Constructive Peer Relationships,Social Development,and Cooperative Learning Experiences: Implications for the Prevention of Drug Abuse

Abstract

One approach to the prevention of drug abuse is to provide socializing experiences aimed at helping children and adolescents acquire the basic social competencies needed to cope with life situations involving other people and one's own inner experiences. Social competencies are developed within meaningfully interdependent relationships. While adult-child relationships have long been emphasized, there is increasing evidence that constructive peer relationships are a necessity for successful socialization. And since the children and adolescents most in need of constructive socializing experiences tend to come from stressful, abusive, or indifferent families, the most promising approach for intervention is within the school. Instructional experiences may be structured cooperatively, placing students in meaningful, interdependent relationships with their peers, and allowing teachers to emphasize within a task situation the development of social skills, roles, and sensitivity; the peer accountability essential for the development of values and self-control; and the autonomy necessary to resist social pressures to use drugs abusively.