The study was designed to assess the impact of high school community service programs on students' social development. These programs enable students to earn academic credit through volunteer work in various agencies. Their work is supervised by teachers and on-site supervisors. Frequently a seminar or class is part of the program. Eight community…

A study explored the degree to which males and females engage in social comparisons and the underlying factors that comprise and relate to social comparisons with advertising images for both boys and girls. Data were gathered from a sample of 225 females and 214 males between the ages of 15 and 18 from a midwestern high school. The same survey was…

The Adolescent-Significant Others' Relationship Questionnaire was administered to 4,822 Malaysian students who ranged in age from 13 to 19 years. Subjects were Form I, III, and V students selected from six states in peninsular Malaysia by cluster sampling. The sample consisted of approximately equal numbers of males and females; urban and rural;…

This essay addresses how to cope with several potential barriers to implementing effective service-learning projects. The discussion builds on experiences of developing and refining service-learning in upper-division communication courses. Difficulties arise in three areas: the institutional and physical setting, student attitudes, and community…

This paper describes a consciousness-raising group experience for high school students regarding male and female roles in our society. Participants are 10-12 high school students (with an equal number of male and female students) and a counselor who served as group facilitator. The program consists of 12 numbered cards on each of which is written…

This report presents the results of a study designed to determine how classroom practices supported by proponents of educational redesign correlate with the classroom environment that teachers and students prefer. The study correlated the differences in teachers' and students' perceptions of actual and ideal classroom environment with…

Research has shown that drug use tends to increase during the college years, implying that college students have a more favorable view of drug use than high school students. To compare the attitudes of high school (N=367) and college students (N=260) toward nine recreationally used drugs, a semantic differential technique was used. Statistically…

A 3-year community service learning program was established at a small high school in Maine. The program aims to provide a unifying focus for a fragmented student population, address community problems, and increase students' self-esteem and feelings of being meaningful members of their community. In grade 9, teachers of every subject design…

This paper reports on a study investigating teacher and student attitudes toward grade retention. Questionnaires were completed by elementary, middle, and high school teachers (N=37), and high school students (N=62). The student population was organized into two groups: (1) grade repeaters; and (2) a control group composed of an equal number of…

This paper examines constructs of school violence among 11 teachers in a large urban secondary school and a large rural district high school. It describes how these teachers contextualize their particular schools, and explores contradictions between teachers' constructions of violence in schools in general and their particular constructions of…

This paper describes a research project in which a moral education curriculum was incorporated into primary and secondary school classrooms in four schools in the Toronto area. The background theory which is presented is developmental in perspective. The interactionist viewpoint, an important aspect of the theory, states that development is…

This document describes research pertaining to adolescent females' perceptions of sexual desire. It analyzes 30 interviews of girls, 15-18 years old, who are juniors in suburban and urban high schools. The key finding was identified as the dilemma of desire. Girls responded to the dilemma in three ways: simply not feeling the desire, resisting…

This examination of political and social attitudes of American youth in the 1980's begins with a comparison of the youth of the 1960's with the youth of the 1970's. Results from four major studies are presented and a composite picture of youth in the eighties is presented. Findings show that the personal and professional values of American…

The meaning of academic achievement for African American students was studied in 2 populations, a sample of 145 (53% males, 47% female) African American middle school and high school students in an African American Academy summer enrichment program and 45 African American high school seniors (36% males, 64% females) in a summer program for…

The research investigated political and psychological reactance among adolescents. Political reactance is interpreted to include feelings of political alienation and distrust. Psychological reactance is defined as behavior by an individual in response to reduction or threatened reduction of freedom. A model was created which expanded existing…