Surveyed children in a large suburban school regarding factors affecting the use of cigarettes and tobacco. While experimentation rates for cigarette use was low, use increased significantly from fourth to fifth grade. Alcohol use was much higher than cigarette use, and it also increased significantly from fourth to fifth grade. (RJM)

Examines the relationship between level of alcohol consumption and self-esteem for college males and females. Study of 130 males and 130 females at a major state university indicates that this relationship was moderated by gender, with females at greater risk for low self-esteem associated with heavy alcohol consumption. (RJM)

Explores how living in a residential learning community affects drinking behaviors. Students living in three different residential learning communities were found to binge drink at significantly lower rates than did matched comparison groups who lived in another university residence hall. Further, learning community residents also suffered fewer…

Assesses a social norms intervention's attempt to decrease drinking amounts in students making the transition to university life. Results indicated that the majority of freshmen students consistently drank in a moderate range, yet consistently overestimated their peers' drinking levels. Results suggest the drinking rates significantly decreased…

Compares self-reported drinking practices of master's of social work (MSW) students with undergraduate students. Results reveal that the MSW students, within age and gender categories, did not drink as excessively as the undergraduate students, although a greater percentage were recovering, a finding of high relevance for the training of these…

Scores for academic performance, adaptive functioning, DSM-oriented scales, and empirically based scales on the Teacher's Report Form were compared for demographically similar samples of 7- to 16-year-old students assessed in 1981, 1989, and 1999. Problem scores increased from 1981 to 1989 and decreased from 1989 to 1999, with all effect sizes…

Explores the kinds of strategies adolescents deploy in achievement context in an unselected sample of Swedish adolescents. Six groups of adolescents were identified according to the strategies they deployed. Results showed that membership in the functional strategy groups, such as in mastery-oriented and defensive pessimist groups, was associated…

Investigated adolescents' perceptions of what contributed to their feeling safe at school and their strategies for enhancing a sense of security. High school students from rural and suburban New York State public schools completed focus group and individual interviews. Overall, students depended on peer predictability to feel safe at school when…

Examined relationships and conflicts between secondary school boys and girls, noting the fine line between playing "just for fun" and harassment. Data from classroom observations, interviews with younger adolescents, and reminiscences of the same adolescents a few years later revealed diverse interpretations of gendered interactions.…

Examines the relationship between school norms of substance use disapproval and students' use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Analysis indicated that in general, school-level disapproval lowered the probability of students' use of these substances. A school environment of disapproval was also found to create a protective environment for…

Reducing peer abuse in schools requires parent participation, but parent-teacher communication barriers can hinder it. In one approach, faculty used personal data assistants to record students' positive and negative behavior and report to parents using pagers. Future research will refine the School Code of Recordable Events used for reporting.…

Examined relationship between knowledge about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), subjective perception of AIDS risk, and sexual behavior of undergraduates (N=459). Found students generally informed but that no relationship existed between accurate knowledge about AIDS and sexual behavior. Provides AIDS education and counseling…

Examines contemporary sociological conceptions of "deviance" and "resistance" in youth culture studies. Explores whether the notion of "playfulness" is applicable to the understanding of disruptive classroom behavior. The "asides" developed by certain class members are linked to the official lesson's…

High school student athletes and nonathletes were assessed on self-report inventory concerning frequency of alcohol use, intoxication, and attitudes about adolescent alcohol and drug use. Results indicated that male athletes consumed alcohol significantly more than male nonathletes and that male athletes drank alcohol to intoxication at…

Among 151 seventh and eighth graders, self-reports of occurrence of behaviors were significantly but moderately correlated with subjects' distress about behaviors. Adolescents rated externalizing behaviors as more distressing to parents than to adolescents; internalizing behaviors as more distressing to self than to parents. Ratings of subjective…