bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Interviewer Age on Reporting of Sexual and Reproductive Behavior of Hispanic and African American Youth
Authors: Ford Kathleen , Norris Anne E.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the effects of interviewer age on the reporting of personal behaviors including sexual experience, abortion, live births, and condom use. Data were drawn from a household probability sample of 1,435 urban, low-income, African American and Hispanic youths 15 to 24 years of age conducted in 1991. The results indicate that interviewer age does play a role in the reporting of sensitive behaviors, although the effects were not uniform for gender and ethnic groups. The strongest effects were observed for Hispanic women who reported more sexual activity to younger interviewers. Implications for making comparisons of sexual risk behaviors between ethnic groups with sample survey data are discussed.
Psychosocial Correlates of Sexual Assault among Mexican American and White Non-Hispanic Adolescent Females
Authors: Arellano Charleanea M. , Kuhn Jill A. , Chavez Ernest L.
Published: March 2007

Data were obtainedfrom a nonclinical sample of 1,121 Mexican American and White non-Hispanic adolescent females. Three hundred and three female participants who reported being sexually assaulted were compared to 793females who reported no history of sexual assault on a number of psychosocial characteristics. Male participants were excluded due to small N. White non-Hispanic adolescent females were twice as likely to report sexual assault as Mexican American adolescentfemales. Although rates of sexual assault differed across ethnicity, ethnicity did not influence the relationship between sexual assault and psychosocial characteristics of victims. Results did indicate, however; that sexual assault victims reported more emotional distress, more social isolation and more deviant behavior than nonvictims. Likewise, sexual assault victims reported poorer school adjustment, were more likely to affiliate with deviant peers, and were more likely to come from homes in which there was parental substance use and family conflict.
The Spanish Version of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (SCBE)-Preschool Edition: Translation and Field Testing
Authors: Dumas Jean E. , Martinez Alfonso , LaFreniere Peter J.
Published: March 2007

This article describes the Spanish translation process and field testing of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation (SCBE)-Preschool Edition. This teacher-completed standardized instrument, available in French and English, assesses patterns of social competence, affective expression, and adjustment difficulties in children between the ages of2 years, 6 months and 6 years, 6 months. An initial study of225 children compared results of evaluations of the same children with the Spanish and English versions of the instrument. The results yielded psychometric data showing that the Spanish version has satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability and detects comparable gender differences in adaptation similar to the French and English versions. A generalization study of 414 children recruited in Spain and the United States confirmed the robustness of the instrument and demonstrated that its factor structure corresponds closely to that of the other versions.
The Relationship of Language Brokering to Academic Performance, Biculturalism, and Self-Efficacy among Latino Adolescents
Authors: Buriel Raymond , Perez William , de Ment Terri L. , Chavez David V. , Moran Virginia R.
Published: March 2007

Children who interpret for their immigrant parents are referred to as language brokers. The present study examines the relationship of language brokering to academic performance, biculturalism, academic self-efficacy, and social self-efficacy. The many adultlike experiences of children who broker on a regular basis suggest that their cognitive and socioemotional development may be accelerated relative to children of immigrant families who broker infrequently or not at all. Latino adolescents (n = 122) from immigrant families were participants in the study. Results showed that, as expected, language brokering was positively related to biculturalism, and in turn, both of these variables were positively related to academic performance. In addition, the strongest predictor of academic performance was academic self-efficacy. Results also indicated that, to some degree, language brokering is a gendered activity, with females reporting more brokering than males.
Students' Attitudes Toward Teachers' Ethnicity, Bilinguality, and Gender
Authors: Galguera Tomas
Published: March 2007

Elementary, middle, and high school student attitudes toward teacher ethnicity, bilinguality, and gender were assessed by means of student ratings of 12 hypothetical teachers. The sample consisted of 186 mostly Latino and African American students, ranging in age between 9 and 17years oldandattending eitherEnglish-only orbilingual and English-language-development classrooms in six inner-city schools. ANOVA revealed significant main effects but no interactions between any of the three within-subject variables. Students rated African American, bilingual, andfemale teachers highest. A number of between-subject variables were alsofound to have significant main effects on student attitudes, including language of response, length of U.S. residency, and current teacher's bilinguality. Evidence was found of student preference for same ethnicity teachers but only partial evidence of student preference for same bilinguality teachers. No evidence of student preference for same gender teachers was found. Practice and research implications of these findings are discussed.
A Good Girl Writes Like a Good Girl
Authors: SPERLING MELANIE , FREEDMAN SARAH WARSHAUER
Published: March 2007

