Effects of the involvement, classroom structure, and autonomy support of 14 teachers on the behavioral and emotional engagement of 144 third through fifth graders were studied across a school year. Results suggest that behaviorally disengaged students receive teacher responses that should further undermine motivation. (SLD)

Comments on problems raised in this special issue, focusing on the distinctive aspects of the risk research reported. Highlights issues like sample characteristics, measurement strategies, specificity of risk factors, and risk mechanisms. Discusses the challenges of integrating alternative models of risk, with special references to research into…

Restricting alcohol consumption on campus is a measure often used by college administrators to prevent alcohol abuse and-alcohol-related problems. The effect of dry campus policies on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems, however, remains poorly understood. This report will compare characteristics of two dry campuses with descriptions…

This paper presents information from the ongoing research program, Monitoring the Future. The program is designed to: (1) monitor drug use and potential explanatory factors among American secondary school students, and other young adults; (2) distinguish which of three different kinds of change--maturational, historical, and/or cohort are…

Preventionists have long recognized that the transition from elementary to secondary school represents a period of uncertainty and profound change in young adolescents' lives. This paper offers a research-based primer for teachers and other preventionists. It builds upon the prevention literature that focuses on protective factors as well as the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 30 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) writing performance and its relationship to the writing attitudes, topic knowledge, and writing goals of college freshmen; (2) representational semantics; (3)…

The 842 research projects on emotional disturbance which have been reported to the Children's Bureau Clearinghouse for Research in Child Life since 1956 are listed. Projects are classified into the following categories: general studies; incidence and prevalence; etiology; identification, diagnosis, and classification; psychological testing;…

This book is a collection of six papers presented at a 1974 University of Minnesota symposium on child development. The six chapters deal with language acquisition, visual perception, effects of television viewing, the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), problem-solving strategies, and Piagetian concepts related to social development. The first…

Tests of conditionability in infants were used in a longidudinal study of 32 subjects in the first year of life. The research was based on Eysenck's hypothesis that conditionability i s a unitary factor related to introversion-extroversion and attention span. The objective of the investigators was to devise a battery of conditioning tasks…

This paper seeks to underline the importance of at least acknowledging the existence of a complex set of rules in a grammar of social interaction--and the further reality that while there may be a grammar of social interaction, there are also grammars of social interaction for different groups. It should be possible to find that apparently…

This study investigated systematic relationships among teacher personality types (Ambitious, Conscientious, and Indulgent), preservice educational beliefs, and intern classroom practices. The investigation traced the theoretical and empirical linkage from personality structure though educational ideology and finally to perceptions of teacher…

A study examined patterns of language use, including intonation, in a single social group of high school students, six "nerd girls." The group formed an "anti-club" to celebrate the individuals' disparate interests. Student narratives and group exchanges are analyzed for expressions of nerd group affiliation and identity,…

The convergent validity of peer, self, and teacher methods of assessing youths' risk propensity and the relation of these measures to health risk behavior were studied with 436 elementary and junior high school students. Findings demonstrate low congruence between rater sources. Prediction depended on behavior assessed and grade level. (SLD)

Attempted to discover patterns of alcohol, drug, and tobacco use among public school children in New Brunswick using Provincial School Drug Survey (PSDS), an existing large-scale assessment. Recoded variables in PSDS dataset to derive profiles of typical tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol users. Found increase in predictive accuracy of regression…

A study conducted at one large research university compared electronic mail and telephones as methods for gathering survey data from undergraduate students. Problems associated with electronic-mail use include higher rate of socially undesirable activity among respondents and difficulty in identifying the target population. Implications for campus…