Objective: The first aim of this study was to examine changes in freshman college students' health-enhancing physical activity (PA) and body composition across the first semester. Secondly, this study aimed to explore the role of socio-ecological variables on these processes. Methods: A sample of 166 participants (108 females, 58 males,…

Background: A significant portion of adults struggle to read at a basic level. Word reading (defined here as decoding and word recognition) appears to play a pivotal role for this population of readers; however, less is known about how word reading relates to other important semantic processes (e.g., vocabulary, sentence processing) known to…

Despite the documented rise of children's use of mobile media devices in the United States, particularly in lower-income homes, there is limited research on how children and parents interact together with these types of devices. This study sought to describe and investigate how parents and their 3-year-old children use one type of mobile digital…

Based on combined data from Baccalaureate & Beyond (B&B:16/17), Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, this study utilizes zero-inflated beta regression methods and analyzes individual and institutional factors that predict debt burden by gender. Results show that women are less…

The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to manage it have affected mental health around the world. Although early research on the COVID-19 pandemic showed a general decline in mental health after the pandemic began, mental health in later stages of the pandemic might be improving alongside other changes (e.g., availability of vaccines, return to…

Early intervention is a method institutions use to identify and support students who are having academic difficulty and might be designated as "at-risk", or more likely to leave an institution (Villano et al., 2018). Institutions often adopt early alert systems to support early intervention efforts and student retention (Barefoot et al.,…

Background: In recent years, the examination of the impostor phenomenon (IP) has expanded to Black doctoral student populations; however, studies have only sampled Black students attending predominantly white institutions (PWIs). To date, an exploration of IP in Black students attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) is…

Although there is a wealth of research addressing the association between mental health and school absenteeism, there are calls for a better understanding of how mental health difficulties might predict SAPs (Egger et al., 2003; Finning et al., 2022; Ingul et al., 2019; Wood et al., 2012). The aim of this paper was to create a more nuanced…

The student-teacher relationship plays an important role in the development of academic and social skills in early elementary (Torres, Domitrovich, & Bierman, 2015; Vitaro, Boivin, Brendgen, Girard, & Dionne, 2012; etc.). Although the importance of the student-teacher relationship is well-established, the importance for special education…

While numerous studies have been conducted to determine the impact of grade retention on future academic achievement and psychosocial development, few studies have targeted Florida-specific grade retention as mandated by Florida law. As it exists today, there is very little evidence that the practice of retaining students resulted in increased…

The purpose of this article is to describe the possibilities of using worksheets in the teaching of lipids and proteins. The worksheet includes a concept map, suggestions for three safe experiments that can be performed with available household chemicals, and observation results. The worksheets were implemented into action research in two classes…

This study examined the relationship between selected demographic, academic and family related factors on the persistence rate among college students attending an urban university in the southern region of the United States. Although there is no conclusive explanation for what affects persistence of first-year students nationally; increasing…

This quantitative study explored the relationships and differences between faculty groups at US higher education institutions (HEI) on their collective efficacy (CE) beliefs, perceived insider status (PIS), and job satisfaction. Faculty at six HEIs and across social media responded to a self-report survey. Faculty were divided into tenure/tenure…

Science scores among US fourth-grade students have declined compared to their international counterparts in recent years. Recent results show that teachers are the most impactful influence on student success and accountability. Teacher preparedness and professional development are two key areas that serve as indicators of providing relevant and…

Working memory has been shown to be strongly related to fluid intelligence; however, our goal is to shed further light on the process of information compression in working memory as a determining factor of fluid intelligence. Our main hypothesis was that compression in working memory is an excellent indicator for studying the relationship between…