When the authors wanted to combat the myth that excessive drinking and partying were common behaviors among students, they turned for help to a recent popular book on marketing and social behavior. The result was a trial project that identified and recruited the most influential students on campus, then set them loose to get the message out.…

Presents the theories of Vygotsky and Bandura that provide the foundation for research on cross-age learning in multiple-age groupings. Discusses the cognitive, social, and emotional benefits children derive from mixed-age groupings. Outlines social learning contexts, such as learning centers and projects, and structural contexts, such as multiage…

Examined role of friendship aspects in moderating behavioral antecedents and outcomes of peer victimization among fourth and fifth graders. Teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors predicted increases in peer-reported victimization; relation of internalizing behaviors to increases in victimization was attenuated for children with…

The Freshman Empowerment Program is a group process designed to support first generation freshmen. This article discusses the research compiled regarding the success of this program following its initial implementation. Results indicate that GPA was significantly higher for those students involved in the program compared to similar students who…

This paper examines the relationships of pupils' on-task orientation at school and their opposition to teachers with perceived cognitive competence, perceived relevance of schoolwork, and the belief that going against school norms increases peer status. The study was conducted as a survey among a national representative sample of 3834 pupils in…

Classroom management presents a serious challenge in most schools, but especially in schools on a Navajo Reservation that have been traditionally academically low-performing schools. There appears to be a mismatch between the attitudes, skills, and behaviors Navajo children bring with them to school and the expectations schools have for their…

The roles that peers play in the decision to go to college are not well understood. Logistic regression is used to explore the role that peers play in the college-going decisions of a sample of low-income urban minority public high school graduates drawn from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88) database. Friends' plans are found to…

Discusses the idea that black students underperform in school because of cultural opposition to "acting white." Reassesses "acting white" and directs researchers to examine variations found in students' peer groups. Highlights ability of students to sustain their black identity and achieve academically by managing their…

Data from the first five waves of the National Youth Survey were used to test the applicability of the Developmental Pathways model to a nationally representative sample of girls. Overall, girls were less likely to be involved in all types of delinquent behavior, with the majority of girls reporting no delinquent involvement across the five waves…

The authors used Bronfenbrenner's conceptual framework of an ecological systems model to examine factors that are independently associated with sexually transmitted disease (STD) risk behaviors among 280 sexually active detained female adolescents. Using computer-assisted self-interviewing procedures, the authors assessed individual…

A major shortcoming to the understanding and development of HIV/AIDS programs to mitigate social stigma is the paucity of research pertaining to how young people in sub-Saharan African countries perceive those infected with HIV, and how these stigmatizing attitudes are formed, projected and reinforced. The purpose of this study was to examine…

We compared knowledge, attitudes, and demographic characteristics of 630 sexually experienced and 422 inexperienced inner-city adolescents aged 14-17 years. Sexual experience was associated with indicators of risk previously reported in the literature: male gender, older age, single-family home, smoking, drinking, and poorer academic performance.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivators for Taiwanese students to study higher education in a western society. The behavioural motivations of Taiwanese students intending to undertake higher education in Australia and the USA were analysed using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Design/methodology/approach:…

Objective: To design, implement and evaluate a peer-led intervention to reduce smoking amongst secondary school students. Design: A health promotion intervention combining peer education with diffusion of innovation theory, to be rigorously evaluated by means of a cluster randomised controlled trial with concurrent process and economic…

The research examined the influence of parent and school variables on minor aggression among early adolescents. Sixth-grade students (N = 1,081) were interviewed at the beginning of the school year (Time 1) about aggressive behaviors and selected psychosocial variables and at the end of the year (Time 2) about aggressive behaviors. Aggression…