The validity of the Single-Item Self-Esteem Scale (SISE) in adolescents was not well established, and how self-esteem manifested in newly incarcerated juvenile delinquents was poorly described. Using a retrospective study with archival records, the SISE was compared to other measures of self-esteem, grit, mental health, and academic self-concept…

The purpose of this research was to examine teacher and parent perceptions of school, family and community connectedness as a function of music participation and community type. An online questionnaire measuring perception of family, school and community connectedness was completed by 153 parents and 83 music teachers representing rural, suburban…

Increasing the percentage of adults with a college credential is paramount to sustaining our economic competitiveness. One strategy that has potential to help achieve the goal of increased postsecondary degree production is dual enrollment, which allows high school students to enroll in college-level courses for credit that can be applied…

Research Findings: Children's early academic achievement is supported by positive social and behavioral skills, and difficulties with these skills frequently gives way to underachievement. Social and behavioral problems often arise as a product of parent-child interactional patterns and environmental influences. Few studies have examined the role…

This report describes the extent and distribution of student mobility in five Central Region states. The study, which calculated student mobility percentages in each state and compared percentages by locale (city, suburb, town, and rural locale, and degree of rurality) within each state, found no consistent patterns across locales. Research…

Context: With limited resources and increased public health challenges facing the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others have identified partnerships between local health departments (LHDs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as critical to the public health system. LHDs utilize financial, human, and informational…

This first-of-its-kind report on gender and high school sports participation, "Progress Without Equity: The Provision of High School Athletic Opportunity in the United States, by Gender 1993-94 through 2005-06," flows from an analysis of high schools that is unprecedented in its national and historical scope. It uses merged data from the Civil…

This brief, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, examines how rural families use four of the major federal child nutrition programs. It finds that 29 percent of rural families with children participate but that there are barriers to these nutrition programs, such as the lack of public transportation and high operating costs for rural schools…

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare national estimates of drug use and exposure to violence between rural and urban teens. Methods: Twenty-eight dependent variables from the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey were used to compare violent activities, victimization, suicidal behavior, tobacco use, alcohol use, and illegal drug use…

An analysis of secondary principals' salaries between 1987-1988 and 1999-2000 was conducted to determine trends in salaries, contrast those trends to others' earnings, and examine the variations in urban, suburban, and rural labor markets, states, and gender. Findings provide useful data for various stakeholders when entering discussion about…

Conducted state-wide in Pennsylvania, this study expands on several research studies of the quality of day care reported by Phillips (1987). Observations and evaluations were made of 149 randomly selected day care centers and family day care homes. The day care and family day care versions of the Child Development Program Evaluation Licensing…

Nonmigrants, returned migrants, migrants living in Cleveland ghettos, and migrants living in Cleveland suburbs were studied in order to: (1) examine social and sociopsychological characteristics of West Virginians living in their own state and in Cleveland and (2) test the hypothesis that in order to satisfy societal expectations in terms of…

This analysis, part of a series on child poverty in America, contains an overview of child poverty trends over the period from 1959 to 1992 and projections of child poverty rates and levels by area of residence to the year 2010. Analyses, based on data from the Census Bureau, show a marked increase in the overall rate of child poverty since the…

This report analyzes data on population groups living in central cities, suburbs, and nonmetropolitan areas in 1977, and examines changes that have occurred since 1970. Subjects featured in the report are population, marital status, household relationship, family size, migration, educational attainment, labor force status, occupation, industry,…

A total of 130 Minnesota employers who had participated in local welfare-to-work partnerships with social service agencies and other community members were interviewed by telephone for their views on welfare reform. (This nonrandom sample was selected by partnership staff.) Differences among rural and urban/suburban employers were examined, and…