Discusses ways to cultivate a more peaceful and respectful atmosphere in schools by incorporating developmental, preventive, and multicultural theories into the school environment. Three components are reviewed: (1) traditional conflict resolution learning strategies; (2) curriculum-based efforts designed to help students acquire the life skills…

Addresses problems of treating troubled girls at a male-dominated facility. The Positive Education Program (PEP) model is used in an Ohio day-treatment program for children with severe behavior problems. PEP staff use negative incidents as learning opportunities while positive programming makes school and its social interactions successful…

Analyzes the responses of 13 undergraduate education majors to a cheating incident in their moral development and education class. Interviewed by their teacher, the students discussed the incident in terms of teacher-student relationships, trust, individual morality versus imposed morality, and ethics. Relates these responses to theories on moral…

Describes an undergraduate sociology course where college students helped develop and teach multicultural lesson plans to high school students in a multiethnic district of Los Angeles (California). Discusses the origin and organization of the project and addresses some of its inherent structural and substantive challenges. (MJP)

A study explored episodes of social and physical aggression among 30 low-income, African American, Hispanic, and Latina girls. Episodes of social aggression frequently led to episodes of physical aggression with group alliances solidified in the process. Adults intervened to resolve physically aggressive episodes, while precipitating socially…

Investigates the relation between psychological characteristics and drug use in subjects studied longitudinally, from preschool through age 18. Psychological differences between frequent drug users, experimenters, and abstainers could be traced to the earliest years of childhood and related to the quality of parenting received. Discusses how…

The parent management practices to which a sample of 80 middle-school boys were exposed was examined. Boys were grouped by school adjustment as: (1) internalizers; (2) antisocials; (3) normals/controls; and (4) externalizers. Implications for parenting and the practice of school psychology are discussed. (SLD)

Reports on a study of student perceptions of harmdoers among 164 second and fifth-grade Japanese students. Finds that older children perceived the harmdoer who apologized as less intentional and more remorseful than the harmdoer who made excuses and accepted the harmdoer's excuses only when they believed that the harm was not intended. (CFR)

Reports on a survey of 1,077 German students and 233 teachers about different forms of student violence. Finds that the perpetrators were nearly all male, while victims were both male and female. Observes that, in comparison with previous studies, the rate of school violence does not appear to be on the increase. (CFR)

An ongoing longitudinal study of 699 adolescents and their parents, begun when the adolescents were ages 13 to 16, found that, although black families had more single-parent households and lower family incomes than white families, black adolescents had higher abstention rates and lower rates of alcohol abuse and other deviance than white…

Reports on a study of the effects of a peer-mediation training program among 92 elementary school students. Finds that the training program was successful in teaching negotiation and mediation procedures and skills. Reports that the training dramatically reduced the number of conflicts referred to teachers and principal. (CFR)

Maintains that the large number of Holocaust victims can be difficult to comprehend. Presents a classroom exercise involving rapid counting that can give meaning to such large numbers. Contends that, along with the rapid counting procedure, there is a need to present the relationship of humanity to the numbers. (CFR)

Used the Revised Class Play test to compare the attitudes of Jewish second through seventh graders in Israel with attitudes of North American children, as assessed in previous studies. Although results on broad measures of leadership, aggression, and sensitivity were similar, some culturally specific differences were apparent. (MDM)

Surveyed middle school students on incidents of bullying and victimization. Found that psychosocial and behavioral predictors such as problem behaviors, attitudes toward deviance, peer influences, depressive symptoms, school-related functioning, and parenting linearly separated never bullied or victimized students from the victim group, from the…

Reviews the literature on delinquency that shows key early childhood factors which are associated with later antisocial or delinquent behavior. The review focuses on programs which have demonstrated long-term effects on antisocial behavior or delinquency, as well as their cost effectiveness. The article reveals that programs combining family…