In study 1, fourth and fifth graders who joined a club under performance conditions exhibited more helplessness after apparent rejection than children who joined under learning conditions. In study 2, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders who believed personality was nonmalleable were more likely to endorse performance goals in hypothetical socially…

Administered the Survey of Reading Attitudes to 167 intermediate and high school students in three private schools for Learning Disabled children. Statistical analysis viewed in conjunction with the results of the three previous normative studies seemed to support the psychometric soundness of The Survey of Reading Attitudes. (JAC)

The typical approach to studying children's ideas about marriage and divorce is to ask children what they think about their parents' divorce and from their answers to calculate "divorce adjustment." This study used a different approach and asked about children's perceptions of marriage, divorce, and stepfamilies. It also studied if there are…

This cross-cultural study tests a model of motivation on children's learning. Participating in the study are 805 Chinese students and 740 Canadian students. Students answered survey questions related to their perceptions of parents and teachers as well as their motivation orientations and the perceived level of control in learning; their homeroom…

New York's Division of Substance Abuse Services conducted a major survey in 1989-1990 of students in grades five through twelve: past surveys of the Division had included only students in seventh through twelfth grades. Students in the fifth and sixth grades answered a separate, self-administered questionnaire, which included questions about the…

Studied the attitudes and perceptions of children towards computers in classrooms. For one school year, questionnaires were distributed to children in grades four through seven before and after single computers were placed in each classroom. Overall, the children had positive attitudes toward computers, although girls were less positive than boys.…

A study examined the effects of rationale emotive psychoeducational procedures on aspects of mental health with 22 Australian fourth grade girls and 14 control subjects who received an attention control intervention. Rational emotive education increased perceptions of internal locus of control and rationality but did not reduce trait anxiety.…

Different methods of measuring print experience were studied for 63 fifth graders who completed daily activity diaries. Book reading time estimate was correlated with new measures of reading time that use a checklist. Results support recognition checklist measures as convenient proxy indicators of children's print exposure. (SLD)

Two questions serve as the focus in this study on factors affecting perception of femininity among pre-adolescent girls: (1) What are the meanings that girls themselves invested in gender and feminity? and (2) Through what social processes do girls negotiate meanings of gender and femininity? Researchers used a participant-observation study in…

The number of nontraditional families, including single-parent families and stepfamilies, in America has been steadily increasing. This study was conducted to examine the effects of family structure (intact, stepparent, and single-parent) on institutionalized children's self-concepts using Parish and Taylor's Personal Attribute Inventory for…

Explored how fifth and sixth graders' perceptions of parenting, teaching, and school differed by maternal employment status. Found that self-competence of students with nonemployed mothers was associated with parents' achievement values; self-competence of students with employed mothers was associated with parents' school involvement. Children of…

Although inquiries into social status have enjoyed increasing popularity in the literature, peer nomination techniques reveal little about the determinants of social preference. This study examined the relationship between two sociometric measures in predicting five categories of social status: (1) Popular; (2) Neglected; (3) Rejected; (4)…

As part of a series of tri-annual studies of youths' substance use and abuse behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge, begun in 1975, this report provides normative and trend data for the 1981-82 study. The research issues which were the foci of this study are: present status and important trends of youths' substance use, attitudes, and knowledge;…

A series of studies conducted in the late 1980s suggested that American adolescents lack adequate knowledge in geography, history, science, and current events. This paper examines motivational predictors of students' knowledge of current events and AIDS. Researchers surveyed 579 middle school students from 4 middle schools, and 1,548 high school…

Low self-esteem frequently impedes students' academic achievement. By incorporating different learning and teaching strategies, this practicum attempted to build self-esteem for fifth grade students who exhibited low self-esteem. Participants were selected based on their attendance, academic achievement, and/or behavior. The writer incorporated…