Examines the relationship between mothers' and adolescents' (N=42) perceptions of one another's behavior and their actual communication behavior during a problem-solving task. Results indicate that adolescents' negative beliefs about their mothers predicted adolescents' negative communication. Suggests that treatment of parent-adolescent conflict…

Identifies possible predictors of psychological abuse in nonmarital heterosexual romantic relationships. Responses from 175 undergraduate women reveal 11% claiming psychological abuse as well as more instances of partner behaviors characteristic of psychological abuse. Abused individuals were more likely to have lower self-esteem, had parents'…

Explored ability of parenting stress to predict maternal behaviors among low-income women, about half of whom were residing in a battered women's shelter. Assessed parenting stress, maternal adjustment, marital relationship, and responses to typical child behaviors. Found that parenting stress predicts use of positive behaviors like affection and…

Assesses the long-term effects of parental physical abuse, verbal abuse, and emotional neglect in a sample of 247 female and 154 male college students. Results suggest that parental physical abuse and verbal abuse predicted current anger and that emotional neglect predicted loneliness and social isolation. Paternal maltreatment predicted negative…

Maladaptive behavior of 43 children (ages 4-19) with Prader-Willi syndrome was compared to children with Down syndrome and nonspecific mental retardation. The children with Prader-Willi showed more frequent and severe internalizing, externalizing, and total problem behaviors. Certain maladaptive behaviors were distinctive to these children and…

Investigates several instruments measuring intelligence and prior conceptual knowledge/achievement to determine how well they predict outcomes in computer assisted language learning. Concludes that a non-verbal intelligence test was a significant predictor, but that prior conceptual knowledge of course content was low. Level of prior achievement…

Describes an ethnographic study of 126 developmental mathematics students at a 4-year college to determine characteristics related to success in the course and subsequent retention. Reports that student attendance and engagement strongly influenced success. Lists recommendations for improving student engagement. A list of observed student…

Examined relationships between aspects of the parent-child relationship and responses on adjustment-related measures for 131 highly stressed inner-city fourth through sixth graders. Found that relationships between parent-relational and child-test indicators were modest overall. The strongest parent predictor variable was parent attitudes, which…

Structural models were used to examine developmental stages of antisocial behavior and their relation to during-treatment performance of 245 probationers in an inpatient substance abuse treatment program. Separate childhood and adulthood antisocial functioning components predicted psychological functioning and program perceptions during treatment.…

The literature review discussed here located 56 studies examining 87 behaviors that predicted future health-related behaviors using the theory of planned behavior. About 41% of variance in intentions and 34% of variance in future behavior were explained by the theory. Perceived behavioral control explained 11.5% of variance in behavior above…

Changes in patterns of maladaptive behavior related to age-associated adaptive declines were investigated in 529 adults with mental retardation (ages 30 to 84), 202 with Down syndrome. Certain maladaptive behaviors were related to the onset of adaptive declines, (e.g., lack of boundaries). Findings suggest similarities in the course of…

Examined educational competence and predictors of reading ability among 152 Illinois foster children, ages 16 and 17. Found that 34 percent had been placed in special education and 20 percent had dropped out of school in the preceding 2 years. Also found that aspiration for higher education, placement in kinship care, participation in…

Examined contributions of cognitive processing speed, short-term memory capacity, and attention to infant visual recognition memory. Found that infants who showed better attention and faster processing had better recognition memory. Contributions of attention and processing speed were independent of one another and similar at all ages studied--5,…

Compared preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders with a matched control group to investigate whether weak central coherence could account for deficits in two behaviors purported to tap capabilities fundamental to a theory of mind: joint attention and pretend play. Found that pretend play did not differentiate the two groups. Weak central…

This study investigated whether the process of representational change undergoes developmental change or different processes occupy different niches in the course of knowledge acquisition. Subjects--college, third-, and sixth-grade students--solved gear system problems over two sessions. Findings indicated that for all grades, discovery of the…