Retirement counselors, financial service professionals, and retirement intervention specialists routinely emphasize the importance of developing clear goals for the future; however, few empirical studies have focused on the benefits of retirement goal setting. In the present study, the extent to which goal clarity and financial planning activities…

This article reports the findings of a national survey study of school counseling professionals to determine if higher ego development contributed to a lower degree of burnout. Although the primary path analysis model tested did not fit the data observed, a significant positive relationship indicated that participants scoring at higher levels of…

Children differ in how much they spontaneously pay attention to quantitative aspects of their natural environment. We studied how this spontaneous tendency to focus on numerosity (SFON) is related to subitizing-based enumeration and verbal and object counting skills. In this exploratory study, children were tested individually at the age of 4-5…

This mixed methodology study was designed to examine the factors and the process by which mainstream university faculty members adopt and implement technology in teaching and learning. Data were collected through a survey administered to faculty from 3 academic colleges (N = 117) and interviews of selected survey respondents (N = 9). Path analysis…

A structural equation model based on social cognitive theory was used to predict relationship violence from young adolescents' knowledge, self-efficacy, attitudes, and alternative conflict strategies (n = 143 male and 147 female grade 7-9 students). A direct causal effect was supported for violence-tolerant attitudes and psychologically aggressive…

Background: This study examined relations among cumulative risk, nurturant and involved parenting, and behavior problems across early childhood. Methods: Cumulative risk, parenting, and behavior problems were measured in a sample of low-income toddlers participating in a family-centered program to prevent conduct problems. Results: Path analysis…

Over the past 25 years, numerous researchers have studied the effects of mentoring on work outcomes. However, several reviewers have noted that many of the observed relationships between mentoring and its outcomes are potentially spurious. To summarize this widely dispersed literature, a quantitative research synthesis was conducted focused on…

Many studies using Self-Determination Theory (SDT) as a theoretical platform have emphasized the importance of knowing students' motivational orientations in education, and stated that autonomy-supportive or controlling learning climates are significant to determine students' motivational resources, academic achievement, and classroom engagement.…

This investigation examined the impact combinations of at-risk factors had on 10,373 high school students in an urban school district from the school years 2000-2001 to 2006-2007. Students were categorized as high school graduates or dropouts. At-risk factors were associated with each student record. Hypothetical structural models were created for…

This study investigated the relationships between demographic characteristics, motives and attitudes to studying, self-reported study behaviour and measures of outcome. Students taking courses by distance learning received a postal survey containing a short form of the Motivated Strategies and Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Revised…

The current study examined coping strategies as mediators of the relation between maternal attachment and depressive symptoms in a sample of urban youth. Participants included 393 adolescents (M age = 12.03, SD = 0.85) participating in a larger study of the impact of stressful life experiences on low-income urban youth. Participants completed…

This study aims to examine the relationships between social withdrawal, peer rejection and peer victimization among Taiwanese middle school students as well as to explore the applicability of relevant models in an East Asia culture context. The sample of this study consists of 219 7th grade students from middle schools in Taiwan. Data from…

This comment is intended to complement points made by Freedman in his critique of the path analysis method. The role of statistical analysis in social sciences is also discussed. (RB)

To facilitate statistical decisions about sets of results encompassing more than a single isolated test, a joint probability multiple comparisons significance test for path analysis, multiple regression, and a correlation matrix is developed. (Author/AEF)

Path analysis is defined for explicitly formulating theory, and for attaching quantitative estimates to causal effects thought to exist on a priori grounds. The four basic kinds of path models are illustrated: (1) recursive; (2) block; (3) block-recursive and (4) nonrecursive. (Author/GDC)