Classroom behavior and the academic progress of learning disabled students

A total of 43 learning disabled (LD) students who were identified in grades 1–3 were followed up in their second year of special education services. Teachers completed the Classroom Behavior Inventory (CBI) for each LD student and for randomly selected classmates, and both groups of students were observed with the SCAN system in regular classroom settings. Group differences in teacher perceived task orientation, independence, and verbal expressiveness replicated previous findings with the CBI for this LD sample. SCAN observations partially replicated previous results in that LD children interacted with teachers more often than classmates. Multiple regression analyses indicated that both measures of behavior were predictive of reading achievement during year 1 when the LD children were identified, and that the CBI predicted academic progress from one year to the next. Both teacher ratings and observational evidence converged on the importance of task-oriented behavior, independent functioning, and socially appropriate behavior in understanding the poor achievement of LD students.     

Classroom behavior of reflective and impulsive children

Seventy-nine children, nine or eleven years old, classified as reflective or impulsive by the Matching Familiar Figures (MFF) test, were observed in public school classrooms. A total of 15 behavioral categories were selected to capture activities often labeled “reflective” or “impulsive” in the literature. Children were observed in each of three classroom settings—Individual Work, Large Group instruction, and Small Group instruction. Thirty minutes of observational data on each child revealed substantial differences in the behavior of older and younger children and across the three settings. By contrast, there was only a minor difference in the behavior of reflective and impulsive children. These results suggest that the concept of reflection-impulsivity, as operationalized by the MFF, should be limited to tasks that involve response uncertainty, and should not be used to imply differences in the typical classroom behavior of children classified as reflective or impulsive by the MFF.     

Sensation seeking, aggression, and reckless behavior in high school students, college students, and adults

Replicating work of Arnett, males reported more frequent Reckless Behavior than females, and 27 high school and 48 college students did not differ in scores on Sensation Seeking or Aggression. As anticipated by Arnett, the 35 adults had significantly lower Sensation Seeking and Aggression scores than the two younger groups and less Reckless Behavior as well. In contrast to Arnett, Reckless Behavior did not rise for college students, and Sensation Seeking, but not Aggression, correlated with Reckless Behavior in all samples.     

Health behavior, knowledge and attitudes among Swedish university students

A range of health behaviors was related to beliefs concerning health practices and health knowledge. A questionnaire dealing with health-related practices, health beliefs and knowledge of health risk factors was answered by 166 male and 179 female students aged 18–30 years at Stockholm University. Female students reported engaging in better health behavior than males. Beliefs about the importance of health behaviors were closely related to their frequency of occurrence. There was only a weak relationship between health behaviors and knowledge of specific health matters. It is concluded that health attitudes rather than health knowledge determine health behavior.     

Cognitive appraisal of daily hassles in college students showing Type A or Type B behavior patterns

To test the hypothesized role of cognitive appraisal in Lazarus' model of life stress, 312 male and female undergraduate students completed the Hassles Scale and the Jenkins Activity Survey, Form C. Based upon their scores on the Type A scale of the Jenkins Activity Survey, subjects showing Type A behavior pattern differed significantly from subjects showing Type B behavior pattern on both reported frequencies of hassles (higher for Type A scoring subjects) and hassles content pattern. This is interpreted primarily as supportive of the cognitive appraisal variable in Lazarus' life stress model.     

Type A behavior, competitive achievement-striving, and cheating among college students

The present study examined the cheating behavior in competitive and noncompetitive situations of 40 college students classified as Type A (16 women, 24 men) and 40 as Type B (19 women, 21 men). Type A-scoring students were more likely to cheat than Type B-scoring students irrespective of competition. The results suggest that in some situations, especially where expectations for success cannot be met, Type A-scoring students may cheat to achieve success.     

Food behavior of college students

Two hundred twelve undergraduate college students were surveyed near the completion of an introductory nutrition course to identify their patterns of food usage, changes in food habits, and previous nutrition background. Fifty percent increased their use of milk and milk products and 40% their use of vegetables; 50% decreased fat and sugar and one-third decreased salt and calories. About half the class used nutrient supplements before the course started as well as at the time of the survey. Although about half of the students had received some preocollege nutrition information, this factor had no relationship to eating habits. Cluster analysis indicated that students cannot be stereotyped extensively on the basis of dietary behaviors.     

Masculinity, femininity, type A behavior, and psychosocial adjustment in medical students

The freshman class of a midwestern medical school completed measures of masculinity and femininity, Type A behavior, and a variety of dependent variables concerning psychological well-being, adjustment, and interpersonal satisfaction. Appropriate statistical treatment of the data revealed strong and consistent masculinity effects on neuroticism, depression, self-esteem, confidence, hedonic capacity, locus of control, and relationship satisfaction. Femininity main effects varied in number as a function of the statistical method employed and involved a more diverse group of variables than is typically reported. Additive androgyny formulations of mental health were supported; balance androgyny formulations were not. No evidence for a Type A X Masculinity effect on adjustment was found. Discussion focuses on the correct interpretation of masculinity and femininity scales, comparability of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple regression statistical analyses, and the viability of the concept of androgyny.     

Suicidal behavior, negative affect, gender, and self-reported delinquency in college students

The associations among suicidal behavior, negative affect, and delinquency were assessed via an anonymous self-report survey administered to male and female college students ( N = 383). Contrary to our hypothesized results, there were no gender differences in rates of suicidal ideation and attempts. Confirming our hypotheses about gender differences, college men did report significantly more delinquent behavior than college women. College men also scored higher on the suicide-proneness scale, which contained a mixture of death-related, risk-related, and negative self- and health-related items. Furthermore, as predicted, college students with a history of depression, suicide ideation, and/or suicide attempts all reported significantly more delinquent behavior. Self-reported delinquency and current levels of depressive symptomology emerged as significant predictors of suicide-prone behavior for both college men and women, explaining 34% of the variance for women and 17% for men. Levels of engagement in suicide-prone behavior and feelings of depression were elevated in college students with any type of juvenile arrest history. Students with an arrest history were also more likely to have had a diagnosis of depression and to have engaged in suicide ideation in their past. These findings suggest there are complex links between depression, delinquency, and suicidal behavior in college men and women.     

