"They're my kryptonite but they also empower me": The double-edged sword of familismo

The objective of this study is to examine the relations of familismo to academic functioning and mental health among non-citizen Latina/o college students. The study utilizes both quantitative self-report surveys to explore attitudinal family obligations, and qualitative interviews to explore behavioral family obligations. One hundred and eighty citizen students (M = 21.30, SD = 2.92) and 84 non-citizen students (M = 21.13, SD = 2.98) completed surveys. Correlational analyses found that family obligation attitudes were linked to academic emotional engagement for non-citizen students only (r = .305, p = .005, n = 84). Cluster analyses revealed risk, resilience, and protected clusters from stress and family obligation groupings. Twenty-one non-citizen students also completed interviews. Narrative analysis of the interviews revealed that family obligation behaviors may be linked to motivation and stress. Overall, this study illustrates the complex nature of family obligations and achievement in the lives of non-citizen Latina/o college students.

A longitudinal analysis of disproportionality in statewide exclusionary discipline of students with disabilities

The study examined the state-by-state changes in the rates of exclusionary discipline of students with disabilities compared to their non-disabled peers. Historically, students with disabilities have been excluded at rates that are out of proportion with their population. This study used state discipline to investigate the current status of disproportional exclusion of students with disabilities and if there are any regional trends in the discipline of students receiving special education services. Results indicate that in both the 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 school years, there were significant differences between the rates at which students with and without disabilities were disciplined. Students with disabilities were suspended at higher rates during both school years and expelled at higher rates during the 2011-2012 school year. Results also suggest that rates of suspensions and expulsions continue to be high, particularly for students with disabilities. Findings may help states and schools develop policies that promote fair discipline of students with disabilities.

Relations among Topic Knowledge, Individual Interest, and Relational Reasoning, and Critical Thinking in Maternity Nursing

Critical thinking in learners is a goal of educators and professional organizations in nursing as well as other professions. However, few studies in nursing have examined the role of the important individual difference factors topic knowledge, individual interest, and general relational reasoning strategies in predicting critical thinking. In addition, most previous studies have used domain-general, standardized measures, with inconsistent results. Moreover, few studies have investigated critical thinking across multiple levels of experience. The major purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which topic knowledge, individual interest, and relational reasoning predict critical thinking in maternity nurses. For this study, 182 maternity nurses were recruited from national nursing listservs explicitly chosen to capture multiple levels of experience from prelicensure to very experienced nurses. The three independent measures included a domain-specific Topic Knowledge Assessment (TKA), consisting of 24 short-answer questions, a Professed and Engaged Interest Measure (PEIM), with 20 questions indicating level of interest and engagement in maternity nursing topics and activities, and the Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR), a graphical selected response measure with 32 items organized in scales corresponding to four forms of relational reasoning: analogy, anomaly, antithesis, and antinomy. The dependent measure was the Critical Thinking Task in Maternity Nursing (CT2MN), composed of a clinical case study providing cues with follow-up questions relating to nursing care. These questions align with the cognitive processes identified in a commonly-used definition of critical thinking in nursing. Reliable coding schemes for the measures were developed for this study. Key findings included a significant correlation between topic knowledge and individual interest. Further, the three individual difference factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in critical thinking with a large effect size. While topic knowledge was the strongest predictor of critical thinking performance, individual interest had a moderate significant effect, and relational reasoning had a small but significant effect. The findings suggest that these individual difference factors should be included in future studies of critical thinking in nursing. Implications for nursing education, research, and practice are discussed.

TESTING THE JOINT ROLES OF CAREER DECISION SELF-EFFICACY AND PERSONALITY TRAITS IN THE PREDICTION OF CAREER INDECISION

Career decision-making self-efficacy and the Big Five traits of neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness were examined as predictors of career indecision in a sample of 181 undergraduates. Participants completed an online survey. I predicted that the Big Five traits and career decision-making self-efficacy would (a) interrelate moderately and (b) each relate significantly and moderately to career indecision. In addition, I predicted that career decision-making self-efficacy would partially mediate the relationships between the Big Five traits and career indecision, while the Big Five traits were predicted to moderate the relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and career indecision. Finally, I predicted that career decision-making self-efficacy would account for a greater amount of unique variance in career indecision than the Big Five traits. All predicted correlations were significant. Career decision-making self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship of Extraversion to career indecision and partially mediated the relationships of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness to career indecision. Conscientiousness was found to moderate the relationship of career decision-making self-efficacy to career indecision such that the negative relation between self-efficacy and career indecision was stronger in the presence of high conscientiousness. This study builds upon existing research on the prediction of career indecision by examining potential mediating and moderating relationships.