Results of a nationwide telephone survey of 231 African Americans and 1,315 whites found some support for the "contact hypothesis": in certain instances, interracial friendship or neighborhood contacts were associated with more positive racial attitudes, particularly among whites. The question of causal direction is discussed. (SV)

Data from Second National Family Violence Survey revealed no significant differences between genetic and nongenetic parents in rates of severe and very severe violence toward children. Findings have implications for diagnosing cases of child abuse and for biosocial theory of child maltreatment. (Author/NB)

Surveys holders of doctorates in speech communication to discover the greatest barriers to dissertation completion and the forms of emotional support perceived as most useful. Offers advice to help doctoral candidates succeed in completing a dissertation. (SR)

An analysis of sibling data from the National Youth Survey shows the pitfalls of ignoring issues of independence and demonstrate how conventional covariance structure software can be easily adapted to handle hierarchical models, providing a new approach that models within-level and between-level covariance matrices in familial antisocial behavior.…

Surveys creative directors at advertising agencies nationwide regarding their preferences for contents and strategies in the portfolios of entry-level copywriters and art directors. Reports results in terms of content and approaches, number of campaigns and pieces, subjects of ads selected, importance of presentation, importance of concept over…

Examines panel data from the National Survey of Black Americans for 623 adults with regard to predictors of African-American quality of life between 1980 and 1992. Objective measures indicate that the situation for African Americans has declined or stagnated during this period, but subjective measures provide an unclear picture of African-American…

Examines the distribution of drug use among adolescents 12 to 17 years in data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. Results indicate that the risk of drug use is highest in father-custody families even after controlling for socio-demographic variables. Risk is lowest in mother-father families. (Author/EMK)

Finds that 30 states require oral communication as part of an integrated language-arts curriculum; one state reported no state-wide standards for oral communication; two states include oral communication separately from language arts; and twelve states reported exit level testing or competencies of graduating high school seniors which included…

Data from 506 private and public colleges and universities concerning endowment performance in fiscal 1998 are presented. Each responding institution is ranked, with the market value of its endowments given for June 30, 1997, and June 30, 1998, and the percentage change noted. (MSE)

Reports on accounting professionals' self-assessment of their communication abilities (presentation, writing, interpersonal, and interviewing skills), factors contributing to these skills, and rankings of them. Shows that the development of effective communication skills, which are highly valued in public accounting firms, was not part of formal…

A national survey of 48 state coordinators evaluated use of the Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver to fund supported-employment services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Very low utilization was found, primarily due to limits on eligibility. Low reimbursement rates to provider agencies and disinterest of providers in using…

Provides national and state data on the numbers of students and staff at public elementary and secondary schools between 1997 and 1998, as well as the number of public high school graduates in that year. During 1997 through 1998, there were 46 million students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States, and there were…

Contains data on state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia for state fiscal year 1997. Data were collected through the State Library Agencies Survey, which provides policymakers, researchers, and other interested users with descriptive information about state library agencies. (SLD)

A national survey of all 50 states concerning the availability of due process procedures for gifted students and the number and nature of recent hearings produced the following information: 28 states currently provide due process or mediation for conflicts concerning gifted students and 7 states reported holding 26 due process hearings from…

A survey of cooperative education coordinators in Canada (96 of 130) found that more than half had positive attitudes, philosophically and practically, toward volunteer/unpaid positions for co-op students, especially among coordinators of mandatory programs. They had extremely positive attitudes toward entrepreneurial positions. (SK)