Factor structure of Classroom Behavior problems for mainstreamed and regular students

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the factor structure of behavior exhibited in the regular classroom in order to provide a conceptual framework for classifying problem behavior relevant to the classroom setting, and (2) to determine the extent to which the factors generated from ratings of regular classroom children are similar to those generated from ratings of mainstreamed special education children. Thirty-five elementary-school teachers completed behavior ratings of all of their 876 students utilizing a group-administered adapted version of the Devereux Elementary School Behavior Rating Scale. The factor analysis yielded five factors defined as Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, Adaptive Classroom Behavior, Inadequacy-Immaturity, and Achievement Anxiety. Coefficients of factorial congruence confirmed the similarity between the pattern generated from ratings of regular students and that of mainstreamed students.     

Gender and developmental patterns of affect, belief, and behavior in simulated injury events

This study examined the hypothesis drawn from epidemiological data that beliefs and affective reactions of male second, fifth, and eighth graders, undergraduates, and adults in response to a series of four simulated bicycle collisions would show decreased expectation and avoidance of injury in comparison to females. This study also contrasted two additional hypotheses, one suggesting an invincibility belief in teenagers, producing a curvilinear age trend, with risky cognitions increasing from second grade, peaking at eighth grade, and then decreasing in adulthood. The other hypothesis suggested that with exposure, risky beliefs increased linearly, due to desensitization to cues of risk. As predicted, female participants did expect more fear and pain, and less exhilaration, and braked sooner after seeing the hazard than male participants. Linear rather than curvilinear age patterns emerged across films, revealing that the youngest participants anticipated more fear and less exhilaration than older participants. These results parallel developmental trends in which females and younger participants who anticipate more serious consequences are at lower risk for bicycle injury than are males, older children, and adolescents. Limitations of this analogue study and potential questions for both future research and the application of injury prevention techniques are explored.     

AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior: a comparison of Dutch students and dropouts.

School dropouts are considered an important target group for AIDS prevention. They are expected to be less knowledgeable about AIDS and to show a higher degree of risky behavior as compared with their school-attending peers. Several small-scale studies among specific groups of dropouts seem to confirm such expectations. However, due to differences in methodology, it is often difficult to compare the results of such studies with findings for youths who have not dropped out of school. The present study sought to remedy this by examining AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among comparable samples of Dutch secondary school students and dropouts (excluding homeless and drug-addicted adolescents). The two groups were compared with regard to knowledge about AIDS prevention, attitude toward condom use, intention to use condoms, sexual history, and condom use. Contrary to expectations, few differences were found. It was concluded that, in most respects, dropouts are similar to those who have remained in school.     

Preference for starting and finishing behavior patterns

Pigeon's key pecking was reinforced with food in two experiments in which the correspondence between preference for starting one of two reinforced behavior patterns and the likelihood of finishing it subsequently was examined. Reinforcers were scheduled according to concurrent schedules for two classes of interresponse times, modified such that reinforcers followed a center-key peck terminating either a shorter interresponse time started by a left-key peck or a longer interresponse time started by a right-key peck. In Experiment 1, the times when reinforcers potentially were available were not discriminated, whereas in Experiment 2 they were. Absolute reinforced pattern durations were varied. The relative frequency of starting a particular pattern was highly correlated with relative frequency of that completed pattern in both experiments. Other relations between starting and finishing a pattern depended on whether reinforced interresponse times were discriminated. For instance, preference for starting a pattern sometimes correlated negatively with the likelihood of subsequently completing it. The present experiments are described as capturing part of the ordinary language meaning of "intention," according to which an organism's behavior at one moment sets the occasion for an observer to say that the organism "intends" in the future to engage in one behavior rather than another.     

drinking patterns,social interaction,and barroom behavior: a routine activities approach

Routine activities and place theory both offer a unique analytical framework to study the types of activities and behaviors that occur within urban drinking settings as well as the consequent problem-related behavior in surrounding residential neighborhoods. Using observational data from two urban bars this study set out to determine how routine drinking patterns, social interaction, and formal guardianship, such as controls and management practices, are related to patron alcohol consumption and behavioral responses within and outside the bar. The results illustrate that the level and extent of effective forms of guardianship within the facility correspond with patron behavior. Generally, the bar that provided the greatest level of guardianship by the use of effective bouncers had a lower amount of predatory sexual offending and disorder within the bar. Moreover, the routine activities of patrons attending the bars in this study also contributed to increased amounts of disorder outside the bars and in adjoining neighborhoods. Several theoretical and policy implications of bar owners social responsibility to regulate the disorderly and destructive behavior of their patrons are presented.     

Person,setting, and interaction contributions to nursery school social behavior patterns1

Within a nursery school environment, 8,930 behavioral observations were taken on 17 preschool children in six settings over a two-month period. Two different data analysis techniques were used. The aggregate analysis showed that person, setting, and interaction all contributed significantly to behavior patterns. The setting was significantly stronger than person. The individual analysis found that subjects' median Person Pattern values were correlated significantly and negatively with IQ and age, suggesting that younger children and those with lower IQ's had more consistent behavior across different settings. This was also true of children who had been at the school more than one year. Implications for predicting behavior were discussed, noting the need to study person and setting relative to one another for particular behaviors in different categories of environments.