Few alcohol prevention programs focus on elementary school-aged youth, yet children develop expectancies and norms about alcohol use during the elementary school years, and many elementary school children are allowed to have sips or tastes of alcohol at home. Research on consequences of early alcohol use indicates that it can put children at…

The objective of the study was to develop and evaluate an effective whole-community approach to identifying a diverse group of influential young people to effectively diffuse health promotion messages among their peers. A peer nomination questionnaire, developed through extensive piloting work, was completed by 10 730 Year 8 students (aged 12-13…

It is suggested that the most desirable approach to combatting the smoking problem is to prevent youngsters from beginning to smoke, rather than prescribing treatment for them after they have become steady smokers. A program, which uses peer models, is described in this paper. (Author/KC)

The Student Participation and Counselling Effort (SPACE), a peer interaction approach to classroom behavior crises, was successfully used in a small rural school to help adolescent students manage their own behavior. (CL)

The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of educating students on the negative aspects of enabling their peers. Enabling is any action taken by a concerned person that removes or softens the effect of a harmful consequence. For this study, 24 students (21 females) who were characterized as "Natural Helper" students at a…

Growing evidence indicates that teen courts give a community's children and adults a practical response to the problems associated with delinquency, traffic safety, and substance abuse. Developing and implementing teen courts requires a collaborative effort and juvenile justice agencies need baseline information that will aid them in creating teen…

Peer Intervention Network (PIN) began in New Jersey in 1980, as a group process intervention for improving the school performance of 7th and 8th grade students with motivational and attitudinal problems which interfered with their learning. Traditionally, these students tend to develop a "delinquent" profile and frequently became…

Describes a three-phase stress inoculation program for health educators teaching adolescents. The program focuses on students actively interpreting and reshaping their perceptions of stress and students' ability to cope with and confront peer pressure situations. The article presents considerations for using stress inoculation in grades 7-12…

This report examines five programs that use peer support groups as the key element of their prevention or intervention efforts in preventing or reducing the incidence of substance abuse, school failure, and other problems of adolescence. Chapter 1 provides introductory material. Chapter 2 contains background information on the peer program…

This paper describes the Young Adult and Adolescent Decision Making About Contraception program, an ongoing clinical research project designed to address the problem of unplanned adolescent pregnancy from a biopsychosocial perspective. The program is described as a peer-led intervention to promote the use of contraception by teenage girls at high…

This report details the rationale, origins, and practice of peer counseling, a system of training people to help other people through empathy and decision-making. Specific applications are described, with particular attention to involving adolescents as peer counselors. The article illustrates the training model of peer counseling as developed by…

In 1993, "Signs of Effectiveness in Preventing Alcohol and Other Drug Problems" appeared. It addressed alcohol and other drug use as a health problem influenced by risk factors in five life spheres or domains: individual, family, school, peer group, and community. Like its predecessor, "Signs of Effectiveness II" reports on…

An intervention targets cultural and eco-developmental risk factors that predispose Hispanic adolescents to substance abuse. Parent participatory-learning groups foster family cohesiveness and communication, facilitate parent-school connections, and create supervisory networks among peers' parents. The multidimensional focus, parent empowerment,…

Describes effective substance abuse prevention programs created by American Indians that combine cultural components with other proven prevention strategies. Components of successful cultural interventions are family, not school, administration; a focus on peer clusters rather than individuals or entire peer groups; incorporation of spirituality,…