Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Sleepaway Summer Camp Promotes Altruism in Children, Scientists Show

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

pending a little bit of time away from home may benefit kids in a big way, according to new research from the University of Geneva. Scientists report attending sleepaway summer camp can help promote essential socio-emotional abilities in kids, such as the ability to control oneself, cooperate, or help others. In comparison to other adolescents who hadn’t attended camp, those returning from their time away displayed a notable increase in altruism.

“These overnight camps are spaces of socialization and experimentation, outside the family, which take place over a more or less long period of time and integrate all daily life. They involve permanent interactions with adults and other children, rich in informal learning. We wanted to show that such a context is favorable to the development of socio-emotional skills,” says Edouard Gentaz, full professor at the UNIGE’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and at the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, in a media release.

Researchers wanted to ascertain to what extent participation at sleepaway camps may increase both adolescent altruism and self-esteem. Study authors also wanted to identify whether specific elements, such as going with friends or not, may make the experience more or less beneficial. A sample of 256 children between the ages of six and 16 were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire. Some of those kids had attended sleepaway summer camps, while some had not.

In conclusion, researchers said their findings demonstrate the usefulness of sleepaway summer camps as a tool for developing socio-emotional abilities. Going away for just 10-15 days appears to promote increased altruistic intentions.

The study was published in PLoS ONE. 

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/sleepaway-summer-camp-altrusim/

50-Year Survey Reveals the Values Kids Learn From Popular Shows

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on ScienceDaily.

A new report by UCLA's Center for Scholars and Storytellers assesses the values emphasized by television programs popular with tweens over each decade from 1967 to 2017, charting how 16 values have waxed and waned in importance during that 50-year span.

Among the key findings is that fame, after nearly 40 years of ranking near the bottom (it was 15th in 1967, 1987, and 1997), rose to become the No. 1 value in 2007, then dropped to sixth in importance in 2017.

Achievement -- being very successful -- was ranked first in 2017, with self-acceptance, image, popularity, and being part of a community rounding out the top five.

The report, "The Rise and Fall of Fame: Tracking the Landscape of Values Portrayed on Television from 1967 to 2017", evaluated two programs per decade (and four in 2017), from "The Andy Griffith Show" in 1967 and "Happy Days" in 1977 to "American Idol" and "Hannah Montana" in 2007 and "America's Got Talent" and "Girl Meets World" in 2017.

Being part of community, for instance, which ranked No. 1 in 1967, 1977, and 1997 (and No. 2 in 1987), plummeted to the 11th spot in 2007 -- 10 spots below fame -- before rising again to fifth in 2017. Likewise, being kind and helping others, the No. 2 value in 1967 and 1997, fell to the 12th spot in 2007. It is now ranked eighth.

"I believe that television reflects the culture, and this half-century of data shows that American culture has changed drastically," said report author Yalda Uhls, founder and executive director of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers and an adjunct assistant professor of psychology. "Media plays an important role as young people are developing a concept of the social world outside of their immediate environment."

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210315180617.htm

Promises Found to Reduce Cheating in Large Study of Adolescents

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on ScienceDaily.

New research has found that adolescents who promised to be truthful were less likely to 'cheat' than those who did not, even when they could not be found out.

The study, of 640 10 to 14-year-olds in India, was designed in a way that meant it was impossible to tell who had and had not kept their promise -- suggesting it is not just the fear of social retaliation that makes people stick to their word.

The team of researchers included two newly appointed members of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, and the study is published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.

The research used a series of experiments to test the effectiveness of inviting participants to promise to be truthful, with points that would later be converted into prizes as an incentive. For example, participants played a game in which they mentally chose a location in a box with 16 dice, shook the box, and recorded the number of the die falling in their chosen position. Prizes were proportional to their total reported scores across fifteen rounds. As the initial choice was private, opportunistic, and unobservable switching to a higher scoring die was possible.

Before the task, the adolescents received a choice to promise to be truthful or not. To make promising attractive for participants, those who did so received extra points. This gave even potentially dishonest participants an incentive to choose to promise. Control groups of participants could choose between the same incentives but did not have to promise.

The authors were able to measure the degree of dishonesty by comparing participants' reported results to what would be statistically expected. Compared to control groups, promises in the study systematically lowered cheating rates, and the authors conclude that they could be a simple tool to reduce dishonest behavior.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200803105244.htm

Student Attitudes Toward Cheating May Spill Over Into Their Careers

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on ScienceDaily.

A recent study authored by professors at two California State University campuses, including San Francisco State University, found that students' tolerance for cheating has a high probability of bleeding over into their careers later on. That's concerning to San Francisco State Professor and Chair of Marketing Foo Nin Ho, a co-author of the study. "If [students] have this attitude while they're in school -- that it's OK to cheat in school -- that attitude, unfortunately, will carry over to the corporate boardroom," he said.

The study tackles two questions: If students tolerate cheating in the classroom, will they also tolerate unethical behavior in their careers? And what's shaping these attitudes? Part of the researchers' intention behind the study was to give educators insight into what's happening in their classrooms so they can challenge and possibly change student beliefs about cheating.

