The relationship between activity and positive self-esteem in girls 9 to 12 years of age was explored in this study. The hypothesis was that the positive relationship between physical activity and positive self-esteem which exists for women also exists for girls. A secondary goal was to gain insight into some of the factors that are associated…

This study evaluates the "I Can Do" program, a 13-session preventive intervention curriculum designed to teach children methods of coping with five stressful events or experiences (parental separation or divorce; loss of a loved one; spending time in self-care; move to a new home or school; and feeling ethnically, socially, or…

This paper describes the process of "contemplation writing" for one urban sixth-grade class. The paper describes the daily give-and-take between teacher and students, relates the way in which the teacher instructed his students about how to concentrate and observe before the writing process actually began, discusses the writings that…

The middle-level education initiative described in this document outlines an innovative program to assist New Mexico school districts in addressing the needs of early adolescents. Findings and recommendations that underscore the need for middle-level educational reform in New Mexico's schools are presented in this report. The state is a recipient…

Findings of a study that examined middle-level school practices and the educational needs of Illinois youth aged 10-14 are presented in this report. A questionnaire mailed to all junior high/middle schools (576 schools) and K-8 schools in Illinois (705 schools) elicited response rates of 75 and 42 percent, respectively, or a total of 774 usable…

America's educators have the ability and the responsibility to help at-risk students learn that they can succeed and that they must make the most of life. Educators should provide a caring environment, encourage students to take risks, and provide support when risk taking is not always successful. Rural students, like urban and suburban students,…

This teacher guide is part of a series of three interactive books on tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana; three informational books containing parallel content; and three teacher guides designed to give students in grades five through eight practice in using the information and skills presented in the books. The guide provides teachers with a…

A series of six papers and an introduction which present the results and tentative analyses of studies investigating such constructs as self-esteem, perceptions of control, and competence are included in this document. These papers are: (1) "Multiple Dimensions of Locus of Control and Their Relationship To Standardized Achievement Scores in Fifth…

Over the past 20 years, the middle school has been a major innovative movement changing the face of intermediate education. While hard to define exactly, middle schools have different priorities and purposes than junior high schools. The former serve preadolescents (ages 10 to 14) through a balanced, comprehensive program. Middle school programs…

Aware that children conceive of different types of trust, a study examined 60 children's conception of trust. The subjects comprised three age groups: 6-7 years old, 8-9 years old, and 10-11 years old. Each subject was interviewed on the basis of three stories. The stories depicted a hypothesized violation of trust in a moral context (lying),…

This study documents the differential sex and age influences on children's judgments of each other's humorousness, whom they prefer for friends, and the relationship between perceptions of humorousness and choice of friends. Two groups of children from a university-operated laboratory school participated in this study: one group consisted of 8-,…

Adolescence may be conceptualized as a period of life that begins and ends with major developmental transitions: the transition from childhood to adolescence and the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. This study focused on the nature of change in early adolescence and the relationship of that change to adjustment or problem behavior 4…

The Learning in Science Project (1979-1981) studied the problems and difficulties of learning science at the 10-14 year old level in New Zealand to provide insights into the world of the science learner and provide an alternative perspective of the science classroom to that currently held by teachers and others. This paper offers practical…

A model of the effects of physical abuse on child peer social status was tested in an ongoing empirical study of 8- to 12-year-old physically abused urban school children and matched control children selected from among their classmates. The model posited that family patterns of violent behavior predict general behavioral disturbance in the…

This report reviews studies on social interactions in desegregated schools and synthesizes reports on differences in the experience of schooling of black females as compared to schooling of white females. The literature on the subject, though sparse, indicates that in the early grades both white and black females have a lot in common, despite some…