Research connecting children's understanding of mental states to their peer relations at school remains scarce. Previous work by the authors demonstrated that children's understanding of mental states in the context of a faux pas--a social blunder involving unintentional insult--is associated with concurrent peer rejection. The present report…

Using a 17-year longitudinal design, this study examined the role of personal and family factors assessed early in life, and also academic and social experiences assessed in the first year of college, in predicting college completion. We followed a sample of 444 French-speaking Canadian children from middle to upper socioeconomic backgrounds (66%…

This research examined links among academic ability, social-perspective coordination, and friendship quality, within the context of gifted adolescents' friendships. The sample consisted of 120 early adolescents (59 girls, 61 boys), 81 of whom were identified as gifted. Academic ability, sex, and grade significantly predicted social-perspective…

Recently, a growing contingent of "evolutionary sociologists" has begun to integrate theoretical ideas and empirical findings derived from evolutionary biology, especially sociobiology, into a variety of sociological inquiries. Without capitulating to a naive version of either biological reductionism or genetic determinism, these researchers and…

This study uses a structural equation model to examine the effect of job autonomy on the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior for university librarians in Taiwan. Findings indicate that this relationship is stronger when job autonomy is high; we then discuss some implications for the librarianship…

The current study examined the association of personal values or worldviews with individual motivations for reduced energy use and energy-use-related risk perceptions. We also investigated how perceptions of others' energy use influenced motivation to reduce use among those with high, versus low, risk perceptions. The perception that others were…

The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used to examine relationships between teacher attitudes and behavior toward children with social, emotional and behavioral difficulties (SEBD). One hundred and eleven elementary school teachers completed questionnaires. Teacher perception of their school principals' expectations (subjective norm) predicted…

Research shows that social norms interventions, which aim to educate individuals and groups on their actual attitudinal and behavioural norms relating to alcohol, cigarette and drug use,incur some success in reducing positive attitudes to substance use and rates of substance use. The research aimed to investigate the extent of misperceptions…

Rates of chronic illness are increasing around the world and, accordingly, numbers of adolescent students living with chronic illness are also increasing. The challenges faced by these students and their teachers are complex. One of these challenges is the need of the adolescent with chronic illness to achieve some level of social conformity.…

Psychopathy is a clinical construct defined by a cluster of personality traits and behaviors, including grandiosity, egocentricity, deceptiveness, shallow emotions, lack of empathy or remorse, irresponsibility, impulsivity, and a tendency to ignore or violate social norms. The majority of empirical research on psychopathy involves forensic…

"Education Indicators in Focus" is a recurring series of briefs that highlight specific indicators in "OECD's Education at a Glance" that are of particular interest to policy makers and practitioners. They provide a detailed look into current issues in pre-primary, primary and secondary education, higher education, and adult…

An individual's social style is determined by behavioral patterns in the interactions with their peers. Some studies suggest that social style may influence the way in which an individual's performance is evaluated. We studied the effects that speakers' and evaluators' social styles have on the marks given for end-of-term presentations in a…

Our article details the development of the self-report Negative Body Talk (NBT) scale and five studies (all conducted with samples of U.S. undergraduate women) supporting the psychometric soundness of scores on this measure. The NBT scale measures women's tendency to engage in negatively valenced commentary about the weight and shape of their own…

This study distinguished two groups of mothers who have not communicated with their young adolescents about sexual health based on their intentions of having these discussions. We also compared these 2 groups to mothers who have had such communications. Overall, 29% of mothers had engaged in sexual discussions with their adolescent in some detail…

Objective: How does the behavioral expression of autism in fragile X syndrome (FXS + Aut) compare with idiopathic autism (iAut)? Although social impairments and restricted, repetitive behaviors are common to these variants of autism, closer examination of these symptom domains may reveal meaningful similarities and differences. To this end, the…