This study evaluates the Youth Development Program (YDP), a component of the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA). We examine whether the YDP reduced dropout rates among youth in secondary schools in seven school districts in the impoverished Mississippi River Delta in southeast Arkansas. Initially, the program seems to have an impact. Students…

Research has demonstrated that humans form perceptions as a result of a variety of complex cognitive processes. The purpose of this pilot study is to demonstrate the potential use of perceptual mapping as a means to capture the perceptions of groups of individuals who work closely with people with disabilities and examine their perceptions in a…

Increasing dropout rates in senior high school physical education, particularly among females, and unhealthy activity and obesity levels in youth have led to recommendations to assess potential contributing factors in physical education participation. Drawing from gender, body image, and social-cognitive theory, this study investigated relations…

Relationships between contextual support, perceived educational barriers, and vocational/educational self-efficacy and outcome expectations were examined for a group of 114 ninth graders from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Results of this exploratory pilot study indicated that sibling and peer support accounted for a significant amount of…