The Role of Stress in the Social Support–Mental Health Relationship

This study examined the mediating effect of psychological stress in the relationship between social support and mental health symptomatology in undergraduate students. Participants (n = 368) completed measures of social support, psychological stress, and mental health symptomatology. Bootstrapping estimates of indirect effects indicated a significant influence of psychological stress in the relationship between social support and both anxiety and depression symptomatology. Implications for mental health promotion and treatment on college campuses are discussed.     

Diagnostic utility of the Learning Disability Index

The Learning Disability Index (LDI) is one of many diagnostic indicators proposed for the identification of students with learning disabilities that relies on patterns of performance on cognitive tests. The LDI is hypothesized to relate to students' specific neuropsychological deficits. The present study investigated the diagnostic utility of the LDI with the third edition of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children by comparing students previously diagnosed with learning disabilities (n = 2,053) to students without learning disabilities (n = 2,200). Subsamples of youth with specific reading (n = 445) and math (n = 168) disabilities permitted further assessment of the efficacy of the LDI. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves revealed that the LDI resulted in a correct diagnostic decision only 55% to 64% of the time. These results demonstrate that the LDI is not a valid diagnostic indicator of learning disabilities.     

Academic locus of control: a relevant variable at tertiary level?

A survey of 744 first year students at an Australian university provides no evidence of significant sex, age, or faculty differences in those students' perceptions of their control over their own learning. A follow-up survey of 182 of this sample over two years later suggests that neither maturation nor the impact of tertiary study has brought about a significant change in these students' academic locus of control. However, cross-lagged analysis indicates that accepting responsibility for learning was causally dominant over the adoption of less superficial and more achievement oriented learning strategies. Implications of these findings for study skills training programmes are briefly outlined.The data reported here were collected while the author was a Research Fellow in the Office for Research in Academic Methods at the Australian National University. Parts of the data were discussed in a paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia, Canberra, 1986.     

School violence,school differences and school discourses

This article highlights one strand of a study which investigated the concept of the violence‐resilient school. In six inner‐city secondary schools, data on violent incidents in school and violent crime in the neighbourhood were gathered, and compared with school practices to minimise violence, accessed through interviews. Some degree of association between the patterns of behaviour and school practices was found: schools with a wider range of well‐connected practices seemed to have less difficult behaviour. Interviews also showed that the different schools had different organisational discourses for construing school violence, its possible causes and the possible solutions. Differences in practices are best understood in connection with differences in these discourses. Some of the features of school discourses are outlined, including their range, their core metaphor and their silences. The authors suggest that organisational discourse is an important concept in explaining school effects and school differences, and that improvement attempts could have clearer regard to this concept.     

Factor structure of the WISC‐V in four standardization age groups: Exploratory and hierarchical factor analyses with the 16 primary and secondary subtests

This study examined the factor structure of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children‐Fifth Edition (WISC‐V) with four standardization sample age groups (6–8, 9–11, 12–14, 15–16 years) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), multiple factor extraction criteria, and hierarchical EFA not included in the WISC‐V Technical and Interpretation Manual. Factor extraction criteria suggested that one to four factors might be sufficient despite the publisher‐promoted, five‐factor solution. Forced extraction of five factors resulted in only one WISC‐V subtest obtaining a salient pattern coefficient on the fifth factor in all four groups, rendering it inadequate. Evidence did not support the publisher's desire to split Perceptual Reasoning into separate Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning dimensions. Results indicated that most WISC‐V subtests were properly associated with the four theoretically oriented first‐order factors resembling the WISC‐IV, the g factor accounted for large portions of total and common variance, and the four first‐order group factors accounted for small portions of total and common variance. Results were consistent with EFA of the WISC‐V total standardization sample.     

The Temporal-Interactive Influence of Reading Achievement and Reading Attitude

Although the relationship between attitudes toward reading and reading achievement has been well documented, the causal relationship between these constructs remains unclear.Using longitudinal covariance structure modeling, this study tested the hypothesis that 3 reading-related constructs in the primary grades (2nd-3rd grade) – reading attitude, behavior, and achievement – would predict reading achievement in the 7th grade. Results showed that primary attitude was not correlated with primary achievement yet both had causal paths to 7th-grade achievement, described as a “temporal-interaction” model. The resulting model suggests that while reading attitude and achievement may appear unrelated at the early stages of reading they become more closely linked over time, developing into important causal determinants of reading achievement by early adolescence.     

Public Policy

GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY RELATIONS: KEY ISSUES IN THE US TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY by Dr. D.C. Pitt (Economic and Social Research Council, 160 Great Portland St., London WIN 6BA—L3.50, paper)

STATE GOVERNMENT RESEARCH DIRECTORY edited by Kay Gill and Susan E. Tufts (1987—price not given)

GOVERNMENT RESEARCH DIRECTORY edited by Kay Gill and Susan E. Tufts (1987—$350)

RESEARCH SERVICES DIRECTORY edited by Robert J. Huffman, and Mary Michelle Watkins (1987—$290)

PROTECTING THE BEST MEN: AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY OF THE LAW OF LIBEL by Norman L. Rosenberg (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986—$29.95)

MEDIA LAW by Ralph L. Holsinger (New York: Random House, 1987—price not given)

COMMONSENSE COPYRIGHT: A GUIDE TO THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES by R. S. Talab (McFarland & Co., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640—$14.95, paper)     

Meeting of the Minds: Online Matching Program for Teaching and Learning Styles?

Although there are many disagreements on the major causes of problems in the educational system in the United States, few would disagree that the importance of ensuring the success of our students is not only a moral obligation to our youth, but imperative to our national resilience. And, as a nation, we are responding to this urgent need. The College Completion Agenda mandates that 55% of the nation’s 25-to-35-year olds will be degree holders by the year 2025 (Lee & Rawls, 2010). But how do we accomplish the ambitious challenge and a necessary aspiration to elevate America’s status as a world leader in educational attainment among its citizenry? Innovative ideas and technologies that can counterbalance the barriers that threaten student success must be identified and advanced. The purpose of this article is to discuss the opportunity to leverage the marvel of online phenomena and technology in innovative ways to help students reach their full potential. Specifically, we introduce a new conceptual tool that replicates the power of social networking online matching services to link student learning preference with faculty instructional style.     

Studying for the sake of others: the role of social goals on academic engagement

Much of the research on achievement goal theory has focused on the roles of mastery and performance goals in academic engagement, thus the role of other goals such as social goals has mostly been neglected. The aim of this research was to investigate the effects of different kinds of social goals (affiliation, approval, concern, responsibility and status goals) on the different facets of academic engagement. A total of 1147 Filipino secondary school students answered questionnaires assessing their social goals, achievement goals and academic engagement. Hierarchical regression analyses were employed to investigate the effects of social goals on academic engagement after controlling the effects of mastery and performance goals. Results indicate that certain kinds of social goals are also important predictors of academic engagement. We recommend that researchers consider investigating social goals that might be more salient in cross-cultural settings instead of focusing exclusively on mastery and performance goals.     

Capabilities‐based educational equivalency units: Beginning a professional dialogue

Abstract

This article proposes a basic model for the transformation of academic equivalency in distance education, shifting from a unit of measurement that relies on time in the classroom (the Carnegie unit) to one that focuses on learner achievement. The Capabilities‐Based Educational Equivalency (CBEE) model puts forward a framework of academic equivalency that is founded on valid and useful instructional design objectives. While allowing time to be variable (rather than constant) and holding academic achievement relatively constant, the CBEE model permits the comparison of student achievement in face‐to‐face and distance education, as well as between programs delivering instruction via a wide variety of media.