Studied the relationships among academic achievement, learned helplessness, and psychological adjustment (self-esteem and depression), controlled for gender and age, for 1,580 students with data collected in grades 3 and 4, 6 and 7, and 8 and 9. Results show that academic achievement is directly and indirectly related to the pattern of…

This study examined the prevalence and severity of self-injurious behavior (SIB) in 29 children and adults with Smith-Magenis syndrome, a genetic disorder usually involving moderate mental retardation. Findings confirmed the near universal presence of SIB in this population. The overall prevalence of SIB increased with age. Number of types of SIB…

Trained preschoolers and adults on three sets of successive discriminations with stimuli labeled A, B, and R. Tested for derived stimulus-response relations and stimulus-stimulus relations. Adults displayed class-consistent B-R and A-B performances over all conditions. Children's display of class-consistent B-R performance varied by training…

Examined factor structure of the emotional Autonomy Scale (EAS) in 3 samples of adolescents, with each sample consisting of 3 racial/ethnic groups. Found that the EAS exhibited poor construct validity and behaved quite differently for different grade and ethnic groups. Suggested that the most credible solution may be to reexamine the conceptual…

Examined how self-efficacy level influenced children's motivational intentions, future self-efficacy beliefs, and attributions in physical education or sports. Children participating in low or high self-efficacy groups were exposed to a failure scenario. Higher self-efficacy children chose to participate and had higher future self-efficacy. They…

Examined relationships between perceptions of personal efficacy and affective responsibility to acute exercise in elderly male inpatients and outpatients at a Veterans Administration Medical Center. A significant change in feelings of fatigue was revealed over time but exercise effects on affect were shown to be moderated by perceptions of…

Students (ages 6-10, n=144), grouped by age and reading ability, were administered tasks with a demonstrated relationship to reading. The concept of dyslexia was supported only for the older group, for whom dyslexia appeared to be either a phonological deficit or a developmental lag. (Author/DB)

Investigated adolescent career development and its relationships to self-concept development and identity formation in 268 9th and 12th graders attending a parochial high school. Found that self-esteem and identity achievement were positively related to career planning and exploration and that female students engaged in greater career exploration…

Examine children's and youth's awareness of the evolution and revolution of their own worldviews. Interviews were conducted with 20 well-educated, verbally fluent respondents, ages 9 to 22, using a critical incident technique. Eight developmentally relevant categories emerged from an interview content analysis, and, at older ages, children and…

The structure of temperament over the ages 3 to 7 years was investigated through factor analysis of maternal ratings of 1,366 children on the Childhood Temperament Questionnaire (CTQ). Found four strong factors (inflexibility, sociability, persistence, and rhythmicity) and two weak ones (activity-mood and threshold). Discusses the strengths and…

Describes the results of a study that measures the perception of discrimination among African American men (n=537) among a stratified sample. Findings indicate that African American men who are young, single, racially conscious, masculine, and exposed to daily stressors were more likely to perceive racial discrimination than men who did not fit…

Interviewed 224 Lebanese children and adolescents using measures of war exposure, mental health symptoms, adaptational outcomes, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Found that the number of war traumas experienced by the subject was positively related to PTSD symptoms and that various types of war traumas were differentially related to PTSD,…

Examined first-born preschoolers' adjustment to siblinghood, as indexed by security of attachment, in 194 2-parent families. Security of firstborn attachment decreased significantly after a secondborn's birth, but the decrease was smaller among firstborn under 24 months than among 2- to 5-year-olds. Mothers' marital harmony, affective involvement,…

Characteristics of successful and unsuccessful candidates for public school administrative positions were studied through a questionnaire completed by 1,579 candidates. Marked differences were found relative to gender, age, advanced degrees, classroom experience (by gender), internship experiences, and out-of-district job searches. (SLD)

Investigated suppression of activation and retrieval paths to information stored in long-term memory. Subjects were 94 children in grades 1, 3, and 5. Found that the ability to intentionally inhibit the maintenance and recall of irrelevant information improves over the elementary years, and children are less able than adults to withhold production…