A study developed a valid and reliable instrument to measure learner empowerment and tested a model in which learner empowerment was caused by teacher communication behaviors and students' self-esteem. The model tested hypothesized teacher communication behaviors (relevance, verbal immediacy, and nonverbal immediacy) and student self-esteem as…

A study was conducted using the parity-equity model to investigate variances in faculty salaries at North Dakota State School for Science. The parity-equity model specifies three constructs as determinants of faculty salaries: (1) rational equity factors, including years of professional experience, rank, degree, graduate faculty status, tenure…

Three successive models were developed to test the existence of a need that leads individuals to select one mass medium over another and also to examine the idea of audience activity. Since it has been noted that uses and gratifications research has focused excessively on habitual media behaviors, the focus instead was on a medium where choice…

The effects of the school psychological environment on student motivation and the indirect effects of school leadership on student motivation are examined in this report. Path analysis of a comprehensive data set of over 16,000 fourth-, sixth-, eighth-, and tenth-grade students from 880 public schools was used to develop a causal model based on a…

This investigation used data from the 28-year-old New York Longitudinal Study to examine the relationship between various negative emotional and behavioral characteristics (e.g., aggression, anxiety, undercompliance, depressive mood) and adjustment. A total of 133 white, middle-class children were rated on these negative characteristics from…

Sibling relationships are not only maintained throughout life in most cases, but assume considerable importance in old age. Siblings provide psychological support for each other as well as more tangible forms of helping and caregiving. In order to investigate variables leading to sibling help in the area of psychological support, a path model…

Results are reported of a study to determine whether sexism is an outgrowth of racism, using the variables of social class, general conservatism, and economic traditionalism. The sample consisted of 522 students (47% female, 53% male) in small liberal arts college. Participants were administered questionnaires by trained interviewers and data were…

Recent studies have applied causal models to the formation of educational and occupational attitudes. Although some were conceived and conducted for purposes other than the analysis of status attainment processes, a powerful synthesizing perspective would be to treat them as studies of components of incomplete general attainment models. This study…

This cross-national study initiated construction of a path model to analyze the development of self-evaluation among adolescents, and to show that this process of development occurs cross-culturally. Seven variables assumed to be antecedents of self-evaluation were included in the model: SES, support from the mother and from the father, the…

Outlines a path analytic interpretation of data collected in light of the theoretical formulation of a dynamic model of memory. An investigation of industrial trainees' capacity to differentiate various ferrous and nonferrous metals is described which emphasizes the role of relational, strategic, and empirical knowledge in cognitive skill…

The relationship between interaction and achievement in cooperative small groups was studied in four junior high school mathematics classrooms. The interaction variable that related most strongly to achievement was asking a question and receiving no response; this type of interaction was negatively related to achievement. (Author/BW)

Path analytic techniques examined relations between children's subjective school outcomes and measures of their family and school learning environments. A home interview assessed parents' orientations to education and children's perceptions of schools were obtained. Children's perceptions have links with school-related outcomes even when family…

Stage-state analysis of the life course is presented as useful in identifying types of life courses and their relative frequency, in estimating the likelihood of moving from a given state through a sequence of future states, and in analyzing routes and processes connecting initial states with potential outcomes. (Author/DB)

Tested path models of academic interest and performance that were derived from social-cognitive theory. Results supported a model in which ability helps determine self-efficacy. Findings suggest that social-cognitive theory helps explain the academic behavior of high school students that can be key to their later career options. (RJM)

This study examined factors related to social competence in first-grade children of low-income, adolescent mothers. Findings indicated that higher social skills and lower levels of problem behaviors related to higher quality parenting, higher academic skills, and residence in neighborhoods with lower poverty rates. Children with higher social…