Program

Doctor of Ministry

Number of Pages

197

Year Approved

2025

First Advisor

Parolini, Jeanine

Second Reader

Katie Friesen Smilth; Kate Scorgie

Abstract

This study sought to understand the effectiveness of restorative leadership development and coaching in parent or caregiver differentiation of self in chronically conflicted family systems experiencing chronic absenteeism or truancy. This mixed method study employed a program evaluation approach that examines parent pre- and post-survey results after engaging with The Parent Line over nine weeks. A third-party statistician collected and analyzed the data to provide research transparency. The research includes a review of the biblical book of Genesis 37-50 examining Joseph's attributes towards differentiation of self in a chronically anxious family system and a literature review that examined the parental differentiation of self in Bowen's Family Systems Theory. The information gleaned from these three data points provides the information required to understand the program's effectiveness. The information extracted resulted in three primary guidelines for truancy prevention providers, which include: Parents who define themselves can (1) operate as leaders influencing their household, (2) leverage neutrality and calm connectedness at home, and (3) successfully manage and plan for negative family feedback to influence change directly with their teen.

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

Document Type

Doctoral thesis

Terms of Use and License Information

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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