This monograph surveys the literature and provides a broad understanding of the concept of mentoring and of the application of mentoring to teaching. A synthesis is presented of the research on mentoring, including an explication of the origin, value, and essence of the mentoring concept; the rationale for mentoring beginning teachers; and…

This study examined the effect of three aspects of the testing context--physical privacy, anonymity, and offers of help from a tester--on children's expectations. Performance of 96 11-year-old boys and girls on a pictorial recall memory task in a simulated test was evaluated. The subjects were divided into eight different groups varying on the…

As counseling programs are being strained by the ever increasing needs of today's students, other methods of helping the students are being used. The peer helper program is one method that is optimistically being tried. Information is presented here on the background, training procedures, and evaluation methods (both subjective and objective) of…

Although many people fail in their attempts at health change, there is strong evidence that many others can modify negative health practices with or without the aid of therapy or formal intervention programs. Cultural norms, help-seeking and help-giving behaviors, and personal values have all been studied as factors in successful lifestyle…

Many studies have documented the importance of family and friends in providing long-term care to the elderly. A study conducted in 1982 examined a nationally representative probability sample of informal caregivers assisting frail and/or disabled elderly persons in an effort to develop a descriptive profile of the informal caregiver. Data were…

Southern's Ongoing Support (SOS) plan, developed at Missouri Southern State College, is described. This plan provides educational assistance and expertise to any first year teacher education graduate who believes help is needed in an area identified by the college as a specialty area objective. Assistance may also be requested by the employing…

This document describes an innovative pilot project of peer counselors, implemented within the structure of an educational support service. A peer counseling project created by the Athletes Educational Planning Program of the University of Toledo (Ohio) Counseling Center is presented, in which student-athletes help other student-athletes to adjust…

Although the differences in supportive resources for males and females have rarely been studied, it seems reasonable that these differences exist because socialization for males and females typically emphasizes different traits. To explore gender differences in the nature of social support, 97 male and 82 female undergraduates completed the…

This paper reports on the development and implementation of a mentoring program to assist beginning teachers that was established in a public school system as part of a statewide effort to improve the induction process for teachers in Minnesota. One of the dominant characteristics of most mentor programs is the appointment of an experienced…

The social support literature lacks empirical studies addressing structural distinctions between social network ties. It often divides social support into functional categories such as material, emotional, or advice support, with little regard to specific support providers or how the support from these providers can be delineated by individuals…

This study was conducted to gain information that would be useful in designing effective suicide prevention programs for adolescents, thus expanding secondary prevention of suicide by teaching adolescents to be early detectors and gatekeepers to professional help for suicidal adolescent peers. College freshmen (N=1,131) were surveyed to discover…

Previous research has shown that seeking help is an important and ubiquitous behavior in higher education. However, relatively little is known about the person and situation determinants of academic help-seeking. This study was designed to differentiate types of help-seeking and examine sources of help and goals. Students (N=386) in biology,…

Research has shown that social support is psychologically beneficial to cancer patients, with support from families being especially important. A survey of the social support needs of 407 cancer patients and an in-depth interview study of 55 of those patients were conducted to examine issues concerning family support and cancer patients. Results…

Only recently has the question of why being in a good mood facilitates prosocial behavior been pursued. Two experiments investigated the role of pleasurable mood in: (1) choice bets as a measure of riskiness, a variable possibly implicated in helping behaviors, and (2) allocation of funds among categories intended to vary along a prosocial…

The roles of the adviser of undergraduate students are discussed. To orient the student to the department, pamphlets can be prepared to answer some of the student's basic questions. Considering academic schedules are an important function of the undergraduate adviser, who reviews course options and directions with the student. The student should…