A model is presented for helping students with learning disabilities experience success in school and beyond. Components of the model include internal decisions, which include desire, goal orientation, and reframing and external manifestations or behaviors of persistence, goodness of fit, learned creativity, and favorable social ecologies.…

Compares the perceptions of 387 male and female undergraduates of a scene involving a minor sexual violation in which 1 participant denies a kiss and the other kisses regardless. Differences in perceptions of offender and denier behavior are discussed with reference to social support for determining sexual behavior. (SLD)

Subjects were interviewed to determine smoking habits of 9,252 current cigarette smokers (11 percent black) and 7,555 former smokers (6 percent black). More blacks than whites smoked. Blacks were three times more likely to be light smokers than heavy smokers. Effective prevention may require better understanding of cultural factors affecting…

Reviews research which distinguishes various points along the continuum from normal eating habits to clinically diagnosed eating disorders. Focuses on nonclinical intermediate points and proposes intervention strategies for women experiencing difficulties with weight, body image, and/or eating. Contends further research is necessary for greater…

Principal components analysis was employed on the Adaptive Behavior Scales with scores of 122 older (mean age 63.5) individuals with severe intellectual impairment living in England. The study found the structure of adaptive skills and interpersonal maladaptive behaviors similar to that found for younger retarded adults. Two factors, personal…

State conditions and environmental variables were measured over a 5-hour period for 25 students (ages 3-21) with profound and multiple handicaps. Results showed the presence of state sequence patterns, short state change periods, and a relatively small amount of association between specific behavior states and environmental factors and events.…

The nature of the attitude-behavior relation was investigated through the use of structural equation models in a cross-lagged panel design involving 254 undergraduates reacting to 2 kinds of goal-directed behaviors. Results suggest that intentions, and to a lesser extent attitudes, are dependent on behavior and not the reverse. (SLD)

The verbal and nonverbal behaviors of five children (ages seven and eight) with specific language impairments wishing to gain access into established social interactions were evaluated. Although comparative children without language impairments had no difficulty, three of the subjects were unable to gain access at all and the other two did so…

For a beginning administrator, understanding school culture, maintaining a school's cultural elements, and gaining acceptance for building or changing a school's culture are major challenges. Preparation programs blending understanding about school culture with acknowledgment of four developmental stages in an administrator's professional…

Antiepileptic drug prescriptions were analyzed for 337 institutionalized individuals with mental retardation, over 54 months. Results indicated decreasing numbers of individuals receiving (1) more than 2 antiepileptic drugs concurrently, and (2) barbiturates. Over 90% of a group undergoing barbiturate taper maintained the same or improved seizure…

This article presents a brief introduction to Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by motor and vocal tics and obsessive-compulsive behaviors). It describes the nature of the disorder, treatment, and service provision (evaluation and assessment and the Individual Education Plan). (DB)

Consumer choice of health provider plan and preference for a personal physician were studied for 1,438 elderly adults using a joint logit model (JL) and a nested logit model. Choice criteria used by senior citizens, and reasons the nested choice model explains choice behavior better than the JL are examined. (SLD)

Discusses why agentic and idiographic approaches (in combination with more typical nomothetic, nonagentic studies) may enhance the predictive accuracy of psychological experiments. Presents study on exercise behavior of 42 college student subjects and analyzes it from 3 perspectives: nonagentic-nomothetic, nonagentic-idiographic, and…

Comparison of handicapped junior high school students (N=11) mainstreamed in low achieving classes with their nonhandicapped classmates found significant differences in the observed behaviors of discussion and not paying attention but no differences in teacher ratings of classroom behavior or report card grades. (Author/DB)

For the past six years, the Baltimore City Public Schools and the Prevention Research Center at Johns Hopkins University have been working together on the Prevention Program, an unusual intervention strategy for identifying and remediating behavior patterns in the first grade that could lead to later problems with drugs, delinquency, and…