Exercise has an important role to play in the prevention of child and adolescent obesity. Recent school-based interventions have struggled to achieve meaningful and lasting changes to exercise levels. Theorists have suggested that this may, in part, be due to the failure to incorporate psychosocial mediators as they relate to behaviour change.…

Homeless youth are a population at a high risk for suicidal behavior. A previous exploratory study emphasized the importance of feeling trapped or helpless, which appeared to mediate the impact of other risk variables. Confirmatory work was needed to test this inductively derived model. Two hundred eight homeless youths completed surveys on the…

This study tested a developmental model of pathways to risky sexual behavior among South African adolescents. Participants comprised 633 adolescents, 12-17 years old, recruited from households in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using in-person interviews. Topics included adolescents' sexual behaviors, household poverty levels, vulnerable…

A sample of 490 high school students from 81 schools in Michigan participated in an experiment in which they were randomly assigned to either a control or an experimental Web site. The experimental Web site provided exposure to educational material about the process of organ donation and organ transplantation. The control Web site provided…

In a sample of low-income families (N = 239), structural equation models assessed predictors of fathers' involvement with preschool-aged children in instrumental, behavioral, and emotional realms. Results suggest that parental conflict has a strong negative relation with father involvement. Fathers' human capital characteristics, healthy…

The present study was aimed to explore the relationships between orgainsational or school variables, students' personal background variables, and cognitive and motivational variables. The sample for the survey included 373 students drawn from nine Government schools in Andhra Pradesh, India. Students' creative thinking abilities were measured by…

This study examined whether sociocontextual and sociocognitive variables explained the math/science goals of 409 Mexican American youth using a modified version of R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, and G. Hackett's (1994) social cognitive career theory. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that the hypothesized model explained a significant…

Objective: Interview data collected from 275 clients with severe mental illnesses are used to test the construct and criterion validity of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale (PSS). Method: First, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses are used to test whether the scale reflects the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom…

Previous research has provided support for the mediating role of self-efficacy between independent attitude variables and dependent performance measures. However the existence of a confirmatory model, that can be generalized over both males' and females' measures of attitudes, perceived self-efficacy, and achievement levels, has not yet been…

This study utilizes the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as the theoretical framework from which to explore the factors that have a determining influence upon science and mathematics achievement. The study makes every effort to expand the utility of TPB by assessing its applicability with respect to the achievement of 10th grade female Palestinian…

This study investigated differences in freshmen to senior student general education gains across institutions of higher education, with varying patterns of general education requirements using a mixed-effect structural equation model. The subjects were 6,409 students at 34 colleges and universities nationwide. Study procedures used American…

Examined longitudinal relations of observed parental warmth and positive expressivity and children's effortful control and ego control with children's high versus low emotional expressivity. Found that moderate child expressivity related to high effortful control. Children's ego overcontrol mediated relations between parental warmth/positive…

Tested a developmental-ecological model of violence using longitudinal data from poor, urban African American and Latino adolescent boys and caregivers. Found that community structural characteristics significantly predicted neighborhood social processes. Parenting practices partially mediated relationship between neighborhood social processes and…

Examined impact of Chinese family socialization practices on children's socialization over 4 years. Found that parental reasoning, intellectual stimulation, and encouragement of independence were significant indicators of overall family socialization practices. Children's self-control, and positive attitudes toward others and toward work were…

Addressing a gap in process-oriented understanding of relations between marital conflict and children's adjustment, propositions of the emotional security hypothesis from a family-wide perspective were tested in a longitudinal research design. Participants were 181 families and their 11-12 year-old-child (115 boys, 76 girls) living in Wales, in…