Explore the vast range of titles available.

Less than optimum strategies for missing values can produce biased estimates, distorted statistical power, and invalid conclusions. After reviewing traditional approaches (listwise, pairwise, and mean substitution), selected alternatives are covered including single imputation, multiple imputation, and full information maximum likelihood estimation. The effects of missing values are illustrated for a linear model, and a series of recommendations is provided. When missing values cannot be avoided, multiple imputation and full information methods offer substantial improvements over traditional approaches. Selected results using SPSS, NORM, Stata (mvis/micombine), and Mplus are included as is a table of available software and an appendix with examples of programs for Stata and Mplus.

This study examined to what extent gender, occupation and family situations influenced the occurrence and frequency of overnight work-related travel that US employees experienced. Unlike previous work, the data analysis allowed for differentiation of the factors associated with being in jobs with any overnight travel demand and the factors related to how frequently respondents travelled. This study particularly tested the hypotheses of occupational segregation and family demands, separately by gender. Consistent with the occupational segregation hypothesis, the occurrence and frequency of work travel varied across the types of occupation and men had a higher chance both to be in jobs with travel overnight demands and to travel more often than women did. The family demands hypothesis was supported by the findings that living with a spouse or partner and taking responsibility for a family member in need of extensive care were associated with the prevalence of work travel.

Behavioral trajectories during middle childhood are predictive of consequential outcomes later in life (e.g., substance abuse, violence). Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are designed to promote trajectories that reflect both growth in positive behaviors and inhibited development of negative behaviors. The current study used growth mixture models to examine effects of the Positive Action (PA) program on behavioral trajectories of social-emotional and character development (SECD) and misconduct using data from a cluster-randomized trial that involved 14 schools and a sample of predominately low-income, urban youth followed from 3rd through 8th grade. For SECD, findings indicated that PA was similarly effective at improving trajectories within latent classes characterized as “high/declining” and “low/stable”. Favorable program effects were likewise evident to a comparable degree for misconduct across observed latent classes that reflected “low/rising” and “high/rising” trajectories. These findings suggest that PA and perhaps other school-based universal SEL programs have the potential to yield comparable benefits across subgroups of youth with differing trajectories of positive and negative behaviors, making them promising strategies for achieving the intended goal of school-wide improvements in student outcomes.

Teacher- and school-level factors influence the fidelity of implementation of school-based prevention and social character and development (SACD) programs. Using a diffusion of innovations framework, the relationships among teacher beliefs and attitudes towards a prevention/SACD program and the influence of a school’s administrative support and perceptions of school connectedness, characteristics of a school’s climate, were specified in two cross-sectional mediation models of program implementation. Implementation was defined as the amount of the programs’ curriculum delivered (e.g., lessons taught), and use of program-specific materials in the classroom (e.g., ICU boxes and notes) and in relation to school-wide activities (e.g., participation in assemblies). Teachers from 10 elementary schools completed year-end process evaluation reports for year 2 ( N  = 171) and 3 ( N  = 191) of a multi-year trial. Classroom and school-wide material usage were each favorably associated with the amount of the curriculum delivered, which were associated with teachers’ attitudes toward the program which, in turn, were related to teachers’ beliefs about SACD. These, in turn, were associated with teachers’ perceptions of school climate. Perceptions of school climate were indirectly related to classroom material usage and both indirectly and directly related to the use of school-wide activities. Program developers need to consider the importance of a supportive environment on program implementation and attempt to incorporate models of successful school leadership and collaboration among teachers that foster a climate promoting cohesiveness, shared visions, and support.

With the acceleration of the divorce rate from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, the number of non-traditional families (such as single-parent families and reconstituted families) have increased relative to intact, first-time nuclear families. This article reviews empirical evidence addressing the relationship between divorce, family composition, and children's well-being. Although not entirely consistent, the pattern of empirical findings suggests that children's emotional adjustment, gender-role orientation, and antisocial behavior are affected by family structure, whereas other dimensions of well-being are unaffected. But the review indicates that these findings should be interpreted with caution because of the methodological deficiencies of many of the studies on which these findings are based. Several variables, including the level of family conflict, may be central variables mediating the effect of family structure on children.

In the socialization of attitudes, which is the better predictor of youths' orientations: what parents actually think (stated attitudes) or what their children think they think (attributed attitudes)? Mother, fathers, and youths from 466 family triads stated their own opinions on nine political and religious questions; youths were also asked to predict their fathers' and mothers' responses (attributed attitudes). Results of regression analysis support symbolic interactionists' and attribution theorists' arguments regarding attitude socialization. Stated opinions of parents have little direct effect on youths' orientations except as they are perceived (attributed) by their children. Youths perceive mothers and fathers as more conservative or traditional than their parents' stated responses justify. Youths greatly exaggerate parental agreement. This \"polarized misattribution\" is independent of the gender of the youth; it reflects the \"generational stake\" of each cohort involved in socialization interaction.

Elections constitute a principal avenue of citizen involvement in political life, and knowledge of their effects on public attitudes towards the polity and the role of the individual therein has important implications for theories of democratic governance. One sucli attitude is political efficacy, ‘the feeling that individual political action does have, or can have, an impact on the political process’. Although many studies have documented that political efficacy is positively associated with electoral participation, the causal mechanisms involved are not well understood. Most researchers have simply assumed that the ‘causal arrow’ runs from efficacy to participation, i.e. from the attitude to the behaviour. Investigations of the hypothesis that the behaviour (participation) affects the attitude (efficacy) are rare. Rarer still are enquiries focusing on the impact of election outcomes on efficacy, and studies that examine both effects are virtually non-existent. In this Note covariance structure analysis is used to investigate the effects of voting, campaign activity and the outcomes of the 1984 national elections on political efficacy in the American electorate.

It often is suggested that the father exerts greater influence on socialization of instrumental orientations than the mother, and that there is greater transmission between same-sex generational dyads than between cross-sex pairs. This research examines intergenerational similarity in political and religious orientations among 653 father-mother-youth triads. Results indicate substantial parental prediction of children's responses. Moreover, mothers consistently show higher levels of prediction than fathers on most variables. There is no evidence of specific sex-lineage contrasts. Significant differences do exist at the group (cohort) level, despite the high degree of within-family (lineage) predictivity. These results suggest socialization theory should give greater emphasis to parental influence—particularly that of the mother—on political and religious orientations.

Few studies have examined the distribution of housework across family types. Using a nationally representative sample, this paper examines the division of household labor in first-marriage families, stepfamilies, families headed by divorced mothers, and families headed by never-married mothers. Findings indicate that, across family types and regardless of women's employment status, women perform two to three times more housework than their husbands or cohabiting partners. Implications for family life education are discussed.