Violent conduct by youths ranks among the types of inappropriate behavior generally originating in difficult family and social contexts. A proper understanding of the development of violent conduct must consider the situation taken as a whole. This article documents the results of a qualitative study which aimed to determine the psychosocial…

This study, using Andersen's health care utilization model, examined how predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, need, personal health practices, and psychological factors influence health care utilization using a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of Canadian adolescents. Second, this study examined whether this process…

This study compared alternative hypotheses (from general deviance, life course, and developmental psychopathology perspectives) regarding the effects of early adolescent delinquency on psychosocial functioning in family, school, and peer contexts, and on alcohol use. Analyses also examined parent-child negative affective quality, prosocial school…

Previous research on the effect of technology-based preservice education programs has been assessed by examining changes in computer ability and attitudes. Systematic exploration looking at the effect of these programs on computer use has been noticeably absent. In addition, the role of emotions and use of computers has been largely ignored with…

Background: This study assessed whether data-collection formats, computerized versus paper-and-pencil, affect response patterns and descriptive statistics for adolescent health assessment surveys. Youth were assessed as part of a health risk reduction program. Methods: Baseline data from 1131 youth were analyzed. Participants completed the…

Background: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) affect a significant number of children in this country. This article addresses diagnostic issues related to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other alcohol-related disabilities, discusses associated features and behaviors of FASD, and introduces interventions to support children with FASD in…

School science students can benefit greatly from participation in student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry projects. For various possible reasons, however, students tend not to be engaged in such inquiries. Among factors that may limit their opportunities to engage in open-ended inquiries of their design are teachers' conceptions about…

If the headlines are any measure, it's been a dismal year for racial harmony on campus, with controversies erupting in Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, Illinois; and Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Jesus Trevino, associate provost and head of the Center for Multicultural Excellence at the University of Denver, says "unfortunately, it always seems to take a…

This study compared the social-emotional implications of academic achievement for students with and without learning disabilities (LD) and identified predictors of effort investment. Students with LD showed lower levels of achievement, effort investment, academic self-efficacy, sense of coherence, positive mood, and hope, and higher levels of…

Children served by school psychologists are frequently impacted by natural disasters. In the United States, tornadoes are a particular threat but have been studied very little. The current investigation developed a scale for assessing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children in Kindergarten to Grade 6 impacted by a severe tornado. Six…

Protective effects of ethnic identity on daily psychological well-being were examined in a sample of 415 ninth graders from Mexican and Chinese backgrounds. Utilizing daily diary assessments and multilevel modeling, adolescents with a greater regard for their ethnic group exhibited greater levels of daily happiness and less daily anxiety averaged…

Although self-directed learning is a common response for many of the 232,090 US men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, very little is known about the nature of the experience for them. Four themes emerged from interviews with 12 prostate cancer patients describing their self-education efforts in regard to their disease. A…

The factor structure of the Family Emotional Involvement and Criticism Scale (FEICS) is tested in a sample of Irish adolescents. Participants were 661 adolescents with a mean age of 15.9 years (SD = 1.26). Interpretation of both the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the FEICS show support for the two-factor structure of the FEICS…

Psychosocially vulnerable prisoners under stressful conditions of confinement are ill prepared to cope and at risk for developing suicide intention. The present study examined the relationships of depression, hopelessness, reasons for living, mental health problem history, suicide attempt lethality history, and stressful segregation housing with…

Findings are presented from research examining the relationship between shame traits and acculturation status (i.e., Mexican, Anglo, and Bicultural orientations, level/type) of Chicano students (N = 90). Six out of twenty-four shame traits were significantly related to acculturation status; one descriptive-acculturation trait (awareness of ethnic…