Bullying prevention and intervention are ongoing challenges for all educators, school psychologists included. A lack of research exists regarding the potential role of middle school students as direct actors in bullying prevention and intervention. This article describes a novel student leadership group for seventh graders in which the primary…

Currently, many societies are placing a greater onus on academic achievement--resulting in higher levels of stress being observed among adolescent students. Stress can have detrimental repercussions on adolescents' health and is also associated with anxiety and depression. However, since less is known about how high stress levels affect school…

Although attitudes strongly predict later sexual behaviors, few studies have investigated the factors that influence early adolescent attitudes toward sex. Using a general population sample of urban seventh-grade students (N = 1,736), we examined how supportive parenting, television viewing, perceived social norms, and having a friend and/or…

New analytical tools have facilitated the exploration of the trajectories of alcohol use; however, there are a limited number of studies that explore early adolescence. A sample of 5,903 youths followed from sixth through eighth grade was used to (1) examine the trajectories of alcohol use and (2) determine the degree to which common correlates…

Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model of persuasive communication, the authors examine the impact of the perceptions of the instructor or source on students' receptivity to a new substance abuse prevention curriculum. Using survey data from a cohort of students participating in the Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Study, the authors use…

Background: Escalation of youth violence within a large geographic school-complex area in southeastern rural Hawaii became a major problem in 2006. How cultural forces impact the problem was an impetus to examine youth violence from perspectives of adults and children in rural communities. Gathering these data was an essential first step toward…

Interventions that aim to promote social competence, reduce problem behavior, and improve school climate are common at all levels of schooling. This whole-school focus, coupled with researchers' concerns about contamination or spillover effects in evaluations that randomly assign classrooms or students to conditions, as well as advances in…

This is the first of two reports that summarize the findings from an impact evaluation of a violence prevention intervention for middle schools. This report discusses findings after 1 year of implementation. A forthcoming report will discuss the findings after 2 years and 3 years of implementation. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Education (ED)…

The present study investigated the role of low academic competence in the emergence of depressive cognitions and symptoms. Structural equation modeling was conducted on a longitudinal sample of African American boys (n = 253) and girls (n = 221). Results supported the hypothesized path models from academic competence in 1st grade to depressive…