger age than parents suspected. Parents reported harm reduction strategies that targeted five broad areas: (1) Dosage control; (2) Dependency; (3) Acute risk; (4) Long-term harm; and (5) Harm to children. The current study points to common-sense ways of reducing harm, such as being discreet about cannabis use; using less potent strains; prioritising family and work responsibilities; being careful about where cannabis was obtained; not mixing cannabis with tobacco; and limiting any financial outlay. The harm reduction strategies identified in this research might be helpful in the forensic evaluation, safety planning, and treatment of parental cannabis use. The validity of the current findings was enhanced by having independent data on the same topic from each family member’s point of view, including non-using partners and children, and by including both convergent and divergent data.

In countries such as Australia, children's active and independent mobility has declined in the past 40 years, with less children walking to school. As physical activity is a key component of child health and well-being this decrease in children’s independent mobility (CIM) and active travel (AT) has placed children at greater risk of physical and mental health problems. To confront this problem, travel behaviour change interventions to promote active and independent school travel are currently deployed in Australia by local and state governments. To date there have been few comprehensive studies of these interventions and in particular, whether and how they relate to contemporary parental attitudes and perceptions about CIM. There remain significant research gaps about the relative importance of travel behaviour change programs in parental decision-making processes. As part of the larger iMATCH (independent Mobility, Active Travel and Children’s Health) Project this research sought to identify the range of current interventions being used in Australia, the attitudes and perceptions of parents and guardians in a range of urban environments across the country, and to explore how interventions may better respond to these concerns to increase their effectiveness. A theoretical framework based on Azjen’s (1988) Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Trans- theoretical model of behaviour change (TTM) was developed to guide the research. The suggested theoretical model was examined by adopting the structural equation modelling (SEM). The valid and reliable model was introduced regarding evaluating, designing, and running travel behaviour change interventions. This model was employed as a fundamental structure for guiling the research process. Interventions used in Australia were examined firstly using published project evaluations, websites and other reports, with attention given to their treatment of CIM and their efficacy. The broader iMATCH study used child and parent surveys and travel diaries, amongst other methods, collected from schools in nine neighbourhoods in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Rockhampton. Responses provided in 309 parent surveys were examined in detail. A total of nine parents from two schools in Brisbane and one in Ipswich that were part of the broader study were then recruited for either a focus group discussion or a face-to-face interview, eliciting further detail on their attitudes.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith School of Environment
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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In Australia there has been little research into the experiences and perceptions of education of parents from different minority groups whose young children attend school in this country. This study investigated the experiences that overseas born parents from non-English speaking backgrounds have of their own and their children's education in countries outside Australia, experiences of their children's early education in Australia, as well as those of their young children between 6 and 9 years of age attending school in this country. Despite marked differences in educational policies and practices operating in the participants' countries of origin, almost all parents in this study had experiences of education in childhood which were unlikely to be conducive to the building of warm and friendly future relationships with teachers and schools. Feelings of fear and hostility due to the extremely formal role methods, repressive discipline, and harsh corporal punishment administered by authoritarian and often cruel teachers, particularly in early primary years, were consistently described as pervasive elements in the education of most of the parents participating. In contrast, many aspects• of education in Australia were regarded as superior, however unsatisfactory communication, lack of awareness and interest demonstrated by schools and teachers meant that many of these parents also had negative experiences of education in this country. Dissatisfaction with their children's progress resulting in feelings of powerlessness due to the perceived lack of information, concerns about insufficient academic rigour, motivation and discipline were a source' of anxiety for many participants. Discussions with the young children of participants revealed their preferences for non academic activities outside the classroom, and those involving creativity •and/or• motor skills. Children's dislikes related mainly to relationships with their peer group, with difficulties in making /retaining friendships, bullying and racism as issues of concern. Relationships with teachers seemed to be both positive and negative, however little help with problems concerning the peer group seemed forthcoming, and minimal evidence of positive affirmation of the cultural and linguistic differences of these children was noted. Recommendations and implications include the need for teachers and schools to develop more cultural awareness in order to understand the differing perspectives of linguistically and culturally diverse families, and appreciate the role that parents’ prior experiences of education play in the formation of attitudes towards their children’s education. The importance of improving relationships, building authentic collaborative partnerships between teachers and minority group parents, and providing more information about school goals and programmes with opportunities to discuss these freely, is stressed. The use of overseas born parents’ expertise and home experiences both as resources to facilitate optimum outcomes for their children, and a means of increasing respect, understanding and trust between linguistically and culturally diverse families and the “mainstream” school population, is also strongly recommended.

