Category Archives: Youngsters

April 14, 2013 · 9:44 am

If you think teenagers are reckless, try teenage… birds?

Blackmailing your parents to have a different kind of diet by threatening them to kill yourself sounds horrible. Well, researchers found this scheme happening with young birds. By throwing themselves out of their nest too early and exposing themselves to predators, the young birds force a change in how they get fed.

So good news, your kids are probably allright!

Abstract of the research:

One theory to explain the existence of conspicuous solicitation is that it is a way for young to ‘blackmail’ carers into provisioning them, by threatening their own destruction. Fledgling birds offer a unique opportunity to investigate the ‘blackmail theory’, as their mobility enables them to influence the predation risk they face. We investigated a novel solicitation behaviour in fledgling pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor), where fledglings use their location to influence provisioning rates. We show that fledglings face a trade-off: the ground is a much more profitable location in terms of provisioning rate from adult carers, but they are at greater risk from predators owing to their limited flying ability and slow response to alarm calls. Young babbler fledglings move to the ground when hungry, signalling their state, and this stimulates adults to increase their provisioning rates. Once satiated, fledglings return to the safety of cover. By experimentally increasing terrestrial predation risk, we found that adults increased their provisioning rate to terrestrial but not arboreal fledglings. Thus, by moving to a riskier location, fledglings revealed their need and were able to manipulate adults to achieve higher provisioning rates. These results provide support for the ‘blackmail theory’.

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April 2, 2013 · 10:15 am

What do gang-members do online? The same as on the street! (research)

Do gang members recruit through social media? Are they attacking others? What do they actually do online. A good question that new research funded by Google Ideas by David Pyrooz, Scott Decker & Richard Moule tries to answer. Well, 1 thing seems to be clear: gangs are not using the Internet to recruit new members or commit complex cybercrimes.

From the press release:

“What they are doing online is typically what they are doing on the street,” said David Pyrooz, an assistant professor at Sam Houston State University, College of Criminal Justice and coauthor of the study. “For the most part, gang members are using the Internet for self-promotion and braggadocio, but that also involves some forms of criminal and deviant behaviors. “

“Criminal and Routine Activities in Online Settings: Gangs, Offenders, and the Internet,” coauthored by Scott Decker, director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and doctoral student Richard Moule of Arizona State University, was recently published online by Justice Quarterly. It investigates the use of the Internet and social networking sites by gang members and other young adults for online crime and deviance.

The study was based on interviews the authors conducted with 585 young adults from five cities, including Cleveland, OH; Fresno, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; and St. Louis, MO. It was funded by Google Ideas, a think/do tank that explores the role that technology can play in tackling human challenges, such as violent extremism, illicit networks and fragile states.

The study found that much of the online activities of gang members are typical of their age group; they spend time on the Internet, use social networking sites like Facebook and watch YouTube videos. Much like what studies find in offline or street settings, their rate of committing crimes or deviant acts online is 70% greater than those not in gangs. Gang members illegally download media, sell drugs, coordinate assaults, search social network sites to steal and rob, and upload deviant videos at a higher rate than former or non-gang members, the study found.

However, gang members are not engaging in intricate cybercrimes, such as phishing schemes, identity theft or hacking into commercial enterprises.

“We observe that neither gang members nor their peers have the technological competency to engage in complex forms of cybercrime,” the study found. “In short, while the Internet has reached inner city populations, access alone is not translating into sophisticated technological know-how.”

Gangs do not use the Internet for purposes instrumental to the group, such as recruiting new members, drug distribution, meetings or other organizational activities. Gang members recognized that law enforcement monitored their online behaviors, so they limited their discussion of gang activities on the Internet or social media sites. Only 20 percent of gang members surveyed said that their gang had a web site or social media page, and one-third of those were password protected.

Gang members recognized the importance of the Internet, but sites were used mainly as status symbols. Instead of exploiting the Internet for criminal opportunities, YouTube, Facebook, or other social media is used much like an “electronic graffiti wall,” according the study.

One-quarter of gang member said they used the Internet to search out information on other gangs and more than half watch gang-related videos online, such as fights or videos.

“Many respondents were simply interested in gang related fights and threats in general, finding them as entertaining as a boxing or UFC match,” Pyrooz said, referring to gang-related videos on YouTube .

Law enforcement should continue to monitor and address gangs and crime online by working closely with different web sites and ISPs, as well as investigating other forms of telecommunication like cell phone and emails. In addition, they can request service providers remove images that glorify gangs or violence, or use Twitter for citizens to report crime in the community.

