Four million individuals under the age of 21 admit to consuming alcohol in any given month. This is a significant statistic considering alcohol is responsible for most health problems related to drugs among adolescents. Research has shown that the high influence of alcohol advertising may encourage adolescents to emulate the behaviors seen in…

Three procedures were used to elicit information from children 9-10 and 13-14 years old on their conceptions of war: (1) children were asked to give at least 10 answers to the question, "What is war?"; (2) each child was interviewed individually; and (3) children were asked to respond to magazine pictures of war scenes. The detailed and…

Interviewed American, British, and German young people about their ideas regarding numerous political, social, and moral issues. Discusses the children's conceptions of community and of law, the growth of principles, and their understanding of human psychology and social reality. (Author/GC)

The main aim of this contribution is to describe an instrument devised to study some of the cognitive processes that occur when people interpret social events (Discrepant Story Task-DST; Smorti, 2004). In particular, this instrument analyses the narrative processes of interpretation used by an observer when witnessing progressive and…

Nearly 100 Mexican American children and adolescents in grades 2-12 were interviewed in central Texas to determine their understanding of ethnicity and their attitudes toward their own ethnicity. Their responses were interpreted in relation to a developmental model with five stages or "perspectives" in reasoning about ethnicity. The…

Seventeen adolescents from four rural high schools in upstate New York were interviewed while in the 12th grade and again a year later. Interviews focused on student perceptions of their community, school, and social life; values; and future plans. All participants graduated from high school, and most went on to college or moved to another…

Junior and senior high school social studies teachers and teachers of the mildly handicapped (primarily learning disabled) in New Jersey (N=195) responded to a social issues survey. For each of 14 social issues, they were asked to indicate the frequency with which the issue was included in the instructional program, its importance, their own level…

Examination of 209 Israeli high school students reveals that parental values and work attitudes, parental education and place of birth, mother's work, and school track explain only small amounts of variance in adolescents' work values. Gender and racial background were found to have strong effects on work values. (BJV)

Analysis of questionnaires completed by 228 Israeli high school students reveals that, for Jewish adolescents, the future is less salient than it is for Arab adolescents; Jewish adolescents express fewer concerns about their education, career, and collective issues than do their Arab counterparts. (BJV)

Posits a distinction between cultures motivated by individualistic value systems (idiocentric) and collectivistic value systems (allocentric). Study reveals that Mexican American adolescents describe themselves in more allocentric terms, while Anglo American adolescents choose idiocentric terms. Suggests a correlation between idiocentric values…

Investigates ethnic acceptance among 613 Israeli middle grade students. Using self-reports determines the degree students wish to be involved with their homeroom classmates. Finds lower ethnic status peers accepted more readily when they score higher on indices of sociability, academic track level, and achievement. Discusses implications for…