The past few decades have witnessed unprecedented changes increase in the numbers of ethnic minorities in our Nations' public schools. Due to changes in demographic scene of our country, serious concerns have been raised with regards to mental health and academic achievement of school-age children from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The major purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between a set of psychological well-being variables (life satisfaction, self-esteem, and ethnic identity), mental health (depression), intergroup interactional competence, and academic achievement. A total number of 131 subjects in grades 9th through 12th were sampled to participate in the study. All sampled subjects came from low social economic status families of Mexican-American ethnic background. Seven measures were administered to each student in small groups of 10-12 students each. These measures have been found to have adequate reliability and validity in previous studies (Suzuki-Crumly & Hyers, 2004). However, the reliability of all the measures was also assessed in this study and was found to be in the moderate to high range. Implications of the study as well as recommendations for future research in this area are discussed.

Psychometric properties of the Parenting Stress Index ? Short Form were investigated using a heterogeneous sample of 185 mothers and fathers of children between the ages of 4-10 years. The Difficult Child and Parent Distress subscales, as well as Total PSI-SF, were found to be internally consistent. Confirmatory factor analysis did not reveal support for a three-factor model. Results were mixed in terms of support for convergent and discriminant validity. The PSI-SF Total and subscales were related to measures of parent psychopathology and perceptions of child adjustment, but not to observed parent and child behavior. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This study examined the relationship between social-cognitive ability and social status in children with and without learning disabilities. Social cognitive mapping was used to determine children?s centrality in the social network in their classroom and accuracy in reporting peer social networks. It was predicted that social cognition, as assessed through the accuracy measure, would mediate differences in social status, as assessed through social network centrality. Although children with learning disabilities had lower social network centrality, they did not differ from children without learning disabilities in terms of accuracy in reporting social networks in the classroom. Therefore, the mediation model was not supported. However, greater accuracy in reporting peer networks was predictive of greater peer involvement across both groups of children. Results are discussed in terms of implications for improving children?s social functioning and future research on the topics of the social functioning and social cognition of children with learning disabilities.

This study examined the evidence for the response process validity of the Stanford Binet, Fifth Edition (Roid, 2003a). Students from introductory psychology classes (n = 101) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions defined by the five cognitive processes the SB5 intends to measure. Participants responded to items from the Verbal and Nonverbal Scale subtests for their condition. Participants explained how they solved the problems and rated the degree to which they used each of the cognitive processes and verbal mediation. Graduate student raters independently assigned participants? descriptions into categories representing the cognitive process and level of verbal mediation. Results generally provide strong evidence for the response processes validity of the SB5, as well as the measures used in this study.

Thesis (Ed. S.)--Marshall University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 45 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-23).

Thesis (Ed. S.)--Marshall University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 18 p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 14-15).

The vast majority of studies on ethnic identity development in adolescence have primarily focused on those youths who reside with their biological parents. The disproportionate representation of minority youth in the child welfare system is a salient issue related to identity development, when considering that typical parental figures may be vastly different for these children. This study sought to provide information on the relations between length of time in foster care and an adolescent's ethnic identity. It also examined whether ethnic identity varied as a function of youth being placed in homes where at least one caregiver was of a different race than them. This current study includes data collected for Mental Health Service Use Of Youth Leaving Foster Care (2001-2003) from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect. Four hundred and six adolescents (228 females and 178 males; mean age = 16.33; 43% White, 50% African American, 3% Bi-racial, and less than 1% American Indian, Latino, or other) in the Missouri foster care system were interviewed. Data did not reveal a significant relation between when children were first placed into foster care and their total ethnic identity scores. Although there was not a significant effect for youth placed in matched and unmatched homes, data revealed that youth who identified as White and had been placed in at least one unmatched home had a lower sense of ethnic identity than youth who identified as White placed in same-race homes. Further, in supplemental analyses youth placed in unmatched homes were more likely to have more depressive symptoms than those placed in homes of foster care parents with the same race. Ethnic identity was also positively related to self-esteem. Self-esteem was found to be positively related to higher grades and lower levels of depression. Critically, as already mentioned, the study found unexpectedly low levels of ethnic identity sense experienced by all youth in the study, relative to previous levels of ethnic identity in other adolescent samples. This study provides information on the importance of ethnic identity development and taking a strengths-based approach among youth placed in foster

Juvenile substance use has been a major societal problem in the United States over the past 30 years. The research literature on substance use in juvenile populations has focused on identifying risk factors that are thought to increase the likelihood that youths will engage in using illicit substances, and identifying protective factors that may serve to decrease the likelihood that youths will initiate drug use or habitually use drugs. The overarching purpose of this research has been to utilize this information in the development of drug prevention/rehabilitation programs. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether theoretically and empirically established risk and protective factors associated with youth substance use significantly predicted, or were significantly associated with, the adjudication status of youths who had been arrested at least once for using or possessing illicit substances. Additionally, the study investigated if theoretically and empirically established risk and protective factors were significantly associated with the frequency of arrests of students in a large public school district. Finally, the study explored if risk and protective factors were significantly associated with youths' IDEA status, due to IDEA status being previously shown to be significantly correlated to other forms of juvenile offenses. Data were analyzed from a cleansed database containing the educational and juvenile justice data of students attending a large public school district in Southern Arizona during the 2006-2007 academic year. The results showed that both grade point average and school attendance data significantly predicted (p < .05) the juveniles' adjudication status, but not standardized achievement scores. Further, IDEA status was found to be significantly associated (p < .05) with the youths' adjudication status. However, societal variables such as the crime and socioeconomic levels of youths' house zip codes were not found to be significantly associated with adjudication status, IDEA status, or the frequency of arrests for the 2006-2007 academic year. The implications of these findings are discussed, as well as the limitations of the study and future directions for research in this area.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Rhode Island, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-111).

It is evident from the literature reviewed that there is a need for better understanding and utilization of standardized test results. It seems that unless tests contribute to the learning process they are not justifiable. Merritt says the main objective of all endeavor is to promote learning. Ultimately, the worth of any activity carried on in the schools has to be judged by the contribution this activity makes toward the improvement of learning. Testing is no exception. In a broad sense, desirable learning has taken place when behavior has been changed in socially approved directions. Testing is justified only if it contributes to our efforts to bring about such, changes.