Teaching elementary school students to identify story themes.

An instructional program focused on story theme was administered to 2nd and 3rd graders (high-, average-, and low-achieving students, including some with disabilities) in a high-poverty school. Compared with more traditional instruction, the program improved theme comprehension and the identification of instructed themes when they appeared in new stories. However, the program did not help students apply a theme to real-life situations or identify and apply noninstructed themes. Findings indicated that at-risk children (at all achievement levels, including those with disabilities) were able to achieve some degree of abstract, higher order comprehension when given instruction that combined structured lessons, a strategy, and discussion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of the Self-Directed Search with Native American high school students.

Examined the appropriateness of using the Self-Directed Search (SDS) with 104 Native American Indian high school students. Inventory scores from 2 Indian tribes were compared, and then comparisons were made with national normative data. Ss differed among themselves on 4 of the 12 scale comparisons, and there were 6 differences on the 24 scale comparisons with the normative groups. It is concluded that the SDS may be an inappropriate instrument for use with Native American high school students unless local norms are also considered. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Occupations ten years later of high school seniors with high scores on the SVIB life insurance salesman scale.

From a pool of 2500 Minnesota high school seniors of the 1953 and 1954 classes, 93 students were identified who had "A" ratings on the SVIB life insurance salesman scale. Information on their current occupations was collected from 72. Of these, 10% were in the life insurance business, 32% were in other sales jobs, 12% were in business-contact jobs such as public relations, 22% were in social service persuasive jobs such as lawyer or minister, and 24% were in essentially unrelated jobs. In a further analysis, each profile was analyzed as to its appropriateness for the individual's current occupation. 64% were classified as "hits," 22% as "misses," and 14% as "indeterminate." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A portrait of benchmark school: How a school produces high achievement in students who previously failed.

This is a case study of Benchmark School, which educates 6- to 15-year-olds with a history of school failure. Grounded theory methodology was employed to generate a theory about how the school promotes achievement. Many elements potentially promoting academic achievement were identified, including ones informed by psychological theory and research (e.g., evidence-based literacy instructional practices, strategies instruction, conceptually focused content instruction, many mechanisms to motivate students) but also, selective admissions, human resources (i.e., well-trained teachers, supportive parents, skilled counselors), small class size, and a supportive physical context. The theory that emerges is that many elements must be articulated to remediate struggling elementary students, although some are more important than others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Follow-up of the later careers and lives of 1,000 boys who dropped out of high school.

Compared a dropout group and a nondropout group of high school boys on several psychometric and demographic variables. The data both predated and postdated (by about 10 yr.) the time of dropout. The group were subdivided by intelligence, additional training, and early vs. late dropouts for the dropout group. The later lives of dropouts were characterized in general by relatively low socioeconomic status (SES), a downward social mobility, a higher incidence of criminal activity, and bigger families. 9th grade MMPI tests showed some personality differences between dropouts and nondropouts. When dropout and nondropout groups were matched by intelligence, most of the differences persisted. Training after dropout is of some help in future SES. Few differences were found between early and late dropouts. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group play therapy with junior high school students.

Suggests that client-centered play therapy is a beneficial therapeutic approach for troubled junior high school students. However, in order to successfully implement this approach, the play activities unique to junior high students need to be recognized and accepted for what they are. An approach to in-school counseling similar to client-centered group play therapy, as described by M. DeMaria and S. Cowden (1992), is presented. "Play" in this context does not necessarily refer to activities that adults usually define as play, instead play will refer to activities that early teenagers engage in with each other. These activities (e.g., make-up and trashing) and their value to the children are described and interpreted. It is noted that the activities possess a social form which the youngsters define as meaningful and fun. The difficulties inherent in utilizing this approach with this volatile population are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Openness to experience and marijuana use in high school students.

Investigated marihuana use and its relationship to personality in 984 8-12th graders. Increasing frequency of marihuana use was significantly related to increased creativity, adventuresomeness, internal sensation, novelty seeking and impulsivity, and decreased authoritarianism. No differences were noted in manifest anxiety among user groups, but heavier marihuana users earned lower grades in school. Catholics used marihuana the most, Jews were slightly above the mean in usage, and Protestants were lowest. More frequent marihuana use was associated with increased experimentation with other drugs. Multiple-drug users demonstrated increased manifest anxiety and lower grades. College vs non-college-oriented differences are discussed as well as the personality profile of the marihuana user. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching cognitive and social skills to high school students.

