The effect of neighborhood racial composition on black and white attitudes

The impact of the racial composition of neighborhoods, rather than race per se, is examined in this study. The sample includes 1027 families with children attending 5 of the 11 former school districts in New Castle County, Delaware. Questionnaires were sent to these families in the spring of 1978, prior to school desegregation, and again in the spring of 1979, at the end of the first year of desegregation. Scales were developed to measure attitudinal variables for both parents and students. These included racial attitudes, attitudes toward school desegregation, and attitudes about education. Results show that attitudes both before and after desegregation varied according to the neighborhood racial composition. Thus it is important in future studies of racial attitudes to examine neighborhood racial characteristics as well as the race of the individual.This research has been supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Division of Social Sciences.     

Goal orientations in Russian university students: from mastery to performance?

Research in the UK has shown that students start their university career with the goal of mastering their subject, but this focus shifts as they progress through their degree program. Studies have suggested that unlike students in the UK, Russian students continue to take a strong mastery approach to their work. The main aim of this study was to assess whether the effects observed in UK studies could be found in a Russian context. In a cross‐sectional study, 618 students across four years of a degree program in a Russian university completed an achievement‐goal questionnaire. Results revealed patterns similar to the studies in the UK; Russian students’ levels of mastery were significantly lower after Year 1. The results are discussed in terms of potential changes in Russian culture. Methodological issues relating to the relative failure of some questionnaire items to validate fully within their hypothesised constructs are also discussed.     

Who disrupts from placement in foster and kinship care?

OBJECTIVE: To identify reliable, inexpensive predictors of foster care placement disruption that could be used to assess risk of placement failure. METHODS: Using the Parent Daily Report Checklist (PDR), foster or kinship parents of 246 children (5-12 years old) in California were interviewed three times about whether or not their foster child engaged in any of the 30 problem behaviors during the previous 24 h. PDR was conducted during telephone contacts (5-10 min each) that occurred from 1 to 3 days apart at baseline. Disruptions were tracked for the subsequent 12 months. Other potential predictors of disruption were examined, including the child's age, gender, and ethnicity, the foster parent's ethnicity, the number of other children in the foster home, and the type of placement (kin or non-kin). RESULTS: Foster/kin parents reported an average of 5.77 child problems per day on the PDR checklist. The number of problem behaviors was linearly related to the child's risk of placement disruption during the subsequent year. The threshold for the number of problem behaviors per day that foster and kinship parents tolerated without increased risk of placement disruption for these latency-aged children was 6 or fewer. Children in non-kin placements were more likely to disrupt than those in kinship placements. There was a trend for increased risk of disruption as the number of children in the home increased. CONCLUSIONS: The PDR Checklist may be useful in predicting which placements are at most risk of future disruption, allowing for targeted services and supports.     

Performance Technology Skills in Business: Implications for Preparation Originally published in 1995, PIQ 8.4

What to teach Performance Technologists should be derived out of an analysis of desired performance. Despite a general agreement on the definition of Performance Technology, desired performance currently varies in business and consulting organizations. This paper reports the results of a survey of 23 organizations regarding current performance of Performance Technologists and current preparation of people for the role. It suggests a three-stage model for preparing Performance Technologists.