Efforts in higher education to use students as teachers (peer teaching), thus providing them with the benefits traditionally enjoyed by professors are described. Four sections focus on the following: (1) peer teaching and the psychological basis for its benefits (cognitive level, affective level, and peer learning); (2) types of peer teaching used…

This document presents a review of the research on experiences outside of the classroom that may affect student achievement during the high school years, focusing specifically on the areas of family influences, peer influences, part-time employment of students, and student participation in extracurricular activities. It reports on studies of…

This factsheet examines alcohol use among college students. It explains how to identify problem drinking, discussing negative consequences of drinking, excessive consumption and intoxication, and reasons for drinking. Correlates of problem drinking are described in the areas of personality and gender; peer, family, and environmental influences are…

Although it has become commonplace in our society for children to take care of themselves for periods of time every day while their parents work, not much is known about the adequacy or effects of these self-care arrangements. Recent studies have reached very different conclusions regarding academic performance, social skills, self-esteem, school…

Thirty four-year-olds and 30 five-year-olds participated in a study of social influences on computer activity. During a first session children were individually pretested for general cognitive level and alphabet and number skills; during a second session they were given individual training on the computer; during third and fourth sessions half of…

This literature review addresses the prevalance of drug use and abuse among college athletes and the reasons for such abuse. Among reasons cited are status, peer pressure, boredom, and performance enhancement. Possible interventions that may prevent illegal drug use are also discussed, including educating coaches and trainers to help athletes,…

This document is intended to provide a discussion of the issues that need to be addressed in the development of peer review guidelines, the options for addressing the issues, and a range of views about such options. The document focuses on peer review with regard to regulatory decisions and contains major sections which deal with: (1) what should…

Data focused on illegal alcohol and marijuana use were collected in 1981 from 4,859 high school students living in two rural counties in southern Georgia. The sample consisted of over 85% of all students in grades 8 through 12 within the two counties. The data were used to test a facilitative-constraint model developed from selected components of…

This study was conducted to identify types of interactions associated with social influence among school children at three grade levels. Social influence was defined in terms of the ways in which a child attempted to convince other group members to adopt his or her opinions about the appearance of three different inkblots. Eighteen kindergarten,…

Older women (N=50) were asked a series of questions about reference groups, sex roles, sexuality, sexual desire at different stages in the life cycle, appropriateness of certain types of sexual behavior, adjustment to aging, life satisfaction, organizational activities, and male/female interaction. Quantitative and qualitative data provided the…

In an attempt to link public school expenditures to educational outputs, achievement test results of 6,605 elementary students in St. Louis, Missouri, were analyzed to see whether training and experience of teachers has an impact on student outcomes. The researchers matched individual students with teachers for five-year periods during grades…

Recent theoretical and empirical study has considerably refined knowledge as to the dynamics of peer processes operative within secondary schools, but has tended to neglect models incorporating reciprocal effects. This situation results partly from a scarcity of appropriate data, and partly from limitations of older methodologies of estimating…

The relationship between student characteristics and the frequency with which students left campus on weekends was investigated. Subjects were 411 undergraduate students who completed an 11-item self-report instrument designed to measure the influence of students' class rank, sex, and distance from home on behavior, their reasons for…

Differences between black, anglo and chicano male and female adolescents were studied to determine the extent to which these differences are associated with differences in attitude toward mathematics, parental influence, peer influence, and societal influence. Findings supported the conclusions of similar studies with the exception of a more…

National surveys of teenagers have provided information for making decisions about smoking prevention programs. Repeated surveys are necessary because smoking patterns change over time. The prevalence of adolescent smoking and the variables related to it were investigated as well as the potential utility of those variables in predicting habitual…