In a rebuttal of Easterlin (1995), Hagerty and Veenhoven (2003) analyze data for 21 countries and conclude that "growing national income does go with greater happiness." But the U.S. experience does not support this conclusion, which they obtain only by mixing together two sets of noncomparable surveys. Moreover, the result of studies of European…

The present study was designed to assess body mass index (BMI), self-esteem, parent and peer relations, negative affect, and perfectionism, as predictors of dieting, food preoccupation, and muscle preoccupation, in 326 preadolescent children (150 girls and 176 boys) aged between 8 and 10 years. Preadolescents were tested twice over a 10-month…

This investigation focused on the relation between college student drinking behavior and study skills, behaviors, habits, and attitudes among undergraduate students at a predominantly African American university. Students (N = 492) were administered a multimedia alcohol survey with an embedded measure of study practices. The negative and generally…

This paper examines the relation between computer use in diverse learning contexts and math achievement, and the gender and ethnicity-based differences in that relation. The study selected learner centeredness as a meaningful pedagogy in using computers because of its importance in technology-based learning. Along with the emerging notion of the…

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of scaffolding interactive activities in developing the English listening comprehension skills of sixth grade elementary schoolgirls in Jeddah. The subjects in this study were 50 sixth grade pupils at an elementary school in Jeddah. They were assigned to two groups--control and…

This paper reports on a study conducted on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 database. The purpose of the study was to examine predictors of student achievement using middle school mathematics teacher professional development items as criterion variables, such as the number of mathematics courses taken, the number of…

There is a large literature on the productivity of universities. Little is known, however, about how different types of leader affect a university's later performance. By constructing a new longitudinal data set, I provide evidence that the research quality of a university improves after it appoints a president (vice chancellor) who is an…

Little is known about the payoffs to apprenticeship training in the German speaking countries for the participants. OLS estimates suggest that the returns are similar to those of other types of schooling. However, there is a lot of heterogeneity in the types of apprenticeships offered, and institutional descriptions suggest that there might be an…

Unlike traditional interventions, Internet interventions allow for objective tracking and examination of the usage of program components. Student Bodies (SB), an online eating disorder (ED) prevention program, significantly reduced ED attitudes/behaviors in college-aged women with high body image concerns, and reduced the development of EDs in…

This study examined the effects of teacher characteristics, school conditions, teacher efficacy, external support, and remuneration on music educators' risk for attrition and migration. Data from the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey--a comprehensive, nationally representative survey of teachers, principals, and schools conducted by the…

The current study examined important predictors of substance use during early adolescence. The authors hypothesized that adolescents' relationships with key adults (i.e., teachers and parents) influence their choices to use substances indirectly through links with their decisions regarding peer groups. A total of 461 middle school students from an…

The role of relational (i.e., parent, peer, teacher) support as a predictor of identity status was assessed using a sample of 635 early adolescents from an ethnically diverse, low-income school district. Identity status was measured using the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status. Multivariate regression analyses suggested that parental support…

This study was designed to theoretically articulate and empirically assess the role of computer scaffolds. In this project, several examples of educational software were developed to scaffold the learning of students performing high level cognitive activities. The software used in this study, Artemis, focused on scaffolding the learning of…

Bridging the areas of political-economic sociology, the sociology of agriculture and environmental sociology, this study tests two hypotheses derived from a refined theory of foreign investment dependence. The hypotheses state that pesticide and fertilizer use intensity in less-developed countries are both positively associated with foreign…

The application of scientific tools to analyse the use of Internet-based e-learning tools in academic settings is in general an ignored area. E-learning tools are actually an emergent topic as a result of the new ideas introduced by the European Higher Education Area. Lifelong learning, or the promotion of student initiative, is the new paradigm…