“Technology is part of the problem, but it is just as likely part of the solution.” said Pyrooz, with regard to documenting the “digital trail” left behind, as well as prosocial opportunities.

Abstract of the research:

Crime and deviance reflect the dynamic nature of social life. The Internet has changed opportunities for crime and deviance, much as it has changed other aspects of social life. Accompanying the movement of offending and victimization to the Internet has been the expansion of deviant groups—including gangs—into online settings. Drawing from web-facilitated and web-enhanced classifications of online deviant behavior and identity, we extend the study of offending, gangs, and gang membership to online settings. Using data gathered in five cities from 585 respondents, including 418 current and former gang members, we study general online routine activities, online criminal and deviant behaviors, and gang-related online behaviors and processes. Based on our results, we arrive at three main conclusions: (1) gang members use the Internet and social networking sites as much, if not more, than their nongang counterparts, (2) gang members have a greater overall propensity for online crime and deviance than former and nongang respondents, based on our multivariate multi-level item response theory models, (3) the Internet is rarely used to further the instrumental goals of gangs, instead appealing to the symbolic needs of gangs and gang members. We conclude by discussing the conceptual and policy implications of these findings in relation to online activities of offenders and deviant groups.

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March 31, 2013 · 11:12 am

Research: Teens’ struggles with peers forecast long-term adult problems

A new longitudinal study by researchers at the University of Virginia shows that teenagers’ struggles to connect with their peers in the early adolescent years while not getting swept along by negative peer influences predict their capacity to form strong friendships and avoid serious problems even ten years later.

From the press release:

“Overall, we found that teens face a high-wire act with their peers,” explains Joseph P. Allen, Hugh P. Kelly Distinguished Professor at the University of Virginia, who led the study. “They need to establish strong, positive connections with them while at the same time establishing independence in resisting deviant peer influences. Those who don’t manage this have significant problems as much as a decade later.”

Researchers followed about 150 teens over a 10-year period (starting at age 13 and continuing to 23) to learn about the long-term effects of their peer struggles early in adolescence. They gathered information from multiple sources—the teens themselves, their parents and peers, and by observing teens’ later interactions with romantic partners. The teens comprised a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse group.

Teens who had trouble connecting well with their peers in early adolescence had difficulty establishing close friendships in young adulthood. Teens who didn’t connect well at 13 also had more difficulty managing disagreements in romantic relationships as adults.

Teens who had trouble establishing some autonomy and independence with peers (especially with respect to minor forms of deviance such as shoplifting and vandalism) were found to be at higher risk for problems with alcohol and substance use, and for illegal behavior, almost a decade later.

Conversely, teens who were seen as desirable companions—those deemed empathetic, able to see things from different perspectives and control their impulses, and having a good sense of humor—were more likely to have positive relationships in young adulthood.

Teens who were able to establish some autonomy vis a vis peers’ influences were more likely to avoid problematic behavior in young adulthood, with teens who showed they were able to think for themselves in the face of negative peer influences using less alcohol as early adults and having fewer problems with alcohol and substance abuse as young adults. But teens who were seen as desirable companions were more likely to have higher levels of alcohol use in early adulthood and future problems associated with alcohol and substance use.

“The findings make it clear that establishing social competence in adolescence and early adulthood is not a straightforward process, but involves negotiating challenging and at times conflicting goals between peer acceptance and autonomy with regard to negative peer influences,” Allen notes.

“Teaching teens how to stand up for themselves in ways that preserve and deepen relationships—to become their own persons while still connecting to others—is a core task of social development that parents, teachers, and others can all work to promote,” adds Allen.

Abstract of the research published in Child Development:

The long-term import of a fundamental challenge of adolescent social development—establishing oneself as a desirable peer companion while avoiding problematic behaviors often supported within peer groups—was examined in a community sample of 184 adolescents, followed from ages 13 to 23, along with parents, peers, and romantic partners. The dialectical nature of this challenge appeared in findings that autonomy vis-à-vis peer influences predicted both long-term success avoiding problematic behavior but also more difficulty establishing strong adult friendships. Conversely, being a desirable peer companion in adolescence predicted more positive adult relationships but also greater alcohol use. Adolescents who established themselves as both desirable companions and as autonomous vis-à-vis peers were rated as most successful by their parents at age 23.

