The current study examined the Five Cs model of positive youth development (PYD; Lerner et al., 2005) in U.S. Mexican-origin youth (N = 674, 50% female) and tested the extent to which ethnic pride, familismo, and respeto, as an index of cultural orientation, predicted PYD across midadolescence. PYD was modeled using a bifactor structure, which…

This study examined relations between student engagement and drug use using data obtained from the statewide biennial California Healthy Kids Survey. Latent variable modeling with confirmatory factor analysis indicated four conceptually distinct and psychometrically sound factors capturing academic motivation, school connectedness, caring…

Many factors at the individual, relationship, family, and community or environmental levels could predict repeat teen pregnancies or births, but research on certain factors is limited. In addition, few studies have examined whether these factors can accurately predict whether teen mothers will have a repeat pregnancy. This study examined…

We examined the effects of self-esteem development on the development of relationship satisfaction in 2 samples of couples. Study 1 used data from both partners of 885 couples assessed 5 times over 12 years, and Study 2 used data from both partners of 6,116 couples assessed 3 times over 15 years. The pattern of results was similar across the 2…

We theorize 5 dimensions of academic disengagement based on students' values, motivations, study behaviors, academic interactions, and competing involvements. Using 2010 survey data from the University of California, we find support for this conceptualization. The size of disengaged populations varied between 5% and 25%, depending on the measure…

Marital quality is an important factor for understanding the relationship between marriage and health. Low-quality relationships may not have the same health benefits as high-quality relationships. To understand the association between marital quality and health, we examined associations between two indicators of marital quality (marital support…

Serving a working-class suburb of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the Hawthorne School District (HSD) is a small district with 11 schools: seven elementary schools, three middle schools, and one dependent charter high school. HSD's students are predominantly from low-income families (87%). Most students (71%) are Latino/a and about fifth (21%)…

This report, written by WestEd's Adam Voight, Gregory Austin, and Thomas Hanson, describes a study that examines what makes successful schools different from other schools. Rather than define success in absolute terms, this study's definition is based on whether or not a school is performing better than predicted given the characteristics of the…

Most research on parental bookreading has focused on mothers reading to their children. This study examined bookreading practices among approximately 800 fathers and mothers in low-income families. We looked at differences and similarities between families where both parents read frequently compared to families where only mothers read frequently.…

In the previous two issues of "About Campus," the author has described the national study of college-student thriving that she has conducted with her doctoral students at Azusa Pacific University over the past several years. Their validated and reliable 35-item Thriving Quotient has been administered to over 15,000 college students…

Social psychologists have shown experimentally that implicit race bias can influence an individual's behavior. Implicit bias has been suggested to be more subtle and less subject to cognitive control than more explicit forms of racial prejudice. Little is known about how implicit bias is manifest in naturally occurring social interaction. This…