This study compared 29 females with Turner syndrome and 21 females with fragile X syndrome (ages 6-22) on a videotaped role-play interaction with 34 females in a comparison group. Three of eight behavioral measures of social skills differentiated the participant groups. Fragile-X subjects required more time to initiate interactions and Turner…

Explores mothers' and fathers' differential treatment (PDT) of their adolescent offspring and examines how siblings' personal qualities were associated with PDT. Sex was associated with parents' differential temporal involvement. Sex-typed personal qualities were related to parents' differential discipline. Both sex and sex-typed personal…

Developed a questionnaire of 80 self-report items to measure student approaches to study in higher education, attempting to create a scale and study it with a Rasch measurement model. Results for 350 Australian college students supported the conceptual structure of the scale as involving studying attitudes and behaviors toward the identified five…

The representativeness of behavioral observation samples with durations of less than the whole time of interest was investigated with five profoundly mentally retarded physically handicapped adults in an institutional setting. It was found that the session representativeness was a function of the relative duration of the behavioral categories and…

Examines the persuasive message behaviors of truthful and deceptive communicators. Finds significant differences in the types of persuasive messages generated: truthful persuaders compose messages involving positive and negative sanctions; deceptive persuaders compose messages based on rationale or explanation. (KEH)

Surveyed 365 college students to investigate their attitudes toward the effects of past sexual behavior, both heterosexual and homosexual, on one's acceptability as a dating or marriage partner. Results showed that both men and women prefer partners without previous coital or oral heterosexual experience, and both strongly rejected those with any…

Findings suggest that crowding at home exerts a moderate influence on activity and social behavior during children's first few weeks at nursery, with children from crowded homes being most compromised. (RH)

Examined the accuracy and validity of self-reports and their effect on tests of attitude-behavior relationships. Self-reports were reasonably accurate, but they produced results different from actual behavior in attitude-behavior tests. Concludes that self-reports and actual behavior should be measured, tested, and modeled separately. (Author/LS)

Investigated relationship between loneliness (duration), self-esteem, and performance in academic assistance courses for high-risk students. Frequency and intensity of affects of loneliness correlated inversely with self-esteem. Self-esteem did not correlate with achievement (GPA) in courses. Frequency of affects of loneliness positively…

Analysis of 51 studies of developmental effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol in children from birth to 72 months found that, although adverse outcomes were found within each domain, age grouping, and exposure category, they comprised fewer than 50% of all outcomes measured. Most adverse outcomes were found in the neurobehavioral domain with…

Grandparental coresidence is associated with a delay of first birth beyond the teenage years among young women from two-parent and stepparent families as well as among those who live with neither birth parent. Grandparental coresidence has no association with early childbearing, positive or negative, among young women from single-parent families.…

The surest way to improve schooling for 12 million children in poverty is to get them better teachers. The problem is selection, not training. "Star" urban teachers persistently engage their students, protect and enhance student learning opportunities, easily apply generalizations, succeed despite students' life conditions, genuinely respect…

Reports results of a study that used an online survey, focus groups, and logs of telnet connections to examine Internet use when accessed through the University of Toronto Library (Canada). Discusses needs of Internet users and reveals patterns of Internet use. An appendix contains the online survey. (JMV)

A national survey of 355 licensed pharmacists investigated their perceptions of themselves as lifelong learners, participation in various professional and leisure activities, attitudes predicting lifelong learning behavior, and respondent characteristics. The two analytical models used arrived at different demographic and other variables…

This study of book interest behaviors of preschoolers focused on four year olds who exhibited a low interest in books in classroom contexts. It was found that providing access to books without teacher mediation did not result in increased book interactions or changes in the childrens' book interests. (18 references) (LRW)