Investigated the influence of methodological variables on the performance of older adults. Contrary to expectation, communication performances with non-peers required less time and fewer utterances than with peers. The more distracting home setting required more attention cues to maintain partner attention than the laboratory setting. (Author/JAC)

Examined effects of cooperation on role taking and moral reasoning in 120 fifth-grade students. Classrooms using cooperative peer-initiated group learning were compared with other innovative and more traditional teacher-centered methods. Role taking was found to be enhanced by cooperative interdependence, but moral reasoning level was not…

A study of high school students produced information on their age at learning about sex-related topics, and the source and accuracy of their knowledge. Peers were cited most often as the source of information. Many sexual concepts were acquired by the age of eleven, and the overall accuracy was 78.7 percent. (FG)

Observers recorded the sex-typed activities of 49 children during free-play sessions in nursery school and kindergarten. Reinforcing and punishing responses of peers and teachers were also recorded. Among the results, children reinforced one another primarily for gender-appropriate activities. Most reinforcements and punishments were received from…

Results indicate equivalent levels of patient performance when contingent reinforcement in a residential token economy program was controlled by either patient peer groups or staff. Patients in a peer-managed program showed positive ward behavior, reductions in psychosocial problems, and increase in potential for adjusting to community life.…

Data from a survey of high school and college students, designed to measure the relative influence of peers, family, and the media on perceptions about sex, suggest quite strongly that peers and the mass media are powerful agents in the acquisition of sexual information by young people. (GT)

Proximity of dormitory peers, involvement in informal social activities, and lack of commitment to religious and academic values were independently related to drinking and drinking onset. Formal involvement in college activities and psychological stress had no independent effect. (CP)

Our culture enforces compliance and obedience in all its institutions and at every level. These institutions systematically discourage independent thought or unconventional action. Schools can play an important role in educating strong, independent thinkers. Teachers should act to reward creative disobedience and to discourage conformity. (JN)

This study found that student teachers can function effectively as behavior change agents for their peers on a partnership basis. (MM)

In this study 610 kibbutz and city boys and girls from grades 3 to 6 were compared on the following variables: stages of moral judgment, external reactions to transgression (fear and punitiveness), and internal reactions to transgression (guilt and confession). (Author/MP)

Interviews with and observations of principals and teachers in Ontario elementary schools revealed that beginning teachers would seek assistance from an experienced teacher only if they could find one who taught the same grade in a nearby classroom and who appeared open to friendship. (SJL)

Children aged 5-11 were asked to compare identical moral acts involving a grown-up or a friend. Contrary to Piaget, there was no evidence of an increasing solidarity among peers to the extent that, for example, children think it worse to lie to a friend than to an adult. (Author)

Tested the individual characteristics and deviant peer association theoretical models of friends' influence on the development of delinquency in disruptive boys. Found that moderately disruptive boys with aggressive-disturbing friends were more delinquent at age 13 than other subgroups of moderately disruptive boys. Highly disruptive and…

Urban African American males face complex barriers to learning and achievement. A Washington, D.C., school has designed a ninth-grade program that effectively enhances youngsters' self-concept and allows them to succeed academically. Ninth graders attend most classes in the Annex, a personalized, caring environment that subverts negative aspects…

Examines the personal side of the problem of counselor impairment. The impact this problem has on people, organizations, and the profession and the reasons why it is ignored are explored. Explains the relationship between these problems and the articles selected for this special issue. (Author/RB)