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Child Psychology

The Unequal Playing Field: How Family Background Shapes Athletic Success

Americans have long believed that sports are one area in society that offers kids from all backgrounds the chance to succeed to the best of their abilities. But new research suggests that this belief is largely a myth, and that success in high school and college athletics often is influenced by race and gender, as well as socioeconomic status, including family wealth and education.

Published

5 months ago

March 21, 2025

Veronic D.

The notion that sports are a level playing field, where individuals can succeed through hard work and determination alone, has been debunked by new research. Studies have found that high school and college athletics are profoundly shaped by socioeconomic status, race, and other factors unrelated to talent.

Chris Knoester, co-author of the studies and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University, notes that success in sports often depends on the advantages young people have when they grow up. “We often think about sports as level playing fields that reward people who earn their success, but that’s not the whole story,” he said.

The research analyzed data from a nationwide study of high school students in the 10th grade who were followed up with again in the 12th grade. Nearly 10,000 students from 800 different schools were studied in 2002 and 2004. The findings showed that while 70% of students from high socioeconomic status (SES) families played a high school sport, only 43% of those from low SES families played.

Success also depended on family SES, with 27% of students from high SES families reporting being a captain of a sports team, compared to only 8% for those from low SES families. Students from high SES families were more likely to play multiple sports and persist in playing from 10th to 12th grade.

The research also found racial and ethnic differences in family SES and who attended wealthier schools, with white students being more privileged, Knoester said. Boys were more likely to play sports in high school than girls and to play persistently, the study found.

How race shapes sports participation was a striking theme in the in-depth college athlete interviews that Kirsten Hextrum led. She found that Black athletes felt more comfortable in track and field than majority-white sports. Conversely, white athletes felt comfortable playing all types of sports, and did not believe their race influenced their athletic selections.

The research also highlighted the importance of “intensive parenting” in high SES families, where parents have the resources to invest time, emotional investment, and educational investment in their children’s athletic future.

Knoester and Hextrum emphasized that advantaged parents aren’t trying to harm others in advocating for their children. Instead, they are pursuing what they think is their family’s own best interests, trying to provide the best possible situation for their own children as they grow up.

However, the end result is that it perpetuates the inequalities already in society and makes it more difficult for others to maximize their athletic talents. The researchers concluded that sports aren’t always a meritocracy, and some people have built-in advantages outside of their athletic skills that will help them succeed.

Source:Ohio State University

Original Link:https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/03/250320144819.htm

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Child Psychology

“The Face-Driven Brain: Uncovering the Science Behind Pareidolia”

You may be seeing faces in clouds, toast, or cars—and it turns out your brain is wired to notice them. A fascinating new study shows how our attention is hijacked not just by real faces, but by face-like illusions, through entirely different mental mechanisms. These imaginary expressions actually spark a stronger response, and the research even hints at clever ways advertisers could use this effect to grab your attention.

Published

1 month ago

July 25, 2025

Tomy E.

The human brain has a remarkable ability to recognize faces, even when they’re not actually there. This phenomenon is known as pareidolia, where our minds convince us that we see faces or patterns in everyday objects. A recent study by the University of Surrey has shed light on how this happens and what it means for advertisers.

Researchers conducted experiments to compare how people respond to real faces versus imagined ones. They found that both types of stimuli can direct attention, but through different mechanisms. When looking at a person’s face, we focus on specific features like their eyes and mouth. However, when seeing a face-like object, our brain processes the entire structure, including where the “eye-like” elements are positioned.

Lead researcher Dr. Di Fu explained that this difference in processing pathways can lead to a stronger attention response when encountering pareidolia. The findings of this study may have implications beyond just understanding how our brains work. Advertisers could potentially use face-like designs with prominent eye-like elements to grab consumers’ attention and leave a more lasting impression.

The next time you spot a face in a cloud or see a pattern that reminds you of something, remember that your brain is using a different pathway to process the information compared to when you look at a real face. Who knows what other secrets your brain has hidden beneath its complex workings?

Artificial Intelligence

Safeguarding Adolescents in a Digital Age: Experts Urge Developers to Protect Young Users from AI Risks

The effects of artificial intelligence on adolescents are nuanced and complex, according to a new report that calls on developers to prioritize features that protect young people from exploitation, manipulation and the erosion of real-world relationships.

Published

3 months ago

June 4, 2025

Tomy E.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has released a report calling for developers to prioritize features that protect adolescents from exploitation, manipulation, and erosion of real-world relationships in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). The report, “Artificial Intