In recent years, schools have been increasingly involved in youth's health-related behavior, particularly risky health behaviors (e.g., HIV/AIDS and pregnancy prevention programs). This study examined how acculturation processes among adolescent girls who are recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union (FSU) affect their practices of risky…

Parents of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) are more likely to experience serious psychological distress than parents of children with other developmental disabilities. To examine the impact of a range of factors on psychological wellbeing, interviews were undertaken with 68 mothers of children with ASDs to explore aspects of…

Objective : To evaluate social support and theory of planned behavior (TPB) constructs in explaining physical activity in adolescent girls. Methods : One thousand seven hundred ninety-seven 8 th -grade girls completed a survey measuring social provisions, family support, TPB constructs, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and team sport…

Through structural equation modeling, this study investigates the effects of counseling students' perceptions of early-childhood experiences on their social influence attributes as rated by their instructors. Perceptions of early childhood had no effects on instructors' ratings of trainees' expertness or trustworthiness, but did have effects on…

This study examined risk factors associated with alcohol use in the past 3 months among young men aged 15-24 in Haiti using data from the 2000 Enquete Mortalite, Morbidite et Utilization des Services. Findings indicate that life-time smoking, multiple sexual partnerships, witnessing inter-parental conflict in childhood, disruption of parental…

Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (neighborhood N=77; individual N=951), we consider the extent to which African American youth maintain sexual and fertility-related norms that support early sexual activity and childbearing and examine the robustness of racial differences in sexual attitudes to controls for…

Two coping strategies--problem solving and social support seeking--were hypothesized to differentially moderate the effects of intergenerational family conflict on well-being and adjustment in a college sample of 117 Asian American young adult children. Results indicated that social support served as a protective-stabilizing factor that buffered…

Youth violence is an important public health problem, but few researchers have studied violence from youth's perspectives. Middle school students' essays about the causes of youth violence were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The causes of violence identified by students were categorized into individual, peer, family, and…

Objectives: To examine how older smoking peers at school and the smoking behavior of friends and family members are related to youth smoking. Methods: The School Smoking Profile was used to collect data on tobacco use and determinants of tobacco use from 22,091 students from 29 secondary schools in Ontario, Canada. Correlates of occasional and…

This article reports on findings from a research study that set out to identify factors that enable children considered to be able by their teachers to extend and develop their literacy. The data substantiated much that is already known about the significance of preschool home influences on the emergence of literacy. It underlined the importance…

Adolescence is marked by physical, cognitive, and social changes which affect how individuals perceive themselves. However, individuals do integrate their perceptions with those of significant others. Adolescents' self-concept is influenced by their relationships with family, peers, mentors, and community groups. In this study, the characteristics…

Through several decades of research, a great deal has been written about trends in black-white test scores and the factors that may explain the gaps in different subject areas. Only a few studies have examined the changing relationships between gaps in students' test scores and family and school measures in nationally representative data over…

Multinomial stepwise logistic regression analyses were used to establish the most robust set of risk factors that would best predict low basic reading skills (i.e., a standard score less than 85 on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised Basic Reading Skills cluster) of kindergarten and first-grade children at risk for emotional and behavioral…

Help seeking attitudes and acculturation of Asian Indian Americans were examined in a sample consisted of 69 Asian Indian American students. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Suinn-Lew Asian Self-Identity Acculturation Scale and the Attitudes toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale. There were no significant…

A large and persistent association between education and health has been well-documented in many countries and time periods and for a wide variety of health measures. In their paper, "Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and Evidence," presented at the National Poverty Center conference "The Health Effects of Non-Health Policy," David M.…