Background: Few studies have examined the interplay among quantifiable aspects of peer bonds, friendship types, personal characteristics, and behavioral outcomes in schools in distressed neighborhoods. The aim of this study was to identify compensatory and protective factors that can be promoted in school-based prevention programs. Methods: The…

A daily war is waged in schools all over the United States over wall space. Adolescents are using school walls to convey messages, create name recognition, slander each other, or for claiming territorial space. On the other side is the school administration, which paints over and erases these unsanctioned claims to space, power and identity, as it…