This article discusses one student's persistence in misunderstanding her teacher's written comments on her papers, even when these comments are accompanied by other response channels that serve, in part, to clarify the written comments. It presents the idea that student and teacher each bring to the written response episode a set of information, skills, and values that may or may not be shared between them, and it is the interplay of these three elements that feeds the student's reading and processing of teacher written comments and that leads to misunderstandings. This happened even for a high-achieving student in an otherwise successful classroom. An in-depth look at one student and the classroom context in which she learns to write, focusing on her grappling with her teacher's written comments, reveals the complexity of the teaching-learning process in the high school writing class.
Given-New
Authors: COOPER ALLENE
Published: March 2007

This article argues that the Given-New research done by linguists on texts can be used effectively in process approaches to teaching composition. Current theories define coherence as an integrative meaning formed cognitively by writers and readers. Cohesion refers to the means of combining surface text elements for retention in the reader's short-term memory. In this study, college students were taught Given-New cohesive principles as guides for invention, arrangement, and revision, and as cues to aid the reader's coherent processing of their intended meaning.
A Social-Interactive Model of Writing
Authors: NYSTRAND MARTIN
Published: March 2007

In this decade, writing researchers have shown increasing interest in the social aspects of written communication. This interest has largely been stimulated by interest in writing-across-the-curriculum programs and dialogue journal keeping, as well as such pressing issues as the relationships of process to text and to the social contexts of writing, and the problem of genre. This article outlines a social-interactive model of written communication, highlighting the writer's role in negotiations with readers in the medium of text. Formalist theories of text meaning (meaning is in the text) and idealist theories of meaning (meaning in the reader) are reviewed and challenged. In social-interactive theories of discourse, which are proposed as an alternative to formalist and idealist theories, meaning is said to be a social construct negotiated by writer and reader through the medium of text, which uniquely configures their respective purposes. In the process of communicating, writers and readers may be said to make various “moves,” which achieve progressive and sequential “states” of understanding between them. Writers make three essential kinds of moves: They (1) initiate and (2) sustain written discourse, which they accomplish by means of (3) text elaboration. The rules for writers' moves are spelled out in a fundamental axiom and seven corollaries.
Technical Writing for Women of the English Renaissance
Authors: TEBEAUX ELIZABETH
Published: March 2007

Technical books for women of the English Renaissance provide a microcosm for studying connections among the emergence of technical writing as a genre, the rise of literacy, expansion of knowledge and technology, and replacement of orality by textuality as a result of increasing knowledge. These books on Renaissance technologies such as cooking, carving, household “physick,” home management, silkworm production, farming and estate management, midwifery, medical self-diagnosis, and gardening exhibit some differences from technical books written for men. Books for women are shorter and less detailed, but their style is similar to that of books for men. The style does not suggest writers believed that their women readers possessed an inferior reading comprehension level. Content differences seem to suggest that women's work was different from men's with many skills taught by oral transmission. The increasing complexity of the styles of technical books for women during the 16th and early 17th centuries suggests that women's reading skills increased as knowledge increased. Thus the oral style of the early 16th-century technical books disappeared with the need for an analytical style that would better convey growth of knowledge in the English Renaissance.
Joint Composition
Authors: KALMAN JUDY
Published: March 2007

Although notions of literacy tend to be dominated by images of solitary readers and writers, collaboration and assistance with reading and writing are widespread practices. This article presents a detailed description of a scribe and his client in Mexico producing a letter through joint composition, a term used to refer to letter-writing episodes involving two or more active participants. Through an examination of the discussions that occurred between the scribe and the client, the analysis illustrates how both actors contributed to the final outcome. This article discusses how the participants negotiated their points of view and pooled their knowledge to produce a specific type of document in accordance with their expectations and purposes. The analysis suggests that joint composition is the outcome of multiple contextual elements: authority, gender, and literacy competency. It further concludes that scribing is a complex, heterogeneous literacy activity.
Elementary Students' Skills in Revising
Authors: VAN GELDEREN AMOS
Published: March 2007

This article presents the results of a study into revision skills of 32 elementary students in Grades 5-6 (van Gelderen & Blok, 1989). Their task consisted of improving an expository text, experimentally composed on the basis of several texts written by students of the same age as the subjects. The subjects were asked to think aloud and to give explicit evaluations, diagnoses, and suggestions for improvement of the text. Quantitative data are supplemented with a qualitative analysis of the revision activities. Reformulations and verbalizations during the process are analyzed. The analysis aims at the students' potentials for revision on the level of communicative content. Explanations based on a model of the revision process by Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) are explored. This model specifies the most important cognitive steps in revision: compare, diagnose, and operate (CDO). Quantitative analysis of revision behavior showed that the subjects did possess the necessary skills to carry out each of the steps under experimental conditions designed to facilitate the revision process. The qualitative analysis, however, showed that many difficulties had yet to be overcome. The study concludes that it would be worthwhile to direct more explicit attention to further development of revision skills of primary students than is the case in current writing instruction at schools.
The Reform Tradition in Nineteenth-Century Composition Teaching
Authors: WOODS WILLIAM F.
Published: March 2007

