The purposes of this research brief were to examine (a) whether youth reports of neighborhood qualities were significantly related to census data at the block group, measuring the same structural qualities and (b) whether the structural qualities were related to youth development either directly or indirectly through youth perceptions. Data were…

How are racial-ethnic identity and acculturation processes linked, and when do they have positive consequences for academic achievement and assimilation trajectory? To address these issues this study integrates two frameworks--segmented assimilation (Portes and Rumbaut 2001) and racial-ethnic self-schema (Oyserman et al. 2003)--that focus on how…

Principals' technology leadership is strongly correlated with teachers' integration of educational technology, and technology leadership is necessary for effective utilization of technology in schooling. The article describes a study that empirically investigated teachers' perceptions of elementary schools principals' technology leadership…

This study was conducted to explore the relationship between Internet self-efficacy and preferences toward constructivist Internet-based learning environments. The sample included 365 college students in Taiwan who all majored in early childhood care and pre-school education. Some of them were preservice pre-school teachers (n=185), and the rest…

This study challenges narrow definitions of teacher effectiveness and uses a systems approach to investigate teacher effectiveness as a multi-dimensional, holistic phenomenon. The methods of Nominal Group Technique and Interpretive Structural Modeling were used to assist U.S. and Japanese students separately construct influence structures during…

The retention of elementary general music teachers is of primary concern to the music education community. Teachers complete four years of college with additional coursework or masters degrees to improve and enhance their teaching expertise. With increased amounts of time and money involved in the training of these music teaching professionals,…

The influence of method of handling missing data on estimates produced by a structural equation model of the effects of part-time work on high-school student achievement was investigated. Missing data methods studied were listwise deletion, pairwise deletion, the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, regression, and response pattern. The 26…

The purposes of this study were to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence as measured by the Emotional Intelligence Inventory (EQI) (M. Tapia and J. Burry-Stock, 1998) and intelligence as measured by the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test (OLSAT). Other comparisons included measures of verbal and mathematics scores on the Preliminary…

Noting that current conceptualizations of children's externalizing behavior problems suggest that impulsivity underlies diverse behavior problems and may contribute to peer rejection, this study examined the association between impulsivity and peer status. The study also assessed the unique contribution of aggression and impulsivity in predicting…

Studied the meaning of Performance Failure Appraisal Inventory (PFAI; Conroy and others, 2002) by evaluating the comparability of PFAI factor structure over repeated assessments and the stability of the subscales over relatively brief intervals. Results for 356 college students generally show high stability for PFAI scores in long and short forms.…

Used confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the score integrity of LibQUALl+, an instrument to measure perceptions of library service quality. Results for 60,027 graduate and undergraduate students suggest that the model implied by LibQUAL is reasonable and invariant across independent samples and fits all three major subgroups of library users.…

Monte Carlo methods were used to study the accuracy and utility of estimators of overall error and error due to approximation in structural equation modeling. Effects of sample size, indicator reliabilities, and degree of misspecification were examined. The rescaled noncentrality parameter also was examined. Choosing among competing models is…

Relations of social support and self-esteem to problem behavior were investigated among young adolescents. Three models were evaluated, and the mediated and direct effects model was found best fitting. Social support and self-esteem predicted less involvement in problem behavior, and unique variance in peer self-esteem predicted greater problem…

As a reaction to the article by D. M. Tokar et al. (this issue), discusses the most pressing methodological and theoretical challenges embedded in the study of family relationship factors in the career decision making of college students. Reviews outstanding theoretical and empirical issues characteristic of structural equation modeling, with a…

In his comments regarding Tokar et al.'s article (this issue) Blustein offered several useful suggestions for future research in the area of relationship variables and career development and raised several concerns about the rationale for and use of structural equation modeling in testing their models. In this reply, the authors note points of…