Childhood predictors of adolescent competence and self-worth in rural youth.

Problem: Urban children who become competent adults despite circumstances that place their development and mental health at risk are considered to be resilient. Less is known about the risk and protective factors that characterize resilience among Hispanic/Latinos living in rural areas.

Methods: Data for regression analyses were collected when children (n = 603; 54% Hispanic/Latino) enrolled in the study in fifth grade (M = 10.

A New Stopping Rule for Computerized Adaptive Testing.

The goal of the current study was to introduce a new stopping rule for computerized adaptive testing. The predicted standard error reduction stopping rule (PSER) uses the predictive posterior variance to determine the reduction in standard error that would result from the administration of additional items. The performance of the PSER was compared to that of the minimum standard error stopping rule and a modified version of the minimum information stopping rule in a series of simulated adaptive tests, drawn from a number of item pools.

Incorporating Student Mobility in Achievement Growth Modeling: A Cross-Classified Multiple Membership Growth Curve Model.

Multiple membership random effects models (MMREMs) have been developed for use in situations where individuals are members of multiple higher level organizational units. Despite their availability and the frequency with which multiple membership structures are encountered, no studies have extended the MMREM approach to hierarchical growth curve modeling (GCM). This study introduces a cross-classified multiple membership growth curve model (CCMM-GCM) for modeling, for example, academic achievement trajectories in the presence of student mobility.