More than 93 million Americans read at or below the Basic level, leaving them unprepared for job training or workforce success. Existing workforce development programs typically screen out low level readers or fail to meet their needs. Dual pathway teaching combining basic literacy skill development with job-related content shows promise as an…

The purpose of this study was to examine the distance of varying focus of attention for experienced and novice golfers on a golf putting task. Forty-eight experienced and 48 novice golfers were randomized into four attentional focus conditions: control (no instruction), internal (i.e., focus on the arm movement), external proximal (i.e., focus on…

Assessment of Motivation to learn (MtL) is challenging in the diverse populations. Commonly used method (i.e., exact invariance test) may not be suitable for companions of many subgroups. This study employed an alignment optimization method (a.k.a., approximate invariance test) and data of the working age (25-65 years old) U.S. adults (n = 5,509)…

African Americans found ways to respond to the needs of their communities as volunteers when they were denied many services available to Whites citizens. Opportunities to volunteer were provided both formally and informally through churches, sororities, fraternities and other organizations. Many families would not have been able to afford care for…

My dissertation consists of five chapters with three stand-alone studies. Chapter one is an introduction to social and leisure skills of adults with ASD, and I demonstrate my rationale and for the subsequent chapters. Chapter two is a systematic review of the literature on promoting leisure outcomes of adults with ASD. Chapter three is another…

Low literacy in adulthood can be a powerful barrier to opportunity. Our research explored how participation in a free adult literacy program that provides dyadic support can help participants to build confidence and meet their unique literacy goals. We conducted in-depth interviews with 15 randomly-selected adult literacy learners who participated…

Today's college student is dependent upon parents and is expanding to be more focused on the family. More research is needed on the characteristics and impacts of family support during the emerging adulthood years and Generation Z's birth range students aged 18-24, in the context of post-secondary transitions. The purpose of this quantitative…

As part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education, this paper analyzes participants' experiences playing an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience that explores gender and sexuality-based marginalization in STEM fields. The VR experience, designed and developed by the author and…

Adult postsecondary transition programs can be found within larger cities; however, school districts in rural communities have their own challenges due to limited resources. With transition programming, do families in the community understand and utilize the services, activities, and programs offered by outside agencies? The purpose of this…

Little research has been conducted to examine the participation and persistence of adult basic education students in northern and rural Canada. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was conducted with adult learners to address this research deficit. The study consisted of questionnaire and interview phases. Using thematic analysis, five…

The extent to which highly emotional autobiographical memories become central to one's identity and life story influences mental health. Young adults report higher distress and lower well-being, compared with middle-aged and/or older adults; whether this replicates across cultures is still unclear. First, we provide a review of the literature that…

Background: Food cravings typically influence individuals' diets and ultimately their health. However, the differences in food cravings between genders with normal BMI values are unclear.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in food craving intensity between genders with normal BMI values. Methods: The research group…

A change-of-life issue for older people is finding ways to engage meaningfully and be creative. Sustaining a sense of self-efficacy in one's abilities to be productive is vital for wellbeing. Our research explored the perceived self-efficacy developed in an Australian University of the Third Age poetry class. We gathered data from one class…

Despite the robust literature about teaching intercultural competence, little has been written on exploring culture in community-based English as a second language (ESL) settings, such as classes for adults with immigrant and refugee backgrounds. Educational materials about culture designed for these contexts tend to be prescriptive and…

This chapter focuses on the implementation of Youth Guarantee (YG) in Flanders and Brussels. Because of the Belgian federal government structure, the Belgian Youth Guarantee implementation plan consists of four different implementation plans: one for each language community and one for the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region. As both regions…