Used modeling and role playing in an effort to strengthen the cognitive and social skills of 127 students (mean age 14.8 yrs) in a high school with high dropout and delinquency rates. A control group was compared with Ss who participated in live or videotaped modeling. Ss who received special training were able to (a) think of more adaptive ways of approaching problematic situations and (b) perform more effectively in a self-presentation situation (job interview). In addition, in a 1-yr follow-up, they tended to show lower rates of tardiness and fewer absences and behavior referrals. The research suggests a potentially useful and cost-effective approach to the prevention of behavioral problems. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity tests and achievement in high school science.

This study investigated the relative validities of a battery of "creativity tests" and an IQ tests for predicting several indices of achievement in high school science. Criteria included grade-point average in science courses, percentile rank on the STEP Science Achievement Test, teacher rating of overall scientific potential, number of high school science courses taken, and a measure of involvement with science. Results indicated that the creativity tests did have considerable predictive validity against each criterion for each sex and that the criterion variance accounted for by the creativity tests is to a substantial degree independent of IQ. Contrary to findings of other investigators, teachers did not discriminate against highly creative pupils in their ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of substance use at school among high school students.

Although many studies have examined the predictors of overall substance use among adolescents, few have focused on the high school setting as a specific context for substance use. Therefore, predictors of alcohol and marijuana use at school were examined in a sample of high school students. The general hypotheses were that substance use at school depends on (a) personal predispositions, (b) the situational opportunity for substance use at school, and (c) the interaction of predispositions and opportunity. Several interactions were found suggesting that personal predispositions are more strongly related to substance use at school when students believe they have the opportunity to use alcohol and drugs without getting caught. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching writing to high school students: A national survey.

A random sample of language arts, social studies, and science high school teachers (N = 361; 53% women) from the United States were surveyed about what their students wrote, their use of evidence-based writing practices, the adaptations they made for weaker writers, how they assessed writing, their preparation to teach writing, beliefs about the importance of writing, and judgments about their students' writing capabilities. The findings from this survey raised some concerns about the quality of high school writing instruction. The writing activities they were assigned most frequently by teachers involved little analysis and interpretation, and almost one half of the participating teachers did not assign at least one multiparagraph writing assignment monthly. Although the majority of high school teachers did apply most of the evidence-based practices and adaptations included in the survey, they used these practices infrequently. Most teachers did not believe their college teacher education program adequately prepared them to teach writing. A sizable minority of language arts and social studies teachers indicated that their in-service preparation was inadequate too. For science teachers this was close to 60%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching high school students to use heuristics while reading historical texts.

The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of different types of instruction and texts on high schools students' learning of (a) history content and (b) a set of heuristics that historians use to think critically about texts. Participants for the study were 128 male and 118 female students, ages 16 and 17 years, from 2 high schools in the western United States. Eight history classrooms were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 interventions: (a) traditional textbooks and content instruction, (b) traditional textbooks and heuristic instruction, (c) multiple texts and content instruction, or (d) multiple texts and heuristic instruction. The heuristic instruction explicitly taught sourcing, corroboration, and contextualization. Students were administered pretests on their content knowledge and their use of heuristics. After an intervention of 3 weeks, students were readministered the content knowledge and heuristics posttests. A mixed-model analysis of covariance indicated that across all conditions, students who read multiple texts scored higher on history content and used sourcing and corroboration more often than students who read traditional textbook material. Findings highlight the importance of reading multiple texts to deepen content knowledge and facilitate the use of heuristics that historians typically use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychiatric comorbidity with problematic alcohol use in high school students

OBJECTIVE: To delineate the degree to which various levels of problematic alcohol use are associated with psychiatric disorders in adolescents. METHOD: The lifetime occurrence of psychiatric disorders was examined in a community sample of 1,507 older adolescents (aged 14 through 18 years) who were categorized according to their alcohol use (i.e., abstainers, experimenters, social drinkers, problem drinkers, and abuse/dependence group). RESULTS: Increased alcohol use was associated with the increased lifetime occurrence of depressive disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, drug use disorders, and daily tobacco use. There was a trend for increased alcohol use in girls to be associated with anxiety disorders. More than 80% of adolescents with alcohol abuse/dependence had some other form of psychopathology. Alcohol disorders, in general, followed rather than preceded the onset of other psychiatric disorders. Comorbidity was associated with an earlier age of alcohol disorder onset and with greater likelihood of mental health treatment utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Rates of psychiatric comorbidity with problematic alcohol use in adolescents are striking and represent an important therapeutic challenge.     

