If one understands the normative structure of a given peer group, one can begin to understand the type of influence that group has on the behavior of its members. Despite the centrality of norms to understanding student peer groups, little or no research has focused on the empirical delineation of normative structures of college students. Thus,…

This exploratory study examines self-reported acts of academic dishonesty for a sample of 858 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students on a small college campus (8,350 students). The study raises awareness to the occurrences, and challenges of academic dishonesty at small-sized institutions, somewhat overlooked in empirical research.…

Academic and student affairs leaders long have acknowledged that much of students' learning takes place in cocurricular and extracurricular settings dominated by their peers. That fact has quietly grown in importance in recent years as educators, student affairs leaders, and student health officials increasingly have recognized that peers can play…

Bullying and harassment are pervasive problems in schools, with interventions to counter bullying now regarded as a matter of high priority by educational authorities. This article considers the impact of bullying on victim and bully. It also explores the role of peers as bystanders in school bullying. Australian research is described, examining…

International assessments of academic achievement are common. They are usually accompanied by attempts to infer the determinants of cross-country achievement gaps, but these inferences have little empirical foundation. This paper applies the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to the problem of explaining why primary students in Cuban schools score than…

This article examines the teenage policing of heterosexuality in schools and contributes to debates about teenage sexual moralities and heterosexual male agency. It reports on a qualitative study in England of the collective sexual values of 12- to 13-year-olds and 14- to 15-year-olds. Focus group interviews indicated that pupils developed a…

Students at all educational levels are daily bombarded by others' attempts to influence them. Influence in the political, religious, social, educational, and advertising arenas pervade people's lives. It is vital to everyone to be aware of influence attempts; to be able to assess whether or not such attempts are useful, friendly, urgent, and in…

The objective of this study was to apply the Information-Motivation-Behavior (IMB) theoretical framework to examine the correlates of the intention to remain sexually inactive among Hispanic and African American high school students. This study utilized a cross-sectional survey of high school students. The setting was the unified school districts…

The current study examined the extent to which mothers, fathers, teachers, and teenage friends influenced Latino adolescents' academic motivation. Using path analysis, separate models were tested for 154 Latino boys and 156 Latina girls. Findings indicated that mothers' and teachers' academic support were positively related to adolescent girls'…

The time-varying influences of peer and family support on adolescent daily mood were explored among youth transitioning from middle school to high school (8th to 9th grade, N = 268) as compared to youth transitioning from 10th to 11th grade (N = 240). Real-time measures of daily positive and negative affect (ecological momentary assessments) were…

This research evaluates the contributions of three dimensions of appearance culture (appearance magazine exposure, appearance conversations with friends, and peer appearance criticism) and body mass index (BMI) to internalization of appearance ideals and body image dissatisfaction. Four hundred thirty-three girls and 347 boys in Grades 7 through…

This article lays out a program of research designed to address one specific need of young children--to learn how to write--based on one specific ability of young children--the ability to tell stories. The model underlying this research program describes how non-screen-and-keyboard-based technologies that "listen" to children can be used to…

A common finding in the literature is that institutional structures have little to no impact on student engagement and development. I argue that theory suggests peer ability (as measured by selectivity), institutional density, the differentiation of the curriculum, and the research orientation of the institution should all affect student…

This research examined adolescents' gender identity in relation to the peer context and their self-concept. Participants were 229 adolescents who completed questionnaire measures of self-concept and multidimensional gender identity. Regression analysis indicated peer acceptance partially mediated the relation between self-perceived gender…

Physical and verbal aggression is an increasing problem in both middle and high schools across the United States. While physical forms of aggression are targeted in traditional "bullying" programs, relational aggression (RA), or the use of relationships to hurt another, is often not detected or addressed. For girls in the stage of identity…