The need for transplant exceeds the number of available organs. Antigen compatible organs are particularly scarce for African Americans because of their proportionately lower rate of donations. This study presents a measure of organ donation readiness. Examination of the factor structure and a test of weak invariance were conducted on…

This study examined perceived coping (perceived problem-solving ability and progress in coping with problems) as a mediator between adult attachment (anxiety and avoidance) and psychological distress (depression, hopelessness, anxiety, anger, and interpersonal problems). Survey data from 515 undergraduate students were analyzed using structural…

Measuring and linking competencies require special instruments, special data collection designs, and special statistical models. The measurement instruments are tests or tests forms, which can be used in the following situations: The same test can be given repeatedly; two or more parallel tests forms (i.e., forms intended to be similar in…

The linkages between self-regulation in childhood, risk proneness in early adolescence, and risky sexual behavior in mid-adolescence were examined in a cohort of children (N=518) from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The possible mediating role of two early adolescent variables (substance use and negative peer pressure) was also…

An empirical research study based upon the expectancy-value model of Eccles and colleagues (1983) investigated the effect of gender-role orientations on psychological dimensions of female athletes' sport participation and the likelihood of their continued participation in a stereotypical masculine activity. The model (Eccles et al., 1983) posits…

The author conducted an empirical study based on structural equation modeling with a convenience sample of 246 individuals with the goal of demonstrating that recycling behavior is a routine conduct and should be addressed as such in educational materials. Although the classic hierarchy of effects dominates the interpretation of recycling behavior…

In this article, we formulate a nonlinear structural equation model (SEM) that can accommodate covariates in the measurement equation and nonlinear terms of covariates and exogenous latent variables in the structural equation. The covariates can come from continuous or discrete distributions. A Bayesian approach is developed to analyze the…

Cudeck and Browne (1983) proposed using cross-validation as a model selection technique in structural equation modeling. The purpose of this study is to examine the performance of eight cross-validation indices under conditions not yet examined in the relevant literature, such as nonnormality and cross-validation design. The performance of each…

Background: Longitudinal pediatric neuroimaging studies have demonstrated increasing volumes of white matter and regionally-specific inverted U shaped developmental trajectories of gray matter volumes during childhood and adolescence. Studies of monozygotic and dyzygotic twins during this developmental period allow exploration of genetic and…

Parental monitoring, assessed as (perceived) parental knowledge of the child's behavior, has been established as a consistent predictor of problem behavior. However, recent research indicates that parental knowledge has more to do with adolescents' self-disclosure than with parents' active monitoring. Although these findings may suggest that…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine how school social composition is related to perceived collective efficacy. Several hypotheses tested in this research were derived from social cognitive theory and based on the extant literature. Participants: Data were drawn from 1,981 teachers in 41 K-8 schools in a diverse urban school…

Direct and indirect effects of socioeconomic status (SES) and previous mathematics achievement on high school advanced mathematics course taking were explored. Structural equation modeling was carried out on data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study: 1988 database. The two variables were placed in a model together with the mediating…

The Youth Self Report (YSR) is a popular and widely used instrument assessing adolescent emotional and behavioral functioning. The goals of the present study were to address some of the limitations of the YSR, to examine its factor structure and equivalence across four racial/ethnic groups, and to determine if another combination of items could…

Empirical evidence of no age-related decline in life satisfaction (LS) in old age contrasts with frequently observed declines in the objective quality of elder people's lives and has therefore been labelled a "paradox" and interpreted in terms of stability of LS in the respective gerontological discussion. However, as this evidence was…

This study examined two models of extra-curricular support for enhancing the academic achievement of students as measured by state mandated test scores. One management model includes the use of school counselors as enhancers of the educational process while the other model addresses the contribution of school psychologists. To differentiate…