Differences in family factors in determining academic achievement were investigated by testing 432 parents in nine independent, coeducational Melbourne schools. Schools were ranked and categorized into three groups (high, medium and low), based on student achievement (ENTER) scores in their final year of secondary school and school improvement…

Stress process theory is applied to examine lack of supplemental private health insurance as a risk factor for depressive symptomatology among older married couples covered by Medicare. Dyadic data from 130 African-American couples and 1,429 White couples in the 1993 Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest-Old Survey were analyzed using…

The purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in college students' high-risk drinking as measured by an estimated blood alcohol concentration (eBAC) based on gender, height, weight, self-reported number of drinks, and hours spent drinking. Using a developmental/contextual framework, high-risk drinking is conceptualized as a function…

Locus of Control (LOC) deals with an individual's personal attribution of successful or failure. Those with internal LOC believe that events in their lives are under their personal control while individuals with external LOC feel that their lives are dominated by the environment. The theory has been applied to achievement and health-related issues…

This study investigated the unique contributions of joint attention, imitation, and toy play to language ability and rate of development of communication skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Sixty preschool-aged children with ASD were assessed using measures of joint attention, imitation, toy play, language, and…

The main purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between certain learning organization characteristics and change adaptation, innovation, and bottom-line organizational performance. The following learning organization characteristics were found to be the strongest predictors of rapid change adaptation, quick product or…

Utilizing data from the national administration of a Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) baseline and follow-up survey of the first-year experience during the 2002-2003 academic year, this study explores the relationship between three curricular interventions--first-year seminars, service-learning, and learning communities--and the…

This study examined the relation between language skills, gender, and relational/physical aggression. Language skills of 100 preschoolers were assessed with 3 standardized instruments. Relational/physical aggression was rated by the children's teachers. Results indicated that relational and physical aggression tended to increase as language scores…

This study examined the relationship between teacher anxiety and their identification of warning signs of student violence. Fifty-six public school teachers, 22 male and 34 female, between the ages of 23 and 60 participated. Participants identified warning signs in five fictional student case files created for this study and completed the…

The identification of academically gifted children from the perspective of aptitude theory is discussed. Aptitude refers to the degree of readiness to learn and to perform well in a particular situation or domain. The primary aptitudes for academic success are (a) prior achievement in a domain, (b) the ability to reason in the symbol systems used…

Four components of a comprehensive, responsive parenting style ("Responsiveness to Signals, Maintaining Attentional Focus, Rich Language, and Warmth") have been previously identified [Landry, S. H., Smith, K. E., & Swank, P. R. (in press). Responsive parenting: Establishing early foundations for social, communication and independent problem…

In early intervention, researchers often are interested in interpretation aids that can help determine the relative importance of variables when multiple regression models are used, and that facilitate deeper insight into prediction dynamics. Commonality analysis is one approach for helping researchers understand the contributions independent or…

Differences in depression between Puerto Rican and non-Latina White mothers providing care to their adult child with mental retardation were examined. The focus of this study is on how family problems may mediate the effect of the adult's behavior problems on the mother's level of depressive symptoms and how this process differs across the two…

Running away is a frequent but little studied phenomenon among adolescents in foster care. Repeated running from care often leads to premature discharge and homelessness for youth. This article uses cumulative risk theory in the context of normative adolescent development to investigate predictors of running away from foster care. Results indicate…

This study tested hypotheses of the Integrative Contextual Model of Career Development (R. T. Lapan, 2004a) by investigating the multivariate effects of 6 interrelated career development skills (career exploration, person-environment fit, goal setting, social/prosocial/work readiness, self-regulated learning, and the utilization of social…