This study examined parent and child gender effects on parents' attributions and beliefs in regards to child symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants included mothers and fathers of 19 girls and 17 boys with ADHD. Groups of boys and girls, aged 5-13 years, were equated on age and medication status, as well as ADHD…

This study emerges from the lack of empirical research on gifted students' attributions about academic success and failure in multiple subject areas and school in general. We explored differences in top attributional choices between boys and girls for success and failure in general academics, language arts, science, and mathematics. Gifted…

A number of researchers have explored the attributions that care staff make about challenging behavior. The expectation, based on behavioral and cognitive models, is that these attributions may help predict why staff inadvertently reinforce challenging behavior. Two studies of staff attributions about challenging behavior are reported. In the…

Three studies investigated children's belief in causal determinism. If children are determinists, they should infer unobserved causes whenever observed causes appear to act stochastically. In Experiment 1, 4-year-olds saw a stochastic generative cause and inferred the existence of an unobserved inhibitory cause. Children traded off inferences…

This report provides a critical review of the current research literature on the consequences of unintended childbearing for families and children. The review addresses the following potential consequences: prenatal and perinatal risks (e.g., inadequate or delayed initiation of prenatal care, smoking/drinking/substance use during pregnancy,…

The researchers investigated the effect of attributional feedback on self efficacy judgments among a sample of 192 eighth grade students. Self efficacy judgments were measured by the scale developed by Bandura and Schunk (1981). The results showed that improvement in self efficacy judgments was significantly more for attributional feedback…

Participation in school-choice programs has been increasing across the country since the early 1990s. While some have examined the role that families play in the school-choice process, research has largely ignored the role of social contexts in determining where a student attends school. This article improves on previous research by modeling the…

This document discusses person perception or social cognition, as it affects relationships between people and nations. An important part of living together in harmony is for people to be able to perceive each other accurately, for individuals to understand one another's values, customs, goals, and resources. The need for accurate and sympathetic…

The theory of self-efficacy (beliefs concerning one's capabilities to learn or perform behaviors at designated levels), has developed since A. Bandura's work (1977) and continues to be applied to a variety of educational settings and grade levels. This paper addresses various issues pertaining to self-efficacy in settings involving academic…

A study evaluated the effects of attribution training combined with spelling strategy training on spelling performance, strategy transfer, and effort attributions. Subjects, 43 adolescents with learning disabilities in grades 7 and 8, were stratified by grade level and randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: spelling strategy…

In attempting to understand their own behaviors and that of others, people make different attributions about causes. During the process of supervision, supervisors and counselor trainees make many attributions, including those about client, trainee, and supervisor behavior. A supervision analogue was used to examine attributional processes in…

This study examines adults' and children's understanding of causal attribution cues in chaotic parent-child interactions. A total of 8 male and 8 female participants at each age of 4, 8, 12, and 18+ years, totaling 64 subjects, watched eight 30-second dramatized videotapes of a mother involved in some household task who discussed an issue with her…

Adolescence was the focus of an Urban Development Forum, a component of the Research for Better Schools, that explored the factors of effective schooling in terms of their impact on young people in large, urban systems. This forum featured a major presentation by Joseph Adelson. Focusing his presentation on the cognitive growth in adolescence, he…

Relationship dissolution is generally examined within the context of romantic involvement but rarely from the standpoint of friendship. To examine patterns of friendship dissolution in young adults, retrospective accounts of recently terminated or deteriorated same-sex friendships and changes in friendship networks over the last 5 years were…

This study was conducted to examine three explanations for gender differences in computer use and attitudes: (1) sex-typed females avoid computers if they perceive computers to be a male domain; (2) sex differences in video game use mediate sex differences in computer use; and (3) sex differences in attributional style mediate sex differences in…