bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Television Commercials and Food Orientations among Teenagers in Puerto Rico
Authors: Del Toro Wanda , Greenberg Bradley S.
Published: March 2007

Public andprivate ninth to twelfth grade high school students (n = 225) in San Juan were surveyed. The Spanish-language questionnaire assessed television behaviors, particularly those related to television commercials, in conjunction with food preferences, consumption, and buying behaviors. Amount of television viewing wasfound to be consistently correlated with the amount ofsnacking that was done and with the belief that more eating in general was goodfor you. Girls expressed more desire than boys for TV-advertised foods and had more positive attitudes toward television commercials. TVviewing was not related to the number of meals eaten, number of meals skipped, or the frequency of eating out.
A Comparison of Three Interviewing Approaches for Studying Sensitive Topics with Hispanics
Authors: Marin Gerardo , Marln Barbara VanOss
Published: March 2007

This study compared three interviewing approaches that varied in terms of anonymity when dealing with sensitive topics. Random samples of Hispanics were asked to report illegal substance use and types and frequencies of sexual behavior over the telephone or in a verbal or private face-to-face interview. Results show that Hispanics can easily be surveyed utilizing any of the three approaches and that these interviewing methods produce similar outcomes in terms of completion rates, the level of discomfort experienced by the interviewee, and the possible accuracy of the responses. The results did not vary in terms of the gender or acculturation level of the respondents.
Hispanic Families Learning and Teaching About AIDS: A Participatory Approach at the Community Level
Authors: de Carpio America Bracho , Carpio-Cedraro Felix F. , Anderson Lise
Published: March 2007

An AIDS research/education prevention strategy based on story telling and problem solving is being used with Hispanic families in Detroit, Michiganm The community worker tells stories involving AIDS and risk behaviors, whose central characters are children. Participants raise thematic questions and give advice to the characters. Through analysis and discussion the families explore their own knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors aboutAIDS as well as different ways of talking with their children about often delicate matters. Results are incorporated in educational materials. Follow-up activities are carried out and support is provided to facilitate the development ofAIDS prevention strategies.
Mexican-American Adolescent Sexuality and Sexual Knowledge: An Exploratory Study
Authors: Padilla Amado M. , Baird Traci L.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the sexual knowledge, attitudes, and practices of 84 Mexican-American adolescents between the ages of 14 and 19 years. Findings indicated that the level of sexual knowledge was low for all subjects regardless of gender, sexual experience, or age. The Pill, condoms, IUD, and spermacides were the most commonly known methods ofpregnancy prevention mentioned by the adolescents. Of the 18 subjects who were sexually active, few practiced any form of birth control. Slightly more than 75% of the adolescents also indicated that birth control makes sex seem preplanned. Finally, both male and female respondents appeared traditional in their attitudes toward sex, with virginity and the responsibility for birth control being more heavily weighted for females than males.
Reasons for Inhalant Use
Authors: Joe George W. , Simpson D. Dwayne
Published: March 2007

The reasons for initiation and quitting toxicant inhalant drug use were examined in a sample of 110 Mexican American adolescents. Results supported the etiological importance of availability, psychologicalproneness, sensation-seeking and curiosity, parental and home problems, and peer influences. In this sample, however, the role of parental problems and peer influences in starting inhalant use were not as influential as the literature suggests for initial use of other drugs. Availability was not considered an important reason for quitting inhalant use, but social pressures, attitudinal changes, and perceived health risks were important.
Physical Symptoms and Psychological Distress Among Inhalant Users
Authors: Joe George W. , Garriott James C. , Simpson D. Dwayne
Published: March 2007

A sample of 110 Mexican American adolescents, consisting of subjects with a variety of toxicant inhalant use histories ranging from no use to heavy chronic use, was studied as part of a 4-year follow-up project to determine relationships of inhalant use with health problems, physical symptoms, and psychological adjustment. Self-reports of health problems were not related to inhalant or other drug use histories. However, analysis of blood specimens showed that more extensive lifetime inhalant use was related to SMAC profiles indicative of potential liver problems, and other drug use was associated with test results suggestive of other (non-liver) problems. Based on self-reports, anxiety! depression, cognitive functioning problems, and bowel or bladder symptoms were significantly related to lifetime inhalant use, and psychological distress symptoms were positively related to physical symptoms. Females reported significantly more physical symptoms and psychological distress symptoms than males. Health care providers should be alert to the asymptomatic health problems firequently found in adolescents using inhalants and other drugs.
The Effects of Real-World Status and Manipulated Status on the Self-Esteem and Social Competition of Anglo-Americans and Mexican-Americans
Authors: Bohon Lisa M. , Singer Robert D. , Santos Silvia J.
Published: March 2007

