William B. Ware

Neighborhood Social Disorganization, Families, and the Educational Behavior of Adolescents

Using data on 1,757 middle and high school students from a nationally representative sample, relationships among youth perceptions of neighborhood characteristics, parenting processes, and their own school behavior, attendance, and grades were tested using structural equation modeling. A model with direct neighborhood effects on selfreported educational behavior as well as indirect effects mediated through perceptions of supportive parenting and parental educational support fit the data well in calibration and validation samples. Perceived neighborhood social disorganization exerted a larger effect than did family processes on self-reported educational behavior. The importance of including measures of neighborhood environment in future research on educational outcomes is discussed in the context of their substantial contribution in the present investigation.

The Patient Reactions Assessment: A Brief Measure of the Quality of the Patient-Provider Medical Relationship.

This article reports 3 studies in the development of the Patient Reactions Assessment (PRA). The PRA is composed of three 5-item scales designed to measure the perceived quality of the informative (Patient Information Index) and affective (Patient Affective Index) behaviors of the provider and the patients perceived ability to initiate communication (Patient Communication Index) about the illness. The PRA was constructed according to factor-analytic procedures using cancer patients as subjects

The Reliability of Observations of Young Children's Engagement An Application of Generalizability Theory

The reliability of measurement of how young children spend their time has traditionally been computed in terms of interobserver exact agreement This study sought to apply generalizability theory to the measurement of engagement Forty-seven young children, 15 of whom had disabilities, were observed four times in their child care setting. Types and levels of engagement were coded by three raters. Using ANOVA procedures for determining the relative contribution of different sources of error, a fully crossed (with subjects) two-facet (sessions, raters) generalizability (G) study was employed. The nine outcome measures were four types and five levels of engagement Results showed that raters accounted for less than 2% of the variance in the error of the scores, while sessions accounted for most of the variance other than between subject variance. The outcome measures proved to vary in their reliability robustness. The G study was followed by a decision (D) study to determine the levels of the facets that would be required to achieve a generalizability coefficient of .80. The number of sessions could be realistically increased to achieve this aim, but the increase in “dependability” achieved with the addition of each rater was minimal. Conclusions are drawn about the importance of assessing more than one source of error, raters, in observational research Overall, molecular methods were determined to be relatively unstable for measuring the molar construct of engagement, but certain engagement outcomes were stable across sessions and raters.

Analyzing Single-Case Data: The Power of Randomization Tests

Abstract Randomization tests have been proposed as a valid method for analyzing the data of single-case designs. In this study, the power of randomization tests was systematically examined for typical designs that rely on the random assignment of interventions within the sequence of observations. A 30-observation AB design, a 32-observation ABAB design, and a multiple-baseline AB design with 15 observations on each of four individuals were studied. Four levels of autocorrelation were considered, as well as six effect sizes, ranging from 0.0 to 1.4. For each combination of design, autocorrelation, and effect size, power was estimated by generating data for 1,000 experiments. The power estimates were generally found to be low.

The Carolina Record of Individual Behavior Characteristics of handicapped infants and children

William B. Ware, PhD Professor School of Education University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina WHEN HANDICAPPED infants and young children lack communication skills, function at very basic levels, and are characterized by atypical and/or stereotyped behavior, valid assessment of developmental functioning is difficult, if not impossible. A not-infrequent conclusion is that such children are untestable (Alpern, 1967). A common approach to dealing with these problems has taken the form of extending, simplifying, or otherwise modifying existing normative scales of development. Such efforts have had limited success because of methodological problems of infant assessment in general (Lewis, 1975) and associated concerns of accountability with special populations (Simeonsson, 1982; Simeonsson & Wiegerink, 1975). In the search for improved assessment procedures, it may be productive to consider strategies and domains

The test anxiety inventory: A confirmatory factor analysis

Abstract The study was a confirmatory investigation of the factor structure of the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI) proposed by Spielberger, Gonzalez, Taylor, Algaze, and Anton (1978). The subjects were 752 college students (200 men and 542 women; 10 subjects did not report gender). The viability of a two-factor (emotionality and worry) oblique model was examined as compared to a two-factor orthogonal model, a single-factor model, and a null model. Results clearly supported the two-factor oblique solution. In addition, the invariance of the TAI factor structure across gender was supported as results indicated that a two-factor oblique solution with equal loadings and equal factor covariances provided a good model fit across both men and women. It was noted that two particular items, though empirically confirmed, appeared to be placed on the wrong factors. In addition, the necessity for a twenty-item, as opposed to a sixteen-item, TAI was questioned as the internal consistencies (coefficient alpha) of the two ...

