The use of meta-analysis of patient education research as reported by Steven A. Mazzuca in a 1981 conference paper is critiqued. The way that Mazucca's meta-analysis conforms to the criteria for effective conduct of the six methodological tasks of integrative reviews as specified by Jackson (1980) is assessed. The extent to which meta-analysis…

Previous studies by Newman, Whittemore, and Newman (NWN) reported that between the years 1959 and 1963 and the years 1962 and 1967, percentages of women in the labor force increased as well as suicide rates. The role of women in the labor force was indicative of anomie, which correlated with suicide. The relationship between working women and…

Using analysis of variance and regression techniques, the authors analyzed the results of 40 studies that were conducted between 1953 and 1976 and contained 232 correlations between various measures of motivation and achievement. The motivation variables were restricted to students' achievement motivation, locus-of-control perceptions, and general…

This study presents research findings of a four year study intended to identify infant and family characteristics which, singly or in combination, predict developmental problems during preschool and school years. Predictors included a variety of measures of parental and neonatal biological conditions as well as measures of the quality of the…

Highlighting the significant reading gains of 9-year-old students and, to a lesser extent, 13-year-old students, this report presents the results of three assessments surveying the reading skills of American 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students during the 1970-71, 1974-75, and 1979-80 school years. The first chapter is introductory in nature,…

Results of a preliminary study that examined various factors relating to achievement in introductory level biology, chemistry, and physics classes at a public junior college are presented. Background variables, including age, sex, college major, grade point average, SAT-Verbal and SAT-Quantitative, and the sixteen-part scores of Academic…

This paper reports a study which investigated student characteristics for predicting success in an independent, open laboratory. Data were gathered from introductory biology students (N=98) enrolled in a public, two-year college near Atlanta, Georgia. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to determine the effects of age, sex, laboratory…

A battery of four reading readiness assessment tasks was administered to 267 first grade students to determine if the tasks predicted reading achievement as well as the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT). The four tasks, which were the best predictors in a previous study of seven readiness tasks, were the aural word boundaries task, the…

To investigate relationships among reading scores, college academic performance, degree expectations, self-assessed skills, and retention, data from "The Nelson-Denny Reading Test" and background information from "The New Student Survey" were correlated with the freshman year academic performance and enrollment status at the beginning of the…

To ascertain what variables contribute to success of adult literacy programs, a study of 107 adult students in a literacy program was undertaken over a period of two years. Program success was defined as an attendance rate of 65%. It was hypothesized that the four characteristics of age, sex, employment, and marital status would be predictors of…

Based upon a review of the literature, the report examines some of the causes of antisocial behavior among youths. Aspects covered include the adult prognosis for antisocial children, childhood predictors of adult delinquency, the etiology of antisocial behavior in both children and adults, the effects of parental discipline and of separation from…

A 12-item survey of English background and proficiency was administered to all Washington State University freshman English students on the first day of class during the fall semester of 1977. A sample of 700 completed questionnaires was selected for analysis. In general, student responses indicated an overall weakness in the teaching of writing…

Six widely used college admissions variables and four course-specific measures (tests of entering mathematical skills and physics knowledge, and indexes of previous study of mathematics and physics) were correlated with final marks for 495 students in an introductory college physics course. The college admissions variables included scores on…

Forty nonclinical psychology graduate students participated in brief small-group interchanges designed as psychotherapy analogues. The interaction was rated by trained judges, and the "clients" in the simulations also rated "therapist" empathy. The most powerful predictor of client-rated empathy was gender, with women receiving higher empathy…

Past research has suggested that supervisors, when evaluating the poor performance of a subordinate, are influenced by the outcome of the performance. Nurses (N=55) in advanced training assumed the role of a supervisor of a nurse described as having performed poorly. Half of the subjects read an incident without an outcome and half read an…