Describes a study that was conducted to determine whether distance education learners experience anxiety, based on results of a survey of 222 University of Southern Queensland students. Anxiety toward instructional materials and variables that affect students' perceptions of factors that affect their anxiety are discussed. (LRW)

Reports a study that examined the utility of health and exercise locus of control and health and exercise value in predicting exercise behavior in 86 adults. Survey results indicated that exercise locus of control was a better predictor of exercise behavior than a more general measure of health locus of control. (Author/SM)

Forty children with mental retardation were compared on everyday leisure-time behaviors with children without mental retardation matched for mental age (MA) or chronological age (CA). Although MA best predicted overall functioning on leisure-time behavior, CA best predicted both single highest behavior performed and highest behavior considered too…

Infants' attachment security with parents, parental behavior, and child behavior were assessed at 18-24 months; problem behavior was assessed when the children were in first grade. Found that mother-child relationship predicted later problem behaviors; father-child relationship did not. Also found that attachment security, maternal acceptance, and…

Examined mothers' demands during mothers' interactions with their 1.5- to 3.5-year olds. Mothers with authoritative child-rearing attitudes emphasized proactive, competence-oriented demands and avoided regulatory control. Maternal demands for competent action predicted fewer behavior problems in their children at age five; maternal demands focused…

This study examined young children's sensitivity and positive responsiveness to their mothers' needs, using data on 90 preschoolers and their depressed and nondepressed mothers. The highest frequencies of caring behavior were from children with severely depressed mothers, problems in affect regulation, and secure attachment. Girls were found to be…

Adolescents (n=26) whose depressive symptoms increased from ages 11 through 13 were compared with matched control participants (n=26) whose depressive symptoms remained low over the same period. Symptoms could be predicted at age 11 from self-perceptions, self-evaluation, loneliness/social dissatisfaction, perceived number of friends, and…

Describes a study to determine if the personality traits of students in televised college-level courses differ from those of students in traditional courses, and to identify the specific traits predictive of successful performance in televised classes. Results showed that telecourse students do have a unique profile and traits for success. (LRW)

Volunteer participants (n=77) enrolled in 8 substance abuse treatment facilities were surveyed in order to examine the prevalence and nature of incest contacts among the group. Results indicated that approximately 49 percent of the participants had reported histories of incest. Data are presented under various parameters. Also gives comparisons by…

Examined the effectiveness of small sets of predictor variables for correctly identifying children as developmentally delayed at four to seven years of age. A combination of six biomedical risk items, maternal education level, and four subscale scores from the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory is effective when used as…

Reports on a study of the personal characteristics, academic habits, high school course of study, and perceptions of student/teacher interaction and academic advising of community college transfer students attending a research university in the midwest. Compares students who achieved satisfactory progress with those who did not. (DMM)

Researchers measured the constructs of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for college students' learning, examining self-assessed motivation, composite ACT score, and grade point average (GPA). Extrinsic motivation more strongly (though negatively) predicted GPA. There was a significant positive relationship between GPA and intrinsic motivation.…

Decoding, working memory, and domain-specific prior knowledge were studied as predictors of comprehension for 48 university undergraduate students after rewriting notes, rereading notes, or rereading a text. Working memory was most important for comprehension of text-implicit information, whereas knowledge was relatively more important for…

A study of users' keyword searching success and knowledge using the NOTIS online catalog at Indiana State University revealed a low rate of knowledge about keyword searching. Frequency of catalog use, previous online database searching or computer coursework, and library instruction were found to correlate well with search success and keyword…

Survey results found that 66 percent of social workers who recently graduated from social work programs and received child welfare traineeships indicated overall job satisfaction. There were differing arrays of organizational, client-related, and personal factors that predicted job satisfaction. (BB)