Analyzed the interrelation between achievement and personal-motivational variables in students at risk of school failure and students not at risk. Results from 606 third graders show that students with and without academic problems are different with respect to certain motivational-affective variables. Prediction of academic success from affective…

Compared Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles of 1- to 6-month olds during weekly videotapes of mother/infant interaction for clues regarding emotional significance. Correlated levels of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiling within sessions; found that they had similar developmental trajectories. Duchenne smiles were typically preceded by non-Duchenne…

This developmental and cultural study investigates the impact children's attributions and affects have on their willingness to help in achievement contexts. Findings support Weiner's (1980) attribution-emotion-action model, although interesting developmental and cultural differences were revealed. Classroom implications and directions for future…

Examined relationship between school liking, classroom participation, and achievement with 200 entering kindergartners. Found greater support for the premise that school liking fosters classroom participation and achievement than for contention that early participation and achievement increases school liking or identification. Found that…

Examined protective influence of team sports involvement on adolescent depressed mood among 1,036 high school students. Found that a significant association between team sports involvement and depressed mood among males and females; the relation was not significant after controlling for parental and peer support. Females' involvement, but not…

Interviewed 32 families concerning their narrative practices, basic information about the children's story attachments, and the mothers' beliefs and practices concerning their children's attachments. Found that story attachments were social in two ways: Children created relationships with story characters, and formed story attachments with…

Discussion of students' computer attitudes focuses on the development of an Internet attitude scale for Taiwanese high school students that considered gender differences and Internet experience. Includes four subscales: perceived usefulness; affection, including feelings and anxiety; perceived control; and behavior, including actual practice and…

The family--via communication (or lack thereof)--is a primary avenue for sexuality education. While most research on family sexuality communication has examined the content of parent-child communication (e.g. topics discussed), relatively few studies have assessed the process, the way in which communication occurs. This paper presents an analysis…

This study examined unique associations of multiple distal context variables (family socioeconomic status [SES], maternal employment, and paternal parenting) and proximal maternal (personality, intelligence, and knowledge; behavior, self-perceptions, and attributions) and child (age, gender, representation, language, and sociability)…

While they demonstrate some ability to critically analyze the more obvious forms of deceptive weight-loss advertising, many girls do not recognize how advertising evokes emotional responses or how visual and narrative techniques are used to increase identification in weight-loss advertising. This study examined how girls aged 9-17 years…

This study examined age-related changes in the relationship between children's perceptions of how peers treat them, their affective distress, and their position within the peer group. Subjects were 380 boys and girls (163 second graders and 217 fifth graders) from 4 Greensboro, North Carolina, elementary schools. Children's sociometric status was…

This paper examines the effects of gender and test anxiety on students' achievement, cognition, and affects, with an interest in exploring why some students are less likely to benefit from classroom instruction than others. The data came from a western Canadian university study of 424 undergraduate students. Correlational and univariate statistics…

Study strategies are the activities that an individual uses to facilitate learning. Although no consistent findings exist to show the factors that comprise the study-strategy concept, a three-factor conceptualization (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) is often suggested. These factors were studied with 128 undergraduates of high and low…

A validation study was conducted on the Child Sex Abuse Attitude Scale (CSAAS) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the factor structure of three comparative CFA models. Multitrait multimethod analysis was also used to examine the convergent and discriminant validity of the CSAAS. The instrument was developed based on the theory of…

This study investigated students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), serious emotional disturbances (SED), and educable mental retardation (EMR) to determine if class size and class mix influence educational outcomes. A total of 110 students in 12 classrooms were included in the sample, which included classes with waivers (classes out of…