A structural equation model of educational outcomes was tested with three socioeconomic status (SES) groups of African American community college students. Results with 340 students who completed a followup indicate that higher levels of academic and social engagement had positive direct effects on educational outcomes for all students regardless…

Includes "The Family: Ultimate Arbiter of Workforce Education Reform" (Gray); "Reaction to Way and Rossman's Family Contributions to Adolescent Readiness for School-to-Work Transition" (Stewart); "Using Structural Equation Modeling and Path Analysis for Advancing Conceptual and Theoretical Positions" (Rojewski); and "Response to Stewart, Gray and…

Investigated the role of mothers' expectancies in shaping their child's perceived physical competence. Structural equation modeling revealed that mothers' perceptions of their child's physical competence predicted their child's own perceived physical competence 1 year later, independent of the child's previously demonstrated physical ability and…

Measures of IQ, verbal short-term memory, speech perception, and phonological awareness were administered to 136 3rd and 4th graders. Structural equation modeling revealed that IQ, speech perception, and verbal short-term memory each contributed unique variance to the phonological awareness construct. Results underscore the importance of speech…

This commentary on a paper by Diane Sawyer (EC 602 748) on relations between various language skills and the development of reading ability addresses potential limitations in the implementation of structural equation modeling. The commentary concludes that the data presented by Sawyer do not support the interpretation that reading comprehension…

Sources of continuity among nine measures of infant cognitive processing and later childhood intelligence quotient were examined through developmental structural equation models applied to a sample of 208 twin pairs measured from 7 to 36 months. Skills assessed appear related to general cognitive ability in a relatively unstable manner. (SLD)

Structural equation models of the same construct collected on different occasions are evaluated in 2 studies involving the evaluation of 157 college instructors over 8 years and data for over 2,200 high school students over 4 years for the Youth in Transition Study. Results challenge overreliance on simplex models. (SLD)

Using structural equation technique to replicate results of Hasenfeld and Rafferty's causal model predicting public attitudes toward welfare state programs with the social ideologies of work ethic and social rights. By incorporating estimates of measurement error, results failed to support the authors' original conclusions. Operationalizing key…

Examined the moderating role of individual differences in negative emotionality in the relations of behavioral and attentional regulation to externalizing problem behaviors. Found that at two ages behavioral dysregulation predicted externalizing behavior problems for children both high and low in negative emotionality, whereas prediction of…

For boys at risk for delinquency, assessed their parents' dyadic aggression and unskilled parenting beginning when the boys were in grade four and assessed the boys' aggression to a female partner in young adulthood. Found a relation between the parents' poor parenting practices and the boys' aggression to a partner, mediated by the boys'…

Examined relations among measures of child language derived from observations of 20-month-olds' speech with mothers, experimenter assessments, and maternal reports. Found that structural equation modeling supported strong relations among the three sources, the loading of multiple measures on a single latent construct of vocabulary competence, and…

Surveys of the attitudes and intentions of 155 Australian agricultural students at the beginning and end of their freshman year in college were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that constructs in the model--self-efficacy, future orientation, and generic skills self-estimates--were key predictors of student persistence and…

The influence of neighborhoods on adolescent behaviors has received increasing research attention. In the present study, we use structural equation models to specify pathways from neighborhoods to adolescent cigarette and alcohol use through parental closeness, parental monitoring, parent substance use, and peer substance use. We use a national…

This study examined the differential impacts of SAT scores and high school rank, college academic level, motivational variables, and self-regulatory variables in explaining variance in the academic achievement of male and female collegians using structural equation modeling and multiple groups analyses. Significantly, in light of earlier research,…

Students today are different from their counterparts of three and four decades ago. Women have outnumbered men for more than 15 years, and the participation rates for members of historically underrepresented groups have made impressive gains. Many of these "new" students are the first in their families to attend college. It is important that these…