Alcohol consumption among college students has been an issue of concern for several years and peer pressure has been identified as the most consistent and best predictor of the consumption of alcohol among college students. Peer pressure is often prevalent in the Greek organizations, which frequently are associated with campus drinking. Drinking,…

This booklet was written to provide an understanding of aggression and violence in youth. Its purpose is to help parents, professionals, and other concerned citizens prevent or reduce these potentially dangerous behaviors. The introduction notes that many experts agree that aggression and violence are on the rise in America. The first section of…

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) is a preventive drug education program intended to stop drug use before it begins. Its purpose is to help children say "no" to drug, alcohol, and tobacco use by teaching them techniques to resist peer pressure. The newest addition to the concept is the DARE Parent Program (DPP), created to stimulate…

This seven section guide, written for state and local career education coordinators, dissemination specialists, and representatives of labor, business, industry, and government, describes the Northwest Connection (NWC), a demonstration, regional, career education, peer assistance model. Section 1 presents an overview of the NWC, describing the…

An alcohol misuse prevention study (AMPS) curriculum was developed, implemented, and evaluated with over 5,000 fifth and sixth grade students. The AMPS program, emphasizing peer resistance skills, focused on the immediate effects of alcohol, risks of alcohol misuse, and social pressures to misuse alcohol. Schools were randomly assigned to…

The "Contemporary Health Series" covers critical health and family life topics in a sequence of modules with two curricular divisions: "Into Adolescence" for middle school teachers and "Entering Adulthood" for high school teachers. This module presents a six-lesson curriculum for grades five through eight to provide students with the information…

This paper reports selected findings from a study undertaken to investigate the formation and development of preservice teachers' perspectives and the relative roles of institutional constraints and individual actions in that process. Preservice social studies teachers' (N=21) responses to the institutional contexts in which they practice taught…

Research addressed two questions: (1) Does collaborative problem solving lead to greater learning among children than independent work? and (2) Does children's expertise and that of their partner influence learning? To address these questions, the performance of 5-year-old novice and expert singletons copying a Lego model was compared to that of…

Researchers studied the effect of cognitive conflict between peers in a collaborative problem-solving task in which the relationship between participants could not be described as "expert-novice" and in which development was potentially possible for all. A total of 156 subjects between 5 and 9 years of age, inclusive, participated in the…

Studies examining the influence of peer pressure on the drinking behaviors of college students have focused primarily on undergraduates. Very little is known about the drinking patterns of graduate students. To compare drinking patterns of undergraduate and graduate students, 57 college freshmen, 20 sophomores, 24 juniors, 26 seniors, 46 graduate…

This paper reports on work done as a part of a broader case study on conditions influencing staff development in an elementary school setting. It found that although teachers universally emphasized the importance of peer interaction in their development, their descriptions of the actual interactions in which they took part were modest in scope.…

Adolescence is a time when formal abstract thought becomes possible, enabling the individual to work through the highest stages of morality. Adolescents' understanding of religion and their commitment to it seem to differ sharply from those of children. It has been proposed that adolescents are likely to change, expand, or abandon their religious…

Attitudes toward the academically gifted were examined in 83 experienced teachers and 100 juniors and seniors enrolled in a teacher education program. Using a questionnaire developed by Tannenbaum (1962), the characteristics of athleticism, diligence, and academic brilliance were examined as they affected perceptions of hypothetical high school…

This study examines the normalcy of adolescent risk-taking and proposes that the social adventures of adolescents have significance for the development and maintenance of interpersonal relationships and self-identity. To evaluate the narrative role of shared risks in transforming different types of relationships, an interview procedure was…

Research and numerous model programs suggest that sport plays an important social role. Particularly among youth, sports and professional athlete role models help deter juvenile delinquency. An overview is presented of current efforts to involve young people, particularly inner-city black youths, in athletic activities. A majority of sociological…