Describes a study which was conducted to test the ability of four motivators to explain adult use of the public library: (1) home and family life; (2) vocational growth; (3) religion; and (4) politics. Other general user characteristics were examined as supplements to the four motivators in predicting library use. (16 references) (LRW)

Reports results of an impressions formation test and survey of elementary and junior high school students. Indicates that younger students viewed technical fields favorably for either sex, whereas older students viewed the fields negatively for girls. Attributes a decline in interest among adolescent girls in computers in part to the normative…

Second and fourth graders and college students categorized one- and two-syllable words. Categorization response times for second graders were related to the number of letters in one-syllable words. Second and fourth graders had longer categorization times than college students for four-letter, two-syllable words. (BC)

Data from 27 subjects--children acquiring Swedish as their first language (L1), adult immigrants acquiring Swedish as their second language (L2), and adult Swedish controls--were used to investigate narrative structure in child L1 and adults L2. Narratives were elicited through a picture story task. (30 references) (Author/JP)

The reliability and validity of the Self-Esteem Inventory developed by S. C. Coopersmith (1975) were evaluated via item-total correlation, discriminant analysis, factor analysis, and analysis of variance of data for 352 Australian adults. The instrument had high internal consistency and discriminated well between subjects with high and low…

Students' written responses to open-ended moral questions were studied by having 61 eighth graders, 73 eleventh graders, and 52 college sophomores respond to hypothetical dilemmas and describe their own moral reasoning. Mature moral reasoning is associated with noncontextual, nonemotional reasoning. Feminine moral concerns are important to all…

The survey of 79 group homes for persons with mental handicap in two provinces of the Netherlands found a positive relationship between age and certain sensory handicaps and chronic diseases, as well as the co-incidence of certain health problems. (Author/DB)

A study of 276 women aged 35-64 re-entering higher education used the life-event framework to focus on stresses of university life, coping methods, and adaptations to school demands. Subgroup (women with young families and mature families) experiences were compared. Each had different motives, strains, and coping methods. Program options are…

Preschoolers through second graders were given an opportunity to help another child obtain toys. Help that required a specific form of affective attribution and reconciliation was found to be related to the affective attribution and reconciliation measures when the demands of the helping opportunity matched the social cognition measure demands.…

Examined effects of early parental employment on children, using data from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Found that more work hours were associated with slightly lower cognitive development through age 9 and lower academic achievement before age 7, but not with behavior problems, compliance, or self-esteem. Early parental employment was…

Examined how child and family factors influence individual differences in the language development of African-American children between 18 and 30 months of age. Found that vocabulary and utterance length increased linearly. Children from more stimulating and responsive homes had larger vocabularies, used more irregular nouns and verbs, and had…

This study examined the effect of period of work placement on students' perceptions of their own attitudes toward learning. An edited Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIS) produced data consistent with findings reported by other researchers. Work experience did not affect students' perceptions of their approaches to learning.…

Used meta-analytic and narrative procedures to integrate results of 93 evaluations of summer school. Found that summer programs focusing on remedial or accelerated learning or other goals impacted positively on participants' knowledge and skills. Middle class students showed larger positive effects than disadvantaged students. Remedial programs…

Evaluation of French second-language learning among college and adult students with videodisk "Vi-Conte" found: beginners adopted less linear paths than adults or more advanced students; lexical acquisition varied by proficiency level; frequency, salience, mode of presentation of lexical items in a multimedia environment affected acquisition;…

Evaluated a path model of teacher expectancy effects in 376 first- through fifth-grade urban children. Found that classroom environment and developmental differences moderated the strength of teacher expectancy effects on students' year-end achievement. Results suggested that teacher expectations may tend to magnify achievement differences in the…