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The association between ethnic group identification, attributional style, and the use of self-protective attributions with respect to self-esteem, academic achievement and motivation among ethnically diverse adolescents was examined. Participants in the study included 422 African American, 90 Arab American, and 194 European American high school students. Results of this study indicated that ethnic minority students with a strong ethnic identity were more motivated to achieve academically and had a better school self-concept than students with a depreciated ethnic identity. An inverse relationship was found between academic achievement and variables measuring school self-concept and academic motivation among African American and Arab American students. In addition prejudice was frequently endorsed as a reason for failure among the ethnic minority participants. These findings suggest that some criteria, other than academic grades, are used for self-evaluation by ethnic minority adolescents. (Contains 90 references.) (Author)

The influence of gender, sex-role orientation, and self-esteem on coping strategies was looked at for adolescents. The COPE scale was given to 8th and 9th grade students (N=306) in two suburban mid-western schools to determine the coping strategies they recently used to deal with stressful peer-related situations. Measures of demographic information, self-role orientation, and self-esteem were obtained. The results were consistent with past research showing that girls used significantly more Emotion-Focused Coping than boys. Sex-role orientation also influenced adolescents' use of Active, Acceptance, and Emotion-Focused Coping. The results lend support to the socialization hypothesis with regard to Emotion-Focused Coping which incorporates seeking social support for emotional reasons. Emotion-Focused Coping also focuses on venting of emotions and a concomitant tendency to discharge these emotions. (Contains 33 references.) (JDM)

This study was conducted to explore the impact of several aspects of self-efficacy expectations in relation to the vocational considerations of high school students. Career self-efficacy expectations and decision making by male (N=132) and female (N=92) high school students in general education (N=108), special education (N=41), and an alternative high school program (N=75) were examined. Students completed the Career Decision Scale, the Occupational Self-Efficacy Scale (modified version), the Career Decision Making Self-Efficacy Scale (modified version), and a background questionnaire. Gender based differences were found in relation to the occupations considered and self-efficacy estimates. Males reported lower career self-efficacy estimates and restricted consideration of cross-gender options as compared to females. Results also indicated that students in general education reported greater self-efficacy expectations compared to special education or alternative education students. Stepwise multiple regression analyses with employment consideration of gender biased occupations and career decidedness as the dependent variables yielded results that varied by educational placement. (Author/NB)

Individuals who are stigmatized are people for whom others hold negative beliefs. In these three 1989 studies members of a stigmatized group were 7th- and 8th-grade adolescents, aged 14 and 15 years old, from a large urban midwestern African-American population. In the first study the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale was administered to 196 African-Americans. Scores for this sample were significantly higher than the norms for the total self-concept score and for all six self-concept subscales. In the second study the Nowicki-Strickland Scale, a measure of internal-external locus of control was administered to 110 adolescent African-Americans. The results indicated that the African-American youngsters in this sample were more external in their beliefs about events which control their lives than the 1973 comparison group of Nowicki and Strickland. In the third study the Attributional Style Questionnaire was used to examine the use of externalization as a self-protective mechanism. The results showed that attributional style in response to positive events is significantly different than for styles in response to negative events. The three studies indicated that the global self-concept of these youngsters was significantly higher than reported norms; that they were more external in their beliefs about events which control their lives than reported norms; and that they view themselves as having more influence over positive life events than over negative life events. (ABL)

Psychology studies often have low statistical power. Sample size tables, as given by J. Cohen (1988), may be used to increase power, but they are based on Monte Carlo studies of relatively "tame" mathematical distributions, as compared to psychology data sets. In this study, Monte Carlo methods were used to investigate Type I and Type II error properties of the independent samples "t" test under a "discrete mass at zero with gap" data set to determine if the sample size tables given by Cohen yield correct results. Monte Carlo methods were used with a FORTRAN program to sample with replacement from a population of 516 responses to a survey regarding the age at which subjects first used cigarettes. Ten sample sizes were randomly drawn: (1) n1=5, n2=15; (2) n1=10, n2=10; (3) n1=10, n2=30; (4) n1=20, n2=20; (5) n1=15, n2=45; (6) n1=30, n2=30; (7) n1=20, n2=60; (8) n1=40, n2=40; (9) n1=30, n2=90; and (10) n1=60, n2=60. For the smallest unbalanced sample size (5,15), the "t" test was generally not robust. For the remaining sample sizes, results were in agreement with normal curve theory. When confronted with non-normal data sets, psychology researchers do not need to make any modifications to Cohen's (1988) tables when making sample size determinations. Two graphs illustrate the study. A 12-item list of references is included. (SLD)