 

To conduct the study, the authors surveyed nearly 250 undergraduate marketing students from Cal State San Marcos and SF State. Students were asked to respond to statements about cheating and ethics such as "It's cheating to ask another student what was on the test" and "Within a business firm, the ends justify the means." They were asked to choose a response along a scale that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

The survey found that students who were more tolerant of cheating in a classroom also demonstrated an openness to unethical behavior on the job. The authors then went a step further and pinned down the underlying forces influencing these attitudes.

The results revealed that group-oriented students, or collectivists, had a more laissez-faire attitude toward cheating than their more individualistic classmates. Collectivists want to maintain group cohesion, so they're more likely to be OK with unethical behaviors, Brodowsky says. "To save face they might count on cheating to make sure they all do well. They also won't rat each other out because that will make people look bad."

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191127121235.htm

Gen Z and Morality: What Teens Believe (So Far)

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Barna.com.

We live in an increasingly “post-truth” political climate. But even before fake news and alternative facts, few Americans were in agreement about, well, almost anything. Over time, consensus on key moral principles has waned, and the younger generations are now inheriting this new moral landscape. In addition to a growing religious apathy and a singular focus on success, another prominent trait of Gen Z is a more relativistic worldview. Though still in a formative stage of life, the leading edge of Gen Z, along with Millennials, appear to hold notably different views about morality than other generations.

Morality Can Be a Grey Area to Gen Z
Looking at some basic principles, there is a curious generational shift in the moral compass of Americans. With some awareness that teens’ views may still be quite pliable, we’ll focus on the respondents who indicate the highest level of agreement with these statements in order to show those presently most committed to these beliefs. At this extreme end, one-quarter of Gen Z (24%) strongly agrees that what is morally right and wrong changes over time based on society. There is a wide generational divide on this point: Twice as many Gen Z than Boomers (12%) believe this. The centrality of the self as moral arbiter is also higher among the younger generations—21 percent of Gen Z and 23 percent of Millennials believe each individual is his or her own moral authority—though Gen X (18%) and Boomers (17%) aren’t too far behind on this one. As mentioned, these are only the proportions who stronglyagree, so this is perhaps just a hint of a broader public acceptance that morality can be fluid. Teens in Barna focus groups elaborated on their perspective. One participant said, “Society changes, and what’s good or bad changes as well. It is all relative to what’s happening in the world.”

Elders are a shrinking proportion of the overall population, but for perspective, fully three out of five among the eldest generation (61%) strongly agree that lying is immoral, while only one-third of Gen Z (34%) believes lying is wrong. There is a continuous slide by generation in conviction about this moral principle.

Where Gen Z Stands on Hotly Debated Issues
This study also asked teens about where they stand on some commonly debated ethical and legal issues. For example, though Gen Z are the most progressive on abortion, almost three in 10 believe it is wrong (29%), more than most other issues included in the survey.

About four in 10 Gen Z feel a strong conviction that marriage ought to be a lifelong commitment between a man and woman (38%, on par with Millennials at 37%). Despite having firm feelings about fidelity, Gen Z is more lenient than older adults on this topic, evidenced by the gap between them and Boomers (47%) and Elders (66%). There are similar divergences when it comes to issues of sexuality, on which Gen Z tends to be least conservative. For instance, only one-fifth (21%) believes sex before marriage is wrong—though they are mostly on par with other generations, with Gen X being the most conservative (26%). They are least likely to take issue with same-sex sexual activity; only one-fifth (20%) is strongly opposed to it. The opinions on this among all age groups are somewhat mixed, but disapproval of homosexuality generally increases by generation.

How Faith Impacts Gen Z’s Views of Morality
Engaged Christian teens are a stark contrast to their peers on moral issues. There are significant gaps between their beliefs and all others, including other churchgoing teens, suggesting that church attendance alone does not transmit more traditionally orthodox views. For instance, engaged Christians are more than twice as likely to say that lying is wrong (77%) compared to their churched counterparts (38%), and almost four times more likely than those who claim no faith (20%).

The belief that lying is morally wrong is the most commonly shared moral sentiment among the faith segments, alongside marriage as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman. The greatest differences surround sexuality. For instance, more than three-quarters of engaged Christians believe sex before marriage (76%) and homosexual behavior are morally wrong (77%), compared to only fractions of those with no faith (5% and 4% respectively) and one-quarter of churched Christians (25% and 24% respectively).

Read more of this report at the source link below.

Source: Barna.com
https://www.barna.com/research/gen-z-morality/

92% of College Students Have Lied on Résumés

If you want a more accurate picture of a job candidate’s experience, take a gander at his or her LinkedIn page. According to researchers at Cornell University, people are less likely to lie about their past experience on the social network than they are in a traditional résumé.

But lying is still common among job seekers, with 92 percent of respondents saying they’ve lied at least once on a résumé. The study, published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, followed 119 college students ages 18 to 22.

The study says that websites such as LinkedIn can lead to greater honesty when it comes to résumé claims such as experience and responsibilities. That’s because claims are more easily verified in a public, online setting, so liars are more likely to get caught.

