NCJ Number
110571
Journal
School Safety Dated: (Winter 1988) Pages: 26-27
Date Published
1988
Length
2 pages
Annotation
Peer counseling programs in which students help each other can help students deal with a variety of problems and offer useful lessons to adults in effective problemsolving and counseling techniques.
Abstract
A 1966 study involving 600 high school seniors and their parents found that students were most likely to confide in a friend and that parents underestimated the importance of peer relationships. Peer helping programs have received increasing attention and are now located in schools throughout the United States. These programs address the issues of loneliness and the need for friendship, drug and alcohol problems, language and cultural barriers, school violence and vandalism, overcrowded conditions, falling academic standards, increasing dropout rates, and teenage health issues. These programs can help ease the tension and conflict that leads to violence and can improve the cultural environments of multiethnic campuses. The willingness to confide in a peer can also be an important first step in getting help for a drug problem or other problems. Students are also excellent at educating other students on the issue of substance abuse. Students can also provide the quality attention that other students need and that is impossible with the current ratios of students to guidance counselors. Students also provide peer tutoring and can help at-risk students stay in school. Address of National Peer Helpers Association.