Cognitive modification and systematic desensitization with test anxious high school students.

30 10th-grade, test anxious (Achievement Anxiety Test) students were randomly assigned in equal numbers to either a cognitive modification, systematic desensitization, or waiting-list control group. The Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory—State form (STAI-S), and the Anxiety Differential were administered as pre- and posttests. Statistically significant Treatment?×?Time interactions emerged on the RSPM and the STAI-S, favoring an increase for the systematic desensitization treatment on the RSPM and a decrease for the cognitive modification treatment on the STAI-S. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Help-seeking behavior of Native American Indian high school students.

A sample of 139 Zuni adolescents were surveyed to explore the relationships among their help-seeking behavior, psychological problems, and personal characteristics. No significant differences were found between the help-seeking behaviors of girls and boys. Students were most likely to seek help from a friend, parent, or relative for personal problems and to use professional help sources primarily for academic and career problems. Correlational analysis indicated that adolescents who experienced thoughts of suicide and global distress were more likely to seek help from a greater number of resources for their most serious problems. The implications of these findings for work with Native American Indian adolescents are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of health risk behavior among high school students.

The authors test the contention of R. Jessor's (1977) problem behavior theory that adolescent health risk behaviors comprise a single behavioral syndrome. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) and cluster analysis are used to analyze data from a statewide survey of high school students' (n?=?5,537) health risk behaviors. A classical MDS analysis was calculated to test the dimensionality of the behaviors. All indicators supported a multidimensional model. An individual-differences MDS (INDSCAL) analysis revealed that a 4-dimensional solution best fit the data, with gender and racial-ethnic differences emerging in the relative salience of the dimensions. The INDSCAL dimensional coordinates for each health risk behavior were then submitted to a hierarchical cluster analysis technique. Five behavioral clusters were identified, 1 of which included many of the traditional "problem behaviors," such as smoking, unprotected sexual intercourse, and alcohol consumption. These findings support a multidimensional structure underlying adolescent health risk behavior. Implications for theory and prevention of health risk behaviors are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of the self-directed search on high school students.

Compared the effects on 959 high school students of the Self-Directed Search (SDS), a self-administered vocational counseling simulation; the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI); and no treatment. Students taking the SDS or the VPI evaluated the instruments as moderately positive, reported feeling more satisfied with their current occupational choice, and were considering more occupational alternatives than the control group both the day after the experiment and 3 wks later. Students taking the SDS selected occupations most consistent with their personality traits and reported less need to see a counselor immediately. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High school yearbooks: A nonreactive measure of social isolation in graduates who later became schizophrenic.

The research on "social isolation" as a precipitating factor in the development of schizophrenia was reviewed, and it was pointed out that the previous measures were "reactive" in nature. The present study employed yearbook senior summaries as a nonreactive archival measure of level of high school activity. It was found that high school graduates who were later diagnosed as schizophrenic had participated in significantly fewer activities than did their normal controls. The activity level of psychoneurotics was found to fall between that of the schizophrenics and normals. The difference in overall activity level was found to be a function of the fact that patients engaged in significantly fewer "social activities." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Academic intrinsic motivation in elementary and junior high school students.

Investigated in 3 studies the significance of academic intrinsic motivation (AIM) for children's education. Ss for Studies 1–3 were 77 4th graders and 64 7th graders; 260 Ss in Grades 4–7; and 166 White middle-class Ss in Grades 5–8, respectively. Ss were administered an AIM inventory and an inventory of academic anxiety (AA). As predicted, AIM was found to be significantly and positively correlated with Ss' school achievement and perceptions of academic competence and negatively correlated with AA. Findings support the view that AIM is differentiated into school subject areas and is also a general orientation toward school learning. Relations between motivation and perception of competence and anxiety were differentiated by subject area, whereas achievement was more pervasively related to general motivation. Mathematics motivation, however, emerged as a unique predictor of mathematics achievement. The significance of AIM as differentiated into subjects and as a general orientation is discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)