This study's purpose was to pair motivational orientation and ethnicity in a sample of urban African American middle school students (n = 213). Through multivariate analyses, the results revealed differences in motivational orientation between eighth graders when compared to their younger peers. The study supports the hypotheses of: a) the…

Network position ("isolate," "member," "liaison"), peer-group substance use, and their interaction were examined as predictors of cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use in a sample of 163 urban sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. Two measures of peer substance use were compared: one based on social network analysis…

This study examined 427 urban middle school students' perceptions of bullying, cyberbullying, and school safety utilizing the Student Survey of Bullying Behavior-Revised 2 (Varjas, Meyers, & Hunt, 2006). A unique finding is that cyberbullying may represent a unique modality of victimization and bullying compared with other school-based…

More than 76 million persons become ill from foodborne pathogens in the United States each year. To reduce these numbers, food safety education efforts need to be targeted at not only adults, but school children as well. The middle school grades are ideal for integrating food safety education into the curriculum while simultaneously contributing…

Students (N = 221) in an intermediate school (grades 5-8) in a rural area of the Southwestern United States completed a survey regarding their familiarity with technology and their experiences with cyberbullying during the school year. Initial evidence of survey reliability is presented. In the sample, 1.5% of participants were classified as…

Background: Adolescence may be a crucial period for developing obesity and associated mental health problems. This study examined the relationship of weight status on body image, eating behavior, and depressive symptoms in youth. Methods: A survey was conducted on 1490 youth attending grades 7-12. Participants completed questionnaires on body…

In 4 studies, the authors examined how intuitions about the relative difficulties of the sciences develop. In Study 1, familiar everyday phenomena in physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and economics were pretested in adults, so as to be equally difficult to explain. When participants in kindergarten, Grades 2, 4, 6, and 8, and college were…

Existing research posits multiple dimensions of bullying and victimization but has not identified well-differentiated facets of these constructs that meet standards of good measurement: goodness of fit, measurement invariance, lack of differential item functioning, and well-differentiated factors that are not so highly correlated as to detract…

This research examined motivational trajectories during early adolescence in the United States and China. Upon their entry into middle school at 7th grade and every 6 months thereafter until the end of 8th grade, 825 American and Chinese children (mean age = 12.73 years) reported on their motivational beliefs (e.g., mastery orientation) and…

In this article we investigated 4th, 6th, and 8th grade students' misconceptions about light, sight, vision, source of light and examined students' conceptual development of these concepts at different grade levels. Data collection was done using five two-tiered test questions with one open-ended question, an interview about concepts and a drawing…

Background: Most previous studies in Western societies have demonstrated a general decline in school motivation. However, it is not clear whether motivational decline occurs uniformly for all students. The moderating effects of individual and cultural differences on students' motivational decline need to be further explored. Aims: This study aimed…

With the global crises facing the planet that bring major implications, (Hart & Nolan, 1999; Hungerford & Simmons, 2003) it is imperative that there be an environmentally literate citizenry who can identify, solve, and prevent environmental issues. Since middle school students are evolving into participating citizens and are developing the…

This is a pioneer study of Macau's music education focusing on music listening preference. Adopting models from Western cultures, the study, launched in 2006, aimed to explore the factors of age and gender in regard to music preference. The subjects ranged from fourth-graders to university students (N=2495) (15 missing). Participants rated their…

This study compared the impact of the Aban Aya Youth Project (AAYP; Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 158: 377-384, 2004) social development classroom curriculum (SDC), school/family/community (SC) intervention curriculum, and a health enhancement curriculum (HEC) attention placebo control on changes over time in violent behaviors…

The aim of this research was to explore Australian high-school students' argumentation and informal reasoning about biotechnology. Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews with 10 Year-8 students (12-13 years old), 14 Year-10 students (14-15 years old) and 6 Year-12 students (16-17 years old) from six metropolitan high schools in Perth,…