Athletes can be involved as role models and leaders--in collaboration with coaches and other staff--to enhance life skills and prevent substance use among their peers. "Drugs in Sport" is a peer education program involving collegiate athletes visiting middle schools to speak with school children. This article discusses the structure of the Drugs…

The objective of the study was to develop and evaluate an effective whole-community approach to identifying a diverse group of influential young people to effectively diffuse health promotion messages among their peers. A peer nomination questionnaire, developed through extensive piloting work, was completed by 10 730 Year 8 students (aged 12-13…

The Centre for Social Action was commissioned by the Leicester City Council to evaluate its Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Strategy. This was a multi-stage project with a central element of consulting with young people. This article outlines the process that was followed in order to recruit, train and support young people through the process of…

This study extends understanding of romantic development in the emerging adult years by using an 8-year longitudinal design in Italy. Peer groups at age 13, interpersonal functioning and emotion regulation at age 17, and romantic styles at age 21 were measured in 388 youth. Early peer groups were shown to be indirectly associated with two romantic…

In this article we investigate college-age women's body image issues in the context of dominant femininity and its polarization of the mind and body. We use original data collected through seven in-depth interviews and 32 qualitative written interviews with college-age women and men. We coded the data thematically applying feminist approaches to…

Youth suicide is one of the most serious preventable health problems in the United States. It is the third leading cause of death among adolescents. According to a recent national survey of students in grades 9-12, nearly 15% of respondents had seriously considered suicide and 7% actually had attempted suicide in the previous 12 months. Moreover,…

How people respond at work may have a critical part to play in how bereaved or terminally ill colleagues manage their grief and their lives. Although counselors, human resources, occupational health staff, and others may have an important back-up role to play, pivotal support needs to come from line managers, colleagues, and, where they exist,…

Prior research demonstrates negative consequences of racism, however, little is known about community, parenting, and intrapersonal mechanisms that protect youth. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study illuminated linkages between positive and negative contextual influences on rural African American adolescent outcomes. Quantitative results…

This study examines the peer relations and emotion practices of adolescent boys in light of their expectations and assumptions about masculinity. We carried out semistructured interviews with middle-class and upper-middle-class boys from an independent high school. The boys reported that they assiduously avoided displays of emotional or physical…

Theater has been used as an educational tool since the Great Depression era, and it is currently considered an effective tool for health promotion and reducing risk-taking behaviors among youth. Theater projects are well suited for communicating prevention messages to youth audiences because they can depict real-life settings and characters who…

Using longitudinal administrative data from a large elite research university, this paper separately analyzes the determinants of persistence for life and physical science majors. My results confirm much of the previous research on major persistence in the sciences, but I document that many findings are solely driven by persistence patterns in the…

The purpose of this article is to describe how school staff members, learners and parents collaborate to prevent adolescent learner violence in two different urban secondary schools. The increase in acts of interpersonal learner violence has a destructive effect on the safe and positive development of young people. Empirical evidence indicates…

Big Brothers/Big Sisters is a national program aimed at providing mentors for disadvantaged children. This study tested whether Big Sister mentors could be trained to increase communication with their Little Sisters about sexual health issues. The study tested an intervention based on social cognitive theory in which a sexual health communication…

One approach in HIV prevention programming targeting youth is to use peer leaders in what is referred to as peer education programming. This paper critically reviews and synthesizes the results and lessons learned from 24 evaluated peer-led programs with an HIV/AIDS risk reduction component that target youth in the communities where they live and…

This study investigated cultural identity and peer influence on tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis use in a culturally diverse sample of Northern Australian adolescents. Middle school students (n = 274) completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) and measures of their own and perceived friends' substance use. Higher scores on the full…