Many adolescents experiment with marijuana; the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 46% of high school seniors have tried this drug at some time. Pushing boundaries is what young people do, and some researchers believe that trying marijuana is a normal part of growing up. RAND Corporation researchers have revisited Shedler and Block's…

Explored the simultaneous sequential transition patterns of preschoolers' social play within classroom settings. Found that the proportion of social-play states did not vary during play episodes even when accounting for type of activity center, gender, and SES. Found a reciprocal relationship between parallel-aware and other social-play states…

Examined the incidence of "romantic" dyads, same-sex friendship dyads, and cross-sex friendship dyads in preschools and day-care centers. Behavior patterns that characterize these dyads are described. It is maintained that results suggest that there are romances between preschoolers. (BG)

THE ACADEMIC, OCCUPATIONAL, AND SOCIAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF A SAMPLE OF HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES (STUDIED PREVIOUSLY WHILE IN SCHOOL) WERE EXAMINED TO ISOLATE THE FACTORS OF ADOLESCENCE WHICH ARE RELATED TO LATER ACHIEVEMENT OR FAILURE IN COLLEGE OR AN OCCUPATION. THE PROJECT WAS A FOLLOWUP STUDY AND WAS CONCERNED WITH AN ANALYSIS OF DATA GATHERED AT TWO…

Social competence of 239 students with and without learning disabilities (LD) was followed from kindergarten through fifth grade. Students with LD demonstrated the same trends in social competence as non-LD students. Students with LD differed significantly from average-high-achieving non-LD students on social skills and behavior problems, but not…

This study investigated the extent to which data collected on play behavior differ when two different data collection methods, observation alone and observation plus interview, were used. A secondary objective was to compare data collected using both methods in an indoor and outdoor play environment. The social and cognitive play behavior for a…

Explored interface between preschoolers' socio-emotional characteristics and interactions with teachers during free play. Found that children who most frequently initiated teacher interaction behaved more aggressively than peers and were so rated by teachers. Children who most frequently received teacher initiations were more shy and anxious.…

Examined the association between psychosocial development and the timing of first sexual intercourse in a sample of white, rural adolescents. Two theoretical models were tested. For both boys and girls, early timing of first sexual intercourse was associated with longitudinal patterns of greater transition proneness and poorer psychosocial…

R. J. Sternberg and others found that the types of behaviors reported by laypersons as characterizing different types of intelligence varied across the different groups tested, and that a person's concept of intelligence affects the manner in which he or she evaluates the intelligence of others. Two experiments by Sternberg et al. were replicated.…

Examined the social, academic, emotional functioning, and the social support systems of teenage Asian American students. Ninety-nine students were compared to 404 Caucasian students. Results show that Asian American students exhibited less delinquent behavior and better academic performance, but were significantly more isolated, depressed, and…

This paper focuses on a comparative analysis of the normative and empirical elements of four approaches to political education. The analysis is conducted by identifying the central assumptions, value commitments and the empirical theoretical structure of each approach and by making comparisons across alternatives. The findings of the analysis…