Federal court cases are examined in an effort to view recent First Amendment rights infringements which have occurred in Mississippi. Case law reinforces students' rights to wear same-sex outfits to school functions as well as to bring same-sex dates. Connection to a recent civil rights investigation by the NAACP into a north Mississippi middle…

Examined differences between regular education (N=74) and emotionally disturbed (N=27) early adolescents with respect to self-concept, body image, and selected uses of clothing. Found emotionally impaired were less likely to use clothing to influence mood than were regular education students. Results lend credence to importance of self-concept in…

Explored the role of clothing in expressing individual and collective identity among preadolescent English students. Results found that a relaxed enforcement of school uniforms created space for students to use clothing to gain recognition, generate common bonds, and share interests within peer groups. Clothing and footwear were used as an…

Sewing is a traditional educational experience in family and consumer sciences (FCS) education in middle and high school. Learning sewing skills, however, is not as relevant today as it was in the past. To better prepare adolescents for life roles, FCS education needs to reflect the changes in society and focus more broadly on the work of the…

Explored how fashion helped urban adolescent girls desire and create normalized images of the perfect woman, examining their stories about their bodies and how their stories and images empowered them to become healthy women. Data from group discussions, journal writing, freewriting, and written stories indicated that fashion taught girls to desire…

Examines whether selected nonmusical attributes of 20 sixth-grade pianists would affect ratings of their performances by 123 musically trained evaluators. States that the visual group evaluators viewed a videotape, without the sound, rating the pianists on appropriateness of dress, stage behavior, and physical attractiveness. The audio and…