A 2 x 3 factorial design was employed using ethnic background (Anglo-American and Mexican-American) as the blocking variable, and status rank (no status, low status, and high status) as the independent variable. The dependent variables were the components of self-esteem as measured by a factor analysis of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory; and social competition, as measured by Tajfel's matrices. One hundred and thirty-two subjects rated an ethnic in-group and out-group after being told that their ethnic group was superior, inferior, or no status information. ANOVAs indicated that all subjects exhibited higher self-esteem in the high-status condition than in the low-status condition, F(2, 125) = 3.85, p = 0.02. Mexican-Americans had lower social-power self-esteem, F(2, 125) = 4.03, p = 0.02, and higher family self-esteem, F(2, 125) = 3.61, p = 0.03, than Anglo-Americans. A MANOVA indicated that all subjects competed most in the high-status condition, F(2, 105) = 10.469, p = 0.002, and thatMexican-Amenrcans were more competitive overall than Anglo-Americans, F(1, 106) = 3.604, p = 0.03.
Acculturation and Teaching Behaviors of Dominican and Puerto Rican Mothers
Authors: Planos Ruth , Zayas Luis H. , Busch-Rossnagel Nancy A.
Published: March 2007

The relationship between acculturation and maternal teaching behaviors was studied by observing 101 low-income Puerto Rican and Dominican mothers in a teaching task with their preschool children and rating six teaching behaviors frequently used by parents. Puerto Rican mothers tended to be more acculturated than Dominican mothers. Although the two groups tended to prefer teaching behaviors that involved giving directives, visual cues, and modeling, Puerto Rican mothers made significantly more use of inquiry and praise, and Dominican mothers used more modeling behaviors. Significant correlations for the total sample were found between acculturation and three teaching behaviors (inquiry, praise, and modeling). These correlations were thefunction of group difference in acculturation and not socioeconomic status. Acculturation was only significantly related to negative verbal feedback and visual cues in teaching, and positively related to modeling among Puerto Rican mothers.
Family and Formal Assistance with Activity Limitations: Who Helps the Mexican American Elderly?
Authors: Dietz Tracy L.
Published: March 2007

Using a large, national dataset, this project focuses on the activity limitations of the Mexican American elderly and their receipt of assistance. The study demonstrates that 65% of the respondents reported at least one activity limitation and that the majority of those did not receive any assistance with the limitation from family. Results show that whereas some Mexican American elders do receive assistance from the family and some receive assistance from the formal sector a number are at risk of having their needs unmet. Analysis of variance was used to evaluate the differences between those who received assistance solelyfrom thefamily, those who received assistancefrom theformal service sector or a combination offormal andfamily assistance, and those who received no help. Younger Mexican American elders, those with fewer limitations, and those with better English communication skills were more likely to receive no help with their limitations.
Anglo- and Mexican American Attitudes toward Selena’s Memorialization
Authors: Benibo Bilaye R. , Meyer Pamela S. , Villarreal Javier
Published: March 2007

Using a critical theory framework, the present study examines the ethnic/racial differences in the controversy about Selena’s memorialization. An analysis of a telephone survey of 393 members of the deceased entertainer’s community revealed that overall, Mexican Americans were significantly more likely to support the proposals to memorialize Selena than were Anglo-Americans. The Mexican Americans who supported those proposals were, however, disproportionately less educated, mostly Spanish speaking, and Catholic. Also, Anglo-Americans did support some of the proposals, albeit to a lesser degree than did Mexican Americans. These findings suggest that ethnicity/race remains a major basis of conflict, even over cultural symbols; but, the assumptions of intraethnic homogeneity and interethnic polarity in the United States may have been overstated.
The Making of Meaning
Authors: KUCER STEPHEN L.
Published: March 2007

This article presents a general theory of text processing that delineates the parallel operations in reading and writing. In particular, the theory discusses (1) common information location and retrieval procedures, (2) shared cognitive strategies employed to transform background knowledge into a text world, and (3) the role of context in the production of meaning.
Writing Ethnographic Narratives
Authors: BRODKEY LINDA
Published: March 2007

This essay examines narrative choices in experimental (interpretive) and traditional (analytical) ethnographies. The material covered includes probability in quantitative and qualitative research; ethnographic narratives as ways of knowing and telling about the world; perspective as a consequence of both narrative stance and narrative voice; and the economics of producing interpretations and analyses in academic prose. Underlying the argument is the assumption that decisions ethnographers make about what to tell and how to tell it are influenced by to whom they plan to tell it and under what circumstances. Hence the ethnographer's narrative dilemma glosses over the epistomological crisis that authorship raises for the social sciences, namely, whether the researcher or the research method is telling the story.
A Study of Topic Sentence Use in Academic Writing
Authors: POPKEN RANDALL L.
Published: March 2007

