This paper discusses two methodological issues regarding the analysis of longitudinal data using structural equation modeling that emerged during the reconsideration of the analysis of a recent study on the relationship between academic motivation and language achievement in elementary education [Stoel R.D., Peetsma, T.T.D. and Roeleveld, J.…

R is free, open-source, cooperatively developed software that implements the S statistical programming language and computing environment. The current capabilities of R are extensive, and it is in wide use, especially among statisticians. The sem package provides basic structural equation modeling facilities in R, including the ability to fit…

This study is the second in a series of investigations attempting to clarify relationships between variables that impact on a young musician's ability to perform music (as assessed on a graded music examination). Consistent with studies on school academic subjects, our previous investigation demonstrated the importance of self-efficacy in…

Finite mixture models are well known to have poorly behaved likelihood functions featuring singularities and multiple optima. Growth mixture models may suffer from fewer of these problems, potentially benefiting from the structure imposed on the estimated class means and covariances by the specified growth model. As demonstrated here, however,…

Our aim in this study was to validate a stress-process model for Hispanic caregivers of adults with mental retardation that incorporates family functioning. The model postulates that maladaptive adult behaviors are related to poorer family relationships and higher levels of family burden, which in turn is related to caregiver psychological…

Background: The goals of this prospective longitudinal study were to monitor levels of psychosocial stress in children and adolescents with Tourette syndrome (TS) and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) compared to healthy control subjects and to examine the relationship between measures of psychosocial stress and fluctuations in tic,…

This study seeks to assess the impact of maternal psychological well-being on the depression and anxiety levels and social withdrawal in a sample of young African American and Caucasian adolescents between the ages of 10 and 14 (N = 854) using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 child sample. Analyses using structural equation…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate that students' self-evaluations contribute to improving academic results and life skills. Design/methodology/approach: Taking as reference a group of previously validated scales (part 1: measurement), a causal model is developed. Hypotheses are tested through the structural equations methodology by using the…

Purpose: To examine substance use differences among African-American adolescents living in rural and more urban areas in Iowa and Georgia and factors thought to be related to those differences. Specifically, negative affect and perceived availability were examined as mediators of the relation between community size and alcohol, tobacco, and drug…

Instructional designers need to understand the internal processes of learning, identify learners' cognitive difficulties with those processes, and create strategies to help learners overcome those difficulties. Generative learning theory, one conception of human learning about cognitive functioning and process, emphasizes that meaningful learning…

The current study examined important predictors of substance use during early adolescence. The authors hypothesized that adolescents' relationships with key adults (i.e., teachers and parents) influence their choices to use substances indirectly through links with their decisions regarding peer groups. A total of 461 middle school students from an…

Validity data are presented for a new measure of threat appraisals in response to community violence. Adolescents (N = 358; 45% male; 91% African American, M = 12.10 years, SD = 1.63) and their maternal caregivers participated in two waves of a longitudinal interview study focused on the consequences of exposure to community violence. Structural…

Background: There is uncertainty about the extent to which mildly sub-optimal perinatal characteristics among individuals born near-term (greater than 33 weeks of gestation) are associated with various subsequent childhood problems, including antisocial behavior. There is even more uncertainty about whether the pathway to antisocial behavior…

This study evaluated the stage structure of several quasi-simplex and non-simplex models of moral development in two domains of moral development in a British and a Chinese sample. Analyses were based on data reported by Sachs (1992): the Chinese sample consisted of 1,005 students from grade 9 to post-college, and the British sample consisted of…

Research on factors related to student academic achievement typically involves the use of some type of total cognitive score as the final outcome measure. However, in using a total score, it is assumed that variables related to student learning have the same effect on student learning across academic skill levels. Using a subsample from the first…