The Price of Rights: High School Students' Civic Values and Behaviors

Previous analyses of U.S. civics textbooks documented an overwhelming emphasis on citizen rights to the relative exclusion of citizen obligations and participation. Despite evidence of this uneven coverage, scholars have not yet investigated the psychological and behavioral consequences of this asymmetry, which may be especially consequential in the U.S., a predominantly individualistic culture. The present research does just this by analyzing survey data collected from high school students in civics courses. As expected, and in accordance with the content of civics curricula, students show greater endorsement of rights than of obligations. Moreover, higher support for obligations increases students' intention to vote and to participate in civic and extracurricular activities, whereas endorsement of rights is negatively associated with political participation.     

Trustworthiness,friendships and self‐control: factors that contribute to young children's school adjustment

The aim of present study was to examine the relationship between young children's peer‐reported trustworthiness and their school adjustment. Two hundred and eleven (103 male and 108 female) children in the United Kingdom (mean age = 6 years 2 months) took part in this study. Measures of peer‐reported trustworthiness, child‐rated school adjustment, and teacher‐rated school adjustment were administered twice across a one‐year period. Also, children's number of friendships, peer acceptance, and self‐control were assessed at Time 2. Multisample path analyses were conducted separately by sex. For both samples there were direct longitudinal paths between peer‐reported trustworthiness and changes in teacher‐rated school adjustment. For boys, the longitudinal path between peer‐reported trustworthiness and changes in child‐rated loneliness was mediated by peer acceptance, and peer‐reported trustworthiness mediated the relationship between self‐control and teacher‐rated school adjustment. Sex differences in peer‐reported trustworthiness also emerged: girls were rated as more trustworthy by their peers than were boys. The findings support the hypothesis that young children's trustworthiness contributes to school adjustment, which is due in part to peer acceptance. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Metachromatic leukodystrophy and nonverbal learning disability: neuropsychological and neuroradiological findings in heterozygous carriers.

Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is an autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder due to deficiency of the enzyme arylsulfatase A that leads to progressive, diffuse demyelination. The syndrome of nonverbal learning disability has been attributed to white matter abnormality and has been reported in children with this disorder and in some healthy family member carriers of gene. We examined the neuropsychologic profiles and MRIs of eight members of the family of a 7-year-old girl with this disease, all of whom were heterozygous carriers of the mutation and five of whom were also carriers of the MLD pseudodeficiency gene. All had low normal levels of arylsulfatase A, and seven of the eight had average or better profiles across all assessed neuropsychological domains. The patient's younger sister had a profile with features of the syndrome of nonverbal learning disability despite a normal MRI, whereas two members with minor white matter findings did not. This family does not provide evidence for the syndrome of nonverbal learning disability in heterozygous carriers of the gene for MLD, even when associated with the MLD pseudodeficiency gene.     

Engineering students’ perceptions of engineering specialties

The field of engineering is defined by a number of specialty areas, thus most engineering students must decide upon an educational specialty track within the engineering major. Data on familiarity with, and perceptions of similarity among 11 engineering specialties were collected from 129 undergraduate engineering students from a public urban university. Similarity data were collected by way of a paired comparison task, and multidimensional scaling techniques were used to map these data into spatial representations. A three-dimensional solution was selected. Analysis of variance procedures also were used to examine differences in perceptions of engineering specialties by gender, ethnicity, commitment to career choice, and career decision-making self-efficacy. Results indicated that female students rated engineering specialties as more prestigious than male students, and students with a more dogmatic stance towards career rated engineering as relatively exclusive to men.     

Developing the Cyber Victimization Experiences and Cyberbullying Behaviors Scales

The reported prevalence rates of cyber victimization experiences and cyberbullying behaviors vary. Part of this variation is likely due to the diverse definitions and operationalizations of the constructs adopted in previous research and the lack of psychometrically robust measures. Through 2 studies, the authors developed (Study 1) and evaluated (Study 2) the cyber victimization experiences and cyberbullying behaviors scales. Participants in Study 1 were 393 (122 boys, 171 girls) and in Study 2 were 345 (153 boys, 192 girls) 11–15-year-olds who completed measures of cyber victimization experiences, cyberbullying behaviors, face-to-face victimization experiences, face-to-face bullying behaviors, and social desirability. The 3-factor cyber victimization experiences scale comprised threat, shared images, and personal attack. The 3-factor cyberbullying behaviors scale comprised sharing images, gossip, and personal attack. Both scales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and convergent validity.