Reports a study that examined social factors which might predict adolescent smoking transition from nonsmoking or experimental to more advanced stages. Data from teens who participated in the Teenage Attitudes and Practices Survey indicated that best friends' smoking status was the only factor that consistently predicted adolescent smoking…

Rotter's (1966) "control of reinforcement" construct is a dimension of belief or expectancy about the locus of reinforcing consequences for behavior. A generalized disposition is represented which ascribes reinforcement contingencies to either "external" (and, hence, uncontrollable) factors or to "internal" sources in which case the individual…

It is assumed here that the most effective way of reducing the rate of deviant child behavior is to alter the reinforcing contingencies supplied by the social agents who live with the child. The immediate focus for the intervention program is upon the social environment in which the child lives, because it is the parents, siblings, peers, and…

Research problems and issues concerning socialization are identified in an effort to aid member agencies of the Interagency Panel on Early Childhood Research and Development in establishing priorities in research. Discussed in Part I are: (1) the development of intergroup and intragroup attitudes and behaviors--stages in their development; the…