Investigated the prediction of success in the six-year combined undergraduate and medical education program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Implications for selection policy are considered. (Author)

This paper discusses the principles underlying discriminant analysis and constructs a simulated data set to illustrate its methods. Discriminant analysis is a multivariate technique for identifying the best combination of variables to maximally discriminate between groups. Discriminant functions are established on existing groups and used to…

Homelessness is growing among the elderly as it is among every other age cohort in America, but the elderly appear to be underrepresented. This underrepresentation is puzzling, since the elderly appear to have unique vulnerabilities to homelessness. This study explored the connection between the growing shortage of low rent housing, the unique…

The National Center for Education Statistics' annual statistical report on the condition of education in the United States is presented in two volumes for 1990. This volume covers postsecondary education, while the first volume addresses elementary and secondary education. Condition of education indicators (CEIs)--key data that measure the health…

Although research has documented associations between grandparenthood and grandparents' mental health, the basis of these associations has not been extensively explored. This study asked grandparents to describe their relationship with one grandchild and that grandchild's parents; the selected grandchild was the oldest grandchild in the two-parent…

The 1983 North Carolina Dropout Study and the 1988 North Carolina Follow-Up Dropout Study were conducted to provide baseline dropout data for North Carolina public high schools, to provide estimates of dropout rates, and to explore possible factors contributing to a student's decision to leave high school. The results of the 1983 study indicated…

Many students who enter public schools leave without achieving what has become the expected minimum level of educational attainment, a high school diploma. The purpose of this study was to contribute to existing dropout-prevention research by identifying and validating reliable decision rules for differentiating actual dropouts from high school…

Recently researchers have reported a relationship between body image and depression in early adolescents. This longitudinal study evaluated the importance of body image in the etiology of early adolescent girls' depression. Depression scores of female students (N=505) in grades 6 through 9 were assessed twice, in the fall (T1) and the spring (T2)…

Length of stay in psychiatric inpatient units has received increasing attention with the external pressures for treatment cost-effectiveness and evidence that longer hospital stays do not appear to have significant advantages over shorter hospital stays. This study examined the relationship between length of psychiatric hospital stay and…

Problems with using stepwise analytic methods are discussed, and better alternatives are illustrated. To make the illustrations concrete, an actual data set, involving responses of 91 medical school admissions directors to 30 variables, was used. The 30 variables involved perceptions of barriers to medical school with respect to characteristics of…

A dichotomous dependent variable is used to determine a combination of variables that will predict group membership. Dichotomous variables are frequently encountered in multiple regression analysis. However, several textbooks question the appropriateness of using multiple regression analysis when analyzing dichotomous dependent variables. The…

An empirical method called Predicted Error Sum of Squares (PRESS) is advanced and studied. This method is used to examine the cross-validated prediction accuracies of some popular algorithms for weighted predictor variables. The weighting methods that were considered were ordinary least squares, ridge regression, regression on principal…

A study of the cognitive processes involved in achieving coherence in discourse examined a major factor affecting the accessibility of referents: the length of absence of the referent from the distribution of different types of grammatical referential devices (definite nouns and anaphoric pronouns) in discourse. Six versions of a set of twenty…

Multivariate methods were used to identify between-set factors relating the criterion set of eleven Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised subtest variables to the predictor set of demographic variables: age, race, sex, education, occupation, geographic region, and urban versus rural residence. Although factor analysis is usually used to…