This thesis investigates the labour supply behaviour of female sole parents in Australia. The major issue explored is the responsiveness of female sole parents to economic incentives, in particular those incentives generated by the interaction of the taxation and social security systems. The methodological framework is given by the neoclassical theory of consumer demand as it relates to the static analysis of labour supply. The estimated labour supply equation derives from direct optimisation of a constant elasticity of substitution utility function, subject to a budget constraint. The estimating equation, therefore, formally includes both individual preferences and economic incentives. The incentive structure facing sole parents in Australia in 1982 is constructed using information on the level and structure of income support provided through the sole parent pension programme in conjunction with the structure of the taxation system. Econometric issues associated with nonlinearities and non-convexities that are introduced into budget sets by the taxation and welfare systems were a major consideration determining the choice of the econometric model. Coefficient estimates are used to derive wage and income elasticities which in turn are used to assess social policy towards sole parents. A wage equation is estimated in order to include individuals observed as not participating in the labour market in the labour supply estimations. Various issues associated with the estimation of female wage equations using Australian data are investigated. The results indicate that coefficient estimates from these equations are sensitive to the measurement of labour market experience. In particular, inappropriate specification of this variable can give an incorrect indication of the degree of censoring bias present in the equation. The major results to emerge from analysis of the labour supply equation concern first, the relatively large degree of responsiveness of female sole parents to economic incentives, in particular to changes in market wages and, second, the significant difference, on average, between reservation and market wages for women not participating in the labour market. The latter of these results is of particular interest as it provides formal empirical support for the existence of high fixed costs of work for these women, and for the importance of these costs in inhibiting labour market entry. This is of general interest as well as being important to the development of policy for sole parents. The evidence for the effects of fixed work costs has been largely anecdotal until now, in particular for women who are welfare dependants. Two policy implications that follow from these results are discussed. First, the strength of the estimated response to economic incentives indicates that elimination of the poverty trap facing sole parents will have a significant impact upon the work efforts of these individuals thus helping to reduce their high level of welfare dependence. Second, as costs associated with childcare are undoubtedly the major work related costs faced by sole parents, increased spending on work related childcare is important if the economic status of female sole parents is to be improved by encouraging self-sufficiency through market work.

While home schooling is by no means a new phenomenon, the last three decades have seen an increasing trend in the engagement of this educational alternative. In many countries, including Australia, a growing number of families are opting to remove their children from the traditional schooling system for numerous reasons and educate them at home. In response to the recent home schooling movement a research base in this area of education has emerged. However, the majority of research has been undertaken primarily in the United States of America and the United Kingdom, with very few studies having examined home schooling in Australia. The existing corpus of research is also relatively small and incomplete. Also, certain categories of home schoolers and the processes involved in their undertaking of this modern version of a historically enduring educational alternative have been overlooked. In particular, children with disabilities appear to be one of the home schooling groups that have attracted very little research world wide. This group constituted the focus of the study reported in this thesis. Its particular concern was with generating theory regarding how parents deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year. Data gathering was largely carried out through individual, face-to-face semi-structured interviewing and participant observation in the interpretivist qualitative research tradition. However, informal interviews, telephone interviews and documents were also used to gather supplementary data for the study. Data were coded and analysed using the open coding method of the grounded theory model and through the development and testing of propositions. The central research question which guided theory generation was as follows: 'How do parents within the Perth metropolitan area in the state of Western Australia deal with educating their children with intellectual disabilities from a home base over a period of one year?' The central proposition of the theory generated is that parents do so through progressive modification and that this involves them progressing through three stages over a period of one year. The first stage is designated the stage of drawing upon readily-available resources. The second stage is designated the stage of drawing upon support networks in a systematic fashion. The third stage is designated the stage of proceeding with confidence on the basis of having a set of principles for establishing a workable pattern of home schooling individualised for each circumstance. This theory provides a new perspective on how parents deal with the home schooling of their children with intellectual disabilities over a period of one year. A number of implications for further theory development, policy and practice are drawn from it. Several recommendations for further research are also made.