Commentary: English composition as we know it began in the early nineteenth century...but why is that important? Why would we care about poorly educated grammar school pedagogues—our distant colleagues!—fingers aching with cold as they parsed sentences, heard recitations, and fed the wood stove during those long wintery terms?

Very simply, because their lives, practices, and less frequently, their writings give us back ourselves. Our own problems in teaching writing have recurrently presented themselves in forms that nineteenth-century teachers easily would have recognized.

Like them, we sense the ongoing need for hard basics, the primitive core of our profession. Yet like those early teachers, we also dwell within a “reform tradition” that stresses the importance of students' interests and experience and continues to see the writing task as based on what used to be called “synthetic” insights and “self-active” learning. Inspired partly by romantic educational theories from the continent, this tradition grew out of the social and educational reforms of the 1830s and 1840s and provided the basis for the early progressive teaching of the 1890s. Prominent during the 1930s, and reasserting itself powerfully in the 1960s and 1990s, this student-centered approach manifests the continuing vitality of the enlightenment ideas and values and the romantic individualism that first gave it life.
Making the Invisible Visible: Race, Gender, and Teaching in Adult Education
Authors: Brown Angela H. , Cervero Ronald M. , Johnson-Bailey Juanita
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study was to understand how the societal position of African American women affects their experiences when teaching mathematics to adults in postsecondary institutions. A qualitative research design used in-depth interviews and classroom observations with 7 African American women teachers in technical schools and community colleges. The results were that the teachers' positionality affected their experiences by (a) producing a teaching philosophy based on a history of marginalization, (b) raising issues of credibility with students because of the teachers' race and gender, and (c) directly affecting their classroom interactions and teaching strategies. It was concluded that there are no generic teachers but, rather, teachers whose experiences are affected positively and negatively by their positionality in society.
Chronological Age and Listening of Adult Students
Authors: Rossiter Charles M.
Published: March 2007

Thirty adult students from 20 to 60 years of age listened to a tape recorded message after which they took a test for recall of information presented in that message. The correlation between age and listening test scores was —.46 which is significant at the .01 level. Regression analysis yielded a significant F (p<.01) for linearity of regression. The author concludes that those teach ing classes in which adult students vary widely in age might be aware that older students may be retaining less from oral presen tations of information than younger students.
Some Determinants of Citizen Attitudes Toward Community Resource Development
Authors: Clark Robert C. , Timothy Earl E.
Published: March 2007

The federal government has established a new national park com prising 20 of the Apostle Islands and 42,000 acres of Lake Superior shoreline in northern Wisconsin. The gateway for this park is Bayfield, now an isolated, rural community of 1,000. This study examines, by adaptation of the Likert-type scale, the attitudes of a random sample of Bayfield citizens toward the park and its possible impact on the community.

With the use of correlation analysis and regression technique, the authors analyzed the total socioeconomic and political frame work of citizen attitudes influenced by 1. social-psychological factors, and 2. specific variables such as age, education, and anticipated rise in income. Governmental orientation emerged as the strongest and most consistent predictor. Attitude toward the park objectives and formal education also showed a significant relationship.

Implications are drawn relating the findings of the study to involvement between federal agencies, adult educators and local people in a community planning situation.
Implications of Learning Theories for Adult Instruction
Authors: Dubin Samuel S. , Okun Morris
Published: March 2007

A review was undertaken which (A) divided the major learn ing theories currently adhered to into three approaches: 1. be haviorism, 2. neo-behaviorism, and 3. cognitivism; (B) summarized the central constructs of eight prominent learning theories; (C) delineated the explicit implications of each learning model for in struction and compared the theories along several dimensions; (D) presented an integrated discussion of the learning theories focusing on the instances in which these formulations are in agree ment and disagreement; (E) reviewed three technologies of instruc tion: 1. Harvey, Hunt, and Schroder's conceptual systems ap proach, 2. Miller's process model, and 3. Dubin's updating model, and discussed their relevancy to instructional approaches to adult learning; (F) suggested topics for future investigation by adult education researchers.
Adult Education Research: in Quest of a Map of the Territory
Authors: Rubenson Kjell
Published: March 2007

