This study investigated the role of metacognition as a mediator of the effect of test anxiety on a surface approach to studying. The following scales were completed by 109 undergraduate social sciences students: Approaches and Study Skills Inventories for Students (ASSIST), Metacognitions Questionnaire (MCQ), and Test Anxiety Scale (TAS). Positive…

The effects of anger feelings (rated by the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory) and witnessing family violence on anxiety and depression (rated by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were examined in 457 junior high school students. Anxiety and depression scores were correlated with frequencies of witnessing family violence. In a…

Recent theoretical advances in working memory guided analyses of cognitive measures in 122 children with dyslexia and their 200 affected biological parents in families with a multigenerational history of dyslexia. Both children and adults were most severely impaired, on average, in three working memory components- phonological word-form storage,…

A computerized adaptive test (CAT) may be modeled as a closed-loop system, where item selection is influenced by trait level ([theta]) estimation and vice versa. When discrepancies exist between an examinee's estimated and true [theta] levels, nonoptimal item selection is a likely result. Nevertheless, examinee response behavior consistent with…

Beside interindividual social comparisons, intraindividual dimensional comparisons in which students compare their achievements in one subject with their achievements in other subjects have an impact on their academic self-concepts. The internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model by Marsh (1986) assumes that dimensional comparisons lead to…

Reports of adolescents' coping with recurrent pain, symptoms of anxiety/depression, and somatic complaints were obtained from a sample of 164 adolescents with recurrent abdominal pain and their parents. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that coping consisted of 3 nonorthogonal factors: Primary Control Engagement Coping (problem solving,…

The authors describe 2 efficiency (planned missing data) designs for measurement: the 3-form design and the 2-method measurement design. The 3-form design, a kind of matrix sampling, allows researchers to leverage limited resources to collect data for 33% more survey questions than can be answered by any 1 respondent. Power tables for estimating…

The goals of this study were to (a) develop an empirically based model regarding the development of fluent and automatic reading in the early elementary school years and (b) determine whether fluent text-reading skills provided benefits for reading comprehension beyond those accounted for by fluent word decoding. First-, second-, and third-grade…

Research in structured equation modeling (SEM) suggests that nonnormal data will invalidate chi-square tests and produce erroneous standard errors. However, much remains unknown about the extent to which, and the conditions under which nonnormal data can affect SEM application, especially when excessive skewness and kurtosis are present in data.…

The multiplicity of variables describing the financial conditions of postsecondary institutions makes it difficult to assess changes in higher education finance from year to year and to find the relationship between these finance variables and average faculty salaries. This study sought to determine if a small number of factors could be derived to…

Uses structural equation modeling to combine traditional ideas from repeated-measures ANOVA with some traditional ideas from longitudinal factor analysis. The model describes a latent growth curve model that permits the estimation of parameters representing individual and group dynamics. (Author/RH)

At 3 points in time over a 12-month period, this short-term longitudinal study examined 67 preschoolers' syllable, rime, and phoneme awareness; speech and language skills; and letter knowledge. Findings indicated that rime skills developed earlier than phoneme skills. Structural equation models showed that articulatory skills and syllable and rime…

A motivational model of school performance, based on the theoretical framework of Deci and Ryan (1985) and structural equation modeling, was prepared and tested with 263 Montreal (Canada) 9th graders. Perceived academic competence and perceived academic self-determination positively influenced autonomous academic motivation, which had a positive…

A Monte Carlo study explores the robustness assumption in structural equation modeling of using a full information normal theory generalized least-squares estimation procedure on Type I censored data. The efficacy of the following proposed alternate estimation procedures is assessed: asymptotically distribution free estimator and a latent…

Modeled the relationship between student career aspiration and educational productivity in science teaching. The structural equation model was cross-validated by the seventh grade data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth. Interprets statistical findings in terms of student aptitude-attributes, instructional characteristics, and…