Language is drawn on extensively in friendships but has received scant attention in the developmental literature. This study compared friendship quality in 16-year-old adolescents with and without specific language impairment (SLI), testing the extent it is predicted by individual differences in social behaviors and language ability. Participants…

In this study, the validity of 5 tests of children's social-emotional cognition, defined as their encoding, memory, and interpretation of social information, was tested. Participants were 126 clinic-referred children between the ages of 5 and 17. All 5 tests were evaluated in terms of their (a) concurrent validity, (b) incremental validity, and…

This contribution provides an "outside" commentary on several of the articles provided in this special issue on environmental education and education in the context of sustainability in Denmark and Sweden. Although there is no uniform position or shared single outlook expressed in the articles in this special issue, there are some…

"Catalyst" is a publication of the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention. This issue contains the following articles: (1) The National Study of Student Hazing Initial Findings; (2) The Social Norms Marketing Research Project--An Update; (3) Message From William…

This paper reports a systematic literature review examining empirical studies on the effects of peer assessment for learning. Peer assessment is fundamentally a social process whose core activity is feedback given to and received from others, aimed at enhancing the performance of each individual group member and/or the group as a whole. This makes…

Schools are overloaded with health promotion programs that, altogether, focus on a broad array of behavioral domains, including substance abuse, sexuality and nutrition. Although the specific content of programs varies according to the domain focus, programs usually address similar concepts: knowledge, attitudinal beliefs, social influences and…

Can economic ties positively influence social relations and actions? If so, how does this influence operate? Microfinance programs, which provide credit through a group-based lending strategy, provide the ideal setting for exploring these questions. This article examines whether structuring socially isolated women into peer-groups for an…

Previous research into listening has tended to focus on individual processing rather than on how sociocultural contexts mediate the nature and quality of listening. This article draws on a study involving observations of listening lessons conducted by ten English teachers regarded as skilled practitioners, interviews with these teachers and with…

This article is the first of a multi-part series on traumatic brain injury (TBI). Historically, TBI has received very limited national public policy attention and support. However since it has become the signature injury of the military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, TBI has gained the attention of elected officials, military leaders,…

Intended to enhance social skills instruction in Turkey, the present study highlights the process and outcome of creating a Turkish-language version of the School Social Behavior Scales (SSBS), originally developed by Merrell (1993). The social skills of the Turkish pre-and elementary school students were based on the Likert scale. The analyses of…

The purpose of this study was to provide a synthesis of research studies published in the last ten years on interventions to increase social skills for children and adolescents with ASD, examine the outcomes of these studies and evaluate whether a given intervention meets the criteria for evidence-based practice. Thirty-eight studies were included…

Educators in many countries are concerned about the decline in respect for authority by young people. The current study explores how children perceive their teachers' authority, what the "boundaries" (limits) to that authority are, and under what conditions they may decide to rebel. Over 200 Israeli elementary and middle school students…

The purposes of this study were to clarify how social problem-solving processes develop and to identify developmentally-sensitive intervention components for children's aggression. Elementary and junior-high school Japanese students (N = 1100) from urban public schools participated in the present investigation. Their alternative thinking skills,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gauge the effects of parental separation on the academic achievement and social/emotional behavior of children of military personnel. The research design was descriptive-exploratory in nature, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The Teacher's Perception of Social Attributes (TPSA)…

Few studies have examined social norm theory with subpopulations of college students. In this study, the authors examined the relationships between social norms and student-athlete drinking. Results suggest drinking is a function of proximal norms, particularly related to teammates. Implications for counselor interventions are discussed. (Contains…