Data from 61 children's groups indicate that early adolescent (modal age 10 years) and late adolescent (modal age 15 years) children's groups are characterized by high levels of normative integration, or norm consensus. In contrast, groups passing through middle adolescence (modal age 11-14 years) are characterized by significantly lower levels of…

This program organizes and focuses "peer group attention" upon a 'focus person.' This person has volunteered and has set his personal goals which he hopes to turn into real action with the help of the peer group. A schedule of peer group reinforcement helps to transform his goals into habits. The program can be introduced generally, for class…

A description of the 2-year experience of a group of 6 social workers, engaged in family therapy, who experimented with the use of peer group supervision. (BRT)

The results of this study suggest that the impact of the family on delinquency varies directly with the quality of the environment. (Author)

To examine the influence of kibbutz socialization on patterns of self- and intragroup evaluations, 456 kibbutz and 768 middle-class city preadolescents evaluated themselves and a group of same-sex peers on positive and negative traits. (Author/MC)

Evidence suggests that desegregation resulted in changes in attitudes of black and white children who attended predominantly black schools before the school boundary changes. (Author/AM)

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of varying leader selection systems on the performance of political decision-making groups (judges). The type of leadership choice of the court was the independent variable and degree of dissent the dependent variable. As predicted, merit choice had less dissent. (NG)

This book review describes a comprehensive resource book on a variety of approaches to groupwork in the secondary school. (GO)

An examination of some interpersonal factors related to adolescents' television viewing is presented, with particular emphasis on dimensions of communication in the family and with peers. (Author)

Nancy Reagan discusses the problems of drug abuse by youth. The 1985 findings of the National Institute on Drug Abuse show a decline in marijuana and alcohol use by high school seniors. Mrs. Reagan emphasizes the importance of family support and the parent group movement as well as positive peer group support in the fight against youth drug abuse.…

Contrasted three groups of parents on reported changes in parenting skills and child behavior following communications training. Found no significant differences among groups on reported improvement in parenting skills. Parents of adolescents reported fewer changes in child behavior than did paents of preschoolers or school-age children in such…

Refers to articles within this issue of the Quarterly on the correlates of sociometric status, especially the views of Blyth. Agrees that maps of the child's social network need to be expanded to include nonschool contexts but argues that this effort should be guided by the potential contributions of these systems to social development. (CB)

This article describes: (1) the small group settings and peer group research; (2) verbal interaction and its benefits or detriments for learning; (3) students' cognitive abilities and demographic characteristics that predict their participation in small group interaction; (4) group composition and group interaction; and (5) the teacher's role in…

The effects of a positive peer culture program upon the moral development of "youths in distress" within the framework of street-corner gangs was measured. Moral-development measures indicated a positive effect upon the participants, and for some moral indices, on their friends' moral development. (Author/LMO)

One of the purposes of the study is to persuade the reader that the Asch experiments showed not the tyranny of the group over the individual, but the consequences of unresolved and unresolvable problems of interpersonal perception and attribution. (Author/AM)