This report examines how California's massive and ongoing investment in school construction could better advance the shared goals of school improvement, sustainable urban growth, and equal opportunity. This brief is organized in five parts. First, the authors sketch a "framework" for how smart growth principles could help guide school…

The ambitious goal set by Colorado's governor to address the state's dropout problem is a model for the nation. Helping thousands of young people to receive their high school diplomas instead of leaving school without them is a crucial step in improving the quality of life for all Colorado residents. Accomplishing this goal will require focused…

Aim: To explore factors associated with students' attitudes towards their peers with disabilities. Method: All 7th grade students (aged 12-13y) from 12 schools in the Toulouse area were invited to participate (n = 1509). Attitudes were measured using the Chedoke-McMaster Attitudes Towards Children with Handicaps (CATCH) questionnaire (affective,…

Quality of life (QOL) has emerged over the past 20 years as an outcome for measuring the effectiveness of health-improvement interventions. The Cerebral Palsy Quality of Life Questionnaire for Children (CPQOL-Child) is well regarded and now integrated into research internationally. We describe the results of qualitative research, using grounded…

This study in Spain explored three aspects of older adult volunteering (motivations, satisfaction, and perceptions of benefits and drawbacks) and examines to what extent these aspects are influenced by the type of organization and other factors (sociodemographic variables and level of volunteering). The sample consisted of 88 older adults…

Comments on the article by E. Diener, R. E. Lucas, and C. N. Scollon (see record 2006-05893-003) which provided a revision of the adaptation theory of well-being. The current author suggests that consideration of the emerging distinction between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being was missing from the original article and is worthy of scholarly…

People with a disability do not have equitable access to the modern telecommunication medium. Many experience difficulty typing, handling the phone, dialing, or answering calls. For those who are unable to speak, the only option is to type messages using whatever functional control site exists on their body. The provision of accessible mobile…

Vietnam provides a typical case of an emerging economy, which has attempted to develop the country and join the world economic mainstream with a highly agricultural base, large and young labour force, and a dynamically growing private sector. After a long period of quantitative growth, it is now focusing on achieving quality of development, with a…

This study examined the relationship between global and domain measures of quality of life from a psychometric perspective by three different factor structure models. Three hundred and four students at National Taiwan University participated in this study. They completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS, a global measurement for quality of…

In the past 10 years, people have witnessed significant changes in the nature and extent of the publicly financed systems of services and supports for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Growing service needs, declining state revenues, mounting pressures on federal and state Medicaid budgets, and heightened federal…

Background: Pain interferes with the functioning of typical children, but no study has examined its effect on children with pre-existing intellectual disabilities (ID). Methods: Caregivers of 63 children observed their children for 2-h periods and recorded in 1-week diaries: pain presence, cause, intensity and duration. Caregivers also recorded…

This white paper looks at the way that rising college costs are affecting California families. Higher education in California has historically been guided by the principle that maintaining affordability is paramount to providing access to all students who desire a postsecondary education. However, over recent decades, eroding state funding for…

This report describes the evaluation of a whole-school intervention to improve morbidity and psychosocial well-being in pupils with asthma. In all, 193 children with asthma (7-9 years) from 23 primary/junior schools in the south of England participated. Schools (n = 12) randomly assigned to the intervention group (IV) received a staff asthma…

Little data exists assessing the relationship between functional limitations in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and their participation in everyday activities. This prospective study evaluates the relationship between the Pediatric Outcomes Data Collection Instrument (PODCI), a functional health-related quality of life instrument for children…

Globalization has emerged as a buzzword in a number of disciplines in recent years. The most recent wave of globalization is characterized by an increase in economic deregulation, privatization, structural adjustment policies, finance flows, global public debates, immigration, multiculturalism, and the technology revolution. In this paper, the…