This study examines topic sentences in the academic article context—specifically in articles by professors in biochemistry, civil engineering, history, literature, physics, psychology, and sociology. By using propositional analysis and adapting procedures originally devised by Braddock, the investigation centers on (1) percentage of minor topic sentences, (2) combined percentage of minor and major topic sentences, and (3) percentage of topic sentence “influence.” These three indices show how heavily writers in the corpus rely on topic sentences, although there are variations across disciplines. These variations may be attributed to paragraph length, whole-text structure, or even conventional preferences. However, even when they do not use topic sentences, writers in some disciplines use topic sentence-like features (headings) for the same purposes. Conjecture is that special content and coherence demands make topic sentences a standard feature in academic articles.
A Contemporary Theory of Explanatory Writing
Authors: ROWAN KATHERINE E.
Published: March 2007

Explaining difficult concepts to lay readers is an important discursive goal, and yet frequently the quality of explanatory writing is poor. One reason for this poor quality is that the discursive form itself is not well understood. Some studies have identified textual features of effective explanations; however, theoretical characterizations of explanatory discourse are either unnecessarily narrow or overly general. Consequently, this essay offers a new theory of explanatory discourse that is intended to guide analyses of and stimulate improvements in explanations designed for mass audiences. The theory defines explanatory discourse in terms of a particular goal; promoting understanding for lay readers of some phenomenon. This goal is distinguished from those of promoting awareness of new information, proving a claim, or encouraging agreement with a claim. The utility of the theory is demonstrated by showing how it (1) identifies those research literatures most relevant to improving the quality of written explanations, (2) organizes existing findings on explanatory effectiveness in a way that resolves controversies in the literature, and (3) suggests principles for pedagogy pertaining to explanatory writing.
Parentheticals and Personal Voice
Authors: PALACAS ARTHUR L.
Published: March 2007

Personal voice in writing is currently an all-too-subjectively understood notion. Different authors, Coles and Elbow, for example, have drawn appropriate attention to the voice phenomenon, but objective definitions and practical understanding are still lacking. One step toward understanding the workings of voice can be taken, however, by a linguistic analysis of structures that observably cause perception of a personal voice. Examining a limited set of data from professional writing reveals that one clear source of voice is appositive and parenthetical structures. These structures are produced “paragrammatically” by being inserted into a sentence, interrupting its normal flow, with the effect of creating a personal voice. They have a commentative function associated with a second-order “reflective mentality” and can be classified into at least three structural subtypes—displacements, equivalents, and interruptives—correlating with particular commentative functions. This analysis suggests, in general, that distinguishing between a second-order reflective mentality and a first-order factive mentality is central to the perception of voice. The intuitions of compositionists are important in uncovering discourse properties relevant to composition studies, and linguistic analysis is important for successful description of the phenomena and as a basis for pedagogical application.
Fictionalizing the Readers of Scholarly Articles in Biology
Authors: GRAGSON GAY , SELZER JACK
Published: March 2007

Is “the writer's audience always a fiction,” as Walter Ong contends, even when the writing is not poetry or fiction but scientific prose? To demonstrate the usefulness of Ong's approach to audience for analysts of nonfiction prose and for those who wish to empower student writers, we consider from a reader-response perspective two scientific articles on the same general topic written for the same discourse community in the same year. The authors of the two essays (prestigious scientists) directed their readers into two radically different roles. One makes his readers not only into “conventional” scientists but into willing novices who take note of his presentation but who do not take issue with it; the other creates disciplinary nonconformists, inquistive skeptics who have the perspectives necessary to understand the limits of scientific thought. The analysis elaborates the rhetorical nature of scientific discourse, demonstrates that even within the constraints of the journal article scientists have considerable freedom to exercise choices, and explicates how writers use cues to direct readers into fictional roles.
The Case for Oral Evidence in Composition Historiography
Authors: NELMS GERALD
Published: March 2007

The almost exclusive reliance on evidence developed from documentary analyses, specifically analyses of textbooks, in composition historiography has resulted in an agonistic, heroes-and-villains image of the history of writing instruction, whereby modern composition scholars have defined themselves in terms of their opposition to what has come to be called “current-traditional rhetoric.” This article promotes the use of oral evidence in composition historiography to guard against overgeneralization and simplistic reduction of composition history to binary oppositions. Oral interviews also can serve as a way of collecting information that would otherwise be lost, of exploring the thoughts, motivations, feelings, and values of informants, and of giving voice to those marginalized politically, socially, and professionally. This article also defends oral data against positivistic attacks on its reliability as evidence and argues that the evidentiary value of any piece of historical data depends not on some abstract ranking of different kinds of evidence but on the historian's understanding of the rhetorical context informing the production of that data.
Composition in Canadian Universities
Authors: GRAVES ROGER
Published: March 2007

