Using a nationally representative survey (N = 4,612), we analyze whether there is a difference in the Netherlands between cohabiting and married persons with regard to the frequency of contact with one's own family as well as the parents of the partner. Clustered regression analyses show that, as expected, cohabiting persons have less contact with…

This study examined the utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2's (MMPI-2) malingering discriminant function index (M-DFI), recently developed by Bacchiochi and Bagby, in the detection of malingering in a forensic sample. Criminal defendants were divided into "malingering" and "not malingering" groups using…

According to Self-Determination Theory, feelings of relatedness and value of a behavior are critical factors that affect internalization and integration. The purpose of the current study was to identify factors that influence relatedness and value in an academic setting. Specifically, the study investigated the effects of autonomy, mastery goals,…

The authors examined the effects of Florida's Family Transition Program (FTP), one of the first welfare reform initiatives to include a time limit on the receipt of federal cash assistance with other welfare requirements, on single-mother welfare-receiving families. Using a regression-based subgroup approach, they identified a group of families…

The purpose of this study was to determine the predictive ability of vocational rehabilitation services for deaf and hard of hearing consumers who received college and university training. The RSA-911 database for fiscal year 2004 was analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of 21 services in leading to competitive employment. A model predicting…

The influence of phonological (i.e. individual sounds), lexical (i.e. whole-word forms) and semantic (i.e. meaning) characteristics on the words known by infants age 1;4 to 2;6 was examined, using an existing database (Dale & Fenson, 1996). For each noun, word frequency, two phonological (i.e. positional segment average, biphone average), two…

Studies on the interface between cognitive ability (intelligence) and personality in the prediction of academic performance have yielded mixed results so far. Especially an interaction between conscientiousness (and its facet achievement striving) and intelligence has been investigated. The hypothesis is that conscientiousness enhances the impact…

Morris water maze data are most commonly analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance in which daily test sessions are analyzed as an unordered categorical variable. This approach, however, may lack power, relies heavily on post hoc tests of daily performance that can complicate interpretation, and does not target the nonlinear trends…

We investigated the development of study- and work-related commitments in 28 psychology students during their bachelor years. Based on seven measurements of exploration and commitments (over a period of three-and-a-half years) we found the theoretically expected information-oriented, normative and diffuse trajectories. In addition, the…

Despite empirical support for the positive effects of health and wealth on retirement satisfaction, alternative variables also play a key role in helping to shape women's assessment of retirement. In the present study, we explore personal and psychosocial predictors of women's retirement satisfaction while controlling for financial security and…

Introduction to data management classes are often times students' first exposure to advanced material in these areas. Many factors are likely to influence success in these classes, but empirical investigations have focused on relatively few variables. In this study, we extend this research by examining the relative contributions of the previously…

While Australian evidence suggests that the Private Rate of Return (PRR) to a university degree in Australia has gradually declined with increases in the cost of higher education, these studies have only measured the PRR for the average male and average female. This paper uses income data from the ABS Income and Housing Survey (2003-04) CURF to…

In this study we examined the effects of syntactic and lexical complexity on third-grade students' comprehension of science texts. A total of 16 expository texts were designed to represent systematic differences in levels of syntactic and lexical complexity across four science-related topics ("Tree Frogs, Soil, Jelly Beans and…

In recent times social capital has received considerable attention because it is seen as having the potential to address many of the problems facing modern society, including the poor educational outcomes of considerable numbers of young people. This paper uses data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY) to explore the…

The Oaxaca-Blinder technique was originally used in labor economics to decompose earnings gaps and to estimate the level of discrimination. It has been applied since in other social issues, including education, where it can be used to assess how much of a gap is due to differences in characteristics (explained variation) and how much is due to…