The purpose of this study was to understand students' perspectives on the role of homework. Middle school students (N = 506) volunteered to complete open-ended surveys describing their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of homework. Qualitative analysis revealed that students identified several instructional and noninstructional reasons for…

Relational reasoning, the ability to discern meaningful patterns within a stream of information, is considered a critical capacity for students. However, little is known about how this ability is demonstrated by children of different ages in the context of discourse with a more knowledgeable other. Thus, this study sought to investigate the ways…

This study explored cross-sectional gender and grade level trends in emotional literacy and interpersonal competence among 913 elementary and middle school students in Japan. Students were presented with two hypothetical scenarios involving mixed emotions and potential interpersonal dilemmas. Results indicated that older children possess greater…

Co-rumination is a dyadic process between relationship partners that refers to excessively discussing problems, rehashing problems, speculating about problems, mutual encouragement of problem talk, and dwelling on negative affect. Although studies have addressed youths' "tendency" to co-ruminate, little is known about the nature of…

Children and adolescents with hearing impairments are at risk of being excluded from activities with hearing peers. Moral emotion attributions may represent important indicators for children's identification with the moral norm not to exclude peers based on disability. Against this background, we investigated how 10-, 12- and 15-year-olds…

Self-handicapping represents a frequently used strategy for regulating the threat to self-esteem elicited by the fear of failing in academic achievement settings. Several studies have documented negative associations between self-handicapping and different educational outcomes, inter alia academic achievement. However, studies on the relation…

The movement from middle school to high school is a normative transition that is typically associated with increased stress and opportunity in social and academic domains. Theoretically, this transition may reflect a turning point in terms of initiating or sharply increasing heavy alcohol use, a notion that has received little attention in the…

Consistent with a Diathesis × Stress model, it was hypothesized that anxious solitude (individual vulnerability) and the middle school transition (environmental stress) would jointly predict peer exclusion and victimization trajectories. Youth (N = 688) were followed from 3rd through 7th grade, with the middle school transition in 6th grade.…

Youth suicide is a serious public health issue in the United States. It is currently the third leading cause of death for youth aged 10 to 19. School-based prevention programs may be an effective method of educating youth and enhancing their help-seeking. Most school-based suicide prevention programs have not been rigorously evaluated for their…

Eighty-seven 4th, 5th and 6th grade students were administered the "Derivational Relatedness Interview" (DRI) (Templeton, Smith, Moloney, Van Pelt, & Ives, 2009). The purpose of this instrument is to explore students' understanding of derivational morphology. During the same week, the subjects were also administered an Upper…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the perceptions that male at-risk sixth, seventh and eighth grade students' possess toward reading at a small rural public school district in Michigan. Male at-risk students was generally defined as students below grade level in reading based on their STAR reading assessment. Male…

Video podcasts allow students to control when, where, and what they learn, as well as the pace of learning. Considerable research has been conducted in higher education on video podcast use, but not in middle schools (grades six to eight). This study investigated the use of worked example video podcasts in mathematics classrooms with students 11…

Purpose is an internal compass that integrates engagement in activities that affect others, self-awareness of one's reasons, and the intention to continue these activities. We argue that purpose represents giftedness in intrapersonal intelligence, which processes information related to self, identity, self-regulation, and one's place in the world.…

Given its important role in mathematics as well as its role as a gatekeeper to future educational and employment opportunities, algebra has become a focal point of both reform and research efforts in mathematics education. Understanding and using algebra is dependent on understanding a number of fundamental concepts, one of which is the concept of…