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March 9, 2013 · 9:59 am

3 profiles of students using technology in education: instrumental users, separators & integrators

Mark Bullen published on his website a new paper on his website. In the second phase of the Digital Learners in Higher Education project they uncovered some important insights into how learners in higher education are thinking about and using digital technologies for social and academic purposes and how they separate and integrate their uses. The paper is submitted for review, but Mark Bullen already published it online to share the insights.

I think the 3 profiles of students using technology are quite interesting indeed:

Instrumental users (or tool limited, tool specific users) generally used only one or two technology tools, or only one or two functions of a tool. In other words, instrumental users mediated their activity using limited technology resources (tools), or used a technology towards a specific activity or more narrowly defined object (eg., Gaming vs. connecting with others).

Separators consciously or unconsciously separated their academic and social practices. In activity theory terms, the social and academic lives remain as separate activity systems, where boundary crossing is avoided. While the same tools may be part of both systems, for the most part the community and rules mediate the activities differently and therefore these shared tools do not function as boundary objects.

Integrators have overlapping social and academic practices both in the types of tools they use and their practices. In other words, there is evidence of boundary objects and boundary crossing that have been negotiated by the subject. 

And also a not so unimportant paragraph:

“One of the most surprising findings to emerge out of the data from BCIT is that none of the students challenged the dominant academic paradigm. In fact, several students talked about the importance of paying attention in lectures, of limiting distractions, and of the value of notetaking by hand.”

Abstract of the research that can be downloaded here:

The digital natives discourse that suggests today’s learners are becoming impatient with traditional modes of teaching because they have grown up digitally has potentially significant implications for higher education. This discourse implies that younger learners are not only eager to use ICTs for learning but have the technological and learning skills to thrive in eLearning environments. However, our research and research conducted in six different countries and at a range of different institutions, has shown that the key claims of the digital natives discourse are not grounded in the reality of most of today’s learners and that instead of focusing on the mythical “digital native”, we should focus on the digital learner. This chapter reports on the latest findings of the international research project, Digital Learners in Higher Education and discussion the implication for teaching, learning and technology.

This article reports on a study that used third generation Activity Theory as a framework to investigate how postsecondary students think about and use digital technologies in their social and academic lives. The results confirm the fallacy of the digital native stereotype but go further by uncovering important insights into how students at one institution can have quite different approaches to the use of digital technologies and different use profiles. We identified three dynamic and evolving use profiles: instrumental, separator and integrator. The aggregation of these profiles provides a starting point for understanding the nuances of digital learners in higher education.

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February 12, 2013 · 7:48 am

An overview on Mobile Etiquette in the US

Do you know what Blackberry-orphans are? This research is more about ignored parents and teachers while their kids are texting away. Because new findings about behavior involving mobile devices confirm what frustrated parents, supervisors and teachers already believed: Many Americans said that using a cellphone — or even its presence — during a meal, a meeting or in the classroom is not appropriate.

Yet those beliefs can vary dramatically by age or the type of technology that respondents use, according to a national survey conducted by the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future in collaboration with the market research and strategy firm Bovitz Inc. You can explore the results of this survey in this infographic, read more about the survey here.

CDF_Feb11Graphic

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February 11, 2013 · 11:11 am

Research: victimization and suicidality among Dutch lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths

Lesbian, gay and bisexual youngsters who are being bullied in school think more often about suicide and commit more often an attempted suicide than lesbian, gay and bisexual youngsters who aren’t being bullied. Also homophobic reactions of the parents are related to attempted suicide. This we learn from a Dutch research published in American Journal of Public Health.

The researchers argue that suicidal thoughts and attempts by lesbian, gay and bisexual youngsters are not an individual or psychiatric problem. Instead they think it’s related to the circumstances and the negative attitudes in their social environment. This puts an emphasis on the important role (again) of teachers and parents.

Abstract of the research:

We examined Netherlands Institute for Social Research data, collected between May and August 2009, on 274 Dutch lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths. The data showed that victimization at school was associated with suicidal ideation and actual suicide attempts. Homophobic rejection by parents was also associated with actual suicide attempts. Suicidality in this population could be reduced by supporting coping strategies of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths who are confronted with stigmatization by peers and parents, and by schools actively promoting acceptance of same-sex sexuality.

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February 5, 2013 · 9:21 am

Having virtual super-powers in a game may incite people to better behavior in the real world

If you think games are bad by definition, do read on, because virtual super-powers can have a great influence on real life:

Participants in a study by Robin Rosenberg and his colleagues from Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, were placed in a virtual environment and either given the power of flight or rode as passengers in a helicopter. They were then assigned one of two tasks: help find a missing diabetic child or tour a virtual city. The researchers explain that regardless of which task they performed, “Participants who were given the power to fly like Superman in virtual reality were more helpful afterward, out of virtual reality, compared to participants who were passengers in a helicopter in virtual reality.”

