Legislative mandates in California and at the federal level require written parental consent for surveys of children and youth on: sexual behavior and attitudes; illegal, antisocial and criminal behavior; and psychological problems. Active parental refusal and nonresponse to requests for permission threaten the generalizability of information…

This report of the "Listen '95: Kids Can't Wait" conference presents the lives and concerns of Minnesota youth as described by the youth who participated in it. The issues of alcohol and drug abuse, violence, and education were the top concerns of the youth that participated in the first statewide conference in 1994. In focusing on these…

This document consists of papers that received recognition in a competition sponsored by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the National Rural Institute on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. The competition sought to focus attention on problems in providing treatment and prevention services for drug and alcohol problems in rural areas. The papers…

This report outlines the Hillsborough County, Florida, Head Start Program's project to field test with young children and their families curricula that were designed to prevent alcohol and other drug problems. A national search conducted by means of computers, individual contacts, and other methods yielded information on 22 substance abuse…

The seven short stories in this collection portray the lives of Puerto Rican children and adolescents in the South Bronx (New York City). The hopelessness of many Puerto Rican and Black youth is vividly depicted in stories dealing with drug use, discrimination, unwanted and early pregnancy, and a host of other urban social ills. Titles of the…

This document reports how a writing/communication curriculum for incarcerated adults was developed in response to an informal survey taken at the Schuylkill County (Pennsylvania) Prison. Findings from students in the 1990-91 adult basic education course indicated that prisoners evidenced low-level writing skills, an apathetic attitude toward the…

This report addresses the legislation passed by the 1990 Minnesota Legislature concerning the African American Youth Treatment Planning effort for providing five recommendations on prevention, treatment, and aftercare of drug abuse for this population. Based on a literature review and needs assessment that entailed a demographic and socioeconomic…

How can state leaders mobilize to meet the health and safety needs of its school-age children? To understand more about children's health, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has surveyed Wisconsin students. In 1993 the DPI and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) joined forces to conduct the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.…

This final report attempts to capture the work and atmosphere of the recent symposium convened by Motivational Educational Entertainment, Inc. (MEE), a black-owned communications research, consulting, and video production company. In its commitment to helping urban youth, MEE conducted a study of the "hip-hop" generation and its…

To prevent the high-risk populations of learning disabled/behavior disordered (LD/BD) and educable mentally handicapped (EMH) students from developing substance abuse problems, these students must be educated with materials that are directed specifically at their social and mental levels. Project Oz, a social service agency in McLean County,…

This report presents results of a 1992 conference on the unique needs of minorities with disabilities. Major recommendations include: increased coordination of government policies and programs for this population; authorization of targeted research on minorities with disabilities; outreach efforts to ensure participation by minorities with…

This conference report presents issue papers that speak to the needs of minority group members with disabilities, solicited from human service professionals. The papers provide statistical data relating to the needs of various people with disabilities who are members of minority groups, describe initiatives developed to serve those needs, analyze…

The PRISE (Positive Resiliency in Special Education) Curriculum was designed to prevent alcohol and other drug use among the special education population in kindergarten through high school, by involving students in classroom activities that will increase their personal resiliency while encouraging them to make healthy, informed decisions. The…

Most studies of child and adolescent personality have identified three main types (resilients, overcontrollers, and undercontrollers) and further subtypes using Q sort methodology. This study investigated the generalizability of a personality typology by using cluster analysis on the Big-Five scale with adolescents between 12 and 16 years of age.…

This report, which is based on the work of the Perinatal Substance Exposure Think Tanks, establishes priorities for statewide services in California to young children who are prenatally exposed to alcohol and drugs. Although the report focuses on the developmental needs of children, it also examines efforts to provide prevention and treatment…