Research suggests that participation in the School Breakfast Program positively impacts academic success by improving student behavior, cognitive functioning, and attendance. Additionally, the School Breakfast Program appears to improve food insecurity, overall health and weight-related issues. However, compared to the National School Lunch Program, participation in the School Breakfast Program has been historically low, especially at the high school level. Using an integrated composite framework, a combination of social cognitive theory and ecological systems theory, as the conceptual model, this qualitative case study explored factors influencing student breakfast eating and participation in the school's breakfast program within a college-preparatory high school serving culturally diverse, predominantly low-income students. I used an all-staff survey as a qualitative data collection tool, and semi-structured interviews with school staff, student focus groups, and a Draw-A-High-School-Student-Breakfast Test to collect qualitative data. Using thematic networks as an analysis tool, I examined the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of school staff and students about breakfast eating and participation in the school's breakfast program. The study found that communication about the School Breakfast Program, arriving to school in time to eat, and relationships with food service staff, influence participation in the School Breakfast Program. The findings are discussed in terms of their significance on practice and policy within both education and public health sectors. The study concludes with recommendations for future research.

The incidence of suicide attempts and completions during academically gifted students' attendance at state-supported, residential high schools was the subject of this study. School personnel's perceptions of this environment, roles in identifying students at-risk for attempting suicide, and knowledge about suicide were also studied. Five schools participated in this study. Initial interviews were conducted with each school's director, measuring the incidence of suicide utilizing an adaptation of a survey developed by M. Hayes and R. Sloat (1990). Questionnaires distributed to personnel included questions about knowledge about the school's history concerning suicide, perceptions of the environment, and knowledge about suicide. The adaptation of Hayes and Stoat's survey was included in questionnaire materials, along with the School-Level Environment Questionnaire (Rentoul & Fraser, 1983) and 11 true/false statements measuring knowledge of suicide. A total of 83 questionnaires were completed. Telephone interviews were conducted with a random sample of 21 personnel who completed the questionnaire. These interviews consisted of open-ended questions measuring the environment of these schools and perceived roles of personnel in identifying students at-risk for suicide. Descriptive and qualitative analyses were conducted. Ten attempts and two completions occurred among 4899 students. Suicide attempts and completions were measured to be .20% and .04% respectively. These findings indicate that these schools need to be prepared in order to prevent suicide among this population. The environment of these schools was one of affiliation, autonomy, and innovativeness. However, affiliation predominately existed within specific departments and/or divisions. Personnel characterized their roles in suicide prevention as unofficial because of lack of time, academic priorities, and other individuals who were better equipped to respond to students. Even though personnel considered their roles unofficial, they attempted to meet students' emotional needs through support, observation, and involvement. Knowledge of suicide was observed in the areas of incidence of suicide among adolescents, importance of warning signs, factors increasing risk, and need for intervention. Respondents were less knowledgeable about the rate of suicide among adolescents, factors not increasing risk, and myths about suicide. / Department of Educational Psychology

Absenteeism is a costly and pervasive problem to business and society. Differences in levels of absenteeism between men and women have been found in both national data and in individual studies; however, it is unclear why gender influences absenteeism rates. Differential effects from gender on the relationship between absenteeism rates and both personal and attitudinal factors of employees were studied. Specific variables examined were age, number of dependents, distance to work, role conflict, job involvement, job satisfaction and central life interests. Job level and working conditions were held constant so that gender effects on absenteeism were isolated from other factors. An employee's age and attitude toward pay were the only factors found to exhibit a gender-related differential impact on absenteeism. It was found that both men's and women's frequency of absenteeism is best explained by motivational factors to attend work. Duration of absenteeism was best explained by motivational factors for men, while both motivational and ability to attend factors were useful in predicting days absent for women. / M.S.