This paper examines the effects of classroom characteristics on the friendship cliques of preadolescent students. It is argued that structural and organizational features of a classroom constrain the interaction patterns of students in such a way as to affect the probability of dyadic friendship relationships and the network of social ties that…

The Stratford School (Highland Park, Illinois), a public day school program serving primarily a population of 3-to-21-year-old trainable mentally handicapped students, established a program whereby students with autistic characteristics (who were previously placed in self-contained, homogeneous classes) would be integrated with non-autistic…

The emotional needs of gifted children are seldom considered by psychologists either during their training or in their subsequent professional practices. Most psychology trainees appear to be exposed only to the Terman (1925) studies which concluded that gifted children have significantly fewer social and emotional problems than does the general…

Secondary prevention programs for aggressive children should be based on research about processes which mediate children's expression of aggressive behavior. The relative importance of perceived competence, self-esteem, and social problem solving processes was investigated in 20 aggressive and 18 non-aggressive fourth and fifth grade boys. Teacher…

In this monograph, common problems faced by beginning teachers are discussed. These include: (1) encountering the unexpected demands of teaching in the familiar framework of the classroom; (2) understanding the role of the teacher in dealing with students; (3) communicating effectively with parents; (4) achieving a clear perspective on the…

This journal of a first grade teacher is one of a continuing series of monographs initiated by the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation. In addition to a narrative record of class discussions, the journal includes anecdotes, observations of children and their involvement in activities, interactions with parents both in and out of school, the…

Intervention to enhance Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving (ICPS) skills has been shown to significantly reduce observable negative, impulsive and inhibited behaviors and increase positive qualities in young, low socioeconomic status (SES) children. An ICPS model for older children was implemented with 202 low SES fifth graders to test…

A study identified communication characteristics that indicate an individual's perceived ability to offer informal therapeutic relationships to people in a social network. Subjects, 93 male and 130 female students from 16 randomly selected sections of a required speech communication course at a major state university, were assigned to one of three…

Medical students' perceptions of the college environment and interactions with peers and faculty were studied at the University of North Carolina, Duke University, Wake Forest University, and East Carolina University. A total of 76 black medical students (65% of the 117 black students in North Carolina's four medical schools) responded to a…

This study documents the differential sex and age influences on children's judgments of each other's humorousness, whom they prefer for friends, and the relationship between perceptions of humorousness and choice of friends. Two groups of children from a university-operated laboratory school participated in this study: one group consisted of 8-,…

Part of the School Improvement Research Series, this report describes two peer tutoring programs, one at the secondary and one at the primary level. The schools where the programs are conducted are both in the Lake Washington School District, across Lake Washington from Seattle. The report first cites Lake Washington High School (Kirkland), where…

This paper presents a new multi-scale instrument--the Bronstein-Cruz Child/Adolescent Self-Concept and Adjustment Scale, which measures self-concept and psychological adjustment for children and adolescents, aged 10-18 years. It consists of five subscales: Self-Evaluation, Social and Peer Relations, Family Relations, Sense of Mastery, and…

This casebook provides candid descriptions of teachers who enter the profession with no previous teacher preparation. The cases describe how a group of novice teachers faced the problems of transforming content knowledge into accessable units of instruction for teenagers in inner-city schools. The vignettes are grouped according to specific kinds…

This study investigated the effects of advanced organizer instruction on 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers' learning of general prosocial skill concepts, rules for using prosocial skills, and spontaneous prosocial behavior. The six prosocial skills considered included cooperation, sharing, taking turns, helping, demonstration of awareness of another's…

Recent national surveys have found marked increases in the use of illicit drugs and alcohol among adolescents. To investigate differential prediction of alcohol versus hard drug use amoung youths, 6% of the youths, aged 10-19, from a Pennsylvania county school system (N=1,689) were assessed on the HEW Community Youth Program Impact Scales. The 12…