An analysis is undertaken of what governs knowledge production in the discipline of adult education. The study indicates that the claim for growing intra-disciplinary importance of adult education research has been accepted too readily. The territory of adult education has been defined mainly from assump tions of the characteristics of the learner. The functions which adult education fulfills in society have hardly come into consideration. It is almost as though all problems concerning the territory could be reduced to psychological ones. The author argues that this reductionism in combination with a stress on sophisticated methodology per se and a lack of conceptualization of the phenomena under study has prevented the development of the discipline of adult education.
The Written Life History as a Prime Research Tool in Adult Education
Authors: Warren Catharine E.
Published: March 2007

The article discusses such aspects of life history use as: What is a life history? What kinds of problems and what kinds of people are best suited for the use of the life history? What motivates people to write life histories? Does the collection procedure affect the contents? Does life history material speak for itself? How does one analyze life history material? Some guiding principles for the analysis of such material is suggested.
Prediction of Participation in Continuing Professional Education: A Test of Two Behavioral Intention Models
Authors: Yang Baiyn , Blunt Adrian , Butler Ray S.
Published: March 2007

Data from a survey of veterinarians was used to test the applicability of two competing models of behavioral intention to participate in a continuing professional education (CPE) program. The Triandismodel accounted for nearly 50% of the variance in intention to participate and proved to have greater predictive utility than the Fish be in and Ajzen model. Disciminant analysis revealed that 85% of the respondents were classified appropriately as participants and non-participants by the variables in the behavioral intention model. The results strongly support the hypothesis that variables external to thebehavioralintentionmodelindirectlyinfluencebehavioralintentionandparticipationbehavior. The study extends existing research by identifying essential social psychological variables for inclusion in the development of a future theoretical model of CPE participation. Implications for future research are proposed.
The Contribution of Graduate Student Research to Adult Education Adult Education Quarterly, 1969-1988
Authors: Blunt Adrian , Lee Jo-Anne
Published: March 2007

The purposes of this study were to determine the extent to which graduate students contributed to thebody of research through publication in Adult Education Quarterly (AEQ) and to shed some light on aspects of knowledge production and dissemination processes in graduate adult education programs. Graduate student contributors to volumes 19 through 38 were identified from two mailed surveys conducted ten years apart. The surveys sought information on the content of graduate research, the graduate programs and faculty who supported it, and the levels of graduate study involved. In addition, the surveys sought information on the characteristics of the student authors, including their sex, level of graduate study, motivation for undertaking non-required research, research dissemination activities and current professional occupations and duties. An overall survey response rate of 88.5% was achieved. The data revealed that 113 students, as authors and co-authors, published 128 articles in the journal over the 20 year period under study. Forty six percent of all journal articles published were written by graduate student authors. Seventy articles were written by lone authors, 50 were written with one other person and eight were co-authored with two other persons. The study findings confair that graduate student contributions to AEQ have been underestimated by prior studies and that adult education departments mediate the influence of the field of education on the development of the discipline and knowledge building to a greater extent than previously recognized. Graduate publication activity in AEQ was associated with program location and gender was associated with research content and dissemination activities. Implications for further research into the processes by which knowledge is produced in adult education are presented.
Defining the Quality of Practitioner Research
Authors: Jacobson Wayne
Published: March 2007

Practitioner research is conducted by teachers seeking to improve practice, generating research findings in the same settings in which they will be utilized. For those of us engaged in practitioner research, there is a wealth of resources to help conceptualize, organize, and implement our work; however, we have not yet found a common language for discussing the quality of the research that we do. This article briefly compares the central assumptions of practitioner research with those of other, more predominant research paradigms. Based on these assumptions, a framework for discussing the quality of our research efforts and outcomes is proposed.
Dating Age and Stage as Correlates of Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behavior
Authors: Miller Brent C. , McCoy J. Kelly , Olson Terrance D.
Published: March 2007

Dating experiences, especially the type or stage of dating, have consistently been found to be related to premarital sexual behavior. Findings regarding the age at first date and sexual behavior have been less consistent. This paper examined the age at which dating began and the type of dating relationship as correlates of premarital sexual attitudes and behavior amond mid-teen adolescents. The analyses were based on a sample of high school students (n = 836), most of whom were between the ages of 15 and 18 when the surveys were conducted. Early dating, especially early steady dating, was related to permissive attitudes and to premarital sexual experience among both males and females. The relationship between early dating and intercourse experience was particularly strong among Mormons, a religious group which has institutionalized age 16 as the legitimate age to begin dating.
Utilizing Developmental Perspectives in the Study of Adolescence
Authors: Leigh Geoffrey K. , Loewen Irene R.
Published: March 2007

