Uses pretest data collected with passive parental consent for 2,496 middle school students to examine demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral differences between students for whom active parental consent was provided in later phases of the research and those for whom active consent was not provided. Results show the detrimental effects of…

Does volunteer participation reduce depressive symptoms among older people? Does depression influence whether older people will volunteer? Might nonrandom attrition in a longitudinal study bias the relationship between volunteering and depression? This research addresses these questions with three-wave data from the Americans' Changing Lives…

We review existing studies of attrition in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), an empirically supported treatment for preschool-aged children with disruptive behavior disorders. Variables identified as pretreatment predictors of attrition in a statistically derived search for pretreatment predictors included maternal distress, negative…

Research on the treatment of challenging behaviors such as aggression, tantrums, and self-injury expanded significantly over the past two decades. However, despite of the rather impressive numbers of studies, it is still uncertain whether positive behavioral support (PBS) is effective with everyone. To be able to tell family members and…

A systematic discussion of the consequences of rapid population growth for economics and social systems examines growth resulting from mortality decline in the absence of comparable fertility decline. Growth resulting from net migration is also considered. The background and rationale for the study are supplied in a brief introduction. Part 2…

A nine-year summary of the academic performance of "high-risk" students at the University of Pittsburgh is presented. The subjects investigated were 1,770 students who entered the University-Community Educational Programs (U-CEP) from 1968 to 1976. The report focused on the following areas: student academic backgrounds; student…

This summary is an examination of teacher inflow into Manitoba from other provinces and other countries. Manitoba has experienced a sharp decline in the total number of teacher entries over the period of 1970 to 1978. The percentage of total provincial staff that are newly recruited from outside Manitoba has shown a corresponding drop. Declines…

A study was conducted of experimental mortality (subjects' drop-out) in counter-attitudinal advocacy research, a line of research that explores the extent to which people can be induced to persuade themselves to a new attitude. Subjects were 54 volunteers from undergraduate speech classes. The study involved three stages: a pretest for attitude,…

The possible biasing effects of attrition of subjects in longitudinal experiments is a problem to which social science researchers and evaluators rarely attend. A study of research on Project Follow Through, however, revealed few differences in family income or pretest scores, between students who dropped out of treatment and of comparison groups.…

The study presents an investigation of the association between freshman year voluntary persistence/withdrawal decisions and different types of student-faculty informal contact beyond the classroom. (JMF)

A study with follow-up interviews of services for homeless and mentally ill persons (original sample of 163) had a very high success rate of over 70% in tracking this difficult to locate population. Techniques for locating clients are presented, as identified by a focus group of five researchers. (SLD)

Time limits represent a substantial departure from previous welfare policy. Theory suggests that their effects should vary according to the age of the youngest child of the family. I test this prediction using data from the Current Population Survey and find that time limits indeed have larger effects on families with younger children. I further…

This is the second year report in a five-year evaluation of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). This program, which began in 1990, provides government-funded vouchers for low-income children to attend private schools in the City of Milwaukee. The maximum voucher amount in 2007-08 was $6,607, and approximately 20,000 children use a…

A longitudinal study was planned to track a class in a prekindergarten program to determine program effectiveness. There are many problems in conducting a longitudinal study, most of which revolve around the long-term commitment required. A carefully designed information system is important. For the study in question, computer software and…

Factors that influence teacher attrition are not well understood. Although past research has uncovered individual, work-related, and economic opportunity factors that influence teachers to leave their profession, more research is needed. This study (n=14,489) attempted to increase understanding of teacher's career decisions using data from the…