Researchers and educators sometimes need to be reminded of the broad range of factors which have a crucial impact on how writers write. This paper offers a personal checklist of six factors which have been shown to be important, yet which are easy to forget in in heat of research because of the tendency to become immersed in a particular agenda…

The paper is a critique of the traditional mode of interpreting factor analyses; it is not a criticism of factor analysis per se. Instead, the author proposes a statistical procedure based upon stepwise regression (SRP). The traditional mode focuses on the largest factor loadings (FL). A factor is both described and named by these heavily weighted…

Results suggested that socioeconomic factors were not major determinants of differences in infant mortality in Texas in the 1970's. Data on live births and infant deaths for 254 Texas counties were obtained from the Texas Department of Health for each of the 11 years from 1970 to 1980. Infant, neonatal, and postneonatal mortality rates were…

This paper discusses the problems of conducting research on a low-base rate sensitive family problem, parental child snatching, and proposes that telephone interviewing is a cost efficient and methodologically appropriate solution to these problems. The paper reviews the scant literature on parental child snatching by presenting what are…

Research with older persons suffering from physical illness presents numerous challenges to gerontologists. Issues of conceptualization pertaining to the definition of illness, its location in the research paradigm, and the context in which illness occurs must be addressed prior to dealing with methodological problems. Access to physically ill…

Reviews the alternative meanings of the term "poverty" implied in the various ways in which it has been measured. Conclusion is drawn that it is not safe to assume different indicators of poverty are more or less equivalent. (Author/AM)

The 29 titles are arranged under seven issue areas presented in Budd Hall's article (CONVERGENCE v8 n2 p82-7) regarding: (1) alternative research strategies; (2) need for beneficial research processes; (3) and (4) aspects of research population involvement; (5) community motivation; (6) research as a dilectic process; and (7) research process…

Criticizes studies of egocentric development in children using cutaneous perception procedures. Also questions study contribution to the understanding of the development of decentering. (Author/SDH)

Presents an investigation of the hypothesis that an increase in the salience of the total class dimension should improve class-inclusion performance. Subjects were 220 children in kindergarten through third grades. (SDH)

In industrialized countries, a fundamental shift in child bearing practices has resulted in an increase in the proportion of families with one child. Assumptions contributing to negative ideas about the single child include the notions of the deprivation of positive sibling influences and of debilitating, anxiety-ridden parenting by mothers and…

Some of the frustrations inherent in trying to incorporate qualifications of statistical results into meta-analysis are reviewed, and some solutions are proposed to prevent the loss of information in meta-analytic reports. The validity of a meta-analysis depends on several factors, including the: thoroughness of the literature search; selection of…

The first step in aggregating qualitative data is to establish parameters for cross site analysis. Establishing parameters should include: (1) building a conceptual framework, (2) defining units of analysis, (3) developing core questions, and (4) establishing guidelines for handling unique features in each site. Two basic approaches to analyzing…

This paper serves two purposes: (1) it outlines some of the conflicting characterizations of the differences among scientific and artistic approaches to qualitative research; and (2) it provides some illustrations from conceptual and empirical research to demonstrate that these are indeed differences that matter. The following four ways in which…

A study examined whether mass media exposure is a unidimensional, bidimensional, or multidimensional construct as reflected in commonly used indicators of exposure. Telephone interviews were conducted with 534 households to determine media exposure. A structural equation model was proposed to account for the dimensionality of mass media exposure,…