Degree Discipline

Evaluation of Texas Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters Program on Reading and Math Achievement for Grades K to 8 (open access)

Evaluation of Texas Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters Program on Reading and Math Achievement for Grades K to 8

This study was intended to evaluate the impact of socioeconomically disadvantaged children's participation in the Texas Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (TX HIPPY) Program on their school readiness and academic achievement. The study used a quasi-experimental design and applied full and optimal propensity score matching (PSM) to address the evaluation concern of the impact of the TX HIPPY program on HIPPY participants' academic achievement compared to non-HIPPY participants. This evaluation targeted former HIPPY participants and tracked them in the Dallas ISD database through Grade Levels K-8. Data were obtained by administering Istation's Indicators of Progress (ISIP) for kindergarten, TerraNova/SUPERA for Grades K-2, and State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness for math and reading (STAAR) for Grades 3-8. HIPPY and non-HIPPY groups were matched using propensity score analysis procedures. The evaluation findings show that the TX HIPPY program positively influences kindergarten students to start school ready to learn. The findings of math and reading achievements suggest that HIPPY children scored at the same level or higher than non-HIPPY children did on math and reading achievement, indicating that TX HIPPY program has achieved its goal of helping children maintain long-term academic success. However, the evaluation findings also indicated that …
Date: August 2019
Creator: Abdulaziz, Noor Amal Saud
System: The UNT Digital Library
Stability and Trajectories of Early Supportive Environment and Adolescents' Depression and Mastery (open access)

Stability and Trajectories of Early Supportive Environment and Adolescents' Depression and Mastery

Previous studies highlighted the importance of parental support for development of mastery of control and depressive symptoms. These studies tended to examine one time wave and outcomes related to that period, forwarding an assumption parenting behaviours do not change as children age. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-Children and Young Adults, this study filled the gap by examining children's supportive environment at three time points and determining how levels of support across these points impacted children's depression and mastery at 18 years of age. Relative stability of mothers' supportive parenting (i.e., encouragement of social maturity, warmth and affection, and physical punishment) at early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence was examined by Kendall's tau correlations. Encouragement of social maturity showed relative stability between early and middle childhood and middle childhood and early adolescence; warmth and affection showed relative stability between early and middle childhood, and physical punishment showed relative stability across all time points. Absolute stability was examined using hierarchical linear modelling and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. No instances were found. Latent class growth analysis identified different trajectories of supportive environment among participants and three groups were identified. Multiple regressions conducted to examine how different trajectories affect late adolescents' …
Date: May 2019
Creator: Wu, Minwei
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mothering while Brown: Latina Borderland Mothers' Experiences of Epistemic Injustice (open access)

Mothering while Brown: Latina Borderland Mothers' Experiences of Epistemic Injustice

Anti-immigrant rhetoric undermines Latinx parents' epistemic legitimacy as producers of valued parental knowledge, irrespective of immigrant status. Little is known about the epistemic harm to Latina mothers who must negotiate their maternal scripts against the backdrop of a parenting discourse steeped in deficit thinking. This study used testimonio to explore the experiences of Latina mothers of young children living in the borderlands of South Texas via a Chicana/Latina feminist epistemological framework that conceptualizes the self as multiplicitous and responsive to the straddling of multiple cultures, nationalities, races, languages, and physical borders. The research questions guiding the study included: (1) How do Latina borderland mothers experience epistemic harm in the context of mothering knowledge? and (2) What strategies do borderland mothers employ to nurture strength and counter epistemic harm? Two theoretical constructs emerged from data analyses. First, the borderland was a site of recurring credibility battles as well as a site of "in-the-flesh" encounters that deepened human connection. Supporting themes included "Brown-on-Brown conflict vs. like-me counters" and "situating injustice vs. denying injustice." The second theoretical construct asserted that borderland mothers' ways of knowing are polyvocal and reflect a Brown body ethic of care. Its two supporting themes included "co-family as sources …
Date: December 2019
Creator: Verdin, Azucena
System: The UNT Digital Library