Inner-city youth are at high risk for dropping out of high school. Within this article, risk factors associated with dropout and strategies for effective prevention and intervention are reviewed. An example of a school-based drop-out prevention program is highlighted. The FUTURES Program is a school-based drop-out prevention program designed to…

"Say Yes First--To Rural Youth and Family Alcohol/Drug Prevention" (SYF) was a 5-year, federally-funded U.S.D.H.H.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) project that involved 859 children in the class of the year 2000. The children in four rural school districts were followed from Grade 4 to Grade 8 from 1991 to 1996. Initial results in a…

There is limited research on the relationship between adolescent smoking and related social and psychological factors, but it is known that adolescent tobacco users are at higher risk for behavioral disorders and substance abuse. Of great interest to those who work in youth tobacco prevention is expanding knowledge about those factors that lead to…

This paper examines factors associated with the adoption of evidence-based substance use prevention curricula (EBC) in a national sample of school districts. Substance abuse prevention coordinators in public school districts (n = 1593), which were affiliated with a random sample of schools that served students in Grades 5-8, completed a written…

We provide a commentary on the Parents Matter! intervention program. Our commentary is organized around core issues confronting those who design prevention programs, namely (1) making the program practical, feasible and economical, (2) reaching a broad base of target individuals, (3) making the intervention effective in changing the behavior or…

Mediation analysis is a statistical technique that can be used to identify mechanisms by which intervention programs achieve their effects. This paper presents the results of a mediation analysis of Ngao, an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) education program that was implemented with school children in Grades 6 and 7 in Tanzania in the…

This paper describes the follow-up evaluation of a school-based scalds prevention programme designed to teach children about scalds hazards and encourage safe family practices. It involved two classroom sessions and a homework exercise that targeted five safety practices. The programme was taught to 28 classes in 14 schools in Waitakere City, New…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the MORE HEALTH "Respect Not Risk" Firearm Safety Lesson for 3rd-graders in Pinellas County, Florida. Six schools representative of various socioeconomic levels were selected as the test sites. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected. A total of 433 matched pretests/posttests were used…

School nurses need to clearly identify how they promote the health and educational achievement of children. School nurses contribute to student health by providing health assessment and nursing interventions, advocating for healthy living, and contributing to prevention of illness and disease management. A Nursing Data Set for School Nursing can…

This study was conducted to investigate the disposition of students and parents towards the inclusion of sex education in the school curriculum in Cross River State. Using a random sampling technique, 602 secondary school students and 180 parents from Calabar, were selected for the study. Data were collected with the aid of self-administered…

In addressing the theme of ethics as an everyday activity, this essay makes a case for the primacy of preventive ethics over interventional ethics. Preventive ethics aims at creating a condition of viability and wellbeing for all members of the earth community, an ethical ideal that follows from the thesis that all life-phenomena are…

As learning and performance improvement continues to dominate the training research landscape, so does the need to justify the results of relevant interventions. One area in training research that has continued to elude practitioners and researchers is enhancing the use of trained skills back on the job (i.e., training transfer). Relapse…

In this prospective longitudinal study, the authors investigated the association between lifetime tobacco use and subsequent health problems by age 30. The authors interviewed a community group of 749 participants from upstate New York at mean ages of 14, 16, 22, and 27 years. Daily tobacco use during any of the time periods, as well as the number…

This study examined the impact on high school students who taught elementary students MADD's Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM), an alcohol use prevention and vehicle safety program. High school students (N = 188) enrolled in a peer helping course completed surveys before and after teaching PY/PM, and a comparison group of peer helper students…

In response to the serious crisis in mental health care for children in the United States, this article proposes as a priority for psychology a comprehensive approach that treats mental health as a primary issue in child health and welfare. Consistent with the principles of a system of care and applying epidemiological, risk-development, and…