Effective assessment of teaching and learning with technology requires a capacity to map learning outcomes. Student attitudes of the use of IT are measured in a structural equation model derived from an instrument based on the principles of undergraduate practice of Chickering and Ehrmann (1996). Institutional and background data are included. By…

Causal modeling is examined for its heuristic value by describing its use in an introductory course in educational evaluation, and presenting a student-developed model. Subjects included students in either master's programs in statistics or doctoral programs in administration and curriculum. Before preparing an evaluation plan and path analysis,…

The overidentification of structural equation models with latent variables is discussed. The use of two- and three-indicator models is not recommended since such models do not allow a testing of the crucial assumption of unidimensionality among indicators in most cases. Models with four or more indicators may be more sensitive to departures from…

Literature from organizational and social psychology has suggested that three types of factors influence performance, i.e., cognitive, affective and behavioral. A model was developed to test a set of propositions concerning the relationship between the three kinds of factors, and included attributions, expectancies, general emotional responses to…

The influence of financial aid on college student persistence was studied using causal modeling. The study population was 227 full-time freshmen, who enrolled in fall 1982 at a liberal arts college at a large commuter institution. All the students received financial aid. The model, which included background and academic variables, accounted for…

Direct and indirect effects in decomposed zero-order correlations among variables in causal models are considered. Under certain circumstances, the components of the decompositions could be interpreted as direct, indirect, and spurious causal effects, plus a component called joint associations. The sum of the direct and indirect effects is the…

Results of a study of physically abused elementary school children in the four urban boroughs of New York City are reported. The study recruited 106 families with a physically abused child between the ages of 8 and 12 years. A matched control sample was recruited from classmates. The abuse sample was highly representative of the New York City…

Meta-analysis is a technique for combining the summary statistics from previously conducted research studies to indicate the direction of results and provide an index of the magnitude of effect size. This paper focuses on the effect of the violation of the assumption of independence (that the value of any included statistic is in no way…

Three successive models were developed to test the existence of a need that leads individuals to select one mass medium over another and also to examine the idea of audience activity. Since it has been noted that uses and gratifications research has focused excessively on habitual media behaviors, the focus instead was on a medium where choice…

This investigation used data from the 28-year-old New York Longitudinal Study to examine the relationship between various negative emotional and behavioral characteristics (e.g., aggression, anxiety, undercompliance, depressive mood) and adjustment. A total of 133 white, middle-class children were rated on these negative characteristics from…

This report for researchers in rural sociology develops a conceptual and analytic framework for evaluating policies or programs through interrelated models. Three models--structural analysis, control programming, and simulation--allow researchers to assess policy/program impact, determine why expected impacts did or did not occur, and modify…

Nursing curricula and licensing examinations have shifted toward the skills and processes of nursing. When these components are overhauled, their predictive relationship must be reexamined. This research tests the causal influence of several antecedent and achievement variables on licensure test performance. A path model is developed from a theory…

Chodorow's (1978) psychodynamic theory and Whiting's (1975) social role perspective yield different predictions with regard to the development of children's gendered self-perceptions. Chodorow's theory emphasizes the importance of children's progressive identification with same-sexed parents and gender asymmetry in parenting, whereas Whiting…

Social support has been found to be positively related to well being in elderly individuals. To examine the effects of social integration (social resources, social interaction, and perceived adequacy of resources), and health, age, marital status, and socioeconomic status (SES) on mental health among urban elderly individuals, 1,727 persons from…

Social and health service utilization have been the subject of numerous studies, but most have examined service utilization from the perspective of the type of service delivered to older adults. To determine the factors that predict overall utilization of services, data that had been collected in 1975 for the General Accounting Offices' survey of…