Although the individual life-span, family life course, and family systems perspectives have received frequent attention in recent times, there has been relatively little work comparing these three frameworks. In addition, these perspectives have been under-utilized in studying adolescence. This paper compares the basic concepts and approaches of these three perspectives, identifies some of the current limitations of each, and attempts to clarify how they might contribute in a cooperative manner to the further study of adolescent development.
Self-Monitoring and the "New Look" at the Imaginary Audience and Personal Fable: An Ego-Developmental Analysis
Authors: Lapsley Daniel K. , Jackson Sara , Rice Kenneth , Shadid Gregory E.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between self-monitoring and the imaginary audience and personal fable constructs, and their relation to levels of ego development in early and late adolescence. Subjects included 29 fifth-graders, 26 seventh-graders, 26 ninth-graders, 23 eleventh-graders, and 22 college undergraduates. Standard assessments of self-monitoring, imaginary audience, and personal fable were used. Ego development was assessed by means of the Sentence Completion Test. The results can be summarized as follows: (a) self-monitoring displays significant (decreasing) trend from early to late adolescence, as do the imaginary audience and personal fable constructs; (b) these constructs show a statistically equivalent relationship with age; (c) high self-monitoring predominates in early adolescence, low self-monitoring predominates in late adolescence; (d) high self-monitors have significantly higher imaginary audience and personal fable scores that do low self-monitors; (e) high scores on self-monitoring, imaginary audience, and personal fable are associated with lower levels of ego development. Results are discussed in terms of the "new look" at the imaginary audience and personal fable proposed by Lapsley and Rice (1987), and the possibility of phrasing an integrative theory of adolescent ego development. Directions for future research are noted.
A Pattern Analysis of Adolescent Abusive Behavior toward Parents
Authors: Evans Ellis D. , Warren-Sohlberg Luann
Published: March 2007

Police case reports of formal complaints about adolescent aggression toward their parents were analyzed to answer questions about identity of complainant, gender relationships in patterns of parental abuse, age trends in assaultive behavior, reasons for adolescent-parent disputes that precipitate violence, types of violence expressed by adolescents toward their parents, and police resolution of these domestic abuse incidents. A modal pattern of male adolescent-to-mother abuse was revealed, although a sizeable number of female aggressive incidents were also observed. Most abusive incidents were associated with conflicts about home responsibilities, money, and privilege. Results are related to similar studies based solely on adolescent self-report or survey methods and are interpreted in the context of adolescent stress and family conflict theory.
Death and Adolescent Bereavement
Authors: Balk David E.
Published: March 2007

The author reviews research conducted in the 1980s regarding death and adolescent bereavement. Prior to 1981 little research attention was given to this subject. A plethora of material has appeared since then, with attention paid to adolescents bereaved over (a) a parent's death, (b) a sibling's death, and (c) their own impending death. Adolescent bereavement over a friend's death has mostly been overlooked Research needs in this field of inquiry include (a) longitudinal investigations to study the trajectory of adolescent bereavement, (b) development of theoretical models to explain adolescent bereavement, and (c) integration with the traditional areas of adolescence inquiry, such as cognitive developmen4 moral reasoning, gender socialization, and identify formation.
Sport-Specific Influences
Authors: Ommundsen Yngvar , Vaglum Per
Published: March 2007

This study prospectively examined sport-specific influences on the continued participation in soccer of male adolescent players reporting antisocial behavior symptoms. Respondents included223 12-to 16-year-old boys playing soccer inan organized league in Oslo, Norway. Low levels of quality in reported relationships with friends in soccer, as well as high levels of reported soccer aggression, significantly reduced soccer persistence among younger antisocial players. Among the older players, low soccer enjoyment and low perceived soccer competence significantly improved the prediction of withdrawal from soccer over and above the antisocial behavior main effect. The results suggest that players with antisocial behavior symptoms may wish to continue to play soccer, provided that they enjoy the activity, perceive themselves as competent in soccer, are able to control their socceraggression, and have a good relationship with their soccer friends.
Parental Attachment and Adolescent Cigarette Smoking Initiation
Authors: Foshee Vangie , Bauman Karl E.
Published: March 2007