The researchers suggest that embodying a superpower in virtual reality may prime players to ‘think like superheroes’ and thus facilitate subsequent helpful behavior in the real world. Alternately, the authors also suggest that participants who could fly in the game may have felt like more active participants than those who passively sat in the helicopter while performing tasks, and this more active involvement may have induced their subsequent behavior. (source)

Abstract of the research that can be read here:

Background

Recent studies have shown that playing prosocial video games leads to greater subsequent prosocial behavior in the real world. However, immersive virtual reality allows people to occupy avatars that are different from them in a perceptually realistic manner. We examine how occupying an avatar with the superhero ability to fly increases helping behavior.

Principal Findings

Using a two-by-two design, participants were either given the power of flight (their arm movements were tracked to control their flight akin to Superman’s flying ability) or rode as a passenger in a helicopter, and were assigned one of two tasks, either to help find a missing diabetic child in need of insulin or to tour a virtual city. Participants in the “super-flight” conditions helped the experimenter pick up spilled pens after their virtual experience significantly more than those who were virtual passengers in a helicopter.

Conclusion

The results indicate that having the “superpower” of flight leads to greater helping behavior in the real world, regardless of how participants used that power. A possible mechanism for this result is that having the power of flight primed concepts and prototypes associated with superheroes (e.g., Superman). This research illustrates the potential of using experiences in virtual reality technology to increase prosocial behavior in the physical world.

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February 3, 2013 · 9:51 am

Research on teens: Caring friends can save the world

It’s early Sunday morning in Belgium and I see a lot of people complaining on Twitter because one of the biggest internet Providers in my country decided that Sunday should be a great day to go black. Let’s compensate with a study that can give some hope. New research published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence shows that caring in friendships stands between apathy and activism, and is directly related to a teen’s concern with making a difference.  

From the press release:  
“Increasing our understanding of adolescents’ relationships with friends can help us understand what kind of adults they might become,” says Anna-Beth Doyle. The primary author Heather Lawford, now a faculty member at Bishop’s University, completed the study as her doctoral thesis within larger project on adolescent social development and adjustment, led by Doyle and Dorothy Markiewicz, who is now at Brock University.
The study is the first to explore how concern for future generations has its roots in adolescence. The researchers collected yearly responses from 142 teens from ages 13 to 16. The teens were asked to gauge how concerned they were with contributing to the future by responding to statements like “I try to help others by sharing what I’ve learned in my life,” and “Others would say that I have done something special for society.”
Teens were also asked to describe their caring relationships with their close friends by reacting to assertions like, “I can tell when my friends need comforting, even when s/he doesn’t ask for it,” or “When my friend has a problem, I try to help him/her to come up with something to do about it.”
The researchers found that adolescents who had caring relationships with their friends went on to develop a concern for others beyond their immediate circle. “The real-life experience of caring for friends seems to give teens an abstract model of the importance of offering care to future generations,” says Lawford. “Adolescents may learn to apply this empathic concern to the welfare of their community.”
The research also explored whether gender played a role in developing care-giving behaviours and friendships. It turned out that the girls in the study reported more care-giving behaviors than boys. However, the results underlined that anyone who valued caring behaviours would develop concern for others in a larger community, regardless of gender.
According to Lawford and Doyle, “This research has an important message for teachers, parents and psychologists involved with adolescents: if we can successfully foster young teens showing care for their friends, we have a good chance of also fostering a desire to leave a positive mark on their community and the world.”

Read the abstract of the research:

Generativity, defined as concern for future generations, is theorized to become a priority in midlife, preceded by a stage in which intimacy is the central issue. Recent research, however, has found evidence of generativity even in adolescence. This longitudinal study explored the associations between caregiving in friendships, closely related to intimacy, and early generative concern in a young adolescent sample. Given the importance of close friendships in adolescence, it was hypothesized that responsive caregiving in early adolescent friendships would predict later generative concern. Approximately 140 adolescents (56 % female, aged 14 at Time 1) completed questionnaires regarding generative concern and responsive caregiving with friends yearly across 2 years. Structural equation modeling revealed that caregiving predicted generative concern 1 year later but generative concern did not predict later caregiving. These results suggest that caregiving in close friendships plays an important role in the development of adolescents’ motivation to contribute to future generations.

