A core component of Legacy's Statewide Youth Movement Against Tobacco Use is the ability of state and local initiatives to empower youth to effect change in their communities. The authors' conceptual framework proposes that youth empowerment is an outcome of the process by which youths become active participants in local efforts. Youths are…

This article examines family, friend, and media influences on competent and problem behaviors in a sample of 1,174 urban minority youth followed over 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Students completed annual surveys at their schools. Each of the contextual factors investigated was significantly associated with concurrent aggression and delinquency as…

Traditionally, school-based sex education has provided information-based programmes, with the assumption that young people make rational decisions with regard to the use of condoms. However, these programmes fail to take into account contextual issues and developing subjectivities. This paper presents the talk of 42 young people from a New Zealand…

Because the communication skills of people with significant disabilities are often limited, ordinary choices often elude them. This guide provides step-by-step instructions to help care-providers recognize the choices made by people with severe disabilities, especially those natural cues which indicate an individual's preferences. It discusses…

This teacher's handbook is part of a training package on effective classroom management. The materials were developed to accomplish three goals: (1) to provide an alternative to presently available texts and training programs that could be used by school personnel without outside expertise; (2) to provide comprehensive training for school…

This curriculum guide is designed to lower the dropout rate and improve the academic achievement of handicapped and nonhandicapped high school students by developing their personal and social skills. It may be used in a variety of classroom, special education, and guidance settings. The lessons use relevant experiences to stimulate learning…

Situational influences on self-confidence and assertiveness in female and male graduate students in science and engineering were studied, based on responses from 328 Stanford University students (155 males and 173 females). Two dependent variables were used: an index of items measuring an individual's self-confidence in the ability to perform…

Based on evaluation of studies on nonverbal aspects of communication in instructional settings, a teacher training program was developed for nonverbal perceptiveness and expressiveness. An experimental study was conducted to test the effect of the program on secondary school preservice teachers (N=34). Focus was upon vocal delivery, eye contact,…

Recently, Indian people from the United States and Canada recommended coping-skills training for American Indians, to help in handling stress, becoming self-determined, being assertive, problem solving, and redesigning social roles and support systems. Some 30 tribal groups and agencies participated in a cultural adaptation of an assertive…

The assumption that one person is trying to change another often makes the encounters between staff developers and teachers tenuous and delicate. The coordination and negotiation over role and status is seen in two different interactions. In the first encounter, between a staff developer and two teachers, the staff developer was the problem…

Presented in this document is a cross-cultural study dealing with the role of socialization, self perceptions, and achievement orientation of South Asian and Anglo Sanxon women living in Ontario, Canada. These dimensions are explored within the context of selected cultural, religious, and philosophical variables prevailing in the two cultures.…

This curriculum guide is one of three documents developed in a community college project to meet the career and vocational needs of disadvantaged handicapped youth (mainly the learning disabled, the educable mentally handicapped, and the emotionally handicapped) by assisting them to gain and retain full-time, non-subsidized employment. The…

A program of behavioral practice, assertiveness training, and social and contrived reinforcers was successful in establishing and maintaining automobile safety belt use by 16 children (ages 4-7) who never used them during a five-day preobservation period. Safety belt use occurred during 76%-90% of follow-up observations after two-three months.…

This book discusses topics designed to assist school leaders and teachers in creating safe schools. It explains how to develop, implement, and evaluate an anti-bullying program and describes how to teach students to use three methods when dealing with bullies (social skills, assertiveness, and conflict resolution techniques). Seven chapters focus…

Differences in social behavior of middle-class kindergartners with and without previous day care experience were compared through classroom observations and teacher ratings during the second semester of kindergarten. (BB)