The increase in separation and divorce rates during the 20th century brought with it many far-reaching social implications for all involved, sparking a high level of interest among researchers. Most research in this area has been approached from stress frameworks that have conceptualised separation and divorce as a stressful life transition that individuals must adjust to. Yet, attempts to understand separation and divorce to date have been dominated by quantitative methods that have resulted in a relatively static and objective understanding of this experience; particularly in Australia. Furthermore, although international rates of divorce are declining, rates of separation following cohabiting unions are increasing. However, research continues to neglect the voices of formerly cohabiting individuals. Using a qualitative methodology, the current study sought to explore the experience of separation from the perspectives of both formerly married and cohabiting parents in Australia to learn more about how they adjust following this stressful life event. The term ‘separated’ was used to denote relationship dissolution to ensure adequate representation of both formerly married and cohabiting parents. This study was embedded within an interpretivist paradigm and was guided by a phenomenological qualitative methodology. Using Moustakas’ (1994) systematic phenomenological research method, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 55 separated parents ranging in age from 23 to 56 years. Thirty-four parents were formerly married and the remaining 21 were part of cohabiting unions. Of the 25 mothers who participated in the current study, 11 were residential, 5 were non-residential and 9 were shared care parents. Of the 30 fathers involved in the current study, 9 were residential, 11 were non-residential and 10 were shared care parents. Exploration of experiences of the six groups of parents allowed for more robust and rich data. Phenomenological data analysis guided by Moustakas (1994) was used to understand and interpret interview transcripts. Data analyses identified five major themes and related sub-themes that captured the experience of separation and the factors associated with adjustment: uncoupling (including sub-themes of psychological health, family stress, infidelity, and drifting apart); uncoupled (including sub-themes of co-parenting, the economic struggle, loss and loneliness, identity: assumed and assigned, and psychological, emotional, and physical health problems); searching within the self (including sub-themes of personal control, selfregulation, optimism, and healthy living); reaching beyond the self (including sub-themes of connectedness, social support and reaching out, positive employment, constructive coparenting, the parent – child relationship, and loving again); and patterns of adjustment (including sub-themes of the rollercoaster, the ‘time’ factor, and the protective nature of separation). Collectively, findings revealed that the Australian experience of separation began prior to separation and was constantly changing over time. Formerly married and cohabiting parents’ experiences were imbued with stressors frequently identified in research that has adopted dominant stress frameworks, along with numerous personal and environmental resources that lessened the impact of stressors and assisted adjustment following separation. A framework that represents the experience of separation and the factors associated with adjustment was developed based on these five themes. Findings support an understanding of adjustment following separation and divorce that advocates for a paradigm shift away from objective conceptualisations of this experience, towards an understanding of this experience as it is perceived by those who have been through it. Therefore, to only attend to static and objective conceptualisations of separation and divorce as they are experienced by formerly married individuals would be to overlook significant psychological and social elements of the separation and divorce experience. Further research is encouraged with a specific focus on gender, residential status and marital status.

Purpose: To investigate how speech-language pathologists (SLPs) report involving parents in intervention for phonology-based speech sound disorders (SSDs), and to describe the home practice that they recommend. Further aims were to describe the training SLPs report providing to parents, to explore SLPs? beliefs and motivations for involving parents in intervention, and to determine whether SLPs? characteristics are associated with their self-reported practice. Method: An online survey of 288 SLPs working with SSD in Australia was conducted. Result: The majority of SLPs (96.4%) reported involving parents in intervention, most commonly in providing home practice. On average, these tasks were recommended to be completed five times per week for 10?min. SLPs reported training parents using a range of training methods, most commonly providing opportunities for parents to observe the SLP conduct the intervention. SLPs? place of work and years of experience were associated with how they involved and trained parents in intervention. Most (95.8%) SLPs agreed or strongly agreed that family involvement is essential for intervention to be effective. Conclusion: Parent involvement and home practice appear to be intricately linked within intervention for phonology-based SSDs in Australia. More high-quality research is needed to understand how to best involve parents within clinical practice.

Reproduction and child-rearing are distinctly gendered, temporalising acts in Australia. As such, reproduction is structured around temporalities of care and labour, and these temporalities emerge and disrupt established orderings in daily life, lifetimes, and larger-scale timelines. This thesis uncovers the underlying conception of time in the Australian legal regimes of parental leave, flexible work, and superannuation and its gendered connotations. As a socio-legal project, this thesis uses existing empirical evidence and theoretical material to conceptualise, critically analyse, and theorise the gendered temporalities of women with children in Australia. By constructing a feminist critique of neo-maternalistic productivism in Australia's parental leave, flexible work and superannuation systems, the thesis provides an alternate theory of disrupted temporalities in maternity.

