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Adolescent cigarette smoking is a problem of increasing magnitude in the Australian population, and programs based on psychological strategies designed to prevent the onset of smoking among adolescents have been universally disappointing in their capacity to achieve this outcome. Much of the blame for this may be attributed to a failure to comprehensively understand the psychosocial factors leading to the dis cretionary human behaviour of smoking. This study investigated a combination of such psychosocial factors in relation both to present adolescent smoking behaviour and to future intentions of adolescents to smoke. Data were collected from a large and representative sample of Australian adolescents attending high schools and secondary colleges in three Australian cities. The findings suggest that social context is a stronger correlate of both present and future intended adolescent smoking than is personality, though there are sex differences in the data which caution against the view that a single set of psychosocial variables is universally associated with smoking behaviour in all adolescents. Moreover, the data suggest that self-reported future intention to smoke is an unreliable indicator of smoking behaviour in the future. The results are discussed with particular reference to their potential to guide psychological strategies for adolescent smoking prevention.

The authors of this article argue that deficit in socially skilled behaviour is often one of the distinguishing characteristics that sets people with intellectual disability apart from their non‐disabled peers. The need for social skills training to take place within the context of real life daily situations has been emphasised in more recent literature as essential in enabling people with an intellectual disability to generalise new skills. The researchers involved in this study, Catherine Canney, a senior educational psychologist, and Alison Byrne, a senior speech and language therapist, both work in a school for children with mild intellectual disability in Ireland as part of a multidisciplinary team. Analysis of teachers' referrals to the team indicated a significant and ongoing need for supporting social skills development among the students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the merits of Circle Time as a classroom intervention aimed at improving the social skills of students with a mild intellectual disability. The research is presented here as an evaluative case study reflecting this experience. Organisational and interactional issues arising are presented and discussed with the intention of supporting those involved in facilitating Circle Time with children who have special educational needs. The authors also identify avenues for future research.

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