Source: PRDaily
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/11143.aspx

Eight in Ten Teens Lie to Parents

In a survey released by the Josephson Institute of Ethics on the values and ethical actions of more than 40,000 high school students, the gap between what students believe and their actions does not bode well for future generations.

Survey highlights: While 89 percent of students believe that being a good person is more important than being rich, almost one in three boys and one in four girls admitted stealing from a store within the past year. Moreover, 21 percent admitted they stole something from a parent or other relative, and 18 percent admitted stealing from a friend.

On lying, more than two in five said they sometimes lie to save money (48 percent of males and 35 percent of females). While 92 percent of students believe their parents want them to do the right thing, more than eight in ten confessed they lied to a parent about something significant.

Rampant cheating in school continues. A majority of students (59 percent) admitted cheating on a test during the last year, with 34 percent doing it more than two times. One in three admitted they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment.

Michael Josephson, president of the Institute and a national leader in ethics training, said the results of this survey, conducted in 2010, are slightly better than those of the 2008 survey.

Source: Josephson Institute
http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/2010/installment02_report-card_honesty-integrity.html
 

Trashy MTV Reality Shows Primarily Use Women to Trash Women

Think most of the misogyny on MTV comes from men? Guess again, says a new study of the network’s shows, which finds women engage in a whopping 88 percent of the shows’ sexual dialogue, insult each other much more than the men, and offer themselves up in positive portrayals only when they’re talking about physical appearance and their ability to bounce back from getting ridiculed.

Television watchdog group The Parents Television Council (PTC) released its jaw-dropping report “Reality of MTV: Gender Portrayals on Reality TV” and the findings aren't pretty.

-- Only 24 percent  of what females said about themselves was positive across all shows combined.

-- Positive dialogue between females focused on their appearance, sense of accomplishment and emotional resilience.

-- While terms men used for each other were often viewed as complimentary (e.g., big man, dawg, superhero, McGyver, winner), women used far more degrading language when talking about other females (e.g., rodent, skank, trash bag, trick, ho and much worse).

-- Females talked about sex acts more than men, talked about sex more graphically than men, mentioned sexual body parts more than men, and talked about intercourse and foreplay more than men.

-- Although 88 percent of the sexual dialogue between females and males across all shows focused on intercourse and preliminary activities leading to intercourse, the topics of virginity (0.2 percent), contraceptives (1.4 percent) and STDs (2 percent) were only mentioned 4 percent of the time.

-- “Jersey Shore” made up 47 percent of the disparaging remarks (mostly coming from cast members Ronnie and Sammi) and 59 percent of the sexual references across all four shows.

“The most shocking finding – or at least the most disturbing – was the way the two genders spoke of themselves. The women were overwhelmingly more disparaging when speaking of themselves. With so much being invested and so much at stake in empowering one’s self, especially for girls, the overwhelming message from reality television targeted at teen girls is to be overly negative to yourself,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “After so many years of pursuing equality for women, our study suggests a glamorized, but grossly distorted view, of what it means to be feminine.”

Source: Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/12/07/study-trashy-mtv-reality-shows-even-trashier-with-women/

Teens Ambivalent About Sex Before Marriage

A new survey shows that 61 percent of American teens want to be virgins at marriage, yet 34 percent have little problem with sex before marriage.

Even among those who valued virginity, 20 percent had tried "sexual touching" and 15 percent said they'd already had sex, says the national survey by OneHope, a Pompano Beach, Fla.,-based Christian mission organization.

"My reading is, 'Being a virgin until marriage is right for me, but it may not be right for everyone,'" OneHope's Chad Causey said. "It's the categorical rightness that has gone."

That gibes with another finding: 65 percent of teens said truth is relative.

Teens showed ambivalence toward traditional families as well: 82 percent believe God intended marriage to last a lifetime, yet 76 approve divorce when children are involved. Half consider an unmarried man and woman a family.

The survey is part of a larger study of teens in 46 countries, meant to measure not only moral beliefs but attitudes toward families and influences on teens' lives, such as parents and the Internet. The full study is due out by August or September.

Source: Kansascity.com
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/16/2660443/report-teens-ambivalent-about.html

2010 Update: Cheat and Steal: High School Ethics Surveyed

The latest survey findings on the ethics of high school students from the Ethics of American Youth Survey by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, a non-profit based in Los Angeles have been released. The Institute has surveyed teens on conduct and behavior every two years since 1992. This year's study surveyed 43,321 teens ages 15 to 18, from 78 public and 22 private schools.

The findings:
•60% of students said they had "cheated on a test," and 34% did so twice or more. Students at non-religious private schools cited the lowest percentage (33%) while 56% at religious schools said they cheated.

•27% of students said they "stole something from a store.

The results demonstrate a modest improvement over the 2008 study findings, where 64% of students admitted to cheating on a test, and 30% admitted to stealing from a store. Of those students who admitted cheating on tests twice or more, the figure was unchanged from 2008.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/parenting-family/teen-ya/2010-10-26-bullyingONLINE26_ST_N.htm