Improvements in equity in the participation of young people in higher education in Australia during the 1980s

This paper addresses the question of the extent to which there were improvements in equity in the patterns of participation of young people in higher education in Australia during the 1980s. Data from theYouth in Transition longitudinal surveys of Australian youth are used to assess the effectiveness of the Labor Government's equity initiatives since 1983 in this area. The conclusion is that participation by young people in higher education in Australia did generally become more equitable under Labor during the 1980s, though differences in higher education participation rates persisted between certain sub-groups of the population.     

Psychosocial Factors That Predict the College Adjustment of First-Year Undergraduate Students: Implications for College Counselors

The authors describe psychosocial factors that predicted college adjustment of 1st-year undergraduate students on the basis of studies conducted in 2 universities of differing size, focus, and geographic location. Academic self-confidence, positive attitudes toward the university, and faculty and peer support significantly predicted more successful adjustment to college.     

The longitudinal association of childhood school engagement with adult educational and occupational achievement: findings from an Australian national study

The research investigated the association between school engagement and adult education and occupation outcomes, within the context of a 1985 Australian longitudinal national cohort study of the factors affecting children's long‐term health and well‐being. School engagement may be more modifiable than other factors related to academic success, such as academic attainment, which is influenced by family background. A School Engagement Index was constructed using questionnaire items on school enjoyment and boredom. Related school engagement items included learner self‐concept, motivation to learn, sense of belonging, participation in school or extra‐mural activities, and enjoyment of physical activity. In 2004–2006, participants (aged 26 to 30 years) reported their highest level of education achieved and current occupation. Potential covariates included age, sex, markers of socio‐economic status in childhood, personality and school‐level variables (i.e., number of students, single sex versus co‐education; government, private or independent). Logistic regression was used to estimate the odds of achieving post‐compulsory school education and achieving higher status occupations. Findings revealed that each unit of school engagement was independently associated with a 10% higher odds (OR 1.10 95% CI 1.01,1.21) of achieving a post‐compulsory school education. Maternal education, self‐concept as a learner, motivation to learn, all also significantly predicted achieving post‐compulsory school education. School engagement was found to mediate the association between the personality characteristic of agreeableness and education outcomes. Higher school engagement was also independently associated with achieving higher status occupations 20 years later (OR 1.11 95% CI 1.03, 1.20). Importantly, this was independent of a host of background factors.     

Suicidal Behavior and Help Seeking Among Diverse College Students

Suicidal and help‐seeking behaviors of students of color remain a significant problem on college campuses. Self‐reported suicidal experiences and help‐seeking behavior of diverse students are examined on the basis of results from a national survey of college student mental health. The results suggest significant differences in the expression of suicidal thoughts and behavior across racial and ethnic groups and different experiences in their referral for, and utilization of, professional help.     

Are patenting scientists the better scholars?: An exploratory comparison of inventor-authors with their non-inventing peers in nano-science and technology

This paper explores the relationship between scientific publication and patenting activity. More specifically, it examines for the field of nano-science and nano-technology whether researchers who both publish and patent are more productive and more highly cited than their peers who concentrate on scholarly publication in communicating their research results. This study is based on an analysis of the nano-science publications and nano-technology patents of a small set of European countries. While only a very few nano-scientists appear to hold patents in nano-technology, many nano-inventors seem to be actively publishing nano-science research. Overall, the patenting scientists appear to outperform their solely publishing (non-inventing) peers in terms of publication counts and citation frequency. However, a closer examination of the highly active and highly cited nano-authors points to a slightly different situation. While still over-represented among the highly cited authors, inventor-authors appear not to be among the most highly cited authors in that category, with a single notable exception. One policy implication is that, generally speaking, patenting activity does not appear to have an adverse impact on the publication and citation performance of researchers.     

Kinematics of cycling in relation to anterior knee pain and patellar tendinitis

The coronal and sagittal plane leg movements of 24 experienced male cyclists were assessed using video analysis while cycling on a Kingcycle windload simulator. The cyclists were grouped into those with a history of injury and an asymptomatic group on the basis of self-reported injury status. The ages, cycling experience, competition distances and competition speeds of the two groups were compared using Student's t-test. No significant differences (P < 0.05) were found for any of these variables. The maximum and minimum shank adduction, shank adduction velocities, knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion values were also compared using Student's t-test. Significant differences were found at the point of maximum adduction (1.9 degrees; P = 0.019) and minimum dorsiflexion (4.9 degrees; P = 0.014). These differences indicated more dorsiflexion and greater abduction on the part of the symptomatic cyclists, supporting previous research that found that cyclists with a history of injury differ from those without a history of injury in the coronal plane leg movement patterns they adopt. Also, the most extreme medial position of the knee relative to the ankle occurred during knee extension. This supports the potential injury mechanism proposed by Francis (1986), which had previously only been examined using coronal plane kinematics.