This investigation explored the relationship between scholastic grades in science in junior and senior high school students and ability of students to perform formal operational tasks. The findings indicated that at certain grade levels and in certain subject areas, public school science students who demonstrate formal operational logic tend to…

Study of drug use among 254 Mexican-American high school students. Investigated drug use in relationship to socioeconomic status, attitudes toward drugs, school related variables, and demographic factors. Results indicate the Mexican-American drug user differed from the group normal from which he/she was drawn with regard to the aspects…

Family functioning patterns have been found to be related to various demographic characteristics. Data on 46 demographic variables were gathered from 159 census tracts in Tarrant County, Texas. Based on a principal components analysis and varimax rotation, seven components were extracted. Strong positive relationships were found between family…

Investigated extent to which traditional indices (test scores, undergraduate GPA, letters of recommendation) and less traditional measures (interview ratings and biographical information) would predict each of two criteria of success in a subdoctoral program in applied psychology: a) academic competency (graduate GPA) and b) faculty ratings of…

The claim that tests of intelligence and abilities are the best predictors of academic success fails to examine closely the important moderator variable as test and criterion characteristics rather than as person characteristics. (EH)

While men and women in 1987 may be able to achieve equally in academic settings, gender differences in affective and value factors associated with achieving academically may exist. Differences in the values attached to academic achievement and thus the motivation behind achievements, and feelings about the situation in which education takes place…

The major purpose of the present experiment was to assess the impact of student-generated and expert-generated knowledge maps on the effectiveness of post-organizer construction, initial acquisition, and transfer. Sixty students at the University of Missouri-Rolla were included in this study. Participants were required to study a passage and…

Many questions about the associations between risk factors and drug use remain unanswered. Data originally obtained from seventh graders participating in a school-based prevention program were examined in terms of a theoretical model. A series of multiple regression analyses were then conducted to select those risk factors which contributed unique…

Findings of a study on the relation between 6-year-olds' attachment security and their mental representations of attachment relationships are reported. It was expected that infants whose attachment behavior seemed disorganized would be fearful of their attachment figures and experience themselves as helpless, and that these conditions would be…

The development of a checklist for use in monitoring and evaluating the quality of child care services, and the implications of use of the checklist by day care providers, are discussed. Several research studies that used the indicator checklist model have attempted to determine whether compliance with state child care regulations has a positive…

In the 1988-89 school year, the Austin (Texas) Independent School District's Office of Research and Evaluation undertook a new dropout research project. Part of this initiative, termed Project GRAD, attempted to develop a statistical equation by which one could predict which students were likely to drop out. If reliable predictive information…

This study was undertaken to determine whether a biology preparatory course, given at an urban community college, was helping students to develop the proper skills and background necessary for them to successfully complete follow-up courses in biology. From this case study, it was discovered that only 16% of the initial group of preparatory…

Development of a psychosocial explanation of antisocial and delinquent behavior to guide prevention efforts has recently gained attention. This study considered several types of social stressors and compared their effects on levels of antisocial and delinquent behavior. Male and female adolescents (N=84) were surveyed for socioeconomic status,…

Although verbosity in normal, healthy adults is a phenomenon that has been noted by researchers, the development of verbosity and its significance in relation to human aging has not been systematically examined. Verbosity is described as a pattern of off-target conversation characterized by intrusion of inappropriate information. Two studies were…

The relationship of traditional and nontraditional variables to grades achieved by University of Portland (Oregon) students in five different majors (business, liberal arts, education, nursing, and engineering) was studied. Traditional variables were: the college major; freshman writing class grade; California Aptitude Test (CAT) scores in…