Instead of blaming student academic failure on socioeconomic background, practitioners must identify school-related variables predicting dropouts in their own school. Educators should identify every student dropout during the past five years; examine cumulative folders for grades, absenteeism, and other factors; identify common predictors; and…

Examined contribution of personal, interpersonal, and demographic variables to prediction of adolescents' problems among 391 Yugoslavian adolescents. Found personal and interpersonal variables to be better predictors of adolescents' problems than were demographic variables. Best predictors were neuroticism (personal variable) and nurture of father…

Hierarchical polynomial regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between tenure/age and job satisfaction and occupational stability for 172 male and 592 female university employees. Tenure was a more consistent predictor of job satisfaction than age. The relationship between tenure and job satisfaction differed for males and…

Investigated the relationship between school environmental characteristics (student background, school size, school level) and school academic indicators (attitudes toward knowledge and achievement and professional development) useful in explaining types of student outcomes. School academic indicators seem to be enabling or constrictive factors…

Examined couples' response to marital therapy at termination and 4 years posttreatment for 55 couples receiving either behavioral or insight-oriented marital therapy. Couples were more likely to be divorced or maritally distressed four years posttreatment if intake measures reflected high levels of negative marital affect, poor problem-solving…

This prospective study of 17 high-functioning residentially treated adolescents with autism found that cognitive shifting, as measured by card sorting tests, was the only significant factor in predicting progress in social understanding. (Author/JDD)

College students (n=200) in 2 university dormitories completed alcohol and drug use survey in fall quarter and 130 students were readministered questionnaire at end of spring quarter after peer-directed alcohol awareness program was implemented in a particular dormitory. Retest results showed no difference in drinking behavior of residents in…

College students (n=713) responded to questions about alcohol effects, their own alcohol use, and their beliefs about risks associated with alcohol use for college students in general and for themselves in particular. Knowledge did not predict reduced use or abuse patterns, nor did perceived risk of abuse for students in general. (Author/ABL)

Tested Bugen's Coping with Death Scale. Individuals who had written wills, planned estates and funerals, and signed organ donor cards scored higher on the Coping with Death Scale. Because Coping with Death scores were more consistently different in those who prepared for death, this scale may help in efforts to predict those who will engage in…

Evaluated the role of prior academic performance and nonacademic attributes in the prediction of success of high-risk college students (n=173). Found personal characteristics such as fearing failure, associating success with facility, and experiencing examination anxiety were more reliable predictors than was academic potential. (Author/ABL)

A study investigated the use of frequency of specific behaviors as an indicator of college student response to dissatisfaction. A population of 423 students from 5 universities helped categorize behaviors as characteristic of 4 constructs: exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect. Twenty acts emerged as viable indicators of the constructs. (MSE)

Focuses on the phenomenon of intentional embarrassment as a strategy for attaining goals. Finds that embarrassment is used as a deliberate strategy and that the goal attempted, as well as the tactic employed, were predictors of success in achieving goals, although no interaction effect was found. (NH)

Studied suicide risk after attempted suicide, as predicted by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) monoamine metabolite concentrations, in 92 psychiatric mood disorder inpatients admitted shortly after attempting suicide. Results revealed that low CSF 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) predicted short-range suicide risk after attempted suicide in mood…

Finds that a mix of mediated and interpersonal communication can motivate behavior in a public information campaign, particularly when targeted to predisposed audience segments. Shows that mediated messages are most powerful when they are used in conjunction with interpersonal communication. (SR)

A Fisher's Z transformation is developed for the corrected correlation for conditions when the criterion data are missing because of selection on the predictor and when the criterion was missing at random, not because of selection. The two Z transformations were evaluated in a computer simulation and found accurate. (SLD)