DIMPACK Version 1.0 for assessing test dimensionality based on a nonparametric conditional covariance approach is reviewed. This software was originally distributed by Assessment Systems Corporation and now can be freely accessed online. The software consists of Windows-based interfaces of three components: DIMTEST, DETECT, and CCPROX/HAC, which…

Participation in discretionary activities during adolescence may facilitate the development of social networks that recruit youth into adult civic life or provide risky contexts that promote alcohol problems. Using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, latent class analysis was used to identify adolescents' patterns of civic engagement, alcohol…

This two pronged study reports the initial validation of the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) in the context of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the investigation of the relationship between employability skills and career adaptability. Results of the study revealed that CAAS can be a valid and…

Theory and prior research suggest linkages between work values and job satisfaction. The present study examined such linkages in a group of workers in a professional occupation. Family physicians (134 women, 206 men, 88% Caucasian) responded to context-specific measures of work values and job satisfaction. ANOVA results indicated a work values…

Adelman (2006) observed that a large quantity of research on retention is "institution-specific or use institutional characteristics as independent variables" (p. 81). However, he observed that over 60% of the students he studied attended multiple institutions making the calculation of institutional effects highly problematic. He argued…

When randomized experiments cannot be conducted in practice, propensity score (PS) techniques for matching treated and control units are frequently used for estimating causal treatment effects from observational data. Despite the popularity of PS techniques, they are not yet well studied for matching multilevel data where selection into treatment…

The concept of caring has been integral to the practice of nursing and nursing education since the early teachings of Florence Nightingale. Significant changes in both the practice and the need for educating increasing numbers of advanced-degree nurses have resulted in an increase in online doctoral-level nursing programs. This internet-based…

Peer selection based on the similarity of a couple of institutional parameters, by itself, is insufficient. Several other considerations, including clarity of purpose, alignment of institutional information to that purpose, identification of appropriate statistical procedures, review of preliminary peer sets, and the application of additional…

Immigrant and refugee youth are at elevated risk for joining gangs, which, in turn, is associated with a host of maladaptive outcomes. Previous literature on risk and protective factors for immigrant and refugee youth gang involvement has been inconclusive. Applying a developmental ecological systems approach, this study investigated contextual…

The current study investigated the relationship between behavior management, traditional bullying, cyber-victimization, and several psychosocial consequences of cyber-victimization. Findings from previous research were used to specify a complex path model, which allowed the simultaneous estimation of multiple direct and indirect effects. Data were…

Research on laboratory learning points to the need to better understand what and how students learn in the undergraduate chemistry laboratory. The Meaningful Learning in the Laboratory Instrument (MLLI) was administered to general and organic chemistry students from 15 colleges and universities across the United States in order to measure the…

Despite the fact that the population of English Language Learners (ELLs) is rapidly increasing, there is ample evidence that indicates that most teachers can benefit from training for teaching ELLs effectively. The purpose of this study is to examine teachers' knowledge of instructional practices for ELLs, research on bilingual programs,…

Purpose: This study explored whether measures of working memory ability contribute to the wide variation in 2-year-olds' expressive vocabulary skills. Method: Seventy-nine children (aged 24-30 months) were assessed by using standardized tests of vocabulary and visual cognition, a processing speed measure, and behavioral measures of verbal working…

The purpose of this study was to determine what factors really matter to faculty at a teaching institution in deciding whether or not to use community-based learning (CBL) in their classrooms. The Web-based Faculty Service Learning Beliefs Inventory (wFSLBI), developed and used with faculty at a research university, was administered to faculty at…

Students' goal orientations are examined using two major frameworks for learning: achievement goal theory (AGT) and students' approaches to learning (SAL). Previous student success research is extended, by examining goal constructs from the AGT framework to determine if they help explain the learning process in accounting. Data were gathered using…