Factors most likely to predict teenage smoking are defined, based on a study of 6th through 12th grade students. The importance of social factors--the number of best friends who smoke, whether parents and siblings smoke--is stressed. (PP)

Surveyed 27 mothers to study the development of positive perception of their newborn infant. Results showed the relationship between prenatal attitudes and infant perception was related to mothers' age, mothers' tendency to use informational cues of infant behavior, and emotional upheaval mothers anticipate with the infant's arrival. (WAS)

Investigated the influence of reading time and words read per minute on the literal and interpretative comprehension of primary school students in Nigeria. (FL)

A sample of 132 junior high school students completed a biographical data sheet, short forms of the Beck Depression Inventory, a Sensation-Seeking Scale, the Family Environment Scale, a social support index, and a life stress inventory, to determine to what extent depression in young adolescents could be predicted. (Author/PN)

Log linear analysis of data from the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey indicates a rising number of Whites who have mixed ethnic ancestry but identify with a single ethnic group. This is particularly true among those who have attended college, live in large areas, and belong to younger age groups. (Author/MJL)

To study sex differences in test performance, the performance of males and females on 16 General Certificate of Education exams was analyzed in England. Results show that males perform better on objective tests than females. (Author/JJD)

Ninety-eight children identified as shy, based on their self-perceptions and specific criteria related to shyness, were administered a self-esteem inventory and self-report measures of shyness. A significant correlation between shyness and self-esteem scores indicated that shyness is related to low self-esteem. (Author/CM)

Eighteen second-grade boys and girls identified as being high or low role-takers were videotaped teaching two same-sex kindergartners to make construction-paper caterpillars. High and low role-takers differed on eight dimensions of the 16 categories of prosocial behavior coded during videotaped observations. (Author/MP)

Investigates indirect socialization effects of parents' occupational conditions on children's school behavior. Subjects were 60 women of lower socioeconomic status and their adolescent and preadolescent children. As predicted, mothers' job autonomy and skill utilization were significantly associated with their children's academic behaviors.…

Proposes possible cognitive structures for the development of race awareness and subsequent racial attitude formation and offers a developmental interpretation of this phenomenon in a sample of Black preschool children during a period of preoperational thought. (Author/MP)

Although both environmental and cognitive factors were found to predict language development, cognitive factors appear to be more significant in the early months and environmental factors become more significant later in development. (MP)

Studied the influence of the physical and social environment on the well-being of 224 elderly adults. Environmental predictors of well-being were entered into five separate multiple linear regression anlayses. Well-being for this sample was associated with living in well-maintained residential neighborhoods outside the city center. (Author/JAC)

Investigated the effects of fee payment sources on the duration of psychotherapy for 160 outpatients. Univariate results indicated that scaled fee patients had significantly more sessions than those whose fee was paid by Medicaid. Multivariate results, however, indicated that education and sex accounted for most of the variance in treatment…

Assessed ecological validity of previous research that suggested an interviewer's nonverbal behaviors predominate over verbal content behaviors in prediction of interviewer effectiveness ratings. Assessed naturally occuring (rather than manipulated) interviewer behaviors. Results indicated nonverbal interviewer behaviors do not predominate over…

This first part of a two-part article (concluded next issue) reviews the major research both supporting and denying the notion that teachers can significantly affect student learning. Notes six important reasons why the research has been inconclusive, primarily related to disagreement over definitions of relevant variables and desired outcomes.…