This study was conducted to assess what type of intervention is most effective for enhancing attitudes in college students toward people living with HIV and AIDS. The assigned groups consisted of either a live presentation or a video presentation emphasizing content that was either emotional or factual. A male HIV-positive speaker made a presentation to participants in the four experimental conditions. The AIDS Compassion and Empathy Scale (ACE) developed by Pollard (1997) to measure attitudes of college students toward people living with HIV and AIDS, was administered. The AIDS Phobia Scale developed by Pleck (1998) was used as the second measure. ANOVAs were performed to determine any significant differences between groups. It was hypothesized that a live presentation would enhance attitudes more than a video presentation and that emotional content would enhance attitudes more than factual content. It was also hypothesized that a live presentation with an emotional theme would be more effective (the ACE and AIDS Phobia Scale scores being significantly higher) for attitude enhancement than the other three groups. Results of the study showed that a live presentation was most effective for improving attitudes toward individuals living with HIV and AIDS versus a video presentation. Contrary to what was predicted, emotional versus factual presentation had no significant effect.

Research over the past two decades has documented the social difficulties encountered by many students with learning disabilities (LD). Comparison studies have indicated that in contrast to nonhandicapped children, children with LD demonstrate disproportionate degrees of inappropriate behavior. Many behavioral difficulties have been conceptualized as deficiencies in component skills of social problem-solving. The present study investigated social problem-solving processes among sixty mainstreamed LD adolescents and sixty non-LD adolescents in one California school district comprised primarily of students from low socioeconomic households. Social problem-solving was measured by the Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R) while classroom social behavior was determined by teacher ratings of each subject on the School Social Behavior Scales (SSBS). Contrary to prediction, adolescents with LD were no different in level of self-reported social problem-solving behaviors than non-LD peers. No group difference emerged for any of the five subscales of the SPSI-R. Significant differences were found between the groups on the two subscales of the SSBS. LD adolescents scored significantly higher than non-LD peers on measures of antisocial behavior while demonstrating significantly lower levels of social competence. The lack of associations between SPSI-R problem-solving scores and SSBS social behavior scores in the present study indicates that adolescent's problem-solving ability does not seem to help or hinder their overall social functioning to any remarkable degree. Implications for social problem-solving theory are discussed along with an examination of the utility of the SPSI-R for non-clinical populations.

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The purpose of this study was to uncover the feelings and reactions of students and their parents in regard to the nonpromotion experience. Families with children who had been retained at least once in grades one through eight were purposefully selected as units of study from one of four area school systems. A total of 52 family members from 22 family units participated in 46 separate, qualitative interviews. The information collected from the interviews was inductively analyzed. Building upon Schlossberg's theory for human adaptation to transitions, seven factors or coping resources emerged from the data that affected the adaptation of a parent or a student to a grade level retention. These factors fell into one of three categories--the characteristics of the individual, the characteristics surrounding the transition (the retention), and the characteristics of the individual's environment. The analysis revealed the following seven coping resources: self-definition of an individual, previous experience with retention, retention philosophy of the individual, feelings of empowerment connected to the retention decision, retention rationale or reason for the retention, sense of belonging to the school community, and support systems available to the individual. From the findings, the investigator reached the following conclusions: (1) regardless of their initial feelings toward a retention decision, most students, as well as other family members, eventually assimilated a nonpromotion experience; (2) the seven identified coping resources influenced the success of an individual's adaptation to a retention experience; (3) school personnel did little to initially prepare a child for a nonpromotion and generally offered little support to aid adaptation to the retention; (4) the relationships an educator developed with family members were essential in establishing a sense of trust and of cooperation between the home and the school; (5) school systems rarely provided parents of children in grades one through eight with the strategies necessary to academically aid a child within the home environment; (6) adherence to rigid, grade level curriculum placed undue stress on many students and their families, inadvertently reinforcing the acceptance of the practice of retention by parents and by students.