This story captures the tensions that existed when a small charter high school attempted to provide powerful leadership opportunities for students who had few. It details the process and outcome of offering students leadership roles in designing and implementing a student-led discipline committee. In the process, much changed at the school. The…

Previous research has established that Asian Americans use mental health services less frequently and hold poorer attitudes toward psychological counseling than Caucasians. The authors directly tested whether stigmatizing beliefs regarding mental illness might explain such differential attitudes toward counseling in a South Asian and Caucasian…

A majority of U.S. adolescents at least occasionally communicate on the Internet with unknown peers. This study tested the hypothesis that online communication with an unknown peer facilitates recovery from the acute aversive effects of social exclusion and examined whether this benefit may be greater for adolescents compared with young adults. A…

This research was conducted at a Substance Abuse Forum designed to address local community needs by focusing on Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) in addiction treatment. The purpose of the study was to assess substance abuse treatment professionals' readiness to adopt EBPs, experience with EBPs, and attitudes toward EBPs, as well as agency support…

This article reports on a study of teachers at one reforming high school. Though it is not their task to debate No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the authors locate their investigation inside the current policy context to which NCLB is attached. Specifically, they present their analysis through the organizational behavior lens of threat rigidity to…

Using daily diary methodology, 67 Mexican American adolescents completed measures assessing daily stressors experienced, specific coping strategies employed with reference to these stressors, and indices of psychological health over 5 consecutive days. With respect to coping usage, adolescents reported they most often used planning and least often…

This study examines relations between early adolescent girls' well-being, achievement, and emerging identities. Variable-centered results showed that girls' moral and student identities were the strongest predictors of their achievement, whereas their moral, student, physical, and peer identities predicted their well-being. Person-centered results…

The University of California faces the challenge of increasing the diversity of students graduating from its medical schools while also adhering to mandated restrictions on the use of race or ethnicity in the admissions process. Students from diverse backgrounds who gain admission as undergraduates to UC Berkeley and express an early interest in a…

This study investigated the relationship between intercultural perceptions, identity, and academic achievement among African American males. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship of academic achievement, cultural mistrust, oppositional cultural attitudes, ethnic identity development and educational outcome expectations and value,…

The California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) is a graduation requirement that includes passing a two part exam: English-language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Students take the exam for the first time in 10th grade. In 2005-06, the passing rates were about 77% for ELA and 75% for math. This study uses student level data to focus on the…

Research on nonverbal vocal cues and verbal irony has often relied on the concept of an "ironic tone of voice". Here we provide acoustic analysis and experimental evidence that this notion is oversimplified and misguided. Acoustic analyses of spontaneous ironic speech extracted from talk radio shows, both ambiguous and unambiguous in…

A telephone survey in Los Angeles County examined patterns of visitation to undeveloped natural areas by various segments of the population and perceived barriers to such visits. A total of 894 interviews were completed; the sample was representative of Los Angeles County's racial and ethnic diversity. About 40 percent of respondents had visited a…

Background: While parenting behaviours have direct effects on children's behavioural outcomes, other, more distal factors also may be shaping the way a mother handles parenting responsibilities. Dispositional factors are likely to be a major influence in determining how one parents. Although researchers have studied the relationships among…

The current study assessed the subjective well-being of a broad spectrum of homeless people. One-hundred-and-eighty-six homeless people from the streets of Calcutta (India), California, and a tent camp in Portland (Oregon) were interviewed, and responded to measures of subjective well-being. They answered questions about life satisfaction,…