Parental attachment is central to many theories of development but has received little attention in studies of adolescent problem behaviors. This study tests two models of how parental attachment may influence adolescent cigarette smoking, both based on the Hirschi control theory. Each model specifies a different causal ordering among three variables that are at the core of the theory: attachment to parents, commitment to conventional activities, and belief in the conventional rules of society. The direct effects model specifies that parental attachment will have a direct effect on adolescent behavior. The mediation model specifies that the attachment and behavior relationship is mediated by belief and commitment. Panel data from a probability sample of 685 adolescents were used. The findings suggest that parental attachment has a direct effect on adolescent cigarette smoking and an effect mediated by adolescent's beliefs in the conventional rules of society.
Social Support as a Factor in African-American Adolescents' Sexual Risk Behavior
Authors: St. Lawrence Janet S. , Brasfield Ted L. , Jefferson Kennis W. , Allyene Edna , Shirley Aaron
Published: March 2007

African-American adolescents (N = 295) reporting high or low levels of social support completed measures of AIDS knowledge, health locus of control, attitudes toward condoms, self-reported sexual behavior for the preceding 12 months, perceptions of personal HIVrisk, and self-and response-efficacy ratings. Adolescents with less social support were less knowledgeable about AIDS, held more negative attitudes toward condoms, and were lower in selfefficacy than adolescents with higher levels of social support. Adolescents with fewer social supports also were significantly more likely to engage in casual sex, reported more nonmonogomouspartners, morefrequent coercions into unwanted sexual activity, and higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases. African-American males with low social support scores engaged in more frequent unprotected sexual activity with a larger number of sex partners and used condoms less often. The implications of these results for prevention efforts targeting minority adolescents are discussed.
The (Un)Acceptability of Violence against Peers and Dates
Authors: Cauffman Elizabeth , Feldman S. Shirley , Jensen Lene Arnett , Arnett Jeffrey Jensen
Published: March 2007

Although violence has become an increasing concern, the motivations and justifications for such egregious behavior remain poorly understood. Two hundred and sixty-one college students completed questionnaires concerning acceptance of and participation in two kinds of violence—violence against peers and dating violence. Results indicate that although violence may be commonplace, it is still deemed unacceptable, especially when the violence is motivated by peers, personal disposition, or avoiding accountability. In contrast, violence is viewed as more acceptable when in response to provocation or in defense of oneself or another. Violence type affected acceptability, with date violence less acceptable than peer violence. A modest relation between violence and behavior was observed; those more accepting of violence were more likely to engage in violent behavior. The sex of the respondent and the sex of the aggressor influenced all the findings, suggesting that gender may moderate acceptance of violence and its relation to violent behavior.
Mothers ’Influences on Adolescents’ Educational Outcome Beliefs
Authors: Rhea Anisa , Otto Luther B.
Published: March 2007

In this article, the authors examine competing explanations for hypothesized family effects on adolescents’ educational outcome beliefs.Controlling on family socioeconomic status indicators, they find no support for the hypothesis that family composition affects outcome beliefs.Controlling on family structure, two measures of connection, including a dimension of parenting that promotes positive emotional ties between parents and children, have significant effects.They examine the robustness of the effects by controlling on variables known to affect educational outcomes and establish that the effects are not substantially diminished.Finally, they examine three measures of connection, varying from domain specific to global, and determine that the more targeted the measure, the stronger the association with educational outcome beliefs.The data consist of matched survey responses from a purposive sample of high school juniors (N = 203) and their mothers or guardians.Analysis is based on a series of ordinal logit models.
Parental Involvement during the Transition to High School
Authors: Falbo Toni , Lein Laura , Amador Nicole A.
Published: March 2007

In this article, the authors conducted a study to discover what types of parent involvement are effective as students make the transition to high school.This study also aimed to elaborate on the role parents play in connecting their children to desirable peer networks during this transition.In-home interviews were conducted with 26 students as well as their parents before and after entering high school.The successfulness of the students’ transition was evaluated in terms of their final grades as well as the number of credits earned and their school attendance.They identified five forms of parental involvement that helped students succeed: monitoring the teen’s academic and social life, evaluating the information obtained about the teen, helping the teen with schoolwork, creating positive peer networks for the teen, and participating directly in the school.
Treatment Service Patterns and Organizational Structures
Authors: Delany Peter J. , Broome Kirk M. , Flynn Patrick M. , Fletcher Bennett W.
Published: March 2007

The availability of a variety of treatment services was examined within a national sample of programs treating adolescent drug abuse patients. Treatment service delivery profiles were created and examined in the context of organizational variables such as program modality, program directors’ academic credentials, program capacity, staff composition, accreditation, and patient problems. Results suggested that distinct profiles of services existed within residential and outpatient modalities and that these service profiles were related both to organizational factors and to patient problem profiles.
Circadian Rhythm Resetting in Sparrows: Early Response to Doublet Light Pulses
Authors: Binkley Sue , Mosher Karen
Published: March 2007

