Assigned 1,426 university students to four intervention groups. A "norm-setting" intervention program--used to study perceptions and expectations of drinking--was of chief interest. This group was associated with the greatest reductions in the drinking norms attributed to the student body, close friends, living groups, and parents. (RJM)

Reviews laboratory research on behavioral momentum conducted with pigeons and summarizes its findings and their generality to people, including those with mental retardation. Discusses the high-probability procedure used to establish compliance in clinical settings and based in part on an extension of the momentum metaphor. (CR)

This commentary discusses John Nevin's article on establishing compliance via behavioral momentum involving high-probability procedures, and questions whether applications of behavioral momentum can be derived from the theory, whether applications could have been developed if the theory not been formulated, and whether the theory will add…

A model of parental inducement of academic self-regulation was tested with 105 elementary school students who were surveyed to assess their perceptions of parental influences on their academic self-regulation and their own self-regulatory behavior. Findings indicate the importance of parental inducement to academic self-regulation. (SLD)

Adults (n=20) who interacted with small groups of preschoolers, including a child with expressive language disorder (ELD), evaluated the ELD child differentially depending on awareness of the child's ELD label. Adults unaware of the label ranked the ELD child as less likable and less productive and predicted less academic competence. Aware adults…

After two years of a three-year evaluation of a violence-prevention program implemented in two elementary schools with 203 students, it appears that the program may produce a decline in conflict. However, its effects are less apparent for female students, whose conflict behaviors are less overt. (SLD)

A study that compared abusing mothers (n=17) to nonabusing mothers (n=16) of children with conduct problems, found that the abusing mothers exhibited a greater use of emotion-focused coping strategies and less use of effective problem-focused strategies. Abusing mothers also perceived their coping to be more ineffective than the nonabusing…

The social adjustment and academic performance of 15 children hospitalized for depression were compared to 14 children with schizophrenia and 20 normal children, ages 7 to 14. Analyses reveal an association between children's adaptive functioning and both diagnostic status and family transactional processes. (SLD)

Examines whether the self-management variables of time management and lifestyle organization differentiated problem-drinking and nonproblem-drinking college students. Results indicate that self-reported problem-drinkers were more likely to possess lower levels of proficiency in time management and lifestyle organization skills than…

This 3-year longitudinal study examined depressed affect during early adolescence. Variable-centered analyses yielded general stability in depressed affect for both boys and girls. Person-centered analysis revealed five patterns of depressed affect, with gender differences only in smaller subgroups that showed patterns of change in depressed…

Designed a questionnaire and created a scale measuring studying and learning based on motivation with items answered from ideal, "capability," and studying and learning behavior perspectives. Results for 372 Australian college students support the view that striving for excellence, desire to learn, and personal incentives are important…

Used the structural equation model approach to test a model hypothesizing the influence of parental involvement on students' academic aptitudes, self-concept, and causal attributions, as well as the influence of these variables on academic achievement. Results for 261 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years suggest that cognitive-affective variables are…

A study compared 143 girls (ages 6-14) with Rett syndrome with 85 girls with severe mental retardation on the Developmental Behavior Checklist. Girls with Rett syndrome presented more "autistic relating" and fewer antisocial behaviors. When compared to children with autism, they did not present with classic autistic behavioral features.…

Data on sleep behavior were gathered on 100 children (ages 2-11) with pervasive developmental disorders. Slightly more than half of parents reported a sleep problem in their child. All of the children exhibited longer sleep onset times and greater fragmentation of sleep than that reported for age-matched community norms. (Contains references.)…

The article proposes a strategy for the assessment of young children with handicaps in which brief clinical sampling is used to document developmental skills. This information may then be used in designing intervention programs. Principles and techniques of brief clinical sampling are described and application examples are given. (Author/DB)