Depictions of college students' alcohol use changed substantially in novels published between 1865 and 1933, years in which higher education expanded and college students became the focus of popular culture. In novels published before 1920, student drinking oscillated widely, primarily mediated by gender, socioeconomic status, and…

Using longitudinal data collected as part of the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, this study employed structural equation modeling to examine how multiple dimensions of college students' service participation shape life goals oriented toward meaning, purpose, and citizenship and subsequent service engagement. The…

In this article, we explore how partisanship affects state higher education policy priorities and expenditures. We assume that party coalitions are heterogeneous and policy preferences/priorities differ via mediating factors. We find that Democratic Party strength positively affects state funding for higher education but that the effect diminishes…

This article examines debt burden among college graduates and contributes to previous research by incorporating institutional and state characteristics. Utilizing a combination of national datasets and zero-one inflated beta regression, we find several major themes. First, family income and college experiences are strongly associated with the…

Using a multi-institutional sample of undergraduate students, this study found that the relationships between engaging in high impact/good practices and liberal arts outcomes differ based on students' precollege and background characteristics. Findings suggest that high impact/good practices are not a panacea and require a greater degree of…

Degree attainment at the undergraduate level for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) continues to be an issue of national concern, particularly when trying to explain disparaging gender differences in persistence. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine factors that influence degree attainment for students in…

College and university websites play an important role in the college search process. This study examines the textual and visual elements on the websites of 12 colleges and universities. Findings suggest that websites communicate a message consistent with private purposes of education and inconsistent with those linked to public purposes.

Research Findings: Emotion knowledge (EK) enables children to identify emotions in themselves and others, and its development facilitates emotion recognition in complex social situations. Sociocognitive processes, such as theory of mind (ToM), may contribute to developing EK by helping children realize the inherent variability associated with…

We examined the potential for institutional conflict of interest between the 26 private universities belonging to the Association of American Universities and the corporations to which they are tied through their boards of trustees. We were interested in the degree to which interlocks may have tightened over three points across an 11-year period…

Research Findings: Grounded in the investment model and informed by the integrative theory of the study of minority children, this study used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, a nationally representative sample of young children, to investigate whether the association between socioeconomic status (family income and…

Research Findings: The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between classroom age composition and preschoolers' vocabulary gains over an academic year and also to examine whether these relations were moderated by classroom quality. In this study (N = 130 children in 16 classrooms representing a subset of all…

Research Findings: Few studies have described parents' child care decision-making process, yet understanding how parents make child care choices is fundamental to developing effective services to promote the selection of high-quality care. This study used latent profile analysis to distinguish subgroups of low-income parents identified as…

Research Findings: This study examined the quality of teacher attributions for child disruptive behavior using a new measure, the Preschool Teaching Attributions measure. A sample of 153 early childhood teachers and 432 children participated. All teachers completed the behavior attributions measure, as well as measures regarding demographics,…

Research Findings: In order to identify the active ingredients in an effective professional development intervention focused on enhancing preschool vocabulary instruction, this study examines the frequency with which teachers and children discussed theme-related vocabulary words during shared book reading. Head Start teachers received 1 year of…

Research Findings: This research examines preschoolers' use of mental state terms in naturally occurring peer conflicts in the classroom to determine how children use mental state terms for organizing their social interactions. Analyses focus on the types, frequencies, and social interactive functions of mental state terms. Utterances…