Tested a structural model of mathematics achievement and attitude with a probability sample of 3,116 adolescents from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth. Concluded that prior achievement and home environment influenced subsequent achievement most powerfully and that previous attitude had the most powerful influence on subsequent attitude.…

Explored images that young children construct of literacy in their lives, both inside and outside of school. Analysis of the drawings of 48 children in grades 1-3 revealed a shift in the children's images of themselves in relation to literacy with each grade level. The influence of home and family on literacy behaviors was also noted. (Author/TJQ)

Background: The purpose of the present study was to test components of Raine's (2002) biosocial model, specifically the interactive effects of perinatal complications, rejecting parenting, and family adversity on the development of early-onset antisocial behavior (ASB). Boys' internalizing problems were also tested to investigate the specificity…

This study explored the social networks and sources of social support for rural high-school adolescents and how these are related to educational and psychological outcomes. We examined quality, frequency. and nature of social relationships of high school students to understand how size, density, heterogeneity, compositional quality of social…

Using a life course framework, we examine the early life origins of the race gap in men's all-cause mortality. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men (1966-1990), we evaluate major social pathways by which early life conditions differentiate the mortality experiences of blacks and whites. Our findings indicate that early life…

With the rapid increase of ethnic minorities entering industrial societies and interacting with mainstream cultures, issues of cultural and linguistic differences must be addressed. Particularly relevant to educators is understanding the process of acculturation and socialization of uprooted ethnic or low-income minority children. Such children…

Since the mean score for a sample composed of several subgroups can be viewed as the sum of the mean of each subgroup weighted by the proportional size of the subgroup, then the mean change in a time period--in this case, from 1972 to 1980--is the sum of the differences between the means for each subgroup, with each mean weighted by its…

One of the largest investigations of elementary education ever undertaken, the Sustaining Effects Study sought answers to a series of policy questions. The two major issues addressed by the study were (1) Who receives compensatory education (CE)? and (2) How effective is CE? Related to these primary issues were a number of secondary questions: (3)…

Analysis of a questionnaire completed by 767 high achieving young minorities (now aged 18 to 33), from low-income backgrounds, who were identified as academically talented during elementary school, reveals that the development of these students occurs under various home environmental conditions. (BJV)

This book examines the education of rural girls in Kenya and reports on a study of factors influencing girls' educational success or failure. Three chapters provide background on traditional values and practices affecting girls' education; describe Kenya's education system, including preprimary, primary (grades 1-8), secondary, university,…

This study sought to construct a set of family strengths using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - Child Supplement (NLSY-CS), and, if the family strengths' construct was possible, to discern whether the presence of these family strengths predict better outcomes for children. The original NLSY sampled approximately 12,000…

This study explored the facilitating function of religion in the lives of adolescents, postulating that religiously involved students would endorse prosocial--rather than egoistical--values, and that their prosocial values would foster a sense of belongingness to their church, family, and school. Participating were 369 boys and 372 girls attending…

Two public policy shifts in the past 10 years--the move from welfare to work and the end of social promotion in school--are intertwined in their implementation in the lives of working poor families. This report draws on ethnographic data from a 6-year study of working poor families in New York City over the period in which welfare reform became a…

This book, the last volume in a three-part series, draws on a large-scale worldwide poverty study to present the views, experiences, and aspirations of poor people in 14 selected countries. In each country, interviews and discussion groups were held in 8-15 rural and urban communities that reflected the most prevalent poverty groups and the…

Examined the adjustment of boys from intact, single-mother, stepfather, and multiple-transition families. Boys who had experienced multiple transitions showed the poorest adjustment. The antisocial mother was most at risk for transitions and unskilled parenting practices, which in turn placed her son at risk for poor adjustment. (BC)