The impetus for this portfolio is the accelerating drift of Australian school students from state-run, free government schools to fee-paying independent and/or Catholic schools within the non-government sector. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data show that between 1996 and 2006, student enrolments in non-government schools grew by 21.5% compared with 1.2% in government schools (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS], 2007). In this portfolio, a sociological lens reflective of the pragmatic paradigm is applied to the question of school choice in order to understand parents' thinking behind the choices they are making and, moving forward, how the funding and governance of schooling in Australia might lead to different school choices. The portfolio is structured around a three-way school-choice model whereby parents' choices arise through the interaction of three dimensions: local options, global trends and personal circumstances. The portfolio incorporates a combination of primary and secondary research. The secondary research explores local and global dimensions of school choice while the primary research investigates the personal dimension. The primary research is a case-study conducted in a precinct of metropolitan Perth in 2007. In the case-study, a survey was administered to the parents of all students who had just commenced their secondary schooling (entering year 8) at one of eight schools located within the case study precinct. Participating schools comprised a mixture of government, Catholic and independent sectors and, due to their shared proximity, were each others' main competition for students. While a high degree of agreement about what makes a 'good' school was found among participating parents, sector-specific variation was found in the sense of agency reported by parents and in the extent to which participating schools were perceived to offer several factors that were deemed to be prominent in 'good' schools. In each case, government schools lagged behind their non-government counterparts. Recommendations offer a pragmatic and empirically sound approach to arresting the drift of students away from government secondary schools.

Children with an autism diagnosis often struggle in a mainstream school environment and yet this is where increasing numbers of them are receiving their education (Roberts & Simpson, 2016). Children with autism more often struggle with social isolation and rejection, behaviour difficulties, bullying and problems with comprehension and transitioning within the classroom environment (Majoko, 2016a). These difficulties impact negatively on the educational outcomes for this group of students (Keen, Webster & Ridley, 2016). Parents of children on the spectrum are aware from the time their child is very young that they will experience school differently from their peers without a diagnosis, and often feel powerless in their role as advocate for their child in a school context (McDonald, 2014). Parent voices need to be heard and considered if educational outcomes for these children are to improve. The Longitudinal Study of Australian Students with Autism (LASA) is an attempt to address this situation. This eight-year government funded study has recruited parents of children in two cohort groups to provide both personal data and approve the collection of school data about their children for the study. A small but significant number of parents have declined permission for the researchers to contact their child’s school. The reasons for this decision and the school/home communication challenges represented by this decision are the focus of this project. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used to compare the attitudes of three groups of parents identified from existing data: parents who educate at home, parents enrolled in schools of distance education and a control group of parents whose children attend mainstream schools. Each family received a link to an online survey requesting information about their relationship with staff at their child’s current school setting (including teachers overseeing a distance education program) or a past setting if that is more relevant. Further in-depth lived experience data were then collected through interviews with a small number of parents from each group. Understanding more about parental lived experience in relation to their child’s schooling in different parts of Australia will better inform policy decisions about practical implications of including students with autism in mainstream schools.
Thesis (Masters)
Master of Education and Professional Studies Research (MEdProfStRes)
School Educ & Professional St
Arts, Education and Law
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This study is concerned with how educational legislation shapes and uses freedom for the purpose of governing the parent. The key question guiding the study was: How does the Act constitute the ‘parent’ as a subject position responsible for schooling the child? Central to the work is an examination of the School Education Act 1999 (the Act) using Foucault’s thinking on governmentality. This is prefaced by historical accounts that bring together freedom and childhood as contrived styles of conduct that provide the governmental logic behind the Act. The study reveals how the Act shapes and uses the truth of freedom/childhood to construct the responsible parent as a style of conduct pegged to a neo-liberal political rationality of government. It is this political rationality that provides the node or point of encounter between the technologies of power and the self within the Act which forms the ‘responsible’ identity of the parent as an active self-governing entrepreneur made more visible by the political construction of ‘others.’ This is a legal-political subjectivity centred on the truth of freedom/childhood and a neo-liberal rationality of government that believes that any change to our current ethical way of being in relation to educating the child would ruin the very freedoms upon which our civilised lifestyle depends. In essence, the Act relies on the production of ‘others’ as the poor, Aboriginal and radical who must be regulated and made autonomous to constitute the ‘parent’ as an active consumer whose autonomous educational choices are an expression of responsibility in relation to schooling the child