An Austin (Texas) high school's Credit Plus program accelerates high-risk students by helping them make up credits missed through failure or poor attendance and prepare them for graduation. The program succeeds because of its application and assessment process, low student-teacher ratio, positive physical and mental environment, structured…

Encourages counselors and other human development professionals to provide human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) prevention programing that is sensitive to social and cultural contexts of groups being addressed. Focuses on women, gay and bisexual men, African Americans, and Latinos. Provides necessary…

Urges drop-out intervention during the early years of schooling, because children who are most likely to drop out of school are poorer readers than their peers and have repeated one or more grades. Suggests reading teachers carefully select instructional strategies and build students' self-esteem. (RS)

A variety of programs have produced changes in knowledge, behavior, and health for arthritis patients. National dissemination of patient education programs is in progress. Research needs center on new populations, delivery methods, and arthritis-specific applications of theory. (SK)

Reviews facts about human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), HIV transmission, and prevention of HIV/AIDS; discusses risks for contracting HIV; reviews relevant legislation regarding the rights of employees, employers, and consumers; describes HIV/AIDS workplace policies and procedures; and presents implications…

Most adults would agree that the AIDS threat has reached crisis proportions and that strong measures are required to control the spread of HIV among adolescents. Although abstinence offers the best protection, teens exposed to risks must protect themselves with knowledge, skills, and access to latex condoms. High school condom distribution is…

Undergraduate students (n=131) responded to eight educational posters dealing with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) using a nine-item semantic differential scale. Two posters were consistently rated as more informative, reassuring, effective, decent, and better than the others. The first utilized an objective and informative…

The number of students killed or injured by gunfire while at schools is increasing. The National Rifle Association, the nation's powerful gun lobby, has a gun safety program; however, children's advocates say stricter gun-control laws are necessary. Briefly cites 24 gun incidents and describes 4 semiautomatic pistols that were among the firearms…

The National School Safety Center pegs the number of gun-toting U.S. students at 100,000. Unless metal detectors are employed as part of a carefully thought-out school safety plan, their use is likely to be ineffective, controversial, and a legal minefield. Random student searches are becoming common. A sidebar describes a Washington, D.C., junior…

Presents interim report on Loss & Change, preventive health education school-based program developed, in conjunction with teachers, by health workers from Australian community health agency. Describes program as generalist, exploring losses adolescents experience within context of healthy adolescent development. Sees this death education…

Young persons (n=745), many of whom (n=367) had been sexually active, completed questionnaires on disease prevention. Found no correlation between prevention regarding general health risk factors versus prevention against human immunodeficiency virus contraction. Considered whether this difference could be accepted as expression of adolescents not…

The most important part of any babysitting job is everyone's safety while the parents are gone. The article makes suggestions about what parents should ask prospective babysitters before hiring them and discusses issues that parents must cover with babysitters before leaving them alone with the children. (SM)

Summarizes a study of 225 cases between 1990 and 1994 involving sexual abuse or harassment complaints against teachers. Interviews revealed how districts respond to complaints and the most effective preventive policies and procedures. School districts with rare occurrences screen prospective employees, have strong and clear policies, educate staff…

Understanding of adolescent child-bearing and efforts to ameliorate attendant problems are diminished by unexamined, emotionally charged beliefs regarding race, poverty, gender. Adolescent birth rates that declined from 1970s to 1980s were sharper for African Americans. However, sexually active adolescents in comparison countries have fewer…

Seven steps for dealing with social violence include provide effective consequences, teach nonaggressive responses, stop aggression early, restrict access to instruments of aggression, restrain and reform public displays of aggression, correct conditions of everyday life that foster aggression, and offer more effective instruction and more…