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School psychology trainers have historically struggled to adequately increase the number of professionals from diverse backgrounds. An increase in diverse providers is important in meeting the needs of a burgeoning racial/ethnic minority student population. Previous research suggests that minority undergraduate psychology students have less knowledge and exposure to school psychology than for counseling and clinical psychology, and that students with greater exposure or knowledge of school psychology reported significantly greater choice intentions for school psychology. The purpose of this study is to test the applicability of the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) in explaining minority undergraduate psychology students' choice intentions for school psychology. This study is an analysis of existing data and is based on a national sample of 283 minority undergraduate psychology students. All instruments used in this study were found to have internal consistency ranging from .83 to .91. Students' learning experiences, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and choice intentions for school psychology were evaluated by way of a mediator analysis. Results from a path analysis suggest that outcome expectations mediated the relationship between exposure and choice intentions for school psychology. Implications for minority recruitment practices are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Background Health numeracy can be defined as the ability to understand medical information presented with numbers, tables and graphs, probability, and statistics and to use that information to communicate with one’s health care provider, take care of one’s health, and participate in medical decisions. Objective To develop the Numeracy Understanding in Medicine Instrument (NUMi) using Item Response Theory scaling methods. Design A 20 item test was formed drawing from an item bank of numeracy questions. Items were calibrated using responses from 1000 participants and a 2 parameter Item Response Theory (IRT) model. Construct validity was assessed by comparing scores on the NUMi to established measures of print and numeric health literacy, mathematic achievement, and cognitive aptitude. Participants Community and clinical populations in the Milwaukee and Chicago metropolitan areas. Results Twenty-nine percent of the 1000 respondents were Hispanic, 24% Non-Hispanic white, and 42% Non-Hispanic black. Forty-one percent (41%) had no more than a high school education. The mean score on the NUMi was 13.2 (SD 4.6) with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.86. Difficulty and discrimination IRT parameters of the 20 items ranged from −1.70 to 1.45 and 0.39 to 1.98, respectively. Performance on the NUMi was strongly correlated with the WRAT-arithmetic test (0.73, p<0.001), the Lipkus expanded numeracy scale (0.69, p<0.001), the Medical Data Interpretation Test (0.75, p<0.001), and the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test (0.82, p<0.001). Performance was moderately correlated to the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy (0.43, p<0.001). Limitations The NUMi was found to be most discriminating among respondents with a lower than average level of health numeracy. Conclusions The NUMi can be applied in research and clinical settings as a robust measure of the health numeracy construct.