Project Search for Preventive Approaches hypothesized that the development of cognitive competence in adults and in youngsters, using non-curriculum-oriented materials, and deriving pleasure from an intellectual experience, could be posited as a necessary prerequisite for preventing or curbing maladaptive behavior in the ghetto child, and helplessness and feelings of inadequacy on the part of those responsible for this child's continuing growth. Towards this end, a program was initiated in the form of "Think" Workshops and was held in five schools in East Harlem and Harlem. Attending in the second year of the project were over 60 adults. Some were mothers who worked with their own children at home; others were paraprofessionals who trained their own children as well as a comparable group in the school setting. Another group of paraprofessionals worked only with children in school. In all, over 150 subjects were involved in this study, 100 of them in the past year. Results indicated that statistically significant gains occurred in the cognitive competence of both the adults attending the workshops and the youngsters trained by these adults. In the area of self-esteem, it was found that statistically significant gains in social competence by the adults led to a statistically significant lessening of respect for authority by this same population. [Most of the appendices are poor in legibility.] (Author/JM)