Research has indicated significant disparities in the academic achievement of minority and majority groups in most Western countries. In light of the role of academic achievement as the main component of social mobility, it is important to understand the source of these differences between the majority and minority groups. The present research…

This paper follows undergraduate students' engagement with the concept of childhood presented to them during a year-long childhood and youth studies module. Through the application of "threshold concepts" as concepts which transform students' understandings of a subject, the challenges of learning new ideas or concepts of childhood are…

The study of anthropomorphism in adults has received considerable interest with the development of the Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism Questionnaire (IDAQ; Waytz, Cacioppo, & Epley, 2010). Anthropomorphism in children--its development, correlates, and consequences--is also of significant interest, yet a comparable measure does not…

Piaget (1962) asserted that children stop engaging in pretend play when they enter the concrete operational stage because they become able to accommodate reality and no longer need to assimilate it to their wishes. Consistent also with the views of Vygotsky, discussion of pretend play in developmental psychology is typically confined to early…

This study investigated the relation between childhood spatial activities and cognitive gender differences in adults through the validation of the Childhood Activities Questionnaire developed by Cherney and Voyer (2010). A sample of 403 (133 males, 270 females) undergraduates in Introductory Psychology courses at University of New Brunswick, NB,…

In the UK policies such as the Children's Plan 2008-2020 through to Promoting the Emotional Health of Children and Young People (2010) identify that professionals such as teachers, youth workers, social workers and youth offending specialists, do not have the necessary underpinning knowledge to adequately support children and young people's…

Past research has shown that 37% to 52% of sexual assault survivors report experiencing a set of peritraumatic responses, which include gross motor inhibition, analgesia, and fixed or unfocused staring. This response set closely resembles a set of unconditioned responses, collectively known as Tonic Immobility (TI). This study examined TI among…

The purpose of the study was to describe self-reported influences on undergraduate students to choose social work as a major--including the social work populations and activities of interest to social work students. Fifty junior undergraduate students from California State University, Long Beach, participated in the study. A self-administered…

The structure of lay people's concepts of childhood mental disorder was investigated in a questionnaire study and examined for convergence with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV). Eighty-four undergraduates who had no formal education in abnormal psychology rated 54 conditions--36 DSM-IV childhood disorders and 18 non-disorders--on…

This study retrospectively examined physical activity patterns across three specific age periods (childhood, teenage, and young adulthood) in a cross sectional sample of young Caucasian undergraduate women (N = 44). All women (mean age = 22.27 plus or minus 3.14 years) completed questionnaire packets assessing transtheoretical model of behavior…