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January 25, 2013 · 9:33 pm

New research about multitasking and why handsfree calling is a bad idea

We tend to think that women and/or kids can multitask, but actually, only a small percentage is able to supertask, what probably will mean that they switch so fast we can’t see it.

This is also one of the reasons why handsfree texting and calling in your car is still very dangerous:

A few years ago, in a groundbreaking study, Strayer and colleagues compared the performance of cell phone users to drunks in a driving simulator [PDF]. Study participants talking on a cell phone — handheld and hands-free alike — had slower brake times and were involved in more simulated accidents than when they weren’t chatting. Their cognitive impairment was roughly as great as that of participants who got in the simulator after drinking enough screwdrivers to register a .08 percent blood-alcohol content.

More recent evidence, focusing on texting, has made similar conclusions. In one study published last year, a team of researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute evaluated the performance of drivers texting on a closed road. Some texted from their handheld device, which previous research had already concluded was dangerous, while others texted through an in-vehicle system connected to Bluetooth.

No surprise that drivers who texted by hand drove very poorly: they reported greater mental demand during the drive, took longer glances away from the roadway, and steered worse compared to baseline driving performance. Those who used the in-vehicle system did a little better. They didn’t have much problem receiving text messages through the in-car system, but sending them posed a problem. (source Atlantic)

The thing is that people who know think they do can multitask, well new research has found that people who multi-task most are the worst at it. You can read the research by Sanbonmatsu et al at Plosone.org. This is the abstract:

The present study examined the relationship between personality and individual differences in multi-tasking ability. Participants enrolled at the University of Utah completed measures of multi-tasking activity, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking. In addition, they performed the Operation Span in order to assess their executive control and actual multi-tasking ability. The findings indicate that the persons who are most capable of multi-tasking effectively are not the persons who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. To the contrary, multi-tasking activity as measured by the Media Multitasking Inventory and self-reported cell phone usage while driving were negatively correlated withactual multi-tasking ability. Multi-tasking was positively correlated with participants’ perceivedability to multi-task ability which was found to be significantly inflated. Participants with a strong approach orientation and a weak avoidance orientation – high levels of impulsivity and sensation seeking – reported greater multi-tasking behavior. Finally, the findings suggest that people often engage in multi-tasking because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task. Participants with less executive control – low scorers on the Operation Span task and persons high in impulsivity – tended to report higher levels of multi-tasking activity.

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January 8, 2013 · 6:10 pm

Music-choice as prediction for criminal behavior doesn’t mean music makes you a criminal

Correlation and causality are 2 different concepts often mixed up, look at this chart made by BusinessWeek to understand the difference:

This research by a good friend of mine Tom ter Bogt and his colleagues can be understood in a wrong way. They describe a prediction of criminal behavior based on musical preferences. So does listening to Jazz-music make you at age 12 a lesser juvenile delinquent at age 16? No, but there is a chance this will be the case. There can be many reasons why this correlation exists.

Don’t get me wrong, the article does suggest that there is a possible causality: ‘Music is the medium that separates mainstream youth from young people who may more easily adopt norm-breaking behaviors. In peer groups characterized by their deviant music taste, norm-breaking youth may “infect” their friends with their behaviors.’ But they acknowledge of course that this research hasn’t proven this. And still if there is a causality (which we don’t know for sure), then do remember that this research has not found a perfect correlation between musical preferences and delinquency. (If you wonder, yes I did listen to rock music, but also to blues and jazz)

Abstract of the paper that can be downloaded here:

OBJECTIVES: To test Music Marker Theory (MMT) positing that early adolescents’ preferences for nonmainstream types of popular music indicate concurrent and later minor delinquency.

METHODS: MMT was tested in a 4-year longitudinal study (n = 309).

RESULTS: The results showed that early fans of different types of rock (eg, rock, heavy metal, gothic, punk), African American music (rhythm and blues, hip-hop), and electronic dance music (trance, techno/hardhouse) showed elevated minor delinquency concurrently and longitudinally. Preferring conventional pop (chart pop) or highbrow music (classic music, jazz), in contrast, was not related to or was negatively related to minor delinquency.

CONCLUSIONS: Early music preferences emerged as more powerful indicators of later delinquency rather than early delinquency, indicating that music choice is a strong marker of later problem behavior. The mechanisms through which music preferences are linked to minor delinquency are discussed within the framework of MMT.

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