This document summarizes findings from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's National Cross-Site Evaluation of High-Risk Youth Programs, which identified characteristics associated with strong substance abuse prevention outcomes in 48 prevention programs. Results indicate that overall, boys and girls respond to prevention differently. Boys…

Implications of social psychological theory and research, particularly in the area of social influence, are examined to provide a theoretical foundation for cross-age tutoring programs. Areas discussed include the effectiveness of various bases of social influence and the effects of tutoring programs on students, tutors, and teachers. (Author/SJL)

Tested the psychometric properties of an instrument used to assess adolescents' empowerment concerning alcohol. Empowerment was significantly and inversely associated with alcohol use after controlling for peer influence and self-efficacy. Suggests that psychological empowerment is theoretically meaningful and is significantly associated with…

Compared 7th and 10th graders participating in social resistance or attitudinal alcohol prevention programs to controls. For 10th-graders, no outcome difference between interventions was found; at one-year follow-up, intervention subjects used less alcohol than controls. Seventh graders showed no usage effects of interventions two years…

Proponents of social norms approaches maintain that correcting misperceptions of alcohol use among college students may reduce drinking and its consequences. The author used aggregate campus-level data from the Nationwide Campuses Study to test this hypothesis. He defined the misperceptions ratio as the ratio of the frequency of the "average…

This article describes the implementation of an innovative curriculum called Drugs-At-Work (DAW), which was evaluated in three phases. In phase-one, data collected after the third year of the study suggested that the curriculum had a significant impact on the fifth-grade participants, who in turn influenced their sixth-grade classmates the…

DARE is a preventive drug education program intended to combat drug use by students before it commences. The elementary school program is the core curriculum of DARE. It is designed to help those enrolled to develop skills that will allow them to resist the pressures to use substances such as illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Students are taught…

Programs which have been somewhat effective in reducing the rates of onset of regular tobacco use have featured such components as peer pressure resistance training, correction of normative expectations, inoculation against mass media messages, information about parental influences, information about consequences of use, public commitments, or…

Evaluates the effectiveness of social skills training methods specifically designed to enhance children's peer relationships. Discusses "coaching" methods on the basis of a small scale survey of social skills training procedures in use at social service agencies, guidance centers, hospitals, and clinical settings. (Author/AOS)

A study of a junior high school inclusion program that provided four students with disabilities with nondisabled student aids found the students with disabilities experienced growth in levels of independence, social networks, academic skills, and in behavior. Describes beneficial outcomes for the student aids and contributing successful program…

A discussion of practices associated with successful schooling of students in heterogeneous groupings looks at outcomes-based instructional models, instructional models using peer power, effective use of heterogeneous and multi-age grouping, strategies for redefining school organizational structure, and teacher training content. (MSE)

Analyzes the development and implementation of a teen hotline that utilizes skilled student volunteers. A comprehensive and meaningful training program combined with a high level of acceptance among the general youth population resulted in a valuable service for both the client callers and the student volunteers. (RJM)

This qualitative study conducted in urban Miami, Florida, explored the essence of juvenile delinquency and recidivism: its causes, its relations to communities, the roles of families, and the myriad roles of residential treatment programs at rehabilitating young offenders. Data were collected from nine young adult participants who had satisfied…

This paper describes the Young Adult and Adolescent Decision Making About Contraception program, an ongoing clinical research project designed to address the problem of unplanned adolescent pregnancy from a biopsychosocial perspective. The program is described as a peer-led intervention to promote the use of contraception by teenage girls at high…

The use of prompting to increase peer-tutoring skills in an entire third grade classroom was investigated. A multiple baseline design was used in establishing three tutoring components: praise corrective feedback, and re-presenting the question. Results indicated that all three tutoring behaviors increased after prompting. During the last…