In the field of SLA, there have been various attempts to define second language learning motivation and to discover relationships between motivation and gender. Using two well-known motivational models: Expectancy-value theory, and Gardner's Socio-educational model, the present study sought to (1) first define foreign language learning motivation…

The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavioral determinants of the initiation of breast-feeding at birth. The prospective cohort study used the attitude, social influence, self-efficacy (ASE) model in 373 pregnant women in five child health care centers. Prenatally, 72% of the women had the intention to breast-feed, and 73% actually started…

The purpose of this research is to investigate factors that contribute to fiscal problems for public school districts in order to develop a model using benchmarks for maintaining fiscal health. School district revenues and expenditures are analyzed in order to identify patterns that can be used to predict financial stress. Of the 606 school…

Mounting pressure in the policy arena to improve teacher productivity either by improving signals that predict teacher performance or through creating incentive contracts based on performance--has spurred two related questions: Are there important determinants of teacher productivity that are not captured by teacher credentials but that can be…

The application of scientific tools to analyse the use of Internet-based e-learning tools in academic settings is in general an ignored area. E-learning tools are actually an emergent topic as a result of the new ideas introduced by the European Higher Education Area. Lifelong learning, or the promotion of student initiative, is the new paradigm…

Although over 15 years have passed since Witt (1990) noted that no empirical evidence exists to support the contention that a collaborative approach to consultation leads to more positive outcomes than a hierarchical or expert driven approach, this issue generally remains unaddressed (Schulte & Osborne, 2003). While the literature documenting…

A 2-year longitudinal study investigated the causal contributions of phonological processing to early reading competency. Subjects, 161 kindergarten children, were tested with a battery of measures assessing letter knowledge, reading ability, and 5 phonological constructs: rapid naming ability, rhyming ability, phonological memory (successive…

To clarify numerous points of contention surrounding Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theory, according to which individuals' media-influenced perception of their congruence or incongruence with dominant opinion determines their willingness to speak out in public, a study examined the relationship between opinion expression, perceived…

A causal model of academic factors affecting undergraduate student persistence at a large, urban, commuter university was tested. The effects of academic variables on persistence from fall to spring semester were also assessed for transfer and native students. The model accounted for 49% of the total variance in persistence, while separate models…

This report for researchers in rural sociology develops a conceptual and analytic framework for evaluating policies or programs through interrelated models. Three models--structural analysis, control programming, and simulation--allow researchers to assess policy/program impact, determine why expected impacts did or did not occur, and modify…

A study examined the validity of using questions concerning retirement expectations in large-scale micro surveys. A simple static labor supply model that considered wages, hours worked, and health data was developed for this purpose. Next, the model was implemented using data from the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) on the Labor Market…

This manual provides resource tools and strategies to enhance the suicide prevention capabilities of health professionals and the health care setting in which care is provided. In the first section, terms are defined and the suicide prevention triangle model is described. Applications of the model and good practices for suicide prevention in any…

In an effort to explain early maternal adaptation, a longitudinal study aimed to delineate the relative importance of maternal expectations for infant behavior, maternal descriptions of infant temperament, and the interaction of these variables, as proposed in the Goodness of Fit model. Infant temperament was considered an environmental variable,…

A study examined a contingency model involving the factors of task characteristics, structural characteristics, organizational relationships, and communication processes and their respective components in regard to their relationships to job performance and their ability to predict job performance. Data were gathered from approximately 190 members…

Data focused on illegal alcohol and marijuana use were collected in 1981 from 4,859 high school students living in two rural counties in southern Georgia. The sample consisted of over 85% of all students in grades 8 through 12 within the two counties. The data were used to test a facilitative-constraint model developed from selected components of…