This article identifies the different stages or levels of psychosocial maturity in receiving, giving, and taking as indicators of the level of development of a given family or client. The proposed model spotlights specific beliefs, attitudes, and myths that guide client interactions and establishes baselines of behavior and setting goals for…

Examines the effects of religiosity within a theoretical model with reciprocal relationships of drug use among boot camp inmates. Findings show that attachment to caregivers is inversely related to associations with peers who engage in illicit behavior, whereas being abused by an adult is positively related to these associations. These…

Used ordinal probit analysis to develop a model to predict the disposition of 1,447 child physical abuse reports submitted to child protective services. Analysis revealed that the best performing model involved the dichotomized dependent variable of ruled out and uncertain versus indicated and confirmed. (MDM)

Presents a model to predict readability of documents encountered by older adults. Finds a correlation of 0.54 between the readability scores for test items predicted by the model and the percentage of older adults correctly answering those items. Finds that more difficult test items were correlated more highly with fluid intelligence abilities,…

Discussion of learning how to solve problems focuses on instructional design models and how students construct their knowledge and learn skills. Topics discussed include conceptual knowledge; procedural knowledge and skills; knowledge representation; causal knowledge; types of knowledge and relevant skills; knowledge acquisition; prediction and…

The relationship of selected academic variables to National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) performance was studied and a "best set" of indicators predictive of NCLEX-RN success was identified. Results indicated that selected nursing theory courses and the junior year grade point average could be used to…

Identifies word factors associated with poor spelling in 5 school year-groups (ages 7 to 11 years) as: (1) the word's frequency in the English language; (2) word length; and (3) a measure of the phoneticity of the word. Explores the concept of word phoneticity. Presents data illustrating the predictive model of spelling. Discusses implications for…

Examines the Rodgers, Rowe, and Buster (1998) epidemic model of the onset of social activities for adolescent sexuality. Maintains that its strengths include its theoretical potential to generate new hypotheses for further testing at the individual level. Asserts that its limitations include the lack of a well-developed statistical framework and…

Reviews and comments on Stoolmiller's (1998) criticisms of an epidemic model of the onset of social activities (EMOSA) and about nonlinear modeling in general. Discusses the idea of social contagion as a general theoretical tool. (Author)

Compares approaches to modeling ordinal outcome variables, including assumptions, interpretations, and limitations. Explores how the multiple regression approach with ordinal level data can compromise the understanding of the effects of the independent variables and of the ordinal level response. Provides applications with data from a multisite…

This article proposes alternative expressions for the two most prevailing definitions of suppression without resorting to the standardized regression modeling. The formulation provides a simple basis for the examination of their relationship. For the two-predictor regression, the author demonstrates that the previous results in the literature are…

Several factors in the H. J. Walberg Educational Productivity Model, which assumes that 9 factors affect academic achievement, were examined with a limited sample of 1st-year students in the University of Groningen. Information concerning 8 of these factors--grades, motivation, age, prior achievement, home environment, support from peers,…

Modeling the Dynamics of Paternal Influences on Children over the Life Course Is a heuristic model, which identifies sets of variables that predict father involvement, variables that interact to predict involvement, and variables that influence father characteristics and thereby influence involvement. It also suggests moderators and mediators of…

This study examined the ability of a theoretical model to predict types and levels of parental involvement during the elementary and middle school years. Predictor variables included parents' motivational beliefs about involvement, perceptions of invitations to involvement from others, and perceived life context variables. Analyses of responses…

The main purpose of this study was to examine the role of mental health services structure in community senior centers and how it interacts with Puerto Rican older adults' historical, social, and cultural experiences to relate to their perceptions, awareness, and utilization of mental health services. The study was carried out within a concurrent…