African American Parents’ Perceptions of How Their Digital Practices Affect the Parent-Child Relationship

This qualitative study aimed to understand African American parents’ perceptions, observations, and experiences concerning their digital practices and whether or not these practices have any impact on their communication with their children. The theories that guided this study are housed in the sociopsychological communication tradition (i.e., uses and gratification theory and the family communication patterns theory) and the sociocultural communication tradition (i.e., cultivation theory). Thirty-five in-depth interviews of African American parents who completed a qualifying survey were conducted. The interview transcripts underwent a thematic analysis to understand the interviewees’ perceptions, observations, and experiences related to the research questions, which addressed their digital practices. The insights from this study can benefit African American parents, caregivers of African American children, scholars, professionals (e.g., educators and social workers), and policymakers to create best practices that could help scholars and practitioners provide more data-informed and data-driven support to African Americans in various contexts (e.g., parenting, family planning, education, social services, etc.)

The Friendship Experiences of Academic High Achievers in Hong Kong Secondary Schools

This research thesis explores the complex, unique and contextual friendship experiences of ten exceptionally high academic achievers in mainstream Hong Kong secondary schools. The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews and the data was thematically analysed. Three broad themes were found and presented in the thesis. They include friendship needs, friendship processes and contextual factors of high academic achievers in school friendship development. The findings show the complex and unique experiences of these individual students who shared similar academic qualities. The thesis also includes suggestions for professional practice and further directions for inquiry on gifted education and students' school friendship development in Hong Kong