Aversive performance incidents play a role in the development of some anxiety disorders. The role of sensitizing experiences in the development of music performance anxiety (MPA) in adolescent music students has not yet been explored. Two-hundred-and-ninety-eight music students were asked to provide written descriptions of their worst performance,…

Two lines of research have emerged to study the causes and prevention of student failure in virtual (K-12) schools: studies of learner characteristics and studies of learning environment characteristics. To develop a useful model for predicting failure and promoting success in virtual school environments, a study was designed to measure the…

Reading to children has been advocated as a way to enhance language and literacy skills (A. G. Bus, M. H. van IJzendoorn, & A. D. Pellegrini, 1995). However, little is known about reading with children under age 3 (K. L. Fletcher & E. Reese, 2005), particularly in at-risk samples (A. van Kleeck, 2003). In the current study of 87 primary caregivers…

This article reports a study on using data mining to predict K-12 students' competence levels on test items related to energy. Data sources are the 1995 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 1999 TIMSS-Repeat, 2003 Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the National Assessment of Educational…

This study evaluates a large urban district's standards-based promotion policy decisions against a model-driven classification. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to explore factors related to grade retention at both the student and school level. Statistical results indicate that using students' next year achievement test scores as…

Research has identified risk and protective factors related to adolescent substance use using individual-level data, but it is uncertain whether or not these relationships exist when data are aggregated to a community level. Using data from adolescents in 41 communities, this article found that most community and family risk and protective…

This study investigated the roles of respondent, perpetrator, and victim gender on attributions toward a 10- or 15-year-old victim and an adult perpetrator in a hypothetical sexual abuse case. It was predicted (a) that female respondents would be more provictim and antiperpetrator than men, (b) that 10-year-old victims would be deemed more…

In this article, the author examines the transition from segregation to full integration in two Virginia school districts, 1965-1970. He begins with short participant profiles and reveals how personal connections uncovered new voices in the school desegregation process. Next, the author gives an overview of political events in Virginia following…

General education classrooms provide a common milieu for understanding and appropriating results of classroom research projects, which are typically viewed as having little application outside their original contexts. Here, results of an investigation into the "sophomore slump," where grades and class attendance rates typically suffer, are…

Substance abuse is a primary concern for youth worldwide and increasingly so for Native American youth. Guided by theoretical models of the socialization of substance use in children and adolescents, we conducted a preliminary examination of socialization factors specific to Native American youth. Strong, pro-social bonds with three primary…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the influence of key characteristics on adolescent alcohol misuse (i.e., maternal binge drinking, parenting, peers, school characteristics, and the adolescent's own behavior) change over time and whether predictors of adolescent alcohol misuse vary by gender and race/ethnicity. Using prospective,…

Background: Children's physiological reactivity was examined as a moderator of relations between parental dysphoria and child adjustment problems, addressing gaps in the study of child characteristics as risk processes. Method: One hundred fifty-seven children (86 boys, 71 girls) were assessed twice over a two-year interval. Skin conductance level…

Background: It is widely believed that there are reciprocal links between reading achievement and reading exposure: children who read more do better at reading, and reading achievement itself promotes reading. We tested the hypotheses that these links arise because children's genetically influenced reading performance is correlated with their…

Classification of suicides is essential for clinicians to better identify self-harm patients with future suicidal risks. This study examined potential subtypes of suicide in a psychological autopsy sample (N = 148) in Hong Kong. Hierarchical cluster analysis extracted two subgroups of subjects in terms of expressed deliberation assessed by the…

The current study explored how body dissatisfaction and challenges associated with the transition to university predicted symptoms of binge eating. Participants were 101 female full-time first-year university students (M=18.3 years of age; SD=0.50) who completed a background questionnaire and a web-based daily checklist assessing binge eating.…