Most commentators on writing instruction—both its history and its present practice—focus on American examples, at least in part because of a lack of information about how other countries organize writing instruction. This article seeks to redress this situation by providing information about how Canadian universities organize writing instruction. The article presents a short orientation to the development of universities in Canada before presenting the results of a national survey of all the universities in Canada who belong to the Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada. The Results and Discussion section is divided into two parts based on the language of instruction in the universities being considered (English or French). The discussion seeks to answer three questions: How widespread is writing instruction? What do we know about the people who teach and research writing at universities? What is the range of instruction?
“Nondiscursive” Requirements in Academic Publishing, Material Resources of Periphery Scholars, and the Politics of Knowledge Production
Authors: CANAGARAJAH A. SURESH
Published: March 2007

Although some consideration has been given to the manner in which academic discourse is culture-bound, how the “nondiscursive” conventions and requirements of academic publishing can serve exclusionary functions has not been adequately explored. Meeting the latter requirements is contingent upon the availability of certain material resources. Reflecting on personal experience in trying to meet such requirements from an under-developed region, the author shows the manner in which they serve to exclude Third World scholars from the academic publication process. Though this detachment from Western academic literacy enables the development of an alternative academic culture, it can also lead to the marginalization of Third World scholarship. The exclusion of Third World scholars impoverishes the production of knowledge not only in the Third World, but internationally. Therefore the article finally considers steps that may be taken to ensure a more democratic and mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge.
Learning and Professional Practice: A Study of Four Professions
Authors: Daley Barbara J.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this research was to investigate how knowledge becomes meaningful in professional practice across four different professions. Eighty semistructured interviews were conducted with social workers, lawyers, adult educators, and nurses who had attended continuing education programs 9 to 24 months previously. Findings indicate that professionals make meaning by moving back and forth between continuing professional education programs and their professional practice. In addition, each profession studied framed their meaning-making process through an understanding of the nature of their professional work. Implications for research and practice in continuing professional education are drawn.
Certain Functions of the W.E.a. in Rural Areas of Britain
Authors: Long Barrie E.L.
Published: March 2007

An article in the Winter, 1965, issue of Adult Education described some of the union education programs of the Workers' Educa tional Association in urban areas. The W.E.A. plays a much broader role in rural regions, especially in areas without a uni versity. In such areas a tutor-organizer both organizes liberal adult education and teaches. Adult students and local represen tatives to a district council determine their own educational needs with the assistance of the tutor-organizers and other council mem bers. The only paid administrator is the District Secretary. The whole process involves a degree of democratic equality between student and tutor unique in English education.
Freire, Conscientization, and Adult Education
Authors: Lloyd Arthur S.
Published: March 2007

Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator, has elaborated an educational theory within the framework of a theory of radical social change and expressed in a literacy training program. A central concept is "conscientization," and development of critical consciousness through a process of reflection and action. Opposed to this "problem-posing" education, committed to personal and social liberation, is a "banking" education whose objective is domesti cation.

Although American adult educators acknowledge the need for social change, their chief focus is on individual self-fulfillment. Predominantly a middle-class enterprise, adult education neither shares the perspectives nor serves the interests of "marginal" groups. Although its most obvious application may be with "oppressed" people, conscientization should have applicability to any education which includes as goals both democratization and radical social change.
The Continuing Learning Activities of Neophyte Nurses
Authors: Bevis Mary E.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of the study was to determine if a relationship existed between the role conception held by a nurse at the end of her first year of graduate practice in a bureaucratic environment and her participation in continuing learning activities. Data were collected by means of a personal data questionnaire and three in struments which measure the bureaucratic, professional, and serv ice components of role conception, job-time educational participa tion, and leisure-time educational participation. The sample con sisted of 106 volunteer subjects from 23 selected hospitals in seven midwestern states. Univariate and multivariate analysis of variance were used to study the relationship between role conception and extent of and nature of educational participation. Nature of educa tional participation was determined by factor analysis. The service component of role conception was found to be the primary in fluence on participation in continuing learning activities.
Need Assessment: a Critique of Philosophical Assumptions
Authors: Monette Maurice L.
Published: March 2007

