A study investigated the degree of association between parent-reported language scores at ages 1,2, and 3 years, and the cumulative duration of middle-ear effusion (MEE) during the first 3 years in 621 children. At age 3, the cumulative duration of MEE significantly contributed to the variance in parent-reported scores. (Contains references.) (CR)

Assessed preschoolers' patterns of emotional expressiveness, emotion regulation, and emotion knowledge. Used latent variable modeling to identify their contributions to social competence, evidenced by sociometric liability and teacher ratings. Found that emotional competence assessed at 3 to 4 years of age contributed to both concurrent and…

A study involving 670 nonabusive families and 166 abusive families compared Spanish and Colombian cultures in relation to community social support variables and the relationships between these variables and child maltreatment. In both cultures, abusive parents showed lower levels of community integration, participation in social activities, and…

This study examined toddler precursors of preschoolers' externalizing behaviors. Findings indicated that boys initiated more conflictual-aggressive interactions as toddlers and had more externalizing difficulties 2 years later, yet girls' (not boys') conflict-aggressive initiations at age 2 related to subsequent externalizing problems. The…

Investigated the relationships between social support, perceived stress, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction among 94 first-year college students. Found that students who reported higher levels of social support and self-efficacy and lower levels of perceived stress also reported higher levels of life satisfaction. Social support and stress…

Interviews with 372 homeless and runaway adolescents found one-half reported being physically abused and almost one-third experienced sexual abuse. Females experienced significantly higher rates of sexual abuse. Sexual minority youth experienced more physical and sexual abuse compared to heterosexual youth. Nonfamily members most often perpetrated…

This longitudinal study followed reading progress in 208 children with language impairments (either specific or nonspecific) compared to normal and low IQ controls from kindergarten through fourth grade. Children with language impairment in kindergarten, especially nonspecific language impairment, were at high risk of reading disabilities in…

Sought to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure pharmacy students' self-confidence and to determine the effect of selected demographic variables as independent predictors of self-confidence. Found that the instrument had content validity, high internal consistency reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Several…

Additional analysis of a previously published study involving 128 first-graders with double or triple deficit in language skills (rapid automatized naming, phonological, and orthographic processing) responded more slowly to early intervention than students without language deficits. Verbal IQ-word reading discrepancy did not predict response to…

A study explored the relationship between two creative types (adaptor and innovator) and the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience), in 164 teachers in Singapore. Adaptors were significantly more conscientious than innovators, while innovators were significantly more…

A study identified 145 adults with mild mental retardation and hyperinsulinemia, borderline high triglycerides, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hypertension, and abdominal obesity. Those who participated in more frequent bouts of physical activity or who consumed lower dietary fat intakes were one-third as likely to have hyperinsulinemia…

A follow-up study of 60 nonworking persons with visual impairments who contacted a vision rehabilitation agency for vocational placement services over a five-year period found that the absence of other health or physical conditions and being unemployed one year or less were significant predictors of job-seeking behavior. (Contains references.)…

Asserting that graduation and stopout are "competing" or correlated events and that they often should be modeled as such, this study demonstrated that factors affecting timely graduation (e.g., financial aid) often have time-varying effects, and that ignoring these time-varying effects can lead to spurious conclusions that may result in…

Client satisfaction of 57 mentally retarded adults living in 12 group homes was examined in relationship to measures of their managers' competence and program normalization. Satisfaction with group home placement was related to manager competence and to the degree of community use for group home residents. (Author/JDD)

This study addressed the extent to which performance on selected verbal and nonverbal measures contributed to the prediction of inflection learning with 20 normal boys (ages 4 to 5). Results suggested that inflection learning may be tied more to other language abilities than to nonverbal cognitive skills in normally developing boys. (DB)