Circadian responses were studied using the perching activity of house sparrows (Passer domesticus). The sparrows were subjected to single or double 4-hr light pulses (the single pulses or the second pulses of the doublets scanned 24 hr) in the first cycle after previous entrainment to a light-dark cycle (LD 12:12). The differences in times at which the birds commenced perch- hopping in LD 12:12 before the pulses and in the five cycles immediately following the pulses were determined (phase shifts). A 24-hr time profile for phase shifts in response to single light pulses replicated our previous study: Early-night pulses delayed the rhythm ( —1.7 hr), while late-night pulses advanced the rhythm (+3.8 hr). After pretreatment with a light pulse that advanced the birds + 2.7 hr, the resetting curve was advanced. There were no delays; the range of average shifts was +0.1 hr to + 6.2 hr. After pretreatment with a light pulse that delayed the birds - 1.7 hr, the resetting curve was delayed. Average delays as much as -1.1 hr and advances up to + 2.1 hr were measured. The data for double pulses were interpreted from predictions made from single-pulse data.
Food-Anticipatory Circadian Rhythms in Rats with Paraventricular and Lateral Hypothalamic Ablations
Authors: Mistlberger Ralph E. , Rusak Benjamin
Published: March 2007

Neural mechanisms generating food-anticipatory circadian rhythms in rats are sep arate from the suprachiasmatic nuclei, a putative circadian pacemaker for light-entrainable circadian rhythms. We attempted to localize these mechanisms using lesions focused on the paraventricular and lateral hypothalamic areas, two regions that have functional properties likely to characterize a food-entrainable circadian oscillator. Rats with complete radiofre quency ablation of the paraventricular and suprachiasmatic nuclei or ibotenic acid destruction of the lateral hypothalamus showed anticipatory circadian rhythms to a 2-hr daily mealtime, as measured by locomotor activity or activity directed toward a food bin. The long-term continued function of the meal-associated oscillator was also unaffected by the lesions, as demonstrated by a reappearance of activity at the former mealtime during 3 days of starvation after 11 or 12 days of ad libitum feeding. Several rats with total or partial paraventricular lesions failed to exhibit anticipatory locomotor activity, but did show anticipatory food- bin-related activity. These hypothalamic lesions may alter the probability of particular antic ipatory behaviors, but they do not eliminate the food-entrainable circadian timekeeping func tion.
Photoperiodic Influences on Sexual Behavior in Male Syrian Hamsters
Authors: Powers J.B. , Steel E.A. , Hutchison J.B. , Hastings M.H. , Herbert J. , Walker A.P.
Published: March 2007

The effect of photoperiodic conditions on sexual behavior was investigated in male Syrian hamsters that were either gonadally intact, or castrated and treated with low doses of testosterone throughout the experiment. Hamsters were exposed to long (LD 16:8) or short (LD 8:16) days for 7 weeks; for the next 8 weeks, either they were exposed to an intermediate daylength (LD 12:12), or daylength conditions remained unchanged. Sexual behavior was affected by photoperiod conditions in both gonadally intact animals and testosterone-treated castrates, but to different degrees. Intact males exposed to short days for 15 weeks exhibited gonadal regression, and their copulatory performance was impaired. The percentage of ani mals that intromitted or ejaculated was significantly reduced. Additional measures of sexual performance among the copulating males were also affected. In contrast, among the castrates with testosterone clamped at low but stable levels, the proportion of males that mounted, intromitted, or ejaculated was not affected by photoperiod. However, among the males that continued to copulate, sexual performance changes were present in the short-day castrates that resembled those displayed by the intact males.

We infer that these behavioral effects in both hormonal conditions reflect primarily a difficulty in the attainment of intromission. Gonadal regression alone cannot easily account for the behavioral deficits of the intact males, because circulating testosterone levels at the end of the experiment were not significantly different between the gonadally intact hamsters and the castrated, testosterone-treated hamsters exposed continuously to short days. Males trans ferred from either long or short days to the intermediate-daylength condition responded be haviorally to this photoperiod as if it were a short day, that is, their ejaculatory frequency declined. We conclude that male hamsters exposed to photoinhibitory daylengths exhibit deficits in their sexual behavior, not only because endogenous levels of testosterone decrease, but also because the substrates on which this hormone acts become less responsive. We hypothesize that under physiological conditions, the episodic secretion of testosterone im poses constraints on the maintenance or restoration of copulation, and that the potent behav ioral effects achieved by constant-release implants of testosterone may mask the presence of photoperiodically induced alterations in the hamster's sensitivity to this gonadal hormone.
Differential Effects of Photoperiodic History on the Responses of Gonadotrophins and Prolactin to Intermediate Daylengths in the Male Syrian Hamster
Authors: Hastings M.H. , Walker A.P. , Powers J.B. , Hutchison J. , Steel E.A. , Herbert J.
Published: March 2007