Building upon a previously published review of "needs" literature, this article demonstrates the function and necessity of philosophical reflection in the field of adult education. A philosophical analysis of the literature of "need" reveals the overly technical preoccupation of adult educational theory and the general lack of attention to other modes of valuing such as the political and the ethical. These lacunae become evident when approaches to educational planning based on needs are compared to Paulo Freire's "pedagogy of the oppressed." In terms of practical implications, it is suggested that the postulation of a hierarchy of basic values serve as the core of program development. On the level of practice, it is recommended that educators initiate planning with a critical examination of the causes of felt needs and that they explicitly model values and value options. For those concerned with educational theorizing, an alternative to the predominant need-assessment rationale for educational program development is suggested.
Formal Organizational Structure and Participation in Planning Continuing Professional Education
Authors: Fox Robert D.
Published: March 2007

This study explored and described the relationship between formal organizational structures and extent of participation of clients, faculty and program administrators in planning continuing professional education programs in six Southern land-grant universities. Each university was treated as a case study. Data were collected by interviews and content analysis of policy documents.

The study found that the extent of structural integration/differentiation of the formal organization of continuing education is described by the extent to which responsibility for the delivery of continuing professional education is located in a university-wide continuing education delivery system as opposed to numerous college-based delivery systems. In addition, extent of par ticipation of clients increased when planning occurred in the context of campus-wide continuing education delivery systems and decreased in college-based delivery systems. Program ad ministrators participated most in planning which occurred in the context of college-based delivery systems. Type of organizational context was not associated with extent of faculty par ticipation in planning.
Increasing Enrollment Through Benefit Segmentation
Authors: Goodnow Betsy
Published: March 2007

Benefit segmentation is a market research technique which groups people according to benefits expected from a program offering and identifies each group's program offering preferences and demographic characteristics. This information facilitates responsive program design and effective communication of programs to appropriate target audiences. Applicability of benefit segmentation to enrollment generation was tested at the College of DuPage. A random sample from about 20,000 participants completed the "course improvement survey." The 989 respondents' reasons for par ticipation were grouped into nine motivational orientations through factor analysis. Then respondents were grouped into five benefit segments through cluster analysis. Benefit segments were distinguished by significant (α≤.10) program offering preferences and demographic characteristics, and membership in each benefit segment was predictable through discriminant analysis. Although no causal relationship is implied, enrollment increased about 20 percent a year for the three years following the study.
"Happy Consciousness": Ideology and Hidden Curricula In Literacy Education
Authors: Quigley B. Allan , Holsinger Ella
Published: March 2007

The content of five widely-used ABE reading series was analyzed 13 years ago by Gerald Coles (1977). Coles found racism, sexism, and socioeconomic stereotypes to "abound" in these materials. Using the same categories of racism, sexism, and the socioeconomic categories employed by Coles, this investigation reconstructed the Coles study to determine if hidden curricula still exist and, if so, to what extent. Findings indicate that today's most popular reading texts have improved since 1977, but only slightly. Cultural and political reproduction comprise two of the guiding ideologies for literacy education in the 1990s.
The Democratization of Knowledge
Authors:   The Group for Collaborative Inquiry
Published: March 2007

The field of adult education is characterized by an ideological commitment to democracy. Yet the formal knowledge base of the field has been overwhelmingly constructed by one or two groups. This article argues that who we include and exclude in the production of knowledge is largely determined by our place in history and the larger cultural milieu of academia. As long as in the development of our own formal knowledge base we reproduce the structures and values of the larger academic culture, we will be an academic field that speaks of empowerment and liberation for others, but has yet to realize such empowerment for itself. It is only through the small conscious acts of each of us that we will enact in our own practice the democratic values we seek to help others enact.
An Inquiry into Schön's Epistemology of Practice: Exploring Links between Experience and Reflective Practice
Authors: Ferry Natalie M. , Ross-Gordon Jovita M.
Published: March 2007

This article describes a qualitative study that documented the use of reflection-in-action by adult educators in problematic situations. The focus of the study was to explore aspects of Schön's theory. The results supported the basic assumption of Schön's theory that reflecting practitioners use a constructivist decision-making perspective while non-reflecting educators use an instrumental problem-solving approach. The findings demonstrated that reflecting educators, whether novice or experienced, use reflecting-in-action and reflecting-on-action as a means to develop expertise. The presence of experienced educators exhibiting minimal reflection and presence of one highly reflective novice indicates that experience alone is not the "master teacher" of the reflective process.
Adult Development towards What End? A Philosophical Analysis of the Concept as Reflected in the Research, Theory, and Practice of Human Resource Development
Authors: Kuchinke K. Peter
Published: March 2007

