The purpose of this study was to examine appreciative attitudes toward Jews--a historically marginalized and targeted worldview identity group in the context of American higher education--among non-Jewish undergraduates. Drawing from a sample of 13,489 students across 52 institutions and using a multilevel modeling approach, we found that…

This chapter discusses an experimental study that shows that the order of items on a questionnaire and the response options for those items both affect the results of college student surveys.

The popularity of online student surveys has been associated with greater item nonresponse. This chapter presents research aimed at exploring what factors might help minimize item nonresponse, such as altering online survey page length and using progress indicators.

Based on a campus climate survey involving 633 respondents from two institutions, this study examined perceptions of nonreligious acceptance on campus as a function of students' religious identification and strength of commitment to worldview. The findings suggest that atheist students are less inclined than are their peers to perceive a positive…

Ethical growth and prosocial development are increasingly salient learning outcomes in higher education. Previous research has shown that the traditional college years facilitate moral development, especially with respect to moral reasoning. This research examined the impact of college experiences on students' sense of active responsibility for…

Student affairs practitioners and scholars are paying greater attention to issues of religion and spirituality on college campuses. The present study explores the link between campus religious/worldview climate and overall student engagement within a longitudinal sample of 14,517 undergraduates at 134 colleges. When controlling for various student…

Many higher education studies have examined linear relationships between student experiences and outcomes, but this assumption may be questionable. In two notable examples previous research that assumed a linear relationship reached different substantive conclusions and implications than did research that explored non-linear associations among the…

Decades of research in survey methodology and psychology have yielded important insights about how to create effective and valid survey instruments. As Porter (in press) has argued convincingly, college student surveys often fall well short of these standards by placing unrealistic demands on students' memory and by assuming that students readily…

Given the increasing racial diversity among American college students and society, it is critical to promote meaningful interracial interactions during college. Although a burgeoning literature demonstrates the link between interracial interactions and an array of student outcomes, some important issues have been largely overlooked. Most research…

College student self-reported gains are used frequently in institutional research and in general research on college outcomes (Gonyea, 2005). These self-report measures serve not only to identify experiences and programs associated with student growth but also to draw comparisons across colleges and universities. The vast majority of institutions…