Effects of two environmental variables, activity type and age groupings, and two child variables, age and handicapping condition, were examined with respect to the engagement of toddlers and preschoolers in a mainstreaming day care center. The construct of engagement is predicated on the assumption that the more time an individual spends attending…

An investigation of third- through ninth-graders' health-related cognitions used a health belief model to elicit perceptions of vulnerability to health problems, health benefits accruing to health actions, intentions of taking health actions, preventive attitudes, health motivation, beliefs about toothbrushing frequency, and selected beliefs about…

This publication reports findings from the 1981 and 1982 Current Population Survey studies conducted by the United States Bureau of the Census regarding characteristics of the 6,319,000 noninstitutionalized handicapped women in America between 16 and 64 years of age. Tables, figures, and text provide information on age distribution, educational…

This publication reports findings from the 1981 and 1982 Current Population Survey studies conducted by the United States Bureau of the Census regarding characteristics of the 2,280,000 noninstitutionalized disabled blacks between 16 and 64 years of age. Tables, figures, and text provide information on age distribution, educational attainment,…

In academic contexts, self-sufficient learners engage autonomously in study activities that promote effective criterion performance. Their expertness in studying presumably increases as students develop and move from one educational level to another. A correlational investigation was undertaken to evaluate four hypotheses about differences across…

A task was developed to differentiate the reasoning of elementary school students in fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. Subjects completed 16 matrices containing two, three, or four dimensions and varying in the embeddedness of the dimensions. They also solved a formal operational task assessing ability to isolate, exclude, and include variables.…

Two experiments examining adults' use of dimensional adjectives focused specifically on the distinction made between height and overall size as determiners of "bigness." The subjects in both experiments were college students. In the first, the hypothesis that the meaning of "big" shifts as a function of the object being…

This study surveyed students in grades 7-12 in eight Alaskan school districts. The study was designed to obtain information on the use or nonuse of a broad spectrum of chemical substances, ranging from legal, socially sanctioned drugs for those of legal age such as alcohol and tobacco, to illegal and unsanctioned drugs taken for nonmedical…

A study of language patterning as an indicator of higher cortical process focused on three matched comparison groups: normal pre-middle-aged, normal elderly, and elderly adults with senile dementia Alzheimer's type. In addition to tests of memory, level of cognitive function, and organic deficit, the formal aspects of language were analyzed in…

A study was made to assess the extent to which social interaction is beneficial to cognitive development. A total of 154 boys and girls, 5 through 9 years of age, initially participated individually in a conservation-like pretest requiring prediction of the way a beam would tip when different numbers of weights were placed at differing distances…

A study investigated the relationship between prior knowledge, age, instruction, and the relative difficulty and importance of a text in the reading processes and knowledge acquisition of elementary school children in Belgium. Two groups of 42 students (10 and 12 year olds) were given a knowledge questionnaire two months prior to the experimental…

This study documents the differential sex and age influences on children's judgments of each other's humorousness, whom they prefer for friends, and the relationship between perceptions of humorousness and choice of friends. Two groups of children from a university-operated laboratory school participated in this study: one group consisted of 8-,…

The expert-novice paradigm, which demonstrates the outstanding role of domain-specific knowledge in explaining differences in memory behavior and performance, was examined. Two studies are described which compared memory performance of groups equivalent with regard to domain-specific knowledge but differing in intellectual ability. The hypothesis…

The Alcohol and Drug Defense Program was created by the North Carolina General Assembly to assist local school systems in developing school-based drug abuse prevention and intervention programs. As a first step, a statewide survey was conducted to examine drug use and attitudes about use among secondary school students in the state's public…

The National Survey of Family Growth is a periodic survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, and designed to produce national estimates of statistics on fertility, family planning, and aspects of maternal and child health that are closely related to childbearing. This report presents statistics based on data collected in the…