This report presents a literature review and conceptual model summarizing the influence of peer effects on learning outcomes. The report describes the approach to the review and provides a theoretical account of the environments, mechanisms, and processes that mediate learning among peers. It then summarizes the literature on compositional effects…

Michael Allen focuses on the personal and social issues (antisocial behavior, peer pressure, sex, special education, and lack of parent involvement) that students bring to school each day. He examines how administrators and teachers can wade through the psycho/social dysfunction in order to give their students the survival skills they need to be…

This document is comprised of the two issues in volume 4 of "Parent News Offline," a publication of the National Parent Information Network (NPIN) designed to introduce those without Internet access to the activities and information available through NPIN. The Spring 2002 issue contains the following articles: (1) "Middle College…

Adolescent stress has been associated with serious health consequences and the need for mental health professionals to engage with adolescents as these young people strive to develop healthy lifestyles has never been more critical. To meet this need, an efficient measure of hassles in the junior high school population was developed to provide…

Peer helping has recently been adopted by many schools, but use of these services remains mixed. The different ways in which peer helpers can be selected are described and examples of effective programs already in place are offered. The two types of cognitive processes used to evaluate advertising campaigns--automatic and strategic--are discussed…

Growing evidence indicates that teen courts give a community's children and adults a practical response to the problems associated with delinquency, traffic safety, and substance abuse. Developing and implementing teen courts requires a collaborative effort and juvenile justice agencies need baseline information that will aid them in creating teen…

This multiple-site study assessed 48 prevention programs for high-risk youth funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, identifying program characteristics associated with strong substance abuse prevention outcomes. Data analysis indicated that substance abuse programs reduced rates of substance use, and the positive effects of program…

This document summarizes findings from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's National Cross-Site Evaluation of High-Risk Youth Programs, which identified characteristics associated with strong substance abuse prevention outcomes in 48 prevention programs. Major findings include: as youth age, levels of risk and protection shift considerably,…

This document summarizes findings from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's National Cross-Site Evaluation of High-Risk Youth Programs, which identified characteristics associated with strong substance abuse prevention outcomes in 48 prevention programs. Results indicate that overall, boys and girls respond to prevention differently. Boys…

This study examined how campus peer culture influences the ways in which multiracial students make meaning of their racial identity, and applies Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of cognitive development to analyze elements in the college environment that stimulate or inhibit identity development. Discussion of the situation of multiracial…

Relations among academic achievement, school bonding, school misbehavior, and cigarette use from eighth to twelfth grade were examined in two national and panel samples of youth from the Monitoring the Future project (N=3,056). A series of competing conceptual models developed a priori was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). The…

Used data from 459 college students to outline a problem specific approach to alcohol abuse prevention. Survey data described the distribution of drinkers and nondrinkers, group differences in consumption, and problems commonly experienced. Relationships between consumption and beliefs, attitudes and social pressure were used to design peer…

Measured the effect of confidentiality, parental influence, and peer influence on the moral judgment of ninth-grade students (N=274). Participants completed the Defining Issues Test and were told results would be either confidential or shared with parents or peers. Results suggest the moral judgment of ninth graders is not stable. (JAC)

Students in a living anatomy course were divided into three groups--mixed, all-male, and all-female. Pairs performed most or all examinations on each other. All students felt preclinical examination of opposite sexes was important, but mixed groups scored higher in professionalism, were less bothered by sensitive area examination, and showed more…

Examines the relationship of family structure, peer group affiliation, social class, and sex with five dependent variables concerned with attitudes toward dating values, marriage, romanticism, premarital pregnancy, and premarital sexual permissiveness among 85 rural, Black adolescent males and females. Findings suggest general community norms and…