Underachieving high school students as mental health aides with maladapting primary-grade children.

Underachieving high school students participated in a companionship program with primary-grade children experiencing either acting-out or shy-anxious school adjustment problems. Program helpers improved significantly more than matched underachieving and average-achieving control groups on several teacher-rated behavioral dimensions. No school participation or sociometric gains were observed, however, and behavioral improvement was eroded at 1-year follow-up. Acting-out children improved significantly more on teacher ratings of classroom adjustment than a matched control group and maintained their advantage at follow-up. Shy-anxious children improved significantly less than matched controls. This differential effectiveness is attributed to the fit or match between underachieving students' personal characteristics and natural helping style and the different needs of acting-out and shy-anxious children.