Are children intellectually impaired as a result of low birth weight and does relative impairment change as children grow older? Premature infants from a range of socioeconomic groups were studied in five rounds over 13 years to provide neurological, psychological, achievement, and sociological data on 582 children in three birth weight groups. A…

Change Group Analysis is suggested as a technique for examining the correlates of the differential effects of a compensatory education program within the group of enrolled pupils. It is based on using pretest-posttest relative changes for forming criterion groups and then using multiple disciminant analysis to uncover patterns of predictor…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the practicality of multiple discriminant function analysis for deriving item response weights. Item responses on a job satisfaction questionnaire administered to 219 professional workers and 242 semi-skilled customer workers were analyzed. Discriminant functional analysis was conducted on the total…

Describes a survey of 356 adult students enrolled in university-level courses at the Open Learning Institute which was conducted to assess the predictive validity of Tinto's theoretical model of student dropout. It was found that, overall, the Tinto model appears to be a useful framework for such investigations. (Author/LRW)

Default on guaranteed student loans has been increasing. The use of discriminant analysis as a technique to identify "good" v "bad" student loans based on information available from the loan application is discussed. Research to test the ability of models to such predictions is reported. (Author/MLW)

The roles of cognitive, perceptual, visual-motor, behavioral, achievement, and demographic factors in nonpromotion at kindergarten were examined for 34 nonpromoted and 34 promoted kindergarten children. Retained children were more likely to be young, male, and of lower socioeconomic status. Implications for interventions to assist retained…

Two studies of about 12,000 applicants to United Kingdom schools show that ethnic origin of surnames is reliably assessable by independent judges, and that surnames are valid indicators of ethnic origin as determined by self-classification, showing very high specificity (97 percent) and slightly lesser sensitivity (84 percent). (Author/MLW)

A national survey which examined the occupational role identity of female academic librarians collected personal, demographic, and job data. In addition, a test for orientation to the occupational role and a sex-role orientation test were administered. Women academic librarians were found to hold a positive and unique occupational role identity.…

In this article we examine the ability of contextual information to enhance assessment of behavior problems in schools. Capitalizing on the multisituational structure of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents, exploratory and confirmatory analyses with a representative national sample (N = 1,400, ages 5-17 years) revealed three unique…

We attempted to differentiate the family environments of youth with Conduct Disorder (CD) compared to youth with a depressive disorder. Participants were 34 adolescents from a residential treatment facility. The K-SADS-P was used to determine the youth's diagnosis, while their family environment was assessed by the Self Report Measure of Family…

Classification studies are important for practitioners who need to identify individuals for specialized treatment or intervention. When interventions are irreversible or misclassifications are costly, information about the proficiency of different classification procedures becomes invaluable. This study furnishes information about the relative…

This study examined gender differences in laterality, socialization, and educational achievement in fourth graders and determined which characteristics predicted mathematical and language achievement. The participants were four fourth grade classes comprised of 32 boys and 45 girls at an elementary school in a small rural town. Measures used were…

Career development theories provide useful ideas for understanding career indecision, but neglect of a measurement of career indecisiveness has caused confusion. To examine the relationship between trait indecisiveness, vocational uncertainty, and interpersonal characteristics, 325 freshmen students were tested with a Trait Indecisiveness Scale…

A discriminant analysis was performed to ascertain what psycho-educational assessment variables made the greatest predictive contribution to the classification of high school students referred for Child Study Team evaluation. Thirty-nine students classified as learning disabled were compared to 47 classified as ineligible for special services.…

The use of stepwise discriminant analysis as a means to select entering students who would benefit from a special program for the disadvantaged was studied. In fall 1984, 278 full-time black students were admitted as first-time students to a large urban university. Of the total, 200 entered a special program for the disadvantaged and 78 entered…