The ability of 248 older adults to improve their performance on fluid intelligence tests, with or without tutor-guided instruction in cognitive skills, was studied using multidimensional longitudinal structural equation models. Results suggest considerable plasticity in adult intellectual function and the capacity to improve performance. (SLD)

Three models of achievement motivation in the classroom are contrasted. Results with 155 high school students suggest that the model of C. S. Dweck and E. S. Elliott offers a better explanation of the relationships among achievement motivation, attributions, emotional reactions, expectancies, and performance than do the other models. (SLD)

Data from the National Youth Study of 1976 are analyzed to explore the relations between conventional beliefs and attitudes and delinquent behavior. Using a stage-state analysis in addition to structural-equation models reveals aspects of the relation that are not apparent from structural equations alone. (SLD)

This overview of nonexperimental causal research methods focuses on latent variable structural equation modeling using the LISREL computer program. An extended example in special education is used to present LISREL as an extension of structural equations analysis (path analysis) and as a method of reducing the effects of error in research.…

The role of religious identity in positive youth development was examined in this study of personal meaning and prosocial concerns in adolescence. A structural equation model was tested on a sample of 801 urban public high school students. Participants responded to questionnaires assessing religious identity, personal meaning, and prosocial…

This study investigated an integrative model of the effects of peer victimization (PV) and peer rejection (PR) on youth adjustment using data from 508 middle-school students. In the proposed model, PV and PR each contribute independently to problems in emotional, behavioral, and academic adjustment. The adverse consequences of PV and PR are each…

It is frequently assumed that the student experience, and, by implication, student program satisfaction, improves over the course of a university education. A four-year panel study of students at a large commuter university indicates some improvements in assessments of professor performance and GPA between first and fourth year; however,…

Drawing from the Technology Acceptance Model, this correlational study was intended to determine student users' adoption of WebCT and its relationship to their final grade. In acknowledging the relevance of human-computer interaction, the author attempted to investigate a belief-attitude-behavior relationship in a WebCT setting. Given a social…

Our pervasive adoption of CMC in higher education has far outpaced our understanding of the nature of CMC and, accordingly, how this medium should best be used to promote higher-order learning (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, "American Journal of Distance Education," 15 (1), 7-23, 2001). Therefore, this study examined the relationship between peer…

The purpose of this study was to test a theoretical model that examined the extent to which cognitive readiness to parent, perceived difficult child temperament, observed parenting behaviors, and positive coping styles predicted parenting stress among young, low-income, first-time, African-American mothers. One hundred and twenty African-American,…

The author's purpose in this study was to test 4 hypotheses that proposed different paths for the influences of children's television viewing on their academic achievement. Data were drawn from the 1997 Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The population for this study included 1,203 children between the…

Objective: To devise and test a model describing the process of help-seeking for child psychopathology in professional and informal service settings. Method: Using structural equation modeling, associations between several help-seeking stages, and the influence of child, family, and context characteristics on these stages were investigated in 246…

Objectification theory proposes that the objectification of women's bodies causes women to self-objectify, adopting an outsider's view of themselves. Engaging in a high amount of self-objectification is thought to place women at increased risk for mental health problems such as body dissatisfaction and depression. It was hypothesized that…

Childhood abuse was investigated as a potential mediator of the intergenerational transmission of externalizing behaviors (EXT) in adulthood among a large general population sample drawn from the National Comorbidity Survey. Community participants (N = 5,424) underwent diagnostic and psychosocial interviews and reported on their own adult symptoms…

Several empirical studies have attempted to estimate the effect of low self-control on criminal and "analogous" behaviors. Most of these studies have shown that low self-control is an important feature of the cause(s) of crime. Although research is beginning to emerge that targets more specifically the "roots" of self-control via parental…