Risk and protective factor indices were developed to examine vulnerability to drug use among Latino high school students. Survey data was collected from 516 Latino 9th and 10th grade youth in the Los Angeles (California) area. Frequency and quantity of use data were collected for a range of drugs including inhalants, cocaine, and other hard drugs.…

Guidelines regarding self-efficacy assessment are highlighted in the first section of this paper. In the second section, the issue of specificity versus generality of measurement is clarified. And last, preliminary results of a study of eighth graders (n=172) are presented which demonstrate that: (1) the optimal level of specificity of any…

This Colorado statewide survey of student intentions was administered to 3,219 community college students in April 1996. The survey collected data on perceptions of goal attainment and compared shifts in intentions of students attending inner city, suburban and rural community colleges. Most respondents (79.2 percent) reported no change in their…

The concept of goals has emerged as a useful and important social-cognitive approach to understanding motivation, achievement, and learning. Recent work reveals that the environment of the classroom affect the types of goals which students adopt: students are likely to adopt ability-focused goals when they see their teachers emphasizing relative…

Considerations regarding the undergraduate psychology program at Ithaca College are reviewed. In reevaluating the program, the following projections were made: the number of students who select psychology as a major in preparation for graduate studies will diminish; the majority of students electing the major will primarily need a solid liberal…

This paper compares the educational outcomes and student aspirations of graduates from three typical upper middle class high schools and an atypical lower middle class high school that used Mastery Learning to guide the delivery of instruction. The Johnson City School District (JCSD) in New York has used this form of instruction through the first…

An earlier path analytic study of the predictive validity of Tinto's theory of college student attrition was replicated using an independent sample of students from another university. Tinto conceived of the attrition/retention process as a series of sociopsychological interactions between the characteristics students bring with them to college…

Many research studies have used samples of women in introductory psychology courses, but few studies have focused on women interested in careers in psychology. To compare women who aspire to careers in psychology with those aspiring to other professions, 428 women in their senior year at seven colleges completed questionnaires assessing career…

Characteristics of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee undergraduate students and their experiences were surveyed in 1980. The sample consisted of 1,270 white students and 182 minority students. Minority women tended to be parents and full-time students, while minority men tended to be working part-time students. High percentages of all race-gender…

Academic self-concept has been viewed by numerous investigators as an important facet of general self-concept. The Academic Self-Concept Scale (ASCS) was developed as a measure of academic self-concept in college students. The initial item pool consisted of 59 items worded to conform to a four-pont Likert-type response format. On the basis of…

Family connections, traditional activities, educational goals, and fatalism are themes running throughout research and published observations about Appalachia. Information from 3 days of interviews with the author's grandmother, an 87-year-old Appalachian woman, is compared to these common research themes. The interviewee's experiences concerning…

A study examined the attitudes of Aboriginal students concerning their education and their perceptions of their parents' views of education. Questionnaires completed by 473 Aboriginal students in grades 6-10 from 22 urban and rural schools in Western Australia indicated that Aboriginal children had a positive attitude toward their schools and…

This study compares the educational aspirations of college freshmen students in public and private two-year colleges around the nation. Surveying a sample of over 13,000 first-time, full-time students from a national database elicited the following results: about half of students at public and private two year colleges aspired to obtain the…

A study examined gender differences in values in relation to ongoing educational changes in Russia. Surveys of 53 male and 64 female university students in Yakutia (northeast Russia) indicated persistent traditional gender stereotypes, except that females appreciated education more than males. This could result in family conflicts, since women do…

The relationships between course work taken, educational needs and plans, high school attended, and PLAN test scores of high school sophomores were examined. The PLAN tests are higher-order thinking skills tests that are used in educational planning for individuals and in program and curriculum evaluation. The relationships between ethnicity of…