Prior studies have examined the influence of neighborhood perceptions on youth outcomes, but few studies have examined whose report of neighborhoods, parents' or youths', are most important in predicting youth outcomes. This study addresses the relative associations of youths' and mothers' neighborhood perceptions with youth alcohol use and…

The interpretation of a Thurstonian model for paired comparisons where the utilities' covariance matrix is unrestricted proved to be difficult due to the comparative nature of the data. We show that under a suitable constraint the utilities' correlation matrix can be estimated, yielding a readily interpretable solution. This set of identification…

The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

This paper explores the idea of perceived value of educational hypermedia by extending prior research in advertising and information systems. It proposes that the value of a course support site comes from both its information content and users' experience when they visit the site. The cognitive antecedents of a site's perceived value include…

With widespread adoption of computer-based distance education as a mission-critical component of the institution's educational program, the need for evaluation has emerged. In this research, we aim to expand on the systems approach by offering a model for evaluation based on socio-technical systems theory addressing a stated need in the literature…

Existing research posits multiple dimensions of bullying and victimization but has not identified well-differentiated facets of these constructs that meet standards of good measurement: goodness of fit, measurement invariance, lack of differential item functioning, and well-differentiated factors that are not so highly correlated as to detract…

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (1974) requires that states receiving U.S. federal funds directed at child abuse implement mandated reporting laws. As a result, all states have adopted legislation requiring teachers and other professionals who deal with children to report suspicions of child abuse. The federal mandate for such…

One major challenge in using group projects to assess student learning is accounting for the differences of contribution among group members so that the mark assigned to each individual actually reflects their performance. This research addresses the validity of grading group projects by evaluating different methods that derive individualized…

This longitudinal study of physical injury survivors examined the degree to which Hispanic and non-Hispanic Caucasians reported similar posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Adult physical trauma survivors (N = 677) provided information regarding posttraumatic distress by completing an interview-administered version of the PTSD Symptom…

At present, it is difficult to assess the quality of learning in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments, because standard pretest and posttest measures do not capture the differences in the learner's ability to engage in the material, pose interesting new questions, engage others in learning and work collaboratively. This…

In the last few decades, the implementation of information technology has given rise to several organizational training needs that have to be satisfied, in order to empower organizational IT performance. The users of new technologies have to be trained quickly and efficiently, and since they are usually distributed to different remote locations,…

This study investigates maternal grandmother-grandchild relationship quality as a predictor of psychological adjustment among youth from divorced families. Three hundred twenty-four adolescents aged between 17 and 20 report on the quality of their relationships with their maternal grandmothers and their relational competence, self-efficacy, and…

Youth's social relationships at school and at home have been shown to predict a wide variety of school outcomes, such as behavior at school and academic performance. Specifically, relationships with teachers, parents, and peers have all been shown to affect student performance. The current study utilized data collected from 848 Latino middle…

This study examined screen media time usage (SMTU) and its association with personal and socioeconomic factors, as well as the effect of season and type of day, in a Spanish sample of 12-16 year-old school adolescents (N=323). The research design was a cross-sectional survey, in which an interviewer-administered recall questionnaire was used.…

The purpose of the study is to build a model that predicts the level of technology acceptance by pre-service teachers at a teacher training institute in Singapore. It examines relationships among variables associated with factors that influence technology acceptance. Data was collected from 475 participants using a survey questionnaire. Employing…