Social validation procedures were used to evaluate the extent to which 72 professional staff, 47 nonhandicapped peers, and 47 parents perceived and valued changes in leisure time behavior that occurred with seven severely mentally retarded and multiply handicapped adolescents. (Author/SEW)

Interviews with mothers of preschool age children with established disabilities (n=230) and those classified as at-risk (n=32) were conducted, focusing on issues of children's peer relations and friendships. Mothers of children in both integrated and specialized settings perceived their respective settings as facilitating social development. Both…

In these two separate studies of self-esteem, Study One showed that Finnish adolescents valued popularity more than academic and athletic success when compared to American students. Study Two revealed that students with low self-esteem embraced traditional sex roles more prominently than students with high self-esteem. (RJM)

The concurrent and longitudinal risk of enemy relationships, using both nominations- and ratings-based methods of assessing enmity, were examined among elementary school children. After controlling for peer rejection, only ratings-based enemies were found to have negative developmental impact. (Contains 4 tables.)

This study tested the predictive links between children's interactions with peers in early elementary school and their social and emotional adjustment at the end of elementary school. A sample of 231 boys starting kindergarten and first grade were observed during this longitudinal study, on three separate occasions: kindergarten and first grade,…

Regular educators (n=11), special educators (n=7), and classmates without disabilities (n=181) were surveyed at the end of the first year that middle school students with severe disabilities were integrated into regular education classes in two suburban midwestern communities. Results revealed many benefits for educators and students. Educators…

This guide, intended for adults who deal with adolescents, was originally designed as a companion to "No Hang-Ups!," a telephone tape call-in service addressing topics of vital concern to teenagers. The format of the guide consists of a series of brief two-page fact sheets on a wide range of adolescent issues: problems in school, teenage fears,…

The report presents findings from a 2-year evaluation of the implementation of Chapter 766, the Massachusetts comprehensive special education law. The evaluation included 10 substudies of issues related to special education. Most of the findings contained in the final report are based on coordinated case studies of 15 school districts and on a…

To investigate change in the general self concept of ability of educable mentally retarded special class students, four equally spaced interviews were conducted with 51 students (mean age 11.63) over a 2-year period. Pupils answered questions about their academic ability from the General Self-Concept of Ability Scale; scores showed an ascending…

Studies are reviewed showing that the social status of a high school has a small independent effect on the college intentions of its students, over and above the effects of their family status and mental ability. This finding is analyzed with data from the Educational Testing Service's 1955 sample of 35,330 students in 518 American high schools.…

This report, the first in a series of four 1996 releases of students' opinions, represents a continued effort by MetLife to provide insight and understanding to the issues of violence and social tension in American public schools. The survey focuses on the social climate of the nation's public schools from the perspective of public school students…

This guide is designed specifically as a resource for classroom teachers, librarians, or consultants who are concerned with helping children develop an understanding and an ease with people who are different, especially people with disabilities. The book includes materials to be used in sensitivity and awareness discussion sessions based on 12…

In this qualitative study, five female students in the sixth grade were interviewed and surveyed about their views on popularity at their urban middle school in Ohio. The objectives of the study were to investigate whether middle school girls engaged in academic competition, to describe their subjective experiences of popularity in middle school,…

Presents a peer training model illustrating how a campus can involve its students, faculty, and administrators in effective prejudice-reducing strategies. Presents the operational assumptions governing the National Coalition-Building Institute's training programs, the theory and methodology of its prejudice reduction model, and a process for…

A two-year study involving 173 Portuguese fifth-graders found students who were rejected by their peers were more disruptive, aggressive, and had more trouble with teachers. Students who were rated as lower status students (rejected and neglected) achieved poorly in 5th grade and more poorly in 6th grade. (Contains references.) (CR)