Previous studies highlighted the importance of parental support for development of mastery of control and depressive symptoms. These studies tended to examine one time wave and outcomes related to that period, forwarding an assumption parenting behaviours do not change as children age. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979-Children and Young Adults, this study filled the gap by examining children's supportive environment at three time points and determining how levels of support across these points impacted children's depression and mastery at 18 years of age. Relative stability of mothers' supportive parenting (i.e., encouragement of social maturity, warmth and affection, and physical punishment) at early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence was examined by Kendall's tau correlations. Encouragement of social maturity showed relative stability between early and middle childhood and middle childhood and early adolescence; warmth and affection showed relative stability between early and middle childhood, and physical punishment showed relative stability across all time points. Absolute stability was examined using hierarchical linear modelling and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. No instances were found. Latent class growth analysis identified different trajectories of supportive environment among participants and three groups were identified. Multiple regressions conducted to examine how different trajectories affect late adolescents' …

A primary task of adolescence and young adulthood is to form and develop healthy romantic relationships. While the importance of sibling and romantic relationships have been examined separately, only recently have researchers begun to explore links between the two. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the connection between romantic competence and sibling relationships, especially sibling warmth and sibling conflict, as well as the role of sibling gender constellation in college-aged young adults. This study aimed to examine (a) whether there is an association between sibling relationship quality, such as sibling warmth and sibling conflict, and perceived romantic competence, and (b) the role of sibling gender constellation on the relationship between sibling relationship quality (sibling warmth and sibling conflict) and perceived romantic competence among undergraduate students. Correlation analyses indicated there was no statistically significant correlation between sibling warmth and perceived romantic competence (p > .05), whereas sibling conflict was statistically negative correlated with perceived romantic competence (p < .01). While sibling gender constellation did not have an interaction effect with sibling conflict on perceived romantic competence, which means sibling gender constellation did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between sibling conflict and perceived romantic competence. Limitations …

Studies indicate the educational needs of highly gifted students are best met through accelerated learning. It is difficult to recognize very young children that are suited for an accelerated curriculum because younger students frequently lack school records or portfolios used to identify gifted students. This study examined the accuracy of cognitive ability and achievement tests in predicting academic achievement by the end of second grade, correlating test results and final grade averages collected from sixteen children ages five to six who entered a public school program for high-ability learners in kindergarten. A multiple regression analysis indicated the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence produced the highest mean IQ score and a strong correlation with reading achievement. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test contributed in small part to the prediction of academic achievement. The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-Second Edition had negative correlations with final grade averages, indicating they are not predictors of academic achievement for these students.

This study examined the relationships between family structure (organization and control), family process (cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict) with parenting sense of competency (parenting efficacy) for mothers (n = 138) engaged in Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) related activities. Family structure in this study looked at how the family system is organized regarding clarity of family rules. In addition, family processes of the research participants looked at daily family routines and interactions. General parenting self-efficacy, task-specific self-efficacy for nurturance, and task-specific self-efficacy for teaching which are the dependent variables, looked at the degree to which parents feel competent and capable of solving problems related to these processes in the parent-child relationship. Research questions were answered using multivariate analysis of canonical correlational analysis (CCA) to examine the associations between the independent and dependent variables. Results showed significant relationship between family structure variables of control and organization and parents' self-report of their general efficacy and their task specific efficacy for teaching and nurturing. The study also showed an inverse relationship between process variable of conflict and overall self-efficacy of parents' and their task specific efficacy for teaching and nurturing.

Meta-analyses are conducted to synthesize the quantitative results of related studies. The random-effects meta-analysis model is based on the assumption that a distribution of true effects exists in the population. This distribution is often assumed to be normal with a mean and variance. The population variance, also called heterogeneity, can be estimated numerous ways. Accurate estimation of heterogeneity is necessary as a description of the distribution and for determining weights applied in the estimation of the summary effect when using inverse-variance weighting. To evaluate a wide range of estimators, we compared 16 estimators (Bayesian and non-Bayesian) of heterogeneity with regard to bias and mean square error over conditions based on reviews of educational and psychological meta-analyses. Three simulation conditions were varied: (a) sample size per meta-analysis, (b) true heterogeneity, and (c) sample size per effect size within each meta-analysis. Confidence or highest density intervals can be calculated for heterogeneity. The heterogeneity estimators that performed best over the widest range of conditions were paired with heterogeneity interval estimators. Interval estimators were evaluated based on coverage probability, interval width, and coverage of the estimated value. The combination of the Paule Manel estimator and Q-Profile interval method is recommended when synthesizing standardized mean …

Ordinal coefficient alpha is a newly derived non-parametric reliability estimate. As with any point estimate, ordinal coefficient alpha is merely an estimate of a population parameter and tends to vary from sample to sample. Researchers report the confidence interval to provide readers with the amount of precision obtained. Several methods with differing computational approaches exist for confidence interval estimation for alpha, including the Fisher, Feldt, Bonner, and Hakstian and Whalen (HW) techniques. Overall, coverage rates for the various methods were unacceptably low with the Fisher method as the highest performer at 62%. Because of the poor performance across all four confidence interval methods, a need exists to develop a method which works well for ordinal coefficient alpha.