It is important to understand the mechanisms behind student academic engagement, as engagement in school is associated with a host of positive outcomes. As children mature, their peers become more important compared to adults in regard to their emotional engagement in school. Thus, this study sought to examine an aspect of peer relations,…

Based on the interplay between achievement goals theory and social comparison theory, our study focused on how achievement goals relate to subjective well-being in the school context in Chinese adolescents. Specifically, we addressed a theoretical model that specified that academic social comparisons and self-esteem would serve as mediators in the…

This paper refers to whole school interventions aiming to promote student learning outcomes through improving the functioning of school factors. Evaluation studies of these interventions mainly measure their impact on student learning outcomes. This paper argues for the importance of studying the mechanisms of whole school interventions through…

The analyses described in this paper permitted an evaluation of whether capacity-building professional development practices were related to early childhood intervention practitioners' reported use of capacity-building family-centered practices. This was ascertained by structural equation modeling for two different types of family-centered…

Despite the fact that international students face challenges at the United States (U.S.) universities and colleges, little research exits on these student's sense of belonging. This study investigates the factors of sense of belonging for international students and provides insights on factors like academic adjustment, homesickness, peer…

This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of a self-reflection intervention on college (college in this article refers to university-level education) students' positive thinking, learning motivation and self-regulation in Taiwan. One hundred and two college students were selected to participate in an 18-week intervention forming the…

Based on a one-year longitudinal experimental study with 3,782 kindergarten school children across 15 countries, this article examines the association between prayer and happiness. Results show that the post-test scores on the faces scale were higher for the participant group who had taken the prayer lessons vis-à-vis the comparison group.…

Research examining effective reading interventions for students with reading difficulties in the upper elementary grades is limited relative to the information available for the early elementary grades. In the current study, we examined the effects of a multicomponent reading intervention for students with reading comprehension difficulties. We…

Research examining effective reading interventions for students with reading difficulties in the upper elementary grades is limited relative to the information available for the early elementary grades. In the current study, we examined the effects of a multicomponent reading intervention for students with reading comprehension difficulties. We…

This article reviews the contents and research on the Strengthening Families Program (SFP), a family evidence-based seven- to 14-session intervention for drug prevention in high-risk children ages 0 to 17. Twelve Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) found significant improvements in youths' behavioral health, including 50% reductions in substance…

Multilevel modeling (MLM) is frequently used to detect group differences, such as an intervention effect in a pre-test--post-test cluster-randomized design. Group differences on the post-test scores are detected by controlling for pre-test scores as a proxy variable for unobserved factors that predict future attributes. The pre-test and post-test…

We use data from a randomized controlled trial of a middle school science intervention to explore the causal mechanisms by which the intervention produced previously documented gains in student achievement. Our study finds that implementation fidelity, operationalized as a measure of the frequency of implementation of the cognitive science…

Over the last decade, mobile communication has become increasingly available, affordable and accessible even to the poor and disadvantaged at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) in developing countries. This unprecedented connectivity at the BOP introduces not only an untapped group of media users for communication researchers, but also a new hope…

This study describes a test of the Fathers and Sons Program for increasing intentions to avoid violence and reducing aggressive behaviors in 8-to 12-year-old African American boys by enhancing the parenting skills satisfaction and parenting behaviors of their nonresident fathers. The study included 158 intervention and 129 comparison group…

This paper examines effects of life-skills, mentoring, and counseling education intervention implemented among primary school attending girls aged between 10 and 19 years, living in Nairobi slums. We hypothesized that interaction between the intervention and aspiration, self-confidence and interest in schooling, mediates the impact of risky…