It is important to examine the correlates of drug use and abuse among early adolescents to identify common patterns and factors of the beginning stages of drug abuse. The relationships between personal substance use, health beliefs, peer use, stated intention to use drugs in the future, sex, and religion were examined using data collected from 265…

A study of college students who dropped out of sport programs found that while many students ended their sport careers between their freshman and senior years, a large number of them became involved in sport after college. This paper examines the sociological factors that have an impact upon participation or non-participation in sport programs.…

Patterns of drug use among teenagers indicate they are highly influenced by peers. To examine the influence of Say It Straight, an alcohol/drug abuse prevention program aimed at teaching adolescents to deal with peer pressure, sixth, seventh and eighth graders (N=509) created and role played situations in which they wanted to say "no" to…

The variables that distinguish between deans characterized by colleagues and superiors as "most influential" and deans who were "least influential" among colleagues were studied. The sample of deans managed academic units in five public universities in the west, all meeting the Carnegie classification of "Research I"…

This study examined the effects of gender, attitudes toward computers, and presentation of individual or paired female peer talent on adolescent learners' perceptions of talent credibility in the context of media presentations on computer utilization. Subjects were 96 eighth grade students (56 females, 40 males) enrolled in careers and…

This volume contains materials to supplement existing driver education programming offered by high schools to youthful (16- to 18-year old) drivers. Section I contains three drinking/driving modules: an information-only module, a self-image module, and a three-unit peer intervention module. An instructor's guide provided for each module includes…

Sources in this annotated bibliography are compiled for investigators in speech communication and social sciences interested in the influence of the group on the individual member (conformity and deviation), and for those interested in group consensus formation and the consequences of pressure to uniformity (polarization). The 34 citations include…

This study investigated preschool children's awareness of the nature of pictorial representation and their understanding of their own efforts to depict. Seventy-six subjects participated in drawing sessions held at 2-week intervals throughout the 8-month school year. Children's spontaneous comments during small-group drawing sessions were…

A nomothetic assessment of the drive-by shooting in inter-barrio gang violence was conducted. Available data on drive-by shootings were organized using the model of behavioral assessment suggested by Kanfer and Saslow (1969). The model included seven areas of analysis: initial assessment, clarification of the problem, motivation, development,…

This article reports on the relationship between the informal behavior of teachers and the formal organization of the school. A field study was conducted over a six month period at one high school. Research questions focused on patterns of behavior which were created by teachers to sustain individuals on the job and to promote continuation of…

Despite the exponential growth in online learning, student retention rates in the online environment remain a concern to educators. Online learning @ UniSA is a learning object aimed at laying foundations for online learning for prospective students. It uses the voices of student peers to explore the qualities needed to succeed. Through the…

In order to develop a scale to measure student attitudes toward desegregation in their own schools, 61 Likert type statements were developed and administered to over 3000 black and white middle school students in five schools in a southwestern community. Gordon Allport's criteria, particularly his contact theory of desegregation, provided the…

This study investigated the efficacy of using inoculation theory in developing students' skills in resisting pressures involved with drinking and driving situations. Inoculation theory stems from psychosocial investigations that have demonstrated that resistance to specific opposing arguments can be increased if subjects are familiar with these…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of Jigsaw as a strategy to prevent substance abuse. Jigsaw is a structered peer teaching program in which students teach part of the regular classroom curriculum to a group of peers. The goals of Jigsaw were to make student learning more active and student-student interactions more cooperative. As a result of…

A study was conducted to determine whether the use of voice as defined by writing theorists is essential to producing good student writing and whether peer interaction would help students gain a greater sense of voice in their writing. Forty-two high school juniors were divided into two clusters: a peer interaction group and a teacher-centered…