Published: December 6, 2007
Parents prefer teachers who make their children happy even more than those who emphasize academic achievement, a new University of Michigan study shows.
When requesting a teacher for their elementary school children, parents are more likely to choose teachers who receive high student satisfaction ratings than teachers with strong achievement ratings, said Brian Jacob, the study’s co-author and director of the Center on Local, State and Urban Policy at the U-M Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. [continue reading…]
Published: November 29, 2007
Young children sometimes give the impression of being racially prejudiced – for example, by preferring to play with other children who have the same colour skin as them. To find out where these attitudes come from, Luigi Castelli and colleagues at the University of Padova in Italy, looked to parents and found that it is mothers’ perceived attitudes which are more influential than fathers’. [continue reading…]
Published: November 27, 2007
Playing violent video games changes brain function and desensitizes chronic players to violence, a new study shows.
It’s already well known that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior and decreases helping behavior,” said University of Michigan researcher Brad Bushman. “But this study is the first to link exposure to violent video games with a diminished reaction to violent images.” [continue reading…]
Published: November 23, 2007
Image Credit: iStockphoto
New research from the University of Bristol shows that children aged between 5 and 7, whose mothers work full time, are more likely to be overweight at age 16. The impact on their weight is not immediate; rather, children become more obese as they get older. There is no evidence that children younger than 5 or older than 7 are more likely to be overweight at age 16 if their mothers work either part time or full time. [continue reading…]