Social interactions of toddlers and preschoolers in same-age and mixed-age play groups

Abstract We observed the play of 32 toddlers and preschoolers randomly assigned to eight play groups. Four of the play groups contained children of the same age; the other four contained children who were 2 years apart in age. No differences were found in overall patterns of play as measured by Partens (1932) play codes. Although negative behaviors occurred infrequently in both settings, younger children tended to exhibit more negative interactions in same-age settings, and older children exhibited more negative interactions in mixed-age settings. Younger children in mixed-age settings played with same-age and older playmates at expected rates; older children in mixed-age settings, however, were more likely to choose other older children as playmates. The results, which differ to some extent from previous research, may be due to the familiarity of children with peers within the group and common day-care experiences prior to the study.

Using randomization tests with responsive single-case designs

Randomization tests have been proposed as a statistical method for analyzing the data from single-case designs. A case is made for incorporating a responsive element into randomized designs. A partially responsive, partially randomized single-case design is presented, and an example is given to illustrate the design and the corresponding randomization test.

Lower Extremity Biomechanics and Self-Reported Foot-Strike Patterns Among Runners in Traditional and Minimalist Shoes

CONTEXT The injury incidence rate among runners is approximately 50%. Some individuals have advocated using an anterior-foot-strike pattern to reduce ground reaction forces and injury rates that they attribute to a rear-foot-strike pattern. The proportion of minimalist shoe wearers who adopt an anterior-foot-strike pattern remains unclear. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the accuracy of self-reported foot-strike patterns, compare negative ankle- and knee-joint angular work among runners using different foot-strike patterns and wearing traditional or minimalist shoes, and describe average vertical-loading rates. DESIGN Descriptive laboratory study. SETTING Research laboratory. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS A total of 60 healthy volunteers (37 men, 23 women; age = 34.9 ± 8.9 years, height = 1.74 ± 0.08 m, mass = 70.9 ± 13.4 kg) with more than 6 months of experience wearing traditional or minimalist shoes were instructed to classify their foot-strike patterns. INTERVENTION(S) Participants ran in their preferred shoes on an instrumented treadmill with 3-dimensional motion capture. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Self-reported foot-strike patterns were compared with 2-dimensional video assessments. Runners were classified into 3 groups based on video assessment: traditional-shoe rear-foot strikers (TSR; n = 22), minimalist-shoe anterior-foot strikers (MSA; n = 21), and minimalist-shoe rear-foot strikers (MSR; n = 17). Ankle and knee negative angular work and average vertical-loading rates during stance phase were compared among groups. RESULTS Only 41 (68.3%) runners reported foot-strike patterns that agreed with the video assessment (κ = 0.42, P < .001). The TSR runners demonstrated greater ankle-dorsiflexion and knee-extension negative work than MSA and MSR runners (P < .05). The MSA (P < .001) and MSR (P = .01) runners demonstrated greater ankle plantar-flexion negative work than TSR runners. The MSR runners demonstrated a greater average vertical-loading rate than MSA and TSR runners (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS Runners often cannot report their foot-strike patterns accurately and may not automatically adopt an anterior-foot-strike pattern after transitioning to minimalist running shoes.

Development and Validation of the Cancer Worries Inventory: A Measure of Illness-Related Cognitions

Abstract The Cancer Worries Inventory (CWI), containing 60 Lik-ertlike items and 1 open-ended item, was completed by 185 cancer patients, who also completed one of four other measures: the Profile of Mood States -Short Form, the Stanford Inventory of Cancer Patient Adjustment, the Revised Impact of Event Scale, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale -General. Factor analysis resulted in a shortened, 24-item CWI that contained five factors (death and dying, burden, spirituality, chemotherapy, and treatment) and demonstrated good internal consistencies. Construct validity was evidenced by significant inverse relationships with positive mood, self-efficacy for coping with cancer, quality of life, and intrusive thoughts and by a significant positive relationship with five measures of negative mood.