The research, theory, and practice of the Human Resource Development field are based on often unspoken assumptions about the concept of adult development. Critical examination of these assumptions is useful for researchers and practitioners because of the possibility of more deliberate choices and improved scholarship and professional practice. Three alternative views of adult development serve to distinguish competing schools of thought, each rooted in different philosophical and political traditions. The person-centered view aims at self-realization of the individual and is grounded in humanistic psychology and liberalism; the production-centered view focuses on organizational goals and is based on behaviorism and libertarianism; and the definition of development as principled problem-solving is grounded in cognitive psychology, progressivism, and pragmatism. Each view serves as a root construct for a specific orientation toward the role and function of the profession. By highlighting the differences between these views and their relative strengths and shortcomings, the author seeks to advance the theoretical foundation of the field and contribute to more reasoned theory and practice.
Cautionary Tales of Classroom Misunderstandings
Authors: Borthwick Jill
Published: March 2007

The language environment of the classroom is a mutually constructed reality created by the teacher and students involved in that particular context. It is understandable that classroom observers on a once-only visit misinterpret, misunderstand, or overlook meanings being made by teachers and students. But teachers and students in their own classrooms can also misinterpret or overlook meanings being made by their companions in learning. By examination of examples taken from transcripts of classroom language in a variety of high school content areas, classroom practitioners can be alerted to communication situations in which learning and understanding have been lost. This chapter reports research on classroom discourse in Australian high schools, and the implications of the findings for teachers. Misunderstanding of each others' communication can occur for both teachers and students. The misunderstandings of students encountering unfamiliar or ambiguous subject-specific language are wellknown, as are the difficulties of students who are not at home with school language and its style of presentation. While these problems for students in understanding and expression have been explored in the past, such problems still continue to be overlooked, as indicated by examples taken from the transcripts. Less well documented is the ability of students to appear to be learning through engaging in classroom discourse while merely play-acting learning. Such students have an awareness of how classroom discourse operates which enables them to present a persuasive facade of understanding. In reality, all they understand is how to interact plausibly in classroom discourse. Some strategies for appropriate teacher-response to this range of misunderstandings are discussed.
Performance of Adolescents Following Instruction in Conditional Reasoning: A Six-Month Follow-up
Authors: Lane David S. , Campbell N. Jo
Published: March 2007

One of the more controversial subjects in adolescent research is the ability of instruction to affect performance and ability of a formal operational task. This study investigated the ability of instruction to improve the development of conditional reasoning skills in younger adolescents. Participants (N= 61) were instructed in conditional reasoning utilizing two 50-minute question and answer periods and concrete materials. Adolescents in the rule group were given the conditional syllogism while adolescents in the discovery group were not given the syllogism until they had "discovered" the inherent syllogism based on concrete materials presented. Performance was measured prior to, immediately after, two weeks after, and six months following instruction. When compared to non-instructed children's performance (N = 32) instructed subjects made significant performance gains until the six month follow-up when performance reverted to pre-instruction levels. Implications include the interaction of instruction and reasoning development. Discussion centered on the attentional capacity and mental effort required in conditional reasoning.
The Impact of Volunteer Experience on Adolescent Social Development: Evidence of Program Effects
Authors: Hamilton Stephen F. , Fenzel L. Mickey
Published: March 2007

The Social and Personal Responsibility Scale was employed in a study of the Youth Volunteers program, involving 44 adolescents in 12 projects, equally divided between child care and community service. Participants showed statistically significant gains on the Social Responsibility subscale. Girls gained more than boys and volunteers in community improvement projects gained more than those in child care. However, as in previous studies, gains were quite modest. Testimony from adolescents and adult participants was more strongly positive, volunteers citing improvement in their knowledge of themselves and others and the acquisition of new skills, adults seeing greater willingness to make decisions. Child care volunteers and their adult advisers said they gained competence in working with young children. The generalized impact of volunteer experience on enduring attitudes appears to be positive but small. Future studies should attend as well to differences in the nature of the experiences adolescent volunteers have and to effects that vary among participants.
Conceptual Changes during Adolescence and Effects upon Parent-Child Relationships
Authors: Laursen Brett , Collins W. Andrew
Published: March 2007

Cognitive changes during the adolescent years are frequently invoked as a factor in the transformation of parent-child relationships. Theoretical formulations and empirical studies of conceptual changes and linkages between these and changes in parent-child relationships were reviewed in three categories: those focussing on the role of conceptions of parents; those focussing on self-conceptions and their implications; and those focussing on concepts of parent-child relationships. Most research has addressed solely conceptual change. Only three studies have examined both conceptual change and interpersonal relationships. Thus, the common assumption of a linkage between conceptual and relationship change as yet has no empirical basis. Future research in the area will require: (a) measures and research designs that are sensitive to cognitive changes in the domain of parent-child relationships; and (b) a more specific delineation of the conditions under which linkages should be expected between conceptual changes and alterations in various aspects of parent-adolescent relationships.
Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Motherhood among Mexican-American Adolescents
Authors: de Anda Diane , Becerra Rosina M. , Fielder Eve P.
Published: March 2007

