Individuals with greater levels of purpose and meaning tend to be happier, demonstrate greater selfcontrol, strong values, and have healthier mental attitudes (Molasso, 2006a; Steger, 2009). It has been suggested that knowing one's talents may be related to the development of purpose, but this hypothesis has not been previously tested. This study…

Undergraduate women completed measures of externally contingent self-worth, self-esteem instability, and depression at the beginning (Time 1) and again 3 months later near the end (Time 2) of an academic semester. Findings indicated that when Time 1 depression scores were controlled for, each Time 1 facet of self-esteem made significant…

The author examined the relationship between student engagement and academic performance, using U.S. data of the Program for International Student Assessment 2000. The sample comprised 3,268 fifteen-year-old students from 121 U.S. schools. Multilevel analysis showed that behavioral engagement (defined as effort and perseverance in learning) and…

The goals of the study were first to compare the social and academic well-being (loneliness and academic self-efficacy (ASE) among college students with and without learning disabilities (LD), as well as three personal strengths (hope, optimism and sense of coherence (SOC). The second goal was to identify the predicting factors to their loneliness…

Three experiments examined the relation between working memory capacity (WMC) and 2 different forms of cognitive conflict: stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) interference. Our goal was to test whether WMC's relation to conflict-task performance is mediated by stimulus-identification processes (captured by S-S conflict),…

Bowler et al. ("Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders" 44(9):2355-2362. doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2105-y, 2014) have suggested that a specific memory impairment in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) arises from hippocampal failure to consolidate multiple related pieces of information. Twenty-four adults diagnosed with ASD and matched…

Positive psychology is a useful framework to understand Latina/o students' experiences. In the current study, we examined how presence of meaning in life, search for meaning in life, hope, and family importance influenced 128 Latina/o college students' psychological grit. We used the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), Subjective Happiness Scale,…

Objective: 10-50% of college students meet the diagnostic criteria for one or more mental illnesses; unfortunately, less than half seek treatment. This study assessed the predictive power of specific variables on students' use of on-campus mental health resources using the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment…

Limited research has examined the mediational role of coping strategy in students' motivation and procrastination. In this study, we examined the relationships among self-efficacy, achievement goals, boredom coping strategies and procrastination with 506 Chinese college students. Data were collected via questionnaires. Structural equation…

Surveys have repeatedly depicted a dismal picture of part-time teaching in academia, including low pay, scant benefits, limited institutional support, and lack of job security. Thus, the main purpose of the present study was to delve deeper into part-time faculty's ability to sustain the demands of a tough work environment by examining the extent…

Student perceptions of the purposes of assessment have been shown to be significant predictors of self-regulated learning. Their relationship to achievement emotions is less well understood. This paper reports a survey study of Chinese middle and high school students (N = 1,393) self-reported conceptions of the purpose of assessment and their…

Background: The theory of emotional intelligence (EI) has been developed to evaluate and highlight the importance of emotional health, especially on job performance. Purpose: No study has examined EI's role on the performance of public health educators; therefore, this study examined the role of EI and social support on the performance of health…

In the present study, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS)--which aims to measure concern, control, curiosity, and confidence as psychosocial resources for managing occupational transitions, developmental tasks, and work traumas--was translated into Turkish in order to examine the factor structure and psychometric characteristics of the scale…

Studies of individuals with Cornelia de Lange syndrome (CdLS) have described changes in mood and behavior with age, although no empirical or longitudinal studies have been conducted. Caregivers of individuals with CdLS (N = 67), cri du chat syndrome (CdCS; N = 42), and Fragile X syndrome (FXS; N = 142) completed the Mood, Interest and Pleasure…

Conceptions of learning are seen as an important factor in shaping students' patterns of learning. However, conceptions are often implicit and difficult to assess. Metaphors have been proposed as a method to assess conceptions, because metaphors are closely linked to the conceptual system. Therefore, in our study we assessed which conceptions of…