Kent State University

About: Kent State University is a education organization based out in Kent, Ohio, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Liquid crystal & Population. The organization has 10897 authors who have published 24607 publications receiving 720309 citations. The organization is also known as: Kent State & KSU.

Hassles and uplifts of giving care to a family member with dementia.

Abstract: The role of daily caregiving stressors (hassles) and small caregiving satisfactions (uplifts) in the well-being of 60 family caregivers was investigated. Hassles and uplifts in 4 domains of caregiving were examined, and direct effects of hassles, uplifts on caregivers' social and psychological well-being, as well as the interactive and net effects of hassles and uplifts, were assessed. Hassles associated with care recipients' behavior demonstrated strongest associations with well-being. Women and caregivers to socially responsive yet behaviorally inappropriate care recipients reported more behavior and cognitive hassles. Uplifts associated with assistance in activities of daily living and with care recipients' behavior were related to well-being, with more uplifts related to greater, rather than less, depression. More intensely involved caregivers reported more of these uplifts. Net effects in the hypothesized direction were found, but no interactive effects emerged.

A Comparison of Teachers' Attitudes Toward Their Included Students with Mild and Severe Disabilities

Abstract: This investigation examined whether teachers' attitudes toward their included students with disabilities differed as a function of the disability's severity. Seventy inclusive classroom teachers nominated three students to prompts corresponding with the attitudes of attachment, concern, indifference, and rejection. Chi-square analyses supported predictions, based on a theory of instructional tolerance and a model of differential expectations, that students with severe or obvious disabilities are significantly overrepresented among teachers' nominations in the indifference category, whereas students with mild or hidden disabilities are significantly overrepresented among teachers' nominations in the rejection category. Results were interpreted to indicate that teachers tend to form different attitudes and expectations for their included students with disabilities depending on the severity or obviousness of students' disabilities. It is suggested that both included students with obvious and hidden disabilit...

Nonstranger sexual aggression: A discriminant analysis of the psychological characteristics of undetected offenders

Abstract: Rape is an underreported and underconvicted crime. Therefore, many highly sexually aggressive men are missed by research employing judicial identification for sample selection. The present study examined the psychological characteristics of three types of undetected sexually aggressive men who had assaulted female acquaintances. Subjects were selected on the basis of their responses to the Sexual Experiences Survey and completed questionnaires that reflected psychological variables relevant to two major theoretical models of rape, the psychopathology model and the social control/social conflict model. Data were analyzed via discriminant analysis. The groups were significantly discriminated by seven variables, including six rape-supportive attitudes. The findings support a social control/social conflict explanation of nonstranger sexual aggression.

A Comparison of Imputation Techniques for Handling Missing Data

Abstract: Researchers are commonly faced with the problem of missing data. This article presents theoretical and empirical information for the selection and application of approaches for handling missing data on a single variable. An actual data set of 492 cases with no missing values was used to create a simulated yet realistic data set with missing at random (MAR) data. The authors compare and contrast five approaches (listwise deletion, mean substitution, simple regression, regression with an error term, and the expectation maximization [EM] algorithm) for dealing with missing data, and compare the effects of each method on descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients for the imputed data (n = 96) and the entire sample (n = 492) when imputed data are included. All methods had limitations, although our findings suggest that mean substitution was the least effective and that regression with an error term and the EM algorithm produced estimates closest to those of the original variables.

The Pelvis and Femur of Ardipithecus ramidus: The Emergence of Upright Walking

Abstract: The femur and pelvis of Ardipithecus ramidus have characters indicative of both upright bipedal walking and movement in trees. Consequently, bipedality in Ar. ramidus was more primitive than in later Australopithecus. Compared with monkeys and Early Miocene apes such as Proconsul, the ilium in Ar. ramidus is mediolaterally expanded, and its sacroiliac joint is located more posteriorly. These changes are shared with some Middle and Late Miocene apes as well as with African apes and later hominids. However, in contrast to extant apes, bipedality in Ar. ramidus was facilitated by craniocaudal shortening of the ilium and enhanced lordotic recurvature of the lower spine. Given the predominant absence of derived traits in other skeletal regions of Ar. ramidus, including the forelimb, these adaptations were probably acquired shortly after divergence from our last common ancestor with chimpanzees. They therefore bear little or no functional relationship to the highly derived suspension, vertical climbing, knuckle-walking, and facultative bipedality of extant African apes.