Describes differences in preferred modes of group interaction between 743 students from grades four to eight and from four relatively distinct social environments: rural Maine, suburban New Hampshire, urban Columbus, Ohio, and inner city Cincinnati, Ohio. Rural and inner city groups prefer similar modes as do urban and suburban groups. (Author/NEC)

Service learning has been proposed as one strategy to empower youth, engage students, and provide real-life applications for classroom learning. One model of service learning, "The Helper Model," which was designed specifically for use with middle school students, is presented here. Data to test the model were collected from over 500…

The quality of the parent-parent relationship is considered as an important factor for managing stressful family crises. The assumption in this study is that specific patterns of parent-parent communication make it easier or more difficult to adjust to changes in the family that are required when the first child enters early adolescence. In a…

Offers background on constructivism as a means of reconceptualizing the ways in which students learn. Given this concept of learning and the Montessori emphasis on contextualized learning, investigates the potential role of the Internet and the World Wide Web in the classroom, including examples of classroom use and career development. (Author/SD)

Surveys of 2,125 seventh-graders in eight urban Southwestern schools and interviews with 60 of them examined the role of family and school in Latino/a preadolescent substance use. Most respondents did not use hard drugs or alcohol. Strong ties to parents and school were protective factors. Recommendations for social work interventions that support…

Summarizes work by three researchers in the area of young people and libraries. The first examined library habits of pregnant teenagers; the second explored reading interests of children and adolescents and factors involved in their selection of reading materials; and the third advocated making research relevant to those involved in collecting…

Examined correlates of social withdrawal in childhood. Data from peers, teachers, and students in grade two and again in grades four and five revealed two subtypes of social isolation, passive-anxious and active-immature. While active-immature type was infrequent and unstable, passive-anxious type was stable across grades and predictive of…

Describes an open-ended, structured, highly intensive therapy group for sexually abused preteen girls that was the primary mode of treatment for 11 girls from low-income, rural White families with numerous problems. Unique features of the group included simultaneous group and individualized goals. (Author/BB)

This analysis of 12,266 responses to the 3 Self-Description Questionnaires (which measure dimensions of self-concept in preadolescence) examined age and sex effects during preadolescence and early adulthood and alternative operationalizations of the proposition that self-concept becomes more differentiated with age. Well-defined factor structures…

Analyzes what is known about how children's judgments of their intellectual competence and their definition and criteria for evaluating competence change with age and experience in achievement contexts. (PCB)

Uses a control group study to compare the effectiveness of contingency management training and communication skills training for training parents to manage children with conduct disorders. Concludes that more subjects in the contingency management group met a criterion of clinical success than in either the communication skills or the control…

Surveyed 547 11-year-olds concerning future hopes and worries. Re-surveyed subjects 3 years later and conducted interviews with 152 of the now 14-year-olds. Worries about employment and nuclear war appeared to predominate throughout adolescence, while proportions of students worried about unemployment, own mortality, lack of money, and Acquired…

Examined school entrance age effect on academic achievement and social-emotional adjustment among 137 fourth graders. Found that differences between 73 oldest and 64 youngest subjects, identified in first grade, persisted in part to fourth grade. Younger subjects scored lowest in mathematics and oral and silent reading comprehension; were slower…

Presents an argument for the recently proposed ban on advertising of tobacco products. Differentiates between commercial speech, used to sell products and services, and political speech, which relates to ideas. Argues that tobacco is the only legal product that is dangerous when used as intended, therefore First Amendment rights regarding other…

Finds that, among 46 Inuit and 11 White 10-16-year-old students in the Northwest Territories (Canada), Inuit students had less modern values than their white peers, but Inuit scores varied considerably both within and among the 5 value orientations examined. Contains 34 references. (SV)