This study examined the dynamics of popularity in adolescent friendship networks across 3 years in middle school. Longitudinal social network modeling was used to identify selection and influence in the similarity of popularity among friends. It was argued that lower status adolescents strive to enhance their status through befriending higher…

This study examined the associations of substance use, psychological distress, and mental health services receipt with the structure and content of adolescent school-based networks. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we found that substance use was associated with receiving more, but making fewer, peer…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact text messages, social networks, Instant Messaging, email, and blogging had on rural middle school students' ability to decipher between formal and informal writing. Students completed self-evaluation logs, completed Formal and Informal Writing Assessments, and were scored on their use of…

Parent involvement in children's education has long been accepted, as a positively linked variable in their children's educational achievement, and it has been part of general education law in the United States since 1965. Parent Involvement research in public, private, home and charter school often focuses on student outcomes as the primary…

Background/Context: Over the last two decades, school districts in the United States have increasingly allowed students and their families to choose the schools they attend and, at the high school level, the courses they take. While the movement to provide more curricular choice for students and families has accelerated, so, too, has the policy…

Using a network analytic framework, this study introduces a new method to measure peer influence based on adolescents' affiliations or 2-mode social network data. Exposure based on affiliations is referred to as the "affiliation exposure model." This study demonstrates the methodology using data on young adolescent smoking being influenced by…

This two-group quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of the Online Advance Organizer Concept Teaching Material (ONACOM) integrated with inquiry teaching and expository teaching methods. Grade 7 students' posttest performances on the light unit achievement and light unit attitude tests controlled for gender, previous semester science…

Since the last decade of the 20th Century, there has been an effort to integrate technology into classroom instruction. The success of this effort has been uneven, as teachers have resisted this change. There has been a great deal of recent research on the importance of teacher-to-teacher interactions and successful organizational change. This…

Social and interpersonal support has mostly been carried out face-to-face. However, the internet was able, in the last couple of decades, to facilitate social interactions through a range of computer-mediated communication (CMC) interfaces--from email applications, chat-rooms, forums, instant messages (IM), short text messages (SMS), social…

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe and understand how teachers describe the changes in their practices as a result of ten years participation in a one-to-one environment. This research study focuses on one successful middle school's adoption of laptops to support teaching and learning. A qualitative study using interviews of key…

There remains a paucity of research examining the support-seeking behaviors among Latino students specifically and adolescents of ethnic minority background more generally (Carlo & Guzman, 2009). While few investigations provide some evidence that Latino adolescents, especially those with a learning disability, are at greater risk to be…

Trusting relationships at school and within other social networks emerge as protective factors that are crucial to the positive development of early adolescents. School is one of the critical environments where they can develop a sense of belonging. This study involved 20 qualitative interviews with school staff and youth workers recruited from…

The language teens use in digital spaces--from social network posts to instant message chats to text messages--often does not adhere to Standard Written English (SWE). Their digital writing involves a combination of written and conversational languages and often has a digital thumbprint that distinguishes the writer. As a means to understand this…

In recent years, the use of social networking sites has grown tremendously especially among the teens and high school students. However, very little is known about the scale of use, the purpose, how students use these sites and, more specifically, whether these sites help or hurt their academic progress. This study investigates how high school…

Although peer influence is a salient predictor of delinquency, how it operates in the etiology of runaway behavior is not fully understood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study demonstrates the importance of taking peers into account in understanding the etiology of running away. The findings suggest…