In the last decades, information technology (IT) has touched every aspect of life. Computers have been used in a great range of fields such as education, government, business, entertainment, and daily life. Similar to other organizations, police organizations use IT systems to improve their effectiveness and performance. However, police…

The impact of socially desirable responding or faking on noncognitive assessments remains an issue of strong debate. One of the main reasons for the controversy is the lack of a statistical method to model such response sets. This article introduces a new way to model faking based on the assumption that faking occurs due to an interaction between…

Growth modeling is a useful tool for studying change over time, and it is becoming increasingly popular with developmental researchers. There is a considerable methodological literature surrounding growth modeling for individuals; however, far less attention has been focused on growth models for pairs of related individuals (i.e., dyads). In this…

The infinitesimal jackknife provides a simple general method for estimating standard errors in covariance structure analysis. Beyond its simplicity and generality what makes the infinitesimal jackknife method attractive is that essentially no assumptions are required to produce consistent standard error estimates, not even the requirement that the…

Many young children exhibit aggressive and disruptive behaviors at early ages. However, while aggressive behaviors are normative and serve as a way to communicate needs in the midst of developing verbal abilities, continued disruptive behavior can lead to stable or increasing levels of behavioral dysregulation, oppositionality and aggression.…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine variables explaining students' positive and negative experiences of groupwork and connect country of residence with the perception of generic skills development and self-reported satisfaction with groupwork. It also aims to examine the effect of prior training in groups from the perspective of…

A communication framework was developed to examine the influence of maternal use of self-disclosure on adolescent intentions to smoke cigarettes and to engage in sexual intercourse. Data were collected from 516 Dominican and Puerto Rican mother-adolescent dyads. Statistical analyses were conducted in AMOS using structural equation modeling.…

Motivated by cognitive theories of graph comprehension, this study systematically manipulated characteristics of a line graph description task in a speaking test in ways to mitigate the influence of graph familiarity, a potential source of construct-irrelevant variance. It extends Xi (2005), which found that the differences in holistic scores on…

In research concerning model invariance across populations, researchers have discussed the limitations of the conventional chi-square difference test ([Delta] chi-square test). There have been some research efforts in using goodness-of-fit indexes (i.e., [Delta]goodness-of-fit indexes) for assessing multisample model invariance, and some specific…

The current study tested a set of interrelated theoretical propositions based on self-control theory (M. R. Gottfredson & T. Hirschi 1990). Data were collected on 1,155 children at 4.5 years, at 8.5 years (3rd grade), and at 10.5 years (5th grade) as part of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development longitudinal study over a…

This study examines the computer self-efficacy among pre-service teachers (N = 708) at a teacher training institute in Singapore. Data were collected through self-reported ratings on a 7-point Likert-type scale. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on an initial sample (N = 354) and the result revealed that pre-service teachers'…

Statistical procedures based on the general linear model (GLM) share much in common with one another, both conceptually and practically. The use of structural equation modeling path diagrams as tools for teaching the GLM as a body of connected statistical procedures is presented. A heuristic data set is used to demonstrate a variety of univariate…

The study investigates different models of personality and cognitive factors in teacher training courses at Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) and universities. We used Ego Identity (EI), Professional Identity (PI) of teachers, and Self Regulated Learning (SRL) as personality measures, and Metacognitive Knowledge (MAI), Field Experience Grades…

This study examines several key parenting variables (psychological control, psychological autonomy, and acceptance) in predicting self-esteem among Latino adolescents using structural equation modeling analyses. Nested models are tested and parental acceptance variables are omitted from the model and group gender comparisons are examined. Two…

The authors examined the effect of school-related social support from teachers, classmates, and parents on students' life satisfaction that school satisfaction, scholastic competence, and general self-efficacy, respectively, mediated. The authors based the analyses on data from a nationally representative sample of 13- and 15-year-old students (N…