The authors examined the role of familial risk and child characteristics in the association between the type of child care in infancy (maternal care [MC]) versus nonmaternal care [NMC]) and emotional/behavioral difficulties at 4 years old. Canadian families (N=1,358) with children between 1 and 12 months old were followed over 4 years. Family…

The research examining the correlates of academic achievement is immense. In particular, scores of studies have examined individual- and family-level variables that influence student achievement. Based upon Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological theory of human development, this study extends one step beyond previous studies and incorporates…

To test and compare theoretical explanations of the use of corporal punishment in school, the authors examine how well county-level measures of culture, socioeconomic strain, and social capital predict the prevalence and incidence of corporal punishment in Kentucky schools. Although several variables are significantly correlated with corporal…

This article addresses whether students' achievement motivation changes over time, the relationship between changes in motivation and changes in educational attainment, and the between-school differences in these changes and their interrelationships. Also gender differences were studied. Multivariate multilevel latent growth curve analysis was…

This investigation examines whether negative interparental conflict strategies (stonewalling, triangulation, verbal aggression, and physical aggression) and parenting styles are related to social and physical aggression with peers for children followed longitudinally from age 9 to 10 (N = 256). Parents reported on negative conflict strategies and…

Many programs designed to compute the readability of texts are narrowly based on surface-level linguistic features and take too little account of the processes which a reader brings to the text. This study is an exploratory examination of the use of Coh-Metrix, a computational tool that measures cohesion and text difficulty at various levels of…

This study describes the truancy and disciplinary problems of high school bullying victims in the USA. Analyses are based on data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, a nationally representative sample of 10th graders (students aged 14-15) in the USA. Being bullied is found to be positively associated with increased risk of being…

This study reports on the validation of a scale to assess adolescent girls' frequency of sexual communication with their parents. The Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS) was administered to 522 African American female adolescents ranging in age from 14 to 18. The PACS demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (across multiple…

The impact of nonresponse on estimates of mental health problems was examined in a prospective teacher screen in a community survey of 9,155 7-9 year olds. For 6,611 of the children, parents consented to participation in the actual study (Responders), while for 2,544 children parental consent was not obtained (Nonresponders). The teacher screen…

Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS among Latino adults (N=454) in California were examined using data from a population-based telephone survey conducted in 2000. Common misconceptions concerning modes of HIV transmission included transmission via mosquito or animal bite (64.1%), public facilities (48.3%), or kissing someone on the cheek (24.8%). A…

This study applied kernel equating (KE) in two scenarios: equating to a very similar population and equating to a very different population, referred to as a distant population, using SAT® data. The KE results were compared to the results obtained from analogous classical equating methods in both scenarios. The results indicate that KE results are…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between preservice teacher preparation, teacher in-service practice, and outcomes for students with special needs. A fuller understanding of the "teacher preparation greater than teacher practice greater than student outcomes" connection will inform teacher preparation programs as they work…

"Higher Education Exchange" publishes case studies, analyses, news, and ideas about efforts within higher education to develop more democratic societies. Contributors to this issue of the "Higher Education Exchange" discuss the concept of growing public scholars; each contribution incorporates a student component. Articles…

The main objective of this study is to investigate the motivation patterns of the two groups of Hong Kong students with different cultural backgrounds and examine the relationship between their motivation to learn English and English attainment. This study adopted the motivation framework of Dorneyi (2001) to investigate to what extent each social…

This study, part of OECD/CERI's project on Measuring the Social Outcomes of Learning, investigates the relationship between educational attainment and political participation in Austria. First, a model based on various theoretical considerations is introduced. This incorporates direct educational effects as well as indirect effects that occur…