External communities of practice are groups formed by company clients and employees based on common interests, commitment, mutual trust and collaboration whose members regularly share knowledge and learning. This paper examines how external communities of practice contribute to the creation of relational capital through an empirical investigation…

Despite the importance of faculty retention, there is little understanding of how demographic variables, professional and institutional worklife issues, and satisfaction interact to explain faculty intentions to leave at a national level. Using the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:1999) database, this study proposes (a) to extend our…

Collecting feedback from students through course, program and other evaluation questionnaires has become a costly and time consuming process for most colleges. Converting to data collection through the internet, rather than completion on paper, can result in a cheaper and more efficient process. This article examines several research questions…

In this cross-sectional study, data from 202 German adolescent girls (ages 13-17 years) and their parents were utilized to test whether the relationship between parents' stressful life events and their daughter's substance use was mediated by higher levels of parents' depressive symptoms, lower quality of the relationship between the parents, and…

In this study we tested a stress and coping model of confronting sexism. One hundred fourteen university women completed measures of optimism, cognitive appraisals about the prospects of confronting discrimination (expectations of the costs and benefits of confrontation as well as confrontation-related anxiety), and reported on the extent to which…

In this survey study of 430 undergraduates, elements of the social competencies and interpersonal processes model (B. Mallinckrodt, 2000) were tested. Two social competencies were hypothesized to mediate the direct effects of 2 independent variables, attachment anxiety and avoidance, on 2 outcomes, psychological distress and perceived social…

The current study explored the relationships between parenting practices and adolescent drug use. Suburban middle school students (N = 2129) completed surveys that included measures of perceived parental monitoring, discipline and setting an anti-drug message as well as measures of drug-related knowledge, attitudes and peer norms. Results…

Social-cognitive career theory (R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) postulates that changes in self-efficacy precede changes in interests, but the cross-sectional nature of most research has precluded the examination of temporal precedence in the relation between these variables. The authors assessed college students' career interests and…

Instructional designers need to understand the internal processes of learning, identify learners' cognitive difficulties with those processes, and create strategies to help learners overcome those difficulties. Generative learning theory, one conception of human learning about cognitive functioning and process, emphasizes that meaningful learning…

The current study examined important predictors of substance use during early adolescence. The authors hypothesized that adolescents' relationships with key adults (i.e., teachers and parents) influence their choices to use substances indirectly through links with their decisions regarding peer groups. A total of 461 middle school students from an…

Validity data are presented for a new measure of threat appraisals in response to community violence. Adolescents (N = 358; 45% male; 91% African American, M = 12.10 years, SD = 1.63) and their maternal caregivers participated in two waves of a longitudinal interview study focused on the consequences of exposure to community violence. Structural…

Background: There is uncertainty about the extent to which mildly sub-optimal perinatal characteristics among individuals born near-term (greater than 33 weeks of gestation) are associated with various subsequent childhood problems, including antisocial behavior. There is even more uncertainty about whether the pathway to antisocial behavior…

The relationship between afterschool staff and students is very important for encouraging and promoting longevity in school. The primary goal of this study was to examine the connection between perceptions of staff-student relationships and the educational values, future aspirations, and engagement of LA's BEST students. To this end, we…

Poor social skills and behavioral problems are a major component of ADHD. The different explanations offered so far, such as cognitive deficits and deficient self regulation, have not been able fully to account for the various aspects of the social dysfunction, suggesting that other mechanisms might underlay this impairment. Our study sought to…

This study aimed to investigate the family, school, peer and psychological factors that contribute to adolescent suicidal ideation. The participants were 1,358 (680 boys and 678 girls) Hong Kong Chinese adolescents who were divided into younger (12.3 years, n = 694) and older (15.4 years, n = 664) age groups. By using structural equation modeling,…