Evaluated emotional expressiveness, empathy, and prosocial behavior in 9-, and 13-year-olds. As expected, emotional expressiveness, emotional insight, and role taking were strong predictors of latent empathy. Boys' empathy was a strong predictor of prosocial behavior, whereas girls' empathy was related to prosocial behaviors with friends but not…

Tested 90 infants in the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) with both parents. Found that mothers' Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) scores predicted infant-mother SSPs and fathers' AAIs predicted infant-father SSPs. Counter to expectation, infant-father SSPs were associated with infant-mother SSPs, which might be explained by the influence of…

Categorizes different theoretical justifications of data fusion into two approaches, examines their implications, analyzes some unsuccessful data fusion experiments, and proposes two conditions for effective data fusion. Results indicate that the efficacy and inter-scheme dissimilarity are good predictors for effectiveness of data fusion.…

Used a longitudinal sample to examine the relation of 8- to 10-year olds' teacher-reported dispositional sympathy to regulation and emotionality. Found that sympathy correlated with adults' reports of regulation and low negative emotionality contemporaneously and, to some degree, two and four years prior. The pattern of correlations changed little…

Studied child temperament and parental control as interacting predictors of behavior outcomes in 7- to 10-year olds in two longitudinal samples, the Bloomington Longitudinal Study and the Child Development Project. Found that resistance to control was more strongly related to externalizing in low-parent restriction groups than in high-parent…

The placement histories of 415 youth in foster care in San Diego, California, were analyzed together with behavior problems identified by the Child Behavior Check List. Results suggest that volatile placement histories contribute negatively to both internalizing and externalizing behavior of foster children. Initial externalizing behaviors were…

Using a sample of 59 college women (26 athletes and 33 non-athletes), examined whether women higher in identity achievement would describe more mature life plans, ones with greater complexity and stronger commitment to life goals. For athletes, identity achievement was positively associated with life plan commitment, while identity achievement and…

Examines predictors of alcohol and marijuana use at school among a sample of high school students (N=208). Results reveal that personal predispositions are more strongly related to substance use at school when students believe they have the opportunity to use alcohol and drugs without getting caught. (Contains 39 references and 5 tables.)…

Examines the academic, behavioral, and social outcomes of a cohort of children and adolescents (N=43) following a traumatic brain injury. Findings reveal that premorbid functions were significant predictors of reading and spelling achievement and adaptive functioning. Discusses implications of results including program development, reintegration…

Medical records of residents of a facility for persons with mental retardation from January 1, 1978, through December 31, 1997, were analyzed to identify incidence of sudden unexpected death for 180 individuals with and 125 without comorbid epilepsy. Eighty deaths were identified, with 55 occurring in those with epilepsy. (Contains 15 references.)…

A study of 28 infants (ages 8-12 months) investigated their ability to drink from a straw. Results indicate 22 percent were not able to drink from a straw, whereas 78 percent were able to do so. Data failed to reveal any significant differences based on gender, age, or ethnicity. (Contains nine references.) (Author/CR)

An eight-semester study of university students indicated that student achievement expectancies were predictors of subsequent academic performance, providing support for the consideration of student achievement expectancies in instructional design. Notes gender differences. (PEN)

Describes a study that investigated the use of natural language questions on Web search engines. Highlights include query languages; differences in search engine syntax; and results of logistic regression and analysis of variance that showed aspects of questions that predicted significantly different performances, including the number of words,…

Evaluated the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and theory of planned behavior (TPB) in predicting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in sixth grade students. Student surveys on physical activity behavior and attitudes and measurement of MVPA indicated that the TRA and TPB accounted for only a small percentage of the variance in MVPA. (SM)

Examined smoking behaviors and predictors from fifth through eighth grades by ethnicity, gender, and geographic location. Overall, Hispanic and white adolescents had a similar 30-day smoking prevalence. Predictor variables were powerful across different geographic regions. There were no differences in predictor variables between blacks, whites,…