The present study advances understanding of (a) the development of achievement goals, (b) the changing association of achievement goals and achievement over time, and (c) the implications of changes in achievement goals for changes in achievement over time. African American and European American adolescents' (N = 588) achievement goals and…

Examined social-contextual conditions that led teachers to be more autonomy supportive versus controlling with students. Using structural equation modeling the authors observed that the more pressure teachers perceive from above and from below, the less they are self-determined toward teaching. In turn, the less they are self-determined, the more…

Results of this study indicated that physical design features of university dormitories significantly affect the degree of commitment students feel for one another, patterns of interaction and emotional support, and level of involvement in organizational functioning, and support the usefulness of the University Residence Environment Scale.…

In this study, the authors examined the racial and gender gap in the academic development of African American and White children from kindergarten to 5th grade. Their main goal was to determine the extent to which social and behavioral factors, including learning-related skills, problem behaviors, and interpersonal skills, explain these gaps and…

A multilevel modeling approach was used to investigate the influence of age composition in 70 urban preschool classrooms. A series of hierarchical linear models demonstrated that greater variance in classroom age composition was negatively related to development on the Child Observation Record (COR) Cognitive, Motor, and Social subscales. This was…

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of an assessment technique for the psychosocial environment of the junior high and high school classroom. (Author/RK)

The authors performed path analysis, followed by a bootstrap procedure, to test the predictions of a model explaining the relationships among students' distal future goals (both extrinsic and intrinsic), their adoption of a middle-range subgoal, their perceptions of task instrumentality, and their proximal task-oriented self-regulation strategies.…

A study of 805 4th through 7th graders used a model of motivational development to guide the investigation of the internal dynamics of 4 indicators of behavioral and emotional engagement and disaffection and the facilitative effects of teacher support and 3 student self-perceptions (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) on changes in these…

This study tested the hypothesis that self-regulation of writing is a multifaceted modular construct and that students would perceive different goal orientations for writing as involving the application of different writing strategies. Two hundred eleven Jewish Israeli high school students engaged in a writing assignment and then reported on their…

Results showed that students high on internal locus of control performed better under low discipline classroom conditions, while high external control students performed better under high discipline classroom conditions. Data indicated that students assigned to a preferred discipline condition showed greater satisfaction than those who were not.…

A sample of 100 university living groups measured on 10 dimensions of their social environments was subjected to cluster analysis to develop an empirically based taxonomy of college residential groups. Some evidence that different clusters of living groups have different impacts on students is presented. (Author/DEP)

Student ratings of classroom social environments were related to absenteeism rates and average final grades. Classes with high absenteeism rates were seen as high in competition and teacher control and low in teacher support. Classes in which teachers gave higher average grades were seen as high in involvement and low in teacher control.…

Research indicates that peer victimization contributes to poor school functioning in childhood and adolescence, yet the processes by which victimization interferes with school functioning are unclear. This study examined internalizing and externalizing problems as domain-specific mediators of the association between subtypes of peer victimization…

Subjective and objective environments of 13 small colleges were assessed using the College and University Environment Scales and the Experience of College Questionnaire. Results are presented with implications for further study, and for educational planning. (Author/AG)

The authors developed a grounded theory about how a school serving relatively advantaged children produces high reading and writing achievement compared with schools serving similar populations of students. The school's faculty is reading and writing focused, and students experience many books as they receive explicit, demanding instruction (i.e.,…