Purpose: The social aspect of leadership is often overlooked in the educational reform. This study aims to address the dearth of work in the social space around leadership and examines two different types of relational ties between leaders that capture the affective and work-related aspects of interpersonal relationships. Research Method: This…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe and determine the degree to which elementary school, middle school, and high school principals perceive their political skill, as measured by the Political Skill Inventory (PSI). A second purpose of the study was to determine if there was a difference for the perceived political skill of…

The present study examines several types of social anxiety that may be associated with the onset of alcohol use in middle school students, and whether the relationship differs by sex and grade. Students in the seventh and eighth grades (N = 2,621) completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents and a measure of lifetime drinking via schoolwide…

Background: Few studies have examined the interplay among quantifiable aspects of peer bonds, friendship types, personal characteristics, and behavioral outcomes in schools in distressed neighborhoods. The aim of this study was to identify compensatory and protective factors that can be promoted in school-based prevention programs. Methods: The…

This study attempted to analyze the drop out problem from spatial perspectives within the context of East Los Angeles Community College, California. Selected urban land-use types, which positively and negatively influence the propensity to drop out or persist-in colleges, were selected and captured during a global positioning system (GPS)-based…

Marital quality is an important factor for understanding the relationship between marriage and health. Low-quality relationships may not have the same health benefits as high-quality relationships. To understand the association between marital quality and health, we examined associations between two indicators of marital quality (marital support…

The prevalence of autism has increased precipitously--roughly 10-fold in the past 40 years--yet no one knows exactly what caused this dramatic rise. Using a large and representative dataset that spans the California birth cohorts from 1992 through 2000, we examine individual and community resources associated with the likelihood of an autism…

At most colleges and universities, African American and Latino students are less likely than students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds to stay enrolled in college and are, therefore, less likely to earn a college degree. "The Digest of Educational Statistics" reports the following trends: in 2006 30% of Whites age 25 and older…

This study assessed agreement level about the occurrence of past-year male-to-female partner violence (MFPV) and female-to-male partner violence (FMPV) among a sample of 897 blue-collar couples. Intimate partner violence (IPV) was measured with the Physical Assault subscale of the revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2). Agreement level was…

This study tests two competing hypotheses regarding the social structural dynamics of intimate homicide: backlash versus collective efficacy. This study also examines the role of race in how social factors specified in each hypothesis affect intimate homicide. Data are from the California Vital Statistics and Homicide Data, 1990-1999. Results from…

Although the relationship between varying levels of acculturation and depressive symptoms has been established among Latino(a) youth, the positive role of family involvement in relation to depressive symptoms among immigrant Latino(a) families has been studied less. This study draws on a sample of first-generation Latino(a) youth from the…

This project explores gender relations in stepfamilies from the vantage point of adult stepchildren who acquired stepparents during childhood. Drawing from 2 rounds of interviews with 15 adult stepchildren systematically selected from the 1997 wave of the University of Southern California Longitudinal Study of Generations, 5 themes of gender…

Technology is central to the daily routine of university life. Yet, without any formal technology prerequisites, students come to college with differing technological skills, stratified by gender, socioeconomic status, and racial backgrounds. Beyond skills, students' varied computing histories can result in a range of technology identities that…

This article, based on work funded by the American Association of University Women, examines how personal and environmental factors shape non-college attendees' decisions to forgo college directly after high school. Group interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 48 racially diverse recent high school graduates (27 men and 21 women) who…