The perspectives of 32 Mexican-American and 17 White adolescent females are presented regarding: (a) their romantic and sexual relation ships; (b) sex education and birth control; and (c) reactions to their pregnancy and motherhood. Mexican-American adolescents indicated notably less sexual experience than their White counterparts with the father of the baby generally being their only sexual partner. The relation ship with the father of the baby most often continued for the Mexican American adolescents, but rarely for the White adolescents. Pregnancy was unanticipated by both groups, despite their failure to use contracep tive methods. Emic data are presented both in summary form and in the adolescents' own words.
Perceptions of Stressors by High School Students
Authors: Armacost Robert L.
Published: March 2007

A 26-item questionnaire was administered to 1,301 students in a midwestern, suburban high school to identify potential stressors as perceived by the students. Factor analysis revealed four dimensions of stress among twelve of these items: interpersonal aggression, goal conflictlsupport, social conflictlsupport, and perceived environmental mastery. The remaining items identified other stressors, mediating factors, social supports, and coping mechanisms. Analysis of variance and contingency table analysis identified status-group differences. Nearly 10% of the students indicated that they did not handle stress very well. The academic performance grouping system, having jobs and keeping up with school, and fear of theft of personal belongings were identified by students as being the stressors of greatest concern.
The Emergence of Adolescents as a Risk Group for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection
Authors: DiClemente Ralph J.
Published: March 2007

Adolesceents have only recently been identified as a risk group for human immunodeficiencv, virus inifectioni. Limited data suggest that the prevalence of HIV infection among selected adolescent populatiotns is considerable. These data, however, are not generalizable because of the unrepresentative nature of the adolescent populations studied. Surrogate epidemiologic markers for projecting the potential spread of HIV in the adolescent populationi are idenitified. These markers include the prevalence of contraceptive behavior, rate of untinttetided pregnancy, and the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. Adolescetits kniowledge, attitudes, atid clanges in AIDS-preventive behavior are described. Psychosocial factors that may influence the adoption and maintenance of AIDS-prev entitie behav iors are identified and discussed. To increase the potentialfor developing the most effective HIV prevention programs, there is a need for greater understanding of the psxychosocial determinants motivating behavior change among adolescents.
Adolescent Mothers' Perceptions of their Work Lives in the Future
Authors: Blinn Lynn M.
Published: March 2007

Adolescent parents 'decisions about work are related to other critical life decisions about marriage, education, economic self-sufficiency, and interpersonal relationships. Such decisions may be based on a particular view of what life will be like in the future. This study explored how 179 adolescents who were mothers and 214 adolescents who were not mothers changed in their perceptions of their workfutures over a three-month period of time. The mothers assessed the likelihood of particular events occurring in their work lives at the fourth month and again at the seventh month after the delivery of their babies. Both the dimensionality and perceived likelihood of events occurring in their future work lives remained more stable for the parents than for the nonparents.
Adolescent Sexual Behavior
Authors: DiBlasio Frederick A. , Benda Brent B.
Published: March 2007

Despite numerous studies on adolescent sexuality, few use coherent theoretical models and multivariate analyses on data from high school students. This study tested a social-learning model for its ability to explain adolescent sexual intercourse from a multivariate approach. Data weregathered from 1,610 high school studentsfrom private schools. Findings indicated that all eight of the theoretical variables were significantly correlated with sexual frequency in the bivariate analysis and five of the eight variables explained 40% of the variance in the multivariate analysis. Peer differential association was found to be the best predictor of adolescent sexual frequency. The other variables, in order of importance, were reinforcement balance, overall reinforcement, positive/negative definitions, law-abiding/law-violating behavior, modeling, parents' reaction, and techniques of neutralization. The following control variables also were significantly associated: drug use, religiosity, closeness to father, closeness to mother, academic performance, and gender.
Correlates of Dysfunctional Parenting Attitudes among Low-Income Adolescent Mothers
Authors: McKenry Patrick C. , Kotch Jonathan B. , Browne Dorothy H.
Published: March 2007

