Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth (LGBT) continue to face extreme discrimination within the school environment. Existing literature suggests that LGBT youth are at high risk for a number of health problems, including suicide ideation and attempts, harassment, substance abuse, homelessness, and declining school performance. This…

The "Commissioner of Education's Report on Violence, Vandalism and Substance Abuse in New Jersey Public Schools", submitted annually to the education committees of the Senate and Assembly, provides the Legislature with data in four broad incident categories: violence, vandalism, weapons, and substance abuse. This year's report highlights…

The Handbooks in Economics series continues to provide the various branches of economics with handbooks which are definitive reference sources, suitable for use by professional researchers, advanced graduate students, or by those seeking a teaching supplement. With contributions from leading researchers, each Handbook presents an accurate,…

The problem is well known to every parent of a teenager, every high school teacher, every clinical practitioner, and every social policy maker: vulnerable adolescents risk becoming more deviant through association with deviant peers and peer groups. Deviant peer influences are among the most potent factors in the development of antisocial…

Background: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at risk for the development of comorbid conduct disorder (CD) and depression. The current study examined potential psychosocial risk factors for CD and depression in a clinic-based sample of 203 boys (aged 6-10 years) with ADHD. Methods: The boys and their mothers…

Based on Parrot's work with college students, a six-activity acquaintance rape prevention program for first-year high school students living in a rural South Carolina community was implemented and evaluated. The program decreased students' acceptance of rape myths compared with non-participating students both on a scale developed by Burt and on…

This community-based, qualitative study explored social capital resources and their influences upon HIV risk behaviors in a sample of 17 heterosexual Asian Indian immigrant men residing in New York City. Our study defined social capital as the resources available to individuals and society through social relationships. At the family, peer, and…

This qualitative study investigates rural middle school students' perceptions of academic engagement. Participant-produced drawings (Kearney & Hyle, 2003), integrated with a series of semi-structured interviews (Patton, 2002), served as the primary data collection techniques. Twenty middle school students participated, stratified for socioeconomic…

In this article, we test: (a) the relation between school-based extracurricular participation and indicators of positive and negative development across a range of activity contexts, and (b) a mediation model linking activity participation, prosocial peers, and development. Extensive survey information was collected from a predominately White…

This study examined whether the incidence of classroom behavior problems of students with behavior disorders were reduced in collaborative/cooperative classes when compared with traditional special education classes. Subjects were 15 students in grades 6 through 8 who spent half their class day in a collaborative/cooperative classroom and the…

In cooperative learning, children are assigned to small groups to work on curriculum-based tasks while teachers move among the groups to offer assistance and to monitor progress. Despite the benefits and appeal of this learning method, it has been demonstrated that not all cooperative learning groups are equally successful in the classroom. In…

A Future Teachers' Autobiography Club discussion group/research project invited six elementary teacher candidates to read, write about, and discuss ethnic autobiography in order to foster and investigate the potential of peer discussion in teacher learning. Using a selected list of six autobiographies, the researcher hosted monthly dinner…

This study investigated the effects of friendship on seventh and eighth graders' self-esteem. The study assessed: (1) whether changes in adolescents' self-esteem during a school year were related to the quality of their friendships early in the year; and (2) whether friends' ratings of their self-esteem became more similar over the course of the…

The PRISE (Positive Resiliency in Special Education) Curriculum was designed to prevent alcohol and other drug use among the special education population in kindergarten through high school, by involving students in classroom activities that will increase their personal resiliency while encouraging them to make healthy, informed decisions. The…

This study examined the social networks of teachers' strong and weak ties and the impact of those associations upon their beliefs about the realities of elementary education in terms of the knowledge and skills that influenced those realities: school context, general pedagogy, specific subject matter pedagogy, nature of the learner, and self as…