Foster family care for persons with mental retardation.
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Adolescent↗
Biomedical subjects
K F Widaman
Publications and source records attributed to K F Widaman.
Differences in adolescents' self-concept as a function of academic level, ethnicity, and gender.
The relations of dimensions of self-concept of adolescents with their academic level, ethnicity, and gender were investigated. A self-concept inventory assessing 11 aspects of self-concept was administered to a sample of 1,140 eight-grade students stratified with regard to academic level (regular class, educationally marginal, learning handicapped), ethnicity (white, black, and Hispanic), and gender. Results showed that regular class students had higher levels of self-concept on most scales than did students who were educationally marginal or learning handicapped; the latter two groups showed few differences. Black students had higher self-concept ratings than did white and Hispanic students on most scales. An interaction on two academically related dimensions of self-concept revealed that white students who were educationally marginal had the lowest level of academic and verbal self-concept. Implications of the results for theories of self-concept formation were discussed.
Achievement↗
Validation of the parenting style survey for parents of children with mental retardation.
A validation study was performed in order to assess the content, construct, and criterion-related validities of the Parenting Style Survey, an instrument assessing parental behavior in families with a child who has mental retardation. Subjects were the primary careproviders of 29 individuals with moderate mental retardation. Data corroborating the validity of the Parenting Style Survey were derived from home visits, individuals experienced in developmental psychology, careproviders for individuals with mental retardation, and the Family Environment Scale (Moos, 1974). The Parenting Style Survey is a reliable and valid measure of parenting behaviors for individuals who have a child with mental retardation living at home.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Properly characterizing clusters of families who have children with mental retardation: a comment on Mink, Blacher, and Nihira.
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Child↗
Expectancy models of alcohol use.
The primary goal of the present article is to compare expectancy models with competing attitude models of alcohol use. First, several methodological issues in expectancy research were addressed, to more adequately compare the theoretical models. Study 1 examined the effect of possible self-report biases on associations among expectancy constructs and alcohol use. In Studies 2 and 3, the basic distinction between general factors of positive and negative alcohol expectancies was investigated in both cross-sectional and prospective models. Alternative predictions that were based on competing expectancy and attitude theories were evaluated primarily in Study 3. Results from these studies supported the validity of the expectancy constructs and the proposed distinctions among expectancy and attitude constructs-in terms of strong discriminant validity, absence of self-report bias, and differential prediction of alcohol use. Furthermore, the findings favored certain expectancy models over alternative attitude models of alcohol use, reaffirming the usefulness of the expectancy framework.
Adult↗
A componential model for mental addition.
A componential model capable of representing simple and complex forms of mental addition was proposed and then tested by using chronometric techniques. A sample of 23 undergraduate students responded to 800 addition problems in a true-false reaction time paradigm. The 800 problems comprised 200 problems of each of four types: two single-digit addends, one single- and one double-digit addend, two double-digit addends, and three single-digit addends. The results revealed that the columnwise product of addends, a structural variable consistent with a memory network retrieval process, was the best predictor of mental addition for each of the four types of problem. Importantly, the componential model allowed estimation of effects of several other structural variables, e.g., carrying to the next column and speed of encoding of digits. High levels of explained variance verified the power of the model to represent the reaction time data, and the stability of estimates across types of problem implied consistent component use by subjects. Implications for research on mental addition are discussed.
Adolescent↗
Adolescents who apparently are invulnerable to drug, alcohol, and nicotine use.
As part of a large survey of addictive behavior in high school students, a group of 43 girls and 34 boys was identified who denied any use of drugs, alcohol, or tobacco. These apparently invulnerable adolescents were compared to the rest of the "user" sample on the remaining items of the questionnaire. The invulnerable students reported generally better physical and mental health and academic achievement. They also indicated a significantly lower rate of similar problems in their parents.
Achievement↗
Characteristics of adolescents at risk for compulsive overeating on a brief screening test.
As part of a large survey of addictive behavior in high school students, 43% of a sample of 278 (26% of the males, 57% of the females) scored above the cutoff point set by Overeaters Anonymous on their scale for assessing compulsive overeating. While this at-risk group did not report poorer general adjustment, health, or school achievement than did the students not at risk, they did significantly more often perceive their life quality and relationship with the person closest to them as less positive. The at-risk subsample indicated the defensive effectiveness of overeating in their significantly more frequent report of dissociative experiences while eating, and less severe ratings of insecurity, worrying, and daydreaming. One of the most salient findings was the at-risk students' more frequent report of addictive problems in their parents (overeating, alcohol and drug use, and gambling).
Adolescent↗
Structural-equation models of current drug use: are appropriate models so simple(x)?
The simplex and common-factor models of drug use were compared using maximum-likelihood estimation of latent variable structural models in two samples: a sample of 226 high school students, using ratio-scale measures of current drug use, and a sample of 310 industrial workers and 811 college students, using ordinal-scale measures of current drug use. Latent variables of alcohol, marijuana, enhancer hard drugs, and dampener hard drugs were specified in a series of structural models. Contrary to previous findings with cumulative drug-use data, the common-factor model provided a more acceptable representation of the observed current-use data than did the simplex model in both samples. In addition, the similarity of results across both of these samples supports recent contentions by Huba and Bentler (1982) that quantitatively measured variables are not necessarily superior to qualitative, ordinal indicators in latent variable models of drug use.
