Examined cognitive-behavioral (health-belief, social cognitive, peer support), risk-taking, and stress/coping models as predictors of safer sex practices among 136 gay/bisexual males, ages 14-19. Components of the health-belief, self-efficacy theories, and emotional distress models corresponded with safer sex practices; peer support was not…

Expanded the applicability of stage models to the reduction of HIV-risk behaviors. Distributed not-in-treatment crack cocaine smokers and intravenous drug users across three levels of intention to change, which revealed that benefits of change and condom assertiveness varied across the stages of change. Discusses other findings. (RJM)

The Test of Reactions and Adaptation in College (TRAC), a measure of students' personal dispositions toward learning, is presented. Results from 2 different samples of college students (n=1,081) indicate acceptable psychometric characteristics for the TRAC. The TRAC predicted college success better than high school weighted academic average did.…

Found that 75 percent of variance in children's first-grade achievement was predicted by measures of their achievement, object play, and peer interaction in kindergarten; and that aspects of first graders' personality disorders and aggressive behavior were predicted by their popularity in kindergarten. (MM)

This study examined the relationship between maternal perceptions of family coping strategies and family strengths in 206 Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian families of young children with and without disabilities. Within all three groups, use of internal family coping strategies was more predictive of family strengths than was use of…

The relationship between grade point average (GPA) and scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) for 60 male and 7 female Asian graduate students in engineering was studied. The TOEFL is not an effective predictor of total GPA, although it measures English communication skills. (SLD)

Presents results from the 1992 Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) program that measures illicit drug use among persons arrested for criminal behavior. Adult use of specific drugs, male juvenile drug use, and the role of the DUF are explored. (GLR)

Scientific and everyday knowledge domains are compared so as to reveal the distinctive differences between their goals and the cognitive processes used to attain them. The main goals, working goals, learning difficulties, knowledge structure, concept specification, knowledge organization, role of school science, program-solving instruction, formal…

This study of 95 hearing-impaired adolescents found that students' communication ease made a significant contribution to the prediction of 3 standardized achievement test scores, as well as teacher-assigned grades. Engagement (the extent to which students report being excited and involved in the classroom) predicted grades but not achievement test…

Age-related differences in adolescent orientation to the future were studied for 124 Israeli female junior and senior high school students and college seniors. Results show greater support for a hypothesis predicting differences derived from H. Heckhausen's least necessary expenditure principle than for a social control and continuity principle.…

Presents a hands-on activity in which students try to identify 15 unknowns using only their sense of touch. This method reinforces the science process skills of observing, collecting and recording data, and analyzing data tables while requiring few reading skills. (MDH)

Describes how elementary and secondary students use computers to create prequels to videos shown in their English classes. Discusses how the activity promotes critical thinking, predictive viewing, reading, and writing skills. (MG)

Uses National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data to examine whether measures of male teenagers' skills (academic, reasoning, and self-esteem) predict their wages at ages 27 and 28. All three skill types help predict subsequent wages, but have differing importance in explaining white/minority wage gaps. (Contains 37 references.) (MLH)

Uses the various strategies involved in baseball to illustrate basic concepts in game theory. Specifically discusses Willie Mays' base-stealing strategy and how it relates to probability and risk. Reminds students that expected results depend on adopted assumptions. (MJP)

Examined the performance of K-12 students on criterion-referenced reading, language arts, and mathematics tests and the relationship of those results to teacher performance measures by principals, students, and teacher self-evaluations using a 360 degree feedback approach. Results for 988 students, 35 teachers, and 4 principals show that student…