Background: In professional practice, psychologists and other professionals such as therapists and teachers receive referrals of many children who present with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties that are difficult to understand and assess. The problems of some of these children may stem from pragmatic difficulties in communication.…

Gender segregation in the classroom is advocated as academically beneficial, particularly for girls. However, the social impact for children has received little attention. The present study compared children's peer relations following the transition from mixed-sex fourth-grade classrooms to same-sex fifth-grade classrooms, and beyond into same-sex…

Monty Roberts is a real life "horse whisperer" who creates connections between horses and humans. This article extends these concepts to the challenge of connecting with guarded, distrustful youth. It presents a description of one youth, followed by seven profiles that are compilations of the work of Nicholas Long, Frank Fecser, and Mary Wood…

Peace education is a key for establishing a consensual peace and maintaining it over time. There are 5 essential elements in building a lasting peace through education. First, a public education system must be established that has compulsory attendance for all children and youth, integrated so students from previously conflicting groups interact…

Studies investigating smoking behavior among adolescents living in post-communistic Central-European countries are sparse. This study focused on the relationship between cigarette smoking, certain friendship factors, and social norm perceptions among 1,886 Central-Eastern European adolescents from high schools in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic,…

This study examined the relation between language skills, gender, and relational/physical aggression. Language skills of 100 preschoolers were assessed with 3 standardized instruments. Relational/physical aggression was rated by the children's teachers. Results indicated that relational and physical aggression tended to increase as language scores…

Background: While inclusion is commonly conceptualised as a location, or as organisational practices, or as pertaining to social development, in terms of a key purpose of schools (advancement of learning), such foci are insufficient. Method: Employing a case study methodology, this research focuses on the quality of the learning process during…

This longitudinal study examines minority status stress and socio-cultural orientation among Latino freshmen as they enter a predominately White, elite, private institution. The study finds Latino freshmen report experiencing racism. Students respond to racism by developing an alienated sociocultural orientation and beginning to see their Latino…

One portion of a national study of bullying, which surveyed gifted 8th graders regarding bullying during their school years (N = 432), used structured interviews (N = 57) to explore the lived experience of being bullied or being a bully. Qualitative analysis of interview data found that even just one incident was highly distressing for some. Also…

This study applied a social identity perspective to the study of adolescent self-concept and social development. British adolescents aged 14-15 years (N=114) completed a questionnaire which asked them to: (i) rate their degree of identification with a school-based friendship group; (ii) complete a measure of multi-dimensional self-concept; and…

This study examined the occurrence of problem situations in the peer and school domains and their relation to adjustment among urban adolescents. Students from three urban middle schools ("N"=176) serving a predominantly African American population rated 61 problem situations identified in a previous qualitative study and completed measures of…

Peer contagion of adolescent males' aggressive/health risk behaviors was examined using a computerized "chat room" experimental paradigm. Forty-three 11th-grade White adolescents (16-17 years old) were led to believe that they were interacting with other students (i.e., "e-confederates"), who endorsed aggressive/health risk behaviors and whose…

The importance of connections with peers to student development and retention has been highlighted in Astin's (1984) "Theory of Student Involvement" and Tinto's (1993) "Theory of Student Departure," which are two of the most widely referenced and validated models in student affairs literature. However, recent research has questioned the…

The present study was designed to examine the relations between parental pessimism and peer relations and health in preschool children and to examine the role that child positive and negative affect played within this relationship. Thirty-seven mothers and their children (mean age = 48.1 months) volunteered from local preschools and daycares…

In a short-term longitudinal study of 432 first-grade children, we examined whether gender interacted with contextual differences (school-level poverty) and individual differences at school entry (behavioral problems, emotional problems, and social competence) to predict changes in peer physical and relational victimization and receipt of…