Mary P. Deming

Parentification, Parental Alcoholism, and Academic Status among Young Adults.

Abstract This study examined 360 young adults in terms of their perceptions of having assumed a parentified role in their family of origin as a function of academic status and classification as children of alcoholics or nonalcoholics. Low academic status participants reported having experienced greater caretaking responsibilities and worries in their families than those admitted into a regular academic undergraduate program. Respondents who had an alcoholic parent scored higher on the parentification measure than those who were children of problem drinkers and children of nonalcoholics.

The reliability and validity of the learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI) with college developmental students

Abstract This study compared the reliability and validity of the ten subtests of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) (Weinstein et al., 1987) obtained from 99 college developmental studies students enrolled in an introductory reading course in a southeastern, urban, two‐year community college with the norming values obtained by Weinstein, Schulte, and Palmer (1987). The results indicated that nine of the ten subtest reliability coefficients approached, but did not equal those reported by Weinstein et al. (1987). One‐sample chi‐square analyses also revealed that developmental studies students in the present study scored better than expected on three of the subtests, scored no different than the national norms on four subtests and scored worse than the national norms on three subtests.

GENDER INFLUENCES ON THE LANGUAGE PROCESSES OF COLLEGE BASIC WRITERS

Deming and Gowen (1989) conducted a study during the 1989 winter quarter at a suburban junior college to examine the association between gender, writing processes, and the written products of 33 male and female basic college freshmen writers. Students were administered the Daly and Miller Writing Anxiety Scale (1975), and wrote two drafts, one on a reflexive topic, and the other, on an extensive one (Perl, 1980). Topics were randomly assigned with one topic concerned with discipline of children and the other with the importance of friendship in school. Students were interviewed concerning their writing processes and topic preferences. Sixty‐six drafts were analyzed for length, time of production, pronoun usage, and examples of advice giving. The results of the study confirmed the work of earlier researchers and contributed new information. College basic female writers used more first person pronouns than males, and both genders used fewer pronouns when writing extensive essays. Males used “you” more often...

Parental Alcoholism and Percieved Levels of Family Health Among College Freshmen

This study investigated the influence of parental alcoholism on 593 freshman students at an urban, non-residential, southeastern university to determine how collegiate children of alcoholics (COAs), problem drinkers, and non-alcoholics (nonCOAs) differed in their perceptions of family health as indicated by the Family of Origin Scale (FOS). These three groups of offspring differed significantly in their perception of family health as measured by the scales constructs of autonomy and intimacy and on various items within each construct. Children of alcoholics and problem drinkers scored lower on each construct and its related items, indicating that COAs perceived their families as less healthy when compared to the perceptions of children of non-alcoholics.