Tested path models of academic interest and performance that were derived from social-cognitive theory. Results supported a model in which ability helps determine self-efficacy. Findings suggest that social-cognitive theory helps explain the academic behavior of high school students that can be key to their later career options. (RJM)

This study examined factors related to social competence in first-grade children of low-income, adolescent mothers. Findings indicated that higher social skills and lower levels of problem behaviors related to higher quality parenting, higher academic skills, and residence in neighborhoods with lower poverty rates. Children with higher social…

Temperamental characteristics, especially low reactivity-high manageability, appeared to curtail the influence of adverse family factors on children's adjustment. Strength of relationships between temperament and children's behavioral adjustment differed as a function of time, temperamental characteristics, and the source of behavioral ratings.…

Proposes a causal model whereby attitude toward welfare state programs is a function of self-interest or life experiences and of the resulting identification with either the work ethic or the social equality ideology. Uses data from the 1983 Detroit Area Study to confirm the model. Contains 66 references. (SV)

This study examined the constructive cognitive activity of children listening to text. Analysis of thinking-aloud protocols of 109 children in grades 1 to 6 identified 5 levels of constructive activity, with 3 subtypes at each level. Path analysis indicates that only constructive activity exerts a direct effect on learning. (SLD)

Examined knowledge about medicines and perceived benefit among 101 children, ages 7 and 10. Found that medicine knowledge was explained using age, educational environment, and degree of internal locus of control as significant predictors. The negative effect of internal locus of control predicted perceived benefit. Retention of drug advertising…

Mediation by self-monitoring of the relationship between perceived approval from others and delinquent behavior was studied for 828 Hong Kong students in grades 7 through 9. Analyses indicate that self-monitoring is an interacting factor and that the relationship is more apparent for high self-monitors. (SLD)

This study expanded and tested Furnham and Bochner's (1982) model of culture shock, employing a sample of 156 male international students in a Canadian university. Path analysis was used to assess the effects of cultural differences, size of co-national group, family status, cross-cultural experience, and social interaction with hosts on culture…

The authors of the present study contribute to research on the role of sexist events in women's mental health by examining the sexism-distress relation (a) with a sample of women who are seeking mental health services and (b) in the context of the additional roles of perceived social support in positive self-appraisal (i.e., empowerment and…

A theoretically informed model was estimated with the LISREL-VIII program using panel data from 1,384 mother-adolescent child pairs to examine processes by which mothers' adolescent school experiences measured in 1971 (Time 1) affected the adolescent school experiences of their children measured in the 1990s (Time 3) through mediating variables…

The authors asked 55 second-generation Chinese American adolescents (M age = 16.8 years) and 58 European American adolescents (M age = 17.0 years) to complete self-report measures of stress levels, use of coping strategies, psychological outcomes, and grades. Chinese American adolescents reported higher levels of everyday life event stress (e.g.,…

Relations among 'parents' psychological difficulties (i.e., depressive symptoms, overt anger), dysfunctional attributions for child misbehavior, and inept discipline were investigated in a representative community sample of 451 mothers and 449 fathers. Depressive symptoms and anger were hypothesized to relate to discipline via their link with…

This study investigated the interactive effects of friend deviance and reward dominance on the development of externalizing behavior of adolescents in the Child Development Project. Reward dominance was assessed at age 16 by performance on a computer-presented card-playing game in which participants had the choice of either continuing or…

The present study investigated the pathways between attention problems and depressive symptoms, particularly the role of academic incompetence, among a community sample of urban African American children. Results supported the hypothesized path models from inattention to depressive symptoms for girls and boys. Academic performance in the spring of…

A path analytic study examined the effects of career decision-making self-efficacy on the retention of underprepared adults in postsecondary education. The initial sample consisted of 418 underprepared students enrolled in the developmental education unit of a large midwestern urban university who had been subjects of a 1991 study and who…