This study seeks to assess the impact of maternal psychological well-being on the depression and anxiety levels and social withdrawal in a sample of young African American and Caucasian adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14 (N = 854) using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 child sample. Analyses using structural equation…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate that students' self-evaluations contribute to improving academic results and life skills. Design/methodology/approach: Taking as reference a group of previously validated scales (part 1: measurement), a causal model is developed. Hypotheses are tested through the structural equations methodology by using the…

Purpose: To examine substance use differences among African-American adolescents living in rural and more urban areas in Iowa and Georgia and factors thought to be related to those differences. Specifically, negative affect and perceived availability were examined as mediators of the relation between community size and alcohol, tobacco, and drug…

A study was conducted to compare three methods of assessing course-level self-efficacy beliefs within a multitrait multimethod (MTMM) framework. The methods involved: (1) successfully performing a number of domain-related tasks; (2) obtaining specific letter grades in the course; and (3) successfully performing generic academic tasks in the…

The primary objective of this study was to examine the construct validity of two multiple-content testing programs, the multiple-choice Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS/5) and the performance-based Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP), by evaluating the true-score longitudinal associations among multiple-content scores…

This report presents evidence that links participation in extracurricular activities (ECAs) in high school with higher SAT Reasoning Test™ (SAT®) scores. Using structural equation models (SEMs) with latent means, we analyzed data from a national sample of college-bound high school students. A series of structural equation models--isolating the…

A structural equation model of educational outcomes was tested with three socioeconomic status (SES) groups of African American community college students. Results with 340 students who completed a followup indicate that higher levels of academic and social engagement had positive direct effects on educational outcomes for all students regardless…

Includes "The Family: Ultimate Arbiter of Workforce Education Reform" (Gray); "Reaction to Way and Rossman's Family Contributions to Adolescent Readiness for School-to-Work Transition" (Stewart); "Using Structural Equation Modeling and Path Analysis for Advancing Conceptual and Theoretical Positions" (Rojewski); and "Response to Stewart, Gray and…

Investigated the role of mothers' expectancies in shaping their child's perceived physical competence. Structural equation modeling revealed that mothers' perceptions of their child's physical competence predicted their child's own perceived physical competence 1 year later, independent of the child's previously demonstrated physical ability and…

Measures of IQ, verbal short-term memory, speech perception, and phonological awareness were administered to 136 3rd and 4th graders. Structural equation modeling revealed that IQ, speech perception, and verbal short-term memory each contributed unique variance to the phonological awareness construct. Results underscore the importance of speech…

This commentary on a paper by Diane Sawyer (EC 602 748) on relations between various language skills and the development of reading ability addresses potential limitations in the implementation of structural equation modeling. The commentary concludes that the data presented by Sawyer do not support the interpretation that reading comprehension…

Sources of continuity among nine measures of infant cognitive processing and later childhood intelligence quotient were examined through developmental structural equation models applied to a sample of 208 twin pairs measured from 7 to 36 months. Skills assessed appear related to general cognitive ability in a relatively unstable manner. (SLD)

Structural equation models of the same construct collected on different occasions are evaluated in 2 studies involving the evaluation of 157 college instructors over 8 years and data for over 2,200 high school students over 4 years for the Youth in Transition Study. Results challenge overreliance on simplex models. (SLD)

Using structural equation technique to replicate results of Hasenfeld and Rafferty's causal model predicting public attitudes toward welfare state programs with the social ideologies of work ethic and social rights. By incorporating estimates of measurement error, results failed to support the authors' original conclusions. Operationalizing key…

Examined the moderating role of individual differences in negative emotionality in the relations of behavioral and attentional regulation to externalizing problem behaviors. Found that at two ages behavioral dysregulation predicted externalizing behavior problems for children both high and low in negative emotionality, whereas prediction of…