The effect of photoperiodic history on the neuroendocrine response to intermediate daylengths (11-13.5 hr of light) was investigated in the male Syrian hamster. The duration of the nocturnal peak of pineal melatonin content was inversely proportional to photoperiod and independent of photoperiodic history. Serum levels of prolactin were lower in animals ex posed to shorter photoperiods. Photoperiodic history had little effect on the response of serum prolactin to intermediate daylengths. Serum luteinizing hormone (LH) concentrations were also lower in shorter photoperiods, but in addition were sensitive to the direction of photo periodic change, so that a single photoperiod could be interpreted as either stimulatory or inhibitory to LH secretion. This effect of photoperiodic history was expressed at intermediate photoperiods with 12-13.5 hr of light. The sensitivity of serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels to photoperiodic history was masked by an early onset of photorefractoriness. Testicular size and serum testosterone levels revealed weaker effects of photoperiodic his tory; these were attributed to the dissociation between gonadotrophin and prolactin secretion induced by intermediate daylengths. The contrasting effects of photoperiodic history on the secretion of LH and prolactin may represent the expression of multiple photoperiodic time- measuring systems.
Serotonin and the Mammalian Circadian System: I. In Vitro Phase Shifts by Serotonergic Agonists and Antagonists
Authors: Prosser Rebecca A. , Dean Robin R. , Edgar Dale M. , Heller H. Craig , Miller Joseph D.
Published: March 2007

The primary mammalian circadian clock, located in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), receives a major input from the raphe nuclei. The role of this input is largely unknown, and is the focus of this research. The SCN clock survives in vitro, where it produces a 24-hr rhythm in spontaneous neuronal activity that is sustained for at least three cycles. The sensitivity of the SCN clock to drugs can therefore be tested in vitro by determining whether various compounds alter the phase of this rhythm. We have previously shown that the nonspecific serotonin (5-HT) agonist quipazine resets the SCN clock in vitro, inducing phase advances in the daytime and phase delays at night. These results suggest that the 5-HT-ergic input from the raphe nuclei can modulate the phase of the SCN circadian clock. In this study we began by using autoradiography to determine that the SCN contain abundant 5-HT 1A and 5-HT1B receptors, very few 5-HT1C and 5-HT 2 receptors, and no 5-HT3 receptors. Next we investigated the ability of 5-HT-ergic agonists and antagonists to reset the clock in vitro, in order to determine what type or types of 5-HT receptor(s) are functionally linked to the SCN clock. We began by providing further evidence of 5-HT-ergic effects in the SCN. We found that 5-HT mimicked the effects of quipazine, whereas the nonspecific 5-HT antagonist metergoline blocked these effects, in both the day and night. Next we found that the 5-HT1A agonist 8-OH-DPAT, and to a lesser extent the 5-HT1A-1B agonist RU 24969, mimicked the effects of quipazine during the subjective daytime, whereas the 5-HT 1A antagonist NAN-190 blocked quipazine's effects. None of the other specific agonists or antagonists we tried induced similar effects. This suggests that quipazine acts on 5-HT1A receptors in the daytime to advance the SCN clock. None of the specific agents we tried were able either to mimic or to block the actions of 5-HT or quipazine at circadian time 15. Thus, we were unable to determine the type of 5-HT receptor involved in nighttime phase delays by quipazine or 5-HT. However, since the dose-response curves for quipazine during the day and night are virtually identical, we hypothesize that the nighttime 5-HT receptor is a 5-HT1-like receptor.
Behavioral Decoupling of Circadian Rhythms
Authors: Mrosovsky N. , Janik Daniel
Published: March 2007

Golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) were kept in a light-dark cycle (LD 14:10). For 2 weeks, almost every day they were placed in a novel running wheel for 3 hr, starting 7 hr before dark onset. Most of the animals made several thousand wheel revolutions during this 3 hr. When these animals were subsequently transferred to a dark room, their activity was split into two components, one close to the time of the previous exposure to the novel wheel and the other close to the time when they had been active in the dark phase of the previous LD cycle. The two components fused after a few days in darkness. These observations show that nonphotic events are capable of causing major reorganizations of circadian activity patterns, despite the presence of an LD cycle.