Across three studies, the development of a reliable and valid measure of perceptions by students of an urban, private, faith-based teaching university's mission and values was assessed. Study 1 presented scale construction and reliability of the DePaul Values Inventory (DeVI) with undergraduates (n = 111), yielding a final 22-item rating scale…

Background: The frequently reported decline in the "overall" frequency and intensity of fears during late childhood and adolescence may mask different developmental patterns for two broad subclasses of fears: fears concerning physical danger and fears concerning social evaluation. It was investigated if physical fears decrease between…

This article examines levels of involvement of weekly church attenders in Catholic parishes in Australia, New Zealand and the United States through an analysis of data from the International Congregational Life Survey. Factor analysis was used to identify four questionnaire items related to parish involvement which were then combined to produce a…

This study investigates the influence of social status on attributions of blame in specific instances of hate crime. Two theoretical explanations for the impact of offender's and victim's social status characteristics on evaluations of hate crimes are examined. The stigma perspective suggests that the public will deride minority-status…

External communities of practice are groups formed by company clients and employees based on common interests, commitment, mutual trust and collaboration whose members regularly share knowledge and learning. This paper examines how external communities of practice contribute to the creation of relational capital through an empirical investigation…

The Gilliam Autism Rating Scale was developed to identify individuals with autism in research and clinical settings. It has benefited from wide use and acceptance but has received little empirical attention. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the construct and diagnostic validity, interrater reliability, and effects of participant…

A study was performed to describe and analyze the conceptions about teaching and learning science held by different samples of teachers in Spain. The responses of 265 teachers (107 prospective teachers and 158 active teachers) to items from the Inventory of Scientific and Pedagogical Beliefs (Porlan, 1989) were subjected to multifactorial…

Research investigating science teaching efficacy was conducted in 1 Australian university. A sample of 314 elementary preservice teachers responded to the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI; L. G. Enochs & I. M. Riggs, 1990), which assesses 2 teaching efficacy dimensions: Personal Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs (PSTEB) and…

We converted the Teacher Behaviors Checklist (TBC; Buskist, Sikorski, Buckley, & Saville, 2002) to an evaluative instrument to assess teaching by adding specific instructions and a Likert-type scale. Factor analysis of the modified TBC produced 2 subscales: caring and supportive and professional competency and communication skills. Further…

This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Social Experience Questionnaire (SEQ) in a sample of 1158 adolescents aged 13-17 years. Confirmatory factor analysis fit indices supported the hypothesized three-factor model of the SEQ that assesses overt and relational victimization, and prosocial behaviors from peers. Analyses of gender…

The Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) was developed as a tool to assess an individual's effectiveness in cross-cultural interaction and communication. Because limited validity evidence had been published regarding the CCAI, the purpose of the current study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of CCAI scores, specifically focusing…

Examination of a test's internal structure can be used to identify what domains or dimensions are being measured, identify relationships between the dimensions, provide evidence for hypothesized multidimensionality and test score interpretations, and identify construct-irrelevant variance. The purpose of this research is to provide a…

Preliminary findings on the validation of the Stereotypic Roles for Black Women Scale (SRBWS) are presented. A sample of 186 African American women took the SRBWS along with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Racial Identity Attitude Scale-B. A confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure of the scale, and moderate…

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that quality improvements in early childhood centers experience diminishing returns as the quality of the classroom rises with regards to concurrent socio-emotional outcomes. This hypothesis lies at the core of Scarr's argument that public policy should concentrate on improving low quality…

The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) was developed to operationalize the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Using correlational analysis and confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, the present study investigates the facet structure of the domain of Agreeableness of the NEO-PI-R at the facet and item level to assess which is a more…