The study of the spontaneous generation of a pidgin by two children, five and six years old, to accommodate their communication needs when neither had fully acquired his native language, is described. The children were an African native of a Swahili-speaking family and an American child living in the African village. The new language created was a…

According to a recent model of alcohol use (Hull, 1981), individuals moderate their sensitivity to the implications of success and failure by drinking following personal failure to reduce self-consciousness and not drinking following success to remain self-conscious. To test the hypothesis that adolescent alcohol consumption would be a joint…

This paper presents a flowsheet model describing the interpersonal process of adolescent identity formation in relation to peers and peer groups within a social-psychological context. The model describes a primary route, a secondary route, and a vicious circle as pathways toward identity formation in relation to peers and peer groups. In the…

Differential association-learning theory posits that association with delinquent peers causes delinquency; control theory suggests that the link between delinquent peers and delinquent behavior is spurious, or that delinquent behavior leads to delinquent associates. To examine these competing perspectives, 1,128 secondary school males completed…

This paper presents data on psychosocial stress and sources of social support in adolescence obtained from a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of 1,717 West German adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16. Structural changes in the life phase of adolescence are discussed and typical symptoms of psychosocial stress in adolescence are…

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 study is, as an inquiry into the effectiveness of discussion leadership taxonomy, designed to help online discussion leaders support and facilitate discussions conducted by undergraduates. Participants were approximately two hundred preservice undergraduate students taking an Introduction to Educational Technology course. Each week students…

One of the characteristics of ethnography is the use of concrete examples to shed light on the context of human experience. As part of a 2-year ethnographic project, students in a high school located between a deteriorating city and an affluent suburb were interviewed and observed to study the interaction between the school as a social system and…

The use of prompting to increase peer-tutoring skills in an entire third grade classroom was investigated. A multiple baseline design was used in establishing three tutoring components: praise corrective feedback, and re-presenting the question. Results indicated that all three tutoring behaviors increased after prompting. During the last…

The major components of collegial interaction of college and university faculty and of faculty in different disciplinary groupings were studied, and the way that these components differ among four-year college and university faculty were addressed. Faculty at a Ph.D.-granting university and two liberal arts colleges were studied. Pilot interviews…

Students have different reference groups at their disposal in the school environment; however, the class to which they are assigned is the dominant social context for daily experiences. Thus, evaluations by teachers and peers which are concerned with achievement distribution occur in this limited reference group. In an investigation of the…

This report, prepared by the Studies in Delinquency and School Environments program, presents a theory of delinquency and proposes an action research strategy to develop delinquency prevention programs in schools. The materials build on the theories of Hirschi and Bandura, and assume that: (1) home and school experiences can be rewarding or…

In a study of the effects of school structure on heterosexual behavior, self-report data on heterosexual behavior were collected from more than 2,000 sixth through tenth graders in 1978 when their district had a 6-3-3 school structure and in 1979 after the district had changed to a 6-2-2-2 structure. The district was located in a medium-size,…

The most accepted theoretical model for explaining how school desegregation produces academic benefits for minority children assumes that (a) school desegregation generates intergroup and interracial contact which (b) enables the achievement related values possessed by white children to be transmitted to minority students, which in turn (c)…

This publication identifies common attitudes toward handicapped persons and provides suggestions for improving attitudes. The first of three major sections presents an historical review of pertinent legislation for education of the handicapped. Section 2 gives a brief review of what the legislation means for vocational education. The final section…