Psychoactive drugs are widely available in the United States. Many, such as coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol, are used commonly and acceptably by adults. For children and adolescents sorting through the complex messages about both licit and illicit drugs is difficult. Previous research examined differences between substance users and abusers with groupings based on adverse consequence variables, personality, and psychological health. This study examined adolescent substance use with abstainers, users, and abusers for both consequence and frequency of use groupings. Self-report behavioral data (N=426) indicated robust and comprehensive differences among the three groups for both consequence and frequency of use paradigms. Distinctions observed among the three groups by using the consequence grouping paradigm were paralleled by distinctions among the three groups using the frequency of use paradigm. The implication of this finding is that when one method is economically or otherwise unsuitable to identify clinically at-risk adolescents, the other approach can be used with equal utility. Through these related but distinct dimensions a more comprehensive appreciation of these group differences emerges. The results also provide useful information about variables over which clinicians have both an interest and influence. For both clinical research and practice it is important to be attentive to behavioral risk factors as they are differentially expressed by the profiles of the three groups. (ABL)

This study investigated the cognitive styles, attributions, and self-evaluations of 40 gifted girls and 40 gifted boys, grades 6 through 8. Informational attributional ratings for task difficulty, luck, ability, and effort were studied in the context of: (1) an individual non-competitive goal structure; (2) a competitive goal structure; (3) success-failure feedback conditions; and (4) gender. Efficacy, satisfaction, reward, and anxiety were also assessed. Subjects performed a task under two conditions, non-competitive and competitive with the results manipulated for success/failure outcome. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four groups: success followed by success, success followed by failure, failure followed by success, and failure followed by failure. Results revealed that outcome was a critical factor for most variables. Boys approached both tasks with more optimism and regarded the task as more difficult. The competitive condition elicited a diminished perception of ability for girls. Main effects for sex were obtained for efficacy, luck, difficulty and skill. Goal structure influenced some ratings. Unexpectedly, anxiety and effort ratings were non-significant for sex or success-failure outcomes. A task-focused mastery-oriented approach was common in which high effort was maintained in the face of failure. Contains 20 references. (DB)

As levels of maternal employment increase (71% for mothers with school-age children), there is concern for both the short- and long-term consequences of maternal employment on children and families. This study examined the influence of maternal employment in two-parent families on the substance use of adolescents. Subjects were male and female high school students (N=161) who had fathers working full-time and mothers working full-time (N=77), or fathers working full-time and mothers working part-time or not employed outside the home (N=84). Subjects completed a 48-item survey in which they described their alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use, and mother/father employment patterns. Subjects also reported their frequency of extracurricular activities and sources of income in order to increase understanding of the influence of after school activities on adolescent substance use behaviors. The results revealed no significant effect of maternal employment on adolescent substance use. (Author/NB)

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not children manifesting different cognitive styles also behave differently in small-group instructional situations. Six groups of seven children each engaged in a small group videotaped learning experience in which they were to learn the English equivalent of 75 symbols. Analysis of the data showed no differences between impulsive and reflective children on total number of responses, total number of correct responses, total number of correct first responses, ratio of correct responses/total number of responses, and time to first response. Results were discussed with respect to the generality of the conceptual tempo construct. (Author)

The study examined the effects of questions on learning among 90 intermediate level educable mentally retarded children. Four types of learning were identified as relevant remembering, incidental remembering, relevant inferring, and incidental inferring. Results indicated that question position was an important variable in influencing the learning of EMR children, with Ss who received post-questions performing consistently better than those who received pre-questions. A significant interaction between question type and relevant criterion type was also found; children who received "remembering" training questions scored higher on the remembering relevant criterion test than children who had received "inferring" training questions, and children who received "inferring" training questions performed better on the inferring relevant criterion test than children who had received "remembering" training questions. (Author/SBH)

Reviewed is research dealing with teacher questions and their effects on mentally retarded children. Cited are studies involving classification systems for questions, patterns of teachers' questioning, training of questioning behaviors, and effects of questions on normal students. Among implications noted for mentally retarded persons are the needs for further research on the generalization effects of questions and in the area of validation. (CL)