Academic advising by faculty members has often been ineffective. Peer advising systems that employ peers as academic counselors may successfully address student criticism of faculty advising systems. Peer systems capitalize on the primacy of peer influence, provide an economical delivery system, and are available and accessible to students. These…

"Too Good for Drugs"[TM] is designed to promote life skills, character values, resistance skills to negative peer influence, and resistance to the use of illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The program, which targets elementary and middle school students, is based on classroom discussions and structured activities that center on…

In recent years, there has been increased policy interest in the way young people spend their time out of school, and in promoting the availability of opportunities for them to spend this time in productive and developmentally supportive ways. Out-of-school opportunities (such as arts and music programs, sports teams, community service, youth …

The United States has the highest rate of youthful drug abuse of any industrialized country in the world. There is a growing awareness that drug and alcohol use are closely connected to other problems such as teenage suicide, adolescent pregnancy, traffic fatalities, juvenile delinquency, poor school performance, runaways, and dropouts. Youthful…

The Doorways training program was designed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Safe Schools Program (Safe Schools) to enable teachers, community members and students to prevent and respond to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). Doorways II was designed for community counselors to prevent and respond to…

I use the introduction of a competitive fellowship program for graduate students to test whether men and women respond differently to competition and whether this response depends on the gender mix of the group. Men experienced a 10% increase in performance in response to the program, with the largest gains for men in departments with the most…

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), there has been a dramatic increase in the number of children being diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the last several years. School nursing interventions need to be developed, implemented, and evaluated to address complexities experienced by this population. The…

Objective: The purpose of this project was to develop a seminar on women as leaders within an academic department of psychiatry and to evaluate its effectiveness. Methods: A seminar was offered as an elective to all residents within the Yale University Department of Psychiatry. Didactic presentations and open discussion were structured around the…

Evaluated first phase of three-phase research project, Project KICK (Kids in Cooperation with Kids) by examining interaction between parent education, positive peer role modeling, and drug education for third graders. Hypothesized that intervention would lead to increase in self-esteem, improved attitudes, increased knowledge regarding drugs, and…

The effectiveness of a peer leadership program connecting senior high school students with at-risk, new eighth-graders in seven Atlanta (Georgia) high schools is evaluated. The program trains the peer leaders in leadership and group dynamics and then places pairs of leaders with 10 or 12 advisees for weekly meetings. The study population includes…

The Northwest Connection was designed as a "peer interaction" model for communicating and disseminating career education in the five northwestern states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. (A detailed description of Northwest Connection activities, with key problems and decisions highlighted, may be found in "People…

Reviews peer-led substance-abuse prevention programs for middle school youth to determine whether they are efficacious in minimizing substance use. A meta-analysis of 120 studies examined program features and effectiveness. Results indicated that interactive peer interventions for middle school students were statistically superior to…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of the Going Places Program and mediation of treatment effects. Seven middle schools were randomized to intervention or comparison conditions and students (n = 1,320) in two successive cohorts provided five waves of data from sixth through eighth grade. The Going Places Program included classroom…

This cognitive-behavioral middle school prevention program includes both parent- and teen-based curricula focusing on precursors to problem behavior such as communication, limit setting, problem solving, goal setting, and dealing with negative peer influences. Results from 158 participating families found the program effective in engaging both…

Supplemental Course Instruction (SCI) at Olivet Nazarene University is described as a program in which a high achieving student retakes a course successfully completed in order to model desired behaviors for other students. The SCI Leader demonstrates good study skills and organizes small group study sessions. This study examines the effectiveness…