There used to be a T.V. show where newlywed couples were temporarily separated and then each asked a question like, "What will your spouse say was the most unusual place you two made love?" When the couples were reunited and the answers were shared, the audience would always get the biggest laugh each time a spouse failed to give the predicted answer.

Accepting that our children have minds of their own is one of the dilemmas of parenting. And, at some point, our children start making decisions about what to tell us and what to keep from us. A gap begins to emerge between what we think our children think, and what they actually think. In addition, a factor that reduces our knowledge of our children's thinking is our own adult development. What concerns us or provides meaning for us as adults is typically different from the concerns and the meaning important to children.

We develop what could be called social amnesia. We can recall events from the past, but we interpret those events through the screen of our present experience. An example of this comes from the hundreds of peer helping information sessions we have provided for school-based peer programs. When we ask adults to rank what they believe are the top concerns of youth, they mention things that have to do with career decisions, drugs and alcohol, and sexual activity (and disease). However, when youth are asked to rank their top concerns, they typically say making and keeping friends is their highest priority.

Now here is the tricky part. Both groups are absolutely correct! The problem emerges when one group fails to understand the experience that influences the other's perceptions. This problem is compounded when one group tries to do something about getting the other group to accept its view of what is important in the world. Such interventions often have the opposite effect: they increase resistance, make differences more difficult to resolve, and may even contribute to making the problem worse.

A contemporary example of such an intervention is demonstrated in tobacco reduction strategies aimed at youth. If you were to plan a campaign to prevent people from getting connected to tobacco, what would be your primary strategy? Most likely it would be the consequences to health. For example, we know that tobacco is a major contributor to cancer, heart disease, and death, and is significantly responsible for rising health care costs. I can relate to the validity of this strategy because my own parents, who started smoking as teenagers, both died of cardiovascular diseases. Tobacco is clearly a health hazard.

Such a healthy living campaign may be useful to prevent smoking in adults or to encourage adult smokers to "butt out". And when combined with the health hazards of second hand smoke, this campaign will likely be quite successful in the workplace. But such a campaign has limited value in working with young people.

While youth are concerned about health, they are more concerned about health within the context of their social relationships and personal competencies. Researchers have shown that contrary to popular opinion, schooling serves more as a social experience than an educational experience for most young people. Therefore, to be effective, anti-smoking campaigns aimed at youth must deal specifically with the social and personal consequences of smoking. This does not mean that a fact like smoking kills people has to be altered, ignored or softened. It does mean that the placement of that fact within the myriad of "facts" associated with smoking must be influenced by the degree to which that fact is relevant to the target group.

Using peers to deliver messages about health hazards is a major step towards improving the influence process at all age levels. Peer education programs have been created in schools, colleges, universities, industry, and senior centres across North America. But for peer education to be effective, the peer educators must be able to provide information and support that is relevant to the context within which they operate. Canned curricula used in anti-smoking programs, for example, must be screened by peers to determine its fit with the lived experience of the target group.

This issue of the Peer Counsellor Journal features a number of articles, studies, resources, and announcements that focus on the roles peers play in the delivery of health promotion services. The Canadian government through Health Canada has long been a strong advocate for innovative and comprehensive approaches to health, including the advancement of peer programs to achieve a variety of health goals. We are grateful for their support in making distribution of this issue possible.