Cam-Loi Huynh

Hawthorne Control Procedures in Educational Experiments: A Reconsideration of Their Use and Effectiveness

This article reports on a descriptive analysis of research practices and a meta-analysis of effect sizes associated with control groups employed to address Hawthorne effects in educational experiments. The descriptive analysis of 86 studies revealed a diversity of practices designed to control one of three artifact variables: special attention, activity related to the experimental task, or awareness of participation in an experiment. The meta-analysis provided no evidence for a Hawthorne versus no-treatment control difference. Moreover, a detailed analysis of these studies by their control procedure, and subsequently by other moderator variables, also revealed no systematic trends to suggest a specific artifact source. A within-study analysis of the pattern of treatment/Hawthorne/control group effect sizes suggested that the artifact controls were of limited utility. Increased research is urged into other artifacts and alternative control procedures that the educational researcher should consider.

Placebo, Hawthorne, and Other Artifact Controls: Researchers' Opinions and Practices.

AbstractThis article reports the results of mail surveys of educational researchers who either did or did not employ specially treated control groups (STCGs). Whereas some consistency in actual practice was found, the surveys revealed confusion among researchers over the definition of and relationship between both sources of artifact and placebo, Hawthorne, and attention-placebo controls. The survey data indicated the need for research assessing the effects of various artifact control practices and for a conceptual model of artifact and their controls in educational research.

Religiosity, Prosocial Values, and Adjustment among Students in Catholic High Schools in Canada

The present study explored the facilitating function of religious commitment in the lives of adolescents. A total of 369 boys and 372 girls attending Catholic high schools in Canada completed measures of family religion, religiosity, prosocial values, social adjustment (school attitudes and family satisfaction), and personal adjustment (life satisfaction and self-esteem). There were no significant gender differences in family religion, religiosity, social adjustment or personal adjustment. However, girls endorsed prosocial values much more than did boys. Religiosity had strong positive correlations with prosocial values and lesser significant correlations with social adjustment. Religiosity had much higher correlations with prosocial values and social adjustment among boys than among girls. Structural-equation analyses of the total sample, of boys, and of girls supported a path model where family religion fosters adolescentss religiosity, religiosity fosters prosocial values, prosocial values promote social adjustment and social adjustment promotes personal adjustment.

Filipino Adolescents' Parental Socialization for Academic Achievement in the United States.

Different parental socialization practices tend to predict the academic achievement of European- and Asian-American adolescents. This study explored the processes whereby parental socialization practices lead to Filipino adolescents’ academic achievement. A sample of Filipino students from San Francisco (N = 535) of both genders (ages 11-19) completed questionnaire measures of a proposed structural equation model with the causal sequence: authoritative academic socialization, importance of family reputation, attribution of success, student involvement in studies and grade-point average (GPA). Structural equation analyses supported the hypothesized model with GPA as the dependent variable: Family reputation and internal attribution were found to mediate the relation between authoritative parenting and GPA.