Adolescent↗
Individual differences in cognitive arithmetic.
Unities in the processes involved in solving arithmetic problems of varying operations have been suggested by studies that have used both factor-analytic and information-processing methods. We designed the present study to investigate the convergence of mental processes assessed by paper-and-pencil measures defining the Numerical Facility factor and component processes for cognitive arithmetic identified by using chronometric techniques. A sample of 100 undergraduate students responded to 320 arithmetic problems in a true-false reaction-time (RT) verification paradigm and were administered a battery of ability measures spanning Numerical Facility, Perceptual Speed, and Spatial Relations factors. The 320 cognitive arithmetic problems comprised 80 problems of each of four types: simple addition, complex addition, simple multiplication, and complex multiplication. The information-processing results indicated that regression models that included a structural variable consistent with memory network retrieval of arithmetic facts were the best predictors of RT to each of the four types of arithmetic problems. The results also verified the effects of other elementary processes that are involved in the mental solving of arithmetic problems, including encoding of single digits and carrying to the next column for complex problems. The relation between process components and ability measures was examined by means of structural equation modeling. The final structural model revealed a strong direct relation between a factor subsuming efficiency of retrieval of arithmetic facts and of executing the carry operation and the traditional Numerical Facility factor. Furthermore, a moderate direct relation between a factor subsuming speed of encoding digits and decision and response times and the traditional Perceptual Speed factor was also found. No relation between structural variables representing cognitive arithmetic component processes and ability measures spanning the Spatial Relations factor was found. Results of the structural modeling support the conclusion that information retrieval from a network of arithmetic facts and execution of the carry operation are elementary component processes involved uniquely in the mental solving of arithmetic problems. Furthermore, individual differences in the speed of executing these two elementary component processes appear to underlie individual differences on ability measures that traditionally span the Numerical Facility factor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Cognition↗
Life-span development of institutionalized and community-based mentally retarded persons, revisited.
Life-span development of adaptive behavior of 30,749 mentally retarded individuals residing in California and being served by the California Department of Developmental Services was studied. The estimated life-span trends differed somewhat from those reported in an earlier investigation (Eyman & Arndt, 1982.) We used a larger sample and a more appropriate model and found different growth curves in adaptive behavior over levels of retardation, contrary to the Eyman and Arndt findings. Moreover, when cross-sectional vs. semi-longitudinal growth curves were compared, the degree of similarity of the two types of curves was a function of level of retardation. Evidence on the need for large sample life-span studies based on at least 6 to 8 years follow-up was presented.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Structure of adaptive behavior: I. Replication across fourteen samples of nonprofoundly mentally retarded people.
A two-step procedure was used to investigate the dimensional structure of adaptive behavior of mildly, moderately, and severely mentally retarded people. The first step consisted of item factor analyses of the 66-item Client Development Evaluation Report for two derivation samples, each containing 3,024 subjects; results revealed a high degree of cross-sample similarity. Using the preceding results, we conducted parcel factor analyses for 14 samples of retarded people (average sample size, 676). These analyses resulted in a quite stable six-factor structure of adaptive behavior: Motor Development, Independent-Living Skills, Cognitive Competence, Social Competence, Social (or Extrapunitive) Maladaption, and Personal (or Intrapunitive) Maladaption. The implications for research and theory of the highly replicable six-factor structure of adaptive behavior were discussed.
Activities of Daily Living↗
Cognitive addition and multiplication: evidence for a single memory network.
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Cognition↗
Validity of self-reports of alcohol and other drug use: a multitrait-multimethod assessment.
Four methods (self-reported rating, self-reported intake, peer-reported rating, peer-reported intake) and multiple analytical criteria were employed to assess the construct validity of reports of three types of substance use (alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes) in a study of 194 college students who were members of friendship pairs. The resulting multitrait-multimethod matrix was analyzed in the traditional fashion as well as with confirmatory factor analysis. Convergent and discriminant validity for the three substance use traits were quite adequate, although the validity of one measure (the peer-reported intake measure of alcohol use) may be considered inadequate according to some criteria. This study demonstrates the usefulness of multimethod assessment and confirmatory factor analysis for research on construct validity and for derivation of more accurate measures of drug use.
Adolescent↗
Multitrait-multimethod models in aging research.
The multitrait-multimethod matrix is a versatile tool for structuring the design and analysis of studies in many areas of psychology, including the aging of psychological processes. The basic goal for which the multitrait-multimethod matrix was developed is the establishment of the construct validity of measures. With newer forms of analyzing multitrait-multimethod data, particularly those using structural equation modeling, it is possible to specify models and employ model comparisons for an even broader goal: the more adequate generalization of conclusions across the facets included in the study. Topics addressed in this paper include the design of multitrait-multimethod studies, the specification of an array of structural models for such data, model comparisons that allow the estimation of the degree of convergent validity, discriminant validity, and method variance exhibited by a set of measures, and the extension of structural models to more than a single group, which allows the testing of questions regarding means, as well as the traditional tests of differences in variance and covariance. The procedures discussed are then explicated by describing the representation of data from a hypothetical four-group study of memory employing a form of design that is common in research on aging. Strengths and weaknesses of the structural modeling approach to the analysis of multitrait-multimethod data are discussed.
Aging↗