Various scholars have speculated that adolescent mothers are at risk for negative parenting. It was therefore the purpose of this study to assess dysfunctional attitudes of adolescent mothers through a secondary analysis of a subsample of 157 participants from a large-scale, ongoing longitudinal study. Belsky 's process model of parenting was used as a framework to assess the adolescent mothers' parental attitudes at I year postpartum. Two sets of multiple regression analyses were performed: (a) ordinary least squares regressiont was used to assess predictors of generally dysfunctional parenting attitudes as continluously measured; and (b) logistic multiple regression was used to determine predictors of risk for child abuse and neglect with the dependent measure dichotomized based on normative data. The results of multiple regression analyses supported the Belsky orderinig ofpredictors, in that personal andpsychological resources of the parent were more predictive of dysfunctionalparenting attitudes than contextual sources of stress and support, which were more effective than characteristics of the child.
Adolescent Reasoning about Drug Use
Authors: Killen Melanie , Leviton Michael , Cahill Jennifer
Published: March 2007

In this study, adolescents' reasoning about drug use was investigated from a social-cognitive perspective. In an interview and classification task, adolescents were asked to (a) evaluate drug use in comparison to other social and moral transgressions; (b) distinguish between soft and hard legal and illegal drugs; (c) conceptualize drug use in relation to acts of self-harm, such as suicide; (d) weigh legal, societal, physical, and psychological consequences of drug use; and (e) evaluate authorities' jurisdictions to prohibit drug use. Sixty adolescents, evenly divided between males and females, in Grades 10, 11, and 12 participated. Age and gender differences emerged regarding adolescents' judgments about drug use and whether individuals have the right to harm themselves. The findings have implications for research on adolescent social reasoning and for drug education programs.
Hanging in There: Behavioral, Psychological, and Contextual Factors Affecting Whether African American Adolescents Stay in High School
Authors: Connell James Patrick , Halpem-Felsher Bonnie L. , Clifford Elizabeth , Crichlow Warren , Usinger Peter
Published: March 2007

This longitudinal study of 443 urban African American adolescents examined behavioral, psychological, and contextual predictors of staying in high school. Behavioral factors examined in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades were attendance, suspensions, grades, test scores, and grade retention; psychologicalfactors examined were students'engagement in school, their self-system processes, and their experience of support from adults at home and in school. Neighborhood composition and family economic resources were included as contextual variables. Path analyses revealed that students who avoided risk behavior in junior high school and reported themselves as more engaged were more likely to remain in high school 3 years later; engaged students reported more positive perceptions of competence, autonomy, and relatedness in the school setting than less engaged students did; students'reports of supportfrom home andfrom school influenced the three self-system processes; males from more advantaged families reported less support from adults in their school; females from poorer families reported less support from adults at home; malesfrom poorerfamilies were more likely to exhibit educational risk behavior; and males from less poor neighborhoods were more likely to stay in high school. Results are discussed in light of motivational and cultural-ecological perspectives.
Growing up Poor: The Family Experiences of Socially Mobile Youth in Low-Income African American Neighborhoods
Authors: Jarrett Robin L.
Published: March 2007

The primary goal of this article is to discuss the family experiences of socially mobile adolescents in poor African American neighborhoods. Based on a review of existing qualitative studies, these data identify and describe an array of family strategies that buffer adolescents from the risks of growing up in poverty. These observations expand on quantitative studies that limit their discussions to a small number of parenting behaviors. The secondary goal of the article is to use the qualitativefindings to inform youth-serving programs. Grounded in the real-life experiences of families and their children, such programs can use qualitative data to maximize positive developmental outcomes for poor African American youth. Program proposals are suggested that demonstrate how scholarly research can be usedfor applied purposes.
Identity
Authors: Adams Gerald R.
Published: March 2007

A cybernetic model of identity has been proposed by Kerpelman, Pittman, and Lamke (1997) and critiqued by Berzonsky (1997) and Grotevant (1997). This commentary recognizes some of the importantfeatures of the theory and its critics and goes beyond to question what kind of person is being depicted in the Kerpelman et al. article. Some potential shortcomings of identity control system theory are noted. However, the theory has very compelling and potentially useful theoretical dimensions. It is concluded that the theory should be taken seriously and that some logical limitations be reconsidered to enhance its usefulness and logical consistency.
High School Curriculum Track and Adolescent Association with Delinquent Friends
Authors: Crosnoe Robert
Published: March 2007

Drawing on ecological perspectives and sociological theories of deviance, this study explored the influence on adolescent delinquency of two potential intersections between high school curriculum and student friendship groups: (a) curriculum track as an organizer of delinquent friendship groups, and (b) curriculum track as a moderator of friendship relations. Structural equation analyses of 2,899 students provide support for the second intersection but not the first. Once academic achievement is taken into account, lower-track students were not more likelyto associate with delinquents, though students from all tracks were more likelyto be delinquent a year later when theydid have such associations. Nevertheless, lower-track students were more vulnerable to the negative influences of delinquent friends. Further analysis reveals that this increased vulnerabilitycould arise from lower bonding to conventional institutions and pathways of achievement among lower-track students.