A first-order latent growth model assesses change in an unobserved construct from a single score and is commonly used across different domains of educational research. However, examining change using a set of multiple response scores (e.g., scale items) affords researchers several methodological benefits not possible when using a single score. A…

This research is a descriptive study based on the testing of a structural model developed by considering the effects of perceived social support and subjective well-being on adolescents' risky behaviors, and the possible mediating role of self-esteem. Participants consisted of 676 high school students attending formal education institutions,…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which social smoking expectations mediate the relationship between adolescent smoking behaviour and the smoking behaviour of family and peers. Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional survey. Setting: Taiwan, Republic of China. Method: The participants were 921 senior high school students…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the 'locality' of the relationship between attitudes towards science, self-beliefs and science achievement for senior high school students in Australia, Cyprus and the USA. These relationships were examined with the use of the structural equation modeling software, AMOS. The data for this study were…

This paper reports the results of a study of changes in the social distribution of mathematics achievement for a cohort of public high school students. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) the study sought to identify school characteristics which were significantly correlated with changes in achievement differences from grade 9 to grade 11…