One route to uncovering schooling's goals for an improved citizenry is to track certain subjects of the compulsory curriculum. In this case, health is investigated, and especially its messages on smoking and drinking. First introduced as scientific temperance instruction (in the 1880s), renamed hygiene (from about 1910), then as health (from the…

Investigated attitudes toward suicide and death across two intrafamilial generations to better understand possible causal factors underlying increasing suicide rates among the young. Findings indicate support for the hypothesis that the youthful generation holds more "accepting" attitudes toward suicide and death than does the parental…

Examined attitudes toward alcohol use and abuse, drinking norms, and treatment of alcoholism among a representative sample of adults (N=933). Results indicated public concern about alcohol abuse and a desire to help, definite norms maintained against heavy drinking and drunkeness, and a belief in the value of treatment demonstrated. (Author)