Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate that students' self-evaluations contribute to improving academic results and life skills. Design/methodology/approach: Taking as reference a group of previously validated scales (part 1: measurement), a causal model is developed. Hypotheses are tested through the structural equations methodology by using the…

Purpose: To examine substance use differences among African-American adolescents living in rural and more urban areas in Iowa and Georgia and factors thought to be related to those differences. Specifically, negative affect and perceived availability were examined as mediators of the relation between community size and alcohol, tobacco, and drug…

Purpose: The present study seeks to compare scores on factors from the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) with scores on an abbreviated version of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) and examination grade among undergraduate psychology students. The purpose is to investigate the relationship between course experience…

One of the most important effect sizes used in meta-analysis is the standardized mean difference (SMD). In this article, the conditions under which SMD effect sizes based on different measures of the same construct are directly comparable are investigated. The results show that SMD effect sizes from different measures of the same construct are…

Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs were examined as determinants of their job satisfaction and students' academic achievement. Over 2000 teachers in 75 Italian junior high schools were administered self-report questionnaires to assess self-efficacy beliefs and their job satisfaction Students' average final grades at the end of junior high school were…

Researchers have been challenged to go beyond socioeconomic status in the search for school-level characteristics that make a difference in student achievement. The purpose of the present study was to identify a new construct, academic optimism, and then use it to explain student achievement while controlling for socioeconomic status, previous…

This study investigated correlates of domain-general and domain-specific components of creativity. 158 college students completed a questionnaire that assessed their motivational and personality traits (i.e., intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, creative personality, and originality in word association) as well as intellectual abilities (SAT verbal…

This longitudinal study examines the effect of sons' incarceration on their mothers' psychological distress. Interviews were conducted over the life course with a community cohort of African American mothers who had children in first grade in 1966-1967 when the study began ("N"=615). Thirty years later, their sons had significant rates of…

This field study examined how early socialization experiences affect new employee mastery of socialization content and socialization outcomes. New employees reported the realism of their preentry knowledge and the helpfulness of socialization agents. A follow-up survey assessed mastery of socialization content along with role clarity, job…

This study investigated students' conceptions of constructivist learning activities in a problem-based learning (PBL) and a traditional curriculum. We examined whether students who have chosen for a problem-based curriculum have different conceptions of constructivist assumptions compared to students who have chosen to be enrolled in a…

Objective: The Level of Stability Index for Children (LSIC) is a multidimensional, self-report, rapid assessment instrument for assessing emotional and behavioral tendencies children may exhibit toward self or others. The LSIC describes children's propensity toward depression, suicidal ideation, anger, and aggression. Method: Self-report survey…

The factor structure of the Brief Symptom Inventory--18 (BSI-18; L. R. Derogatis, 2000) was investigated in a sample of adult survivors of childhood cancer enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS; N = 8,945). An exploratory factor analysis with a randomly chosen subsample supported a 3-factor structure closely corresponding to the 3…

The specific aim of this investigation was to map cultural factors associated with aggressive behavior in Latino adolescents. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 481 foreign- and U.S.-born Latino adolescents living in North Carolina and Arizona. Structural Equation Modeling was used to validate a conceptual model linking adolescent and…

In this study 149 kindergarten children were assessed for knowledge of letter names and letter sounds, phonological awareness, and cognitive abilities. Through this it examined child and letter characteristics influencing the acquisition of alphabetic knowledge in a naturalistic context, the relationship between letter-sound knowledge and…

Structural equation modeling was used to test [Sandler, "American Journal of Community Psychology" 29: 19-61.] a theoretical model of risk and resilience in an urban sample of African American and European American adolescents. The aims of the present study were to examine whether self-system processes (i.e., competence, self-esteem, and coping…