A 48-item questionnaire was administered to all entering freshmen at two midwestern colleges (N=2,180). On the basis of a factor analysis, a six-term factor of premarital sexual experience and a four-item factor of attitude toward premarital sexual intercourse were isolated. Scores on one or both of these scales were found to be related to…

The demographic and psychological variables associated with seeking help in coping with emotional problems in early and middle adolescence from parents, friends, and professionals were studied with 221 adolescents. Differential patterns of predictor variables emerged for each helping resource and for both genders. (SLD)

Recent approaches to empirical derivation and validation of alcoholic subtypes which involve cluster analysis wihin a single multivariate assessment domain have been questioned. To investigate more clinically meaningful subtypes in a sample of 245 male alcoholics, cluster analysis was performed on a combination of variables from four assessment…

Alcoholism research has independently focused on background characteristics and alcohol-related expectations, e.g., social and physical pleasure, reduced tension, and increased assertiveness, as important variables in identifying high risk individuals. To assess the utility of alcohol reinforcement expectations as predictors of drinking patterns,…

The opportunities offered by a natural history museum to enhance and expand classroom instruction in health are discussed. A basic constellation of typical natural history museum exhibit concepts and an array of health-related opportunities that are easily developed around these displays is outlined. The natural history concept provides an…

In this attempt to explain parental discipline behaviors from an interactionist viewpoint that includes person and situation factors, the relationship of parental discipline behaviors to situation-specific feelings and cognitions and objective situational characteristics were examined. Data obtained from 300 families included (1) social…

Uses pretest data collected with passive parental consent for 2,496 middle school students to examine demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral differences between students for whom active parental consent was provided in later phases of the research and those for whom active consent was not provided. Results show the detrimental effects of…

Since the phenomenon of reabuse is postulated as being more probable after initial child abuse than is the probability of an initial abuse and since only modest inquiry has been directed at this phenomenon, research was conducted to answer two questions: Is there patterning to reabuse? And if so, is this different in metro and nonmetro…

Presenting a model for the comparative analysis of farm organizations, this paper analyzes the farm firm as a complex organization; identifies key structural dimensions of an agricultural production unit; and reviews various organizational perspectives for their utility in understanding and explaining the behavior of farm operations and farm…

To develop a model of newspaper readership more closely related to explanation of readership behavior than prediction, a study used a combination of demographic and political participation variables in a multivariate analysis of data obtained in a national survey. Information from interviews of approximately 1,200 adults conducted in 1979 was…

A field method approach explored the social world of Anglo-, Chinese- and Italian-Canadian children in four schools and neighborhoods in Metropolitan Toronto. Field workers observed and interacted with their subjects over a four-month period, dividing each work week between two neighborhoods. These workers were able to observe whether a given…

Technologically Advanced Families (Taffies) were profiled in a study that compared media technologies penetration in North Carolina with national media penetration data. Telephone surveys were conducted in February 1986 by journalism students at the University of North Carolina. Subjects interviewed were 585 North Carolina households to determine…

An interactional model explaining predisposition to hyperactivity asserts that being identified, diagnosed, and treated as hyperactive is a function of biological factors, early health and temperament, family characteristics, and the quality of the home environment. A longitudinal study involving 367 subjects, aged 17-18, tested the interactional…