College students (N=1250) starting introductory courses in thirteen academic disciplines were asked to predict their grade in the course. Results showed that overall, males predicted higher grades for themselves than did females. This held true for entering freshmen as well as for those with previous college experience. (Author)

Investigated efficacy of initial attitudes, parental characteristics, and prior education as predictors of Asian-American adolescents' academic achievement in postsecondary education. Found that academic self-concept and achievement expectancies predicted students' grades. Academic preparation was significantly correlated with first-year…

The role of language learner anxiety, among other affective variables of students studying Japanese, is examined in relation to students' language performance at three different instructional levels. Findings showed that the predictive variable of student performance was different from the beginning level to the intermediate- and the…

A study investigated relationships between academic majors and six undergraduate student work values (authority, recognition, administrative responsibility, financial success, helping others, artistic creativity), using Holland's theory of occupational choice. Subjects were 18,137 students persisting at four-year institutions from 1985 to 1989.…

Investigated the value of an instrument measuring noncognitive variables and scores on the Scholastic Assessment Tests as predictors of academic achievement of women college students. Found both noncognitive (especially demonstrated community service) and academic variables (mathematical and verbal skills) were significantly related to women's…

Adults with mental retardation (n=22,740) were studied to investigate age-related changes in functioning and their relation to subsequent mortality. Individuals with Down syndrome, compared to non-Down syndrome individuals with mental retardation, were at earlier and higher risk for adaptive regression whether prevalence, incidence, or mortality…

A study examined 10,835 high school students with disabilities who took the American College Testing entrance examination, to determine whether more coursework completed by the students resulted in higher test scores. It was found that "coursework completed" was the best predictor of scores in math but not in English. (CR)

Two exploratory studies describe patterns found in middle school discipline referral records. The first project involved the establishment of criteria for identifying the "most difficult" middle school students who would be candidates for a specialized mentoring program. The second project compared the discipline referral patterns of…

A two-year study of 239 families comprising both substance-abusing and nonsubstance-abusing parents found parental substance abuse greatly increased the likelihood of poorer family functioning and re-reports for maltreatment to the child protection services. The findings support the need for including parental substance abuse in risk assessment…

Examined whether the socialization of emotional expression within the family was consistent over time and whether it was related to emotional expressiveness and positive adjustment in late adolescence. Results from 40 adolescents of European American families reveal that females tended to report a higher level of emotional expressiveness and a…

Review of the contribution of various oral language abilities to early reading performances found that, although phonemic awareness was the best predictor of early reading skills, metasyntactic ability also often accounted for significant variance. Once children acquire initial decoding skills, narrative discourse and other metalinguistic skills…

Studies the relationship between education level and probability of re-employment, using Labor Ministry data on 2,077 Finnish unemployed persons. Models of search theory predict that those with less than nine years of education and those with master's, licentiate, or doctor's degrees have the lowest re-employment probabilities. Unemployed persons…

Severity of hearing loss predicted poor reading comprehension scores for children with reading impairments in Grade 3 (N=67) and Grade 6 (N=36) in a study done in five areas of Quebec (Canada). Good scores of a few Grade 6 students with severe hearing loss indicated that these students can keep up if wide gaps do not exist at the outset of…

Associations among children's beliefs about intelligence and effort, goal orientations, self-reported learning strategies, and academic achievement were studied with 319 children in grades 3 through 6. Results revealed a coherent set of beliefs about intelligence and academic performance, and that beliefs are powerful predictors of achievement…

A study compared 422 Head Start children with a putative diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with typical Head Start children from kindergarten through third grade. Children with putative ADHD who had received medications were significantly more likely to be found eligible for special education than non-medicated children.…