A statistical method has been developed for nested incomplete samples in a longitudinal study in which part of the sample has dropped out in such a way that the data have a nested pattern. A procedure which performed well in a Monte Carlo experiment was extended to a two-factor incomplete design with repeated measures on one factor. Methods…

Clients who contact mental health centers but fail to follow through for treatment present a significant problem for therapists. Being able to predict which clients will not follow through with an initial therapy session could be very beneficial. At intake, subjects (N=27) who had requested service from a mental health center provided demographic…

Two sampling designs were compared for the planned 1978 national longitudinal survey of high school seniors with respect to statistical efficiency and cost. The 1972 survey used a stratified two-stage sample of high schools and seniors within schools. In order to minimize interviewer travel costs, an alternate sampling design was proposed,…

The task of graduating educationally disadvantaged students from an institution of higher learning is difficult. This difficulty is compounded because the special needs of these students are largely ignored by the institutions they attend. As a result, a disproportionate number of these students experience early failures. With the help of academic…

This study began with a survey of twenty-eight school districts of Erie County, New York, and its aims were to determine and compare attrition in foreign languages in those districts. The data, obtained through discussion with teachers, interviews with students, questionnaires, and Flander's Interaction Analysis, assisted in the formulation of the…

Using examples from evaluations of the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA) Basic Grants Program, the ESAA Pilot Program, and the sustaining effects of compensatory education programs, school and student attrition are discussed. As in the example cases, appreciable attrition can be expected in most longitudinal studies. The possible effects of this…

Self-generated codes to insure student anonymity were used in a study of substance use among 2500 adolescents. Matching rates for various cohorts as a proportion of total respondents at different survey periods were less than ideal. The effects of coding and other attrition factors on the tracking are discussed. (JAZ)

The author wrote this dissertation on the effects of mentoring intervention on student retention in community colleges in May 2002. The goal of the longitudinal study was to inspect the effects of a mentoring intervention program on retention and grade point averages of students at a two-year community college. The data used in the study came from…

Recent developments in medical technology have increased survival rates of children with disabling conditions and chronic illnesses. These children incur direct and indirect medical costs, and existing private and public resources leave gaps in payment and service delivery. New systems are necessary to ensure coordinated community care for all…

Approaches to the practical problems of finding former offenders and making them want to participate in a study are described for a study of desistance from crime. In the example, a success rate of 78% was achieved for a sample of 50 former offenders. Attention to individual circumstances is critical. (SLD)

Examined factors associated with research attrition in a long-term follow-up study (48 months). Researchers attempted to contact all randomized participants, not just those who completed treatment. The analyses deal primarily with refusal, the main reason for attrition. Short-term outcome did not predict refusal. The findings, if generalizable,…

This paper examines the impact of attrition among the women of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and children in the NLSY79 Mother-Child Supplement (NLSY79-C). Attrition among the children is nonrandom with respect to mother's marital status, grandfather's completed schooling, and family income. These differences that are…

The Amish, who came to North America from Europe in the 1700s and 1800s, and settled primarily in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New York, and Ontario, Canada, have attracted much attention and interest, particularly in the area of health care. The purpose of this bibliography is to guide the investigator toward the principal sources…

Significant regional differences in the proportion of white male and female children in the 19th century in different areas of the United States may be attributable to the economy. Boys were more numerous than girls in the South and along the frontier, while the ratio was more equal or in favor of girls in the eastern states. Data were obtained…

The Princeton Cooperative School Program was part of the federally funded and sponsored Upward Bound Program designed to aid the disadvantaged poor and the low-income student to successfully complete high school and enter college. The college retention and attrition for each of the graduating classes during the years 1966 to 1975 are compared to…