Maternal prenatal smoking, birth weight and sociodemographic factors were investigated in relation to cognitive abilities of 1544 children (aged 3.5 years) participating in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Children's Development. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was used to assess verbal ability, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale…

This study examined how various components of school engagement contribute to the academic performance of African American adolescents. The sample consisted of 499 African American adolescents in Grades 9 to 11. We investigated how adolescents' gender, grade, cognitive functioning, and parental education affect their school engagement and whether…

This study uses data (N = 3,088) from the first two waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to explore the effects of the transition to fatherhood and the addition of subsequent children on men's psychological and physical health, contacts with extended family, social interactions, and work behaviors. The results suggest that new…

Studies have shown that stand-alone technology courses, such as those taught in most teacher education programs, only develop basic computer literacy skills and do not prepare educators to use instructional technology in the classroom. A 14-item questionnaire assessed instructional technology use for classroom management and instructional…

In many countries there remain substantial sex differences in enrolments in elective science courses, despite concerted efforts in recent years to alleviate them. This paper explores the reasons for these differences by comparing models of male and female enrolment intentions in elective courses in biology, chemistry and physics. The models are…

Research on student withdrawals has largely ignored the issue of stop-outs, those students who withdraw from a college or university but subsequently reenroll. As a result, student withdrawals have been seen as an attrition issue. However, this study suggests they should be viewed as a retention possibility rather than an attrition issue. This…

This study examined predictors of process quality among Hong Kong preschools. Findings indicated significant intercorrelations among structural, management-related, and process measures of quality. Process quality (teacher-child interaction, curriculum goals) was higher in preschools exceeding government requirements for staff qualifications,…

The transition to the first year of schooling has been perceived as one of the major challenges children have to face in their early childhood years. This transition can be a critical factor for children's adjustment to the demands of the school environment and in determining future school success. When children experience social difficulties in…

This study investigated the role of mother-adolescent relationship quality and autonomy in the psychosocial outcomes in a sample of African American adolescents drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The results indicated that positive mother-adolescent relationship quality and greater autonomy were associated with higher…

Objective: To assess the risk and predictors of service disengagement in adolescents with first-episode psychosis (FEP) receiving their first treatment in a long-standing early intervention and prevention centre. Method: The Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC) in Australia admitted 157 adolescents, ages 15 to 18, with FEP…

Background: In most countries, the majority of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are undiagnosed. In the United Kingdom, a major barrier to accessing specialist services is the limited recognition of disorders by general practitioners. However, it is unclear whether there are also barriers at other stages of the…

Background: The quality of a school's teaching force has a significant effect on student learning. One potential lever for increasing teacher quality is through selecting and rewarding teachers with desired characteristics. Purpose: To analyze differences and similarities in the salary determinants of Michigan's charter and traditional public…

A hypothetical model was formulated to explore factors that influenced academic and clinical achievement for graduate-entry medical students completing their third year of university studies. Nine latent variables were considered including the students' background, previous successes with their undergraduate and postgraduate studies and their…

This study examined the predictive power of knowledge, attitudes, support for AIDS education, teaching comfort, perceived behavioral control, religious (Vodoun and Christian) beliefs, and subjective norms on Haitian educators' teaching of HIV/AIDS to their students. Two hundred and fourteen teachers from Jeremie and surrounding areas in Haiti…

Objective: This study's aim was to examine variables associated with different short-term trajectories in multiply disadvantaged adolescent mothers by investigating antecedents and concomitants of parenting stress. Method: We followed 49 adolescent mothers (ages 14-18 at study outset) who were wards in Illinois foster care using a longitudinal…