Teachers in 13 states are evaluated using value-added models (VAMs), a measure of student growth on standardized tests. The problem is that value-added models evaluate intermediate-level teachers' ability to have students perform on a standardized assessment despite other factors affecting students' academic performance, such as socioeconomic…

Two out of every three special education teachers leave teaching within the first five years. Veteran teachers who stay possess characteristics that sustain them even when faced with difficulties; they are more resilient. Teacher resilience is the ability to cope with difficult situations and to not allow difficulties to deter the desire to teach.…

Morality and ethics are two instrumental facets within academia. Often however, with increasing federal, state, and local mandates, educational administration loses sight of these two criteria (Kowalski, 2008). Greenleaf (2010/1977), countering this dilemma, established a visionary leadership-style known as Servant-Leadership, wherein the leader…

There is evidence that participating in physical exercise reduces stress and the risk of many physical maladies. Exercise is also correlated with higher levels of approach motivation, or a tendency to approach challenge as an opportunity for growth or improvement instead of an opportunity for failure. To date, most research on this relationship…

This study investigated the effectiveness of adding four self-efficacy features to an online statistics lesson, based on Bandura's four sources of self-efficacy information. In a randomized between-subjects experiment, participants learned statistical rules in an example-based online environment with four self-efficacy features added (treatment…

How parents interact with their children impacts many crucial facets of children's lives. Over the last 4 decades, researchers have identified four different parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and disengaged. Hundreds of studies conducted all over the world, have identified correlations between parenting style and many…

This study examined coping strategies as mediators of the relationship between parental emotion socialization and internalizing problems in late adolescence and emerging adulthood, and whether these relationships varied by gender or ethnicity. Participants were 1,087 individuals (M[subscript age]?=?19.35 years; 50% male; 61% African American, 36%…

Perfectionism can influence how one approaches challenges and deals with setbacks, and, consequently, can inhibit or facilitate achievement. The present study (1) explored the relationship between Frost's six dimensions of perfectionism and five types of coping strategies; (2) examined how dimensions of perfectionism predict coping in response to…

This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify acculturation profiles. A three-profile solution fit the data best, and comparisons on demographic and psychosocial outcomes as a function of profile yielded expected results. The findings support using LPA as a parsimonious way to model acculturation without anticipating profiles in…

In this study, the effect of quantity and quality of social support and problem-focused coping style on mothers' resilience was examined by conducting a structural equation modeling. The sample of the research consisted of 257 mothers of children with intellectual disability, and 234 mothers of typically-developing children. The data were gathered…

This study explores the stability and change in maternal life satisfaction and psychological distress following the birth of a child with a congenital anomaly using 5 assessments from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study collected from Pregnancy Week 17 to 36 months postpartum. Participating mothers were divided into those having infants…

This study used multilevel modeling of daily diary data to model within-person (state) and between-person (trait) components of coping variables. This application included the introduction of multilevel factor analysis (MFA) and a comparison of the predictive ability of these trait/state factors. Daily diary data were collected on a large (n =…

Mindfulness, an ancient spiritual practice, is becoming an increasingly popular component of communication courses, training individuals to reserve judgment in their dealings with others. However, the effects of mindfulness in communication courses are not well researched. We compared students taking an introductory communication course that…

Methods are needed for quantifying the potency and differential effects of risk factors to identify at-risk groups for theory building and intervention. Traditional methods for constructing war exposure measures are poorly suited to "unpack" differential relations between specific types of exposure and specific outcomes. This study of…

In this study I examine the manner in which high-achieving African American undergraduate men negotiate cultural challenges in a predominantly White institution (PWI). Cultural theory underpins the conceptual framework of this case study. Basing the study in cultural theory provided a lens through which to view the lived experiences of the twenty…