Describes a 20-year program of research on the Nurse Home Visitation Program, a model in which nurses visit mothers beginning at pregnancy and continuing through the children's second birthdays. Summarizes results of two randomized trials and concludes that the use of nurses as home visitors is key to program success. (SLD)

Reports the knowledge levels about reproduction, contraception, and sexuality of more than 600 young teenagers from 7 cities. Data show subgroup variations in knowledge levels and explore which variables predict greater knowledge among these adolescents. Findings show disturbingly low levels of information among adolescents. (SLD)

Describes the "Philosophers Gang," a program to introduce philosophical inquiry to elementary school children in an urban San Francisco, California, school. The success of the sessions demonstrates that Socratic dialogue can be a fertile way for children to develop their critical thinking skills. (SLD)

Studied rates of somatic complaints and the association between stress and somatic complaints for 1,030 low-income urban adolescents in grades 6 through 8. For both boys and girls, somatization was the most commonly reported internalizing symptom, and heightened rates of urban stress predicted heightened rates of somatic complaints. (SLD)

Explicitly political research methodologies must be considered and incorporated into urban education in order to address issues of race, class, and gender equity. Draws from research on homeless children. (Author/MM)

Language screenings represent an important tool for early identification of language impairments in young children between 3 and 5 years of age. This investigation examined the utility of a well-established set of assessment measures for screening young African American children. One hundred and ninety-six children participated in the screening.…

Patterns of individual scores are used to critique citywide testing of urban children at the beginning of their schooling. Of the 47 children identified as gifted in a citywide assessment, 25 exhibited substantial intra individual differences between skill subscales on a standardized intelligence test. Eighty percent of the children had a…

The high school transition was examined in an ethnically diverse, urban sample of 1,979 adolescents, followed from 7th to 10th grade (M[subscript age] = 14.6, SD = 0.37 in 7th grade). Twice annually, data were gathered on adolescents' perceptions of school climate, psychological functioning, and academic behaviors. Piecewise growth modeling…

In light of their historical role in African American communities, faith-based organizations are uniquely positioned to offer substance use prevention programs to urban African American youth. This article describes the efforts of a university-based program to provide training and technical assistance to faith-based organizations in the…

The people at Inverness Research Associates spent 12 years studying Community Science Workshops (CSW) in California and in six other states. They gathered statistics on the scale, scope, and cost-efficiency of CSW services to youth. They observed youth at work in the shops--taking apart computers, repairing bikes, growing plants, and so on--and…

To inform effective school-to-work programs, this study evaluates the effect of a school-based psychoeducational intervention on the academic self-efficacy of urban youth enrolled in the ninth grade. Using a mixed-methods design, data were collected using a quantitative measure of academic self-efficacy and eight semistructured interviews over the…

Young Americans are killed with guns at rates far higher than young people in other countries and than older Americans, with young, urban African-American males being most at risk. This fact sheet presents data on gun-related homicides among teenagers in the United States. The high rate of youth homicide in the United States is unique in the…

THIS PROJECT SOUGHT TO DETERMINE--(1) THE ATTITUDES TOWARD, AND THE NATURE AND DEGREE OF INVOLVEMENT IN, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OF URBAN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS AS A FUNCTION OF COUNTRY, SEX, AND LEVEL OF EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT, AND (2) THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CERTAIN BEHAVIORAL, DISPOSITIONAL, AND SITUATIONAL VARIABLES IN EXPLAINING ATTITUDES TOWARD,…

A study sought to discover if college professors could be re-educated in the use of broadcast media for enriching lecture class periods and student assignments. The professors took a pretest, studied the specialized learning needs of urbanized students, the advantages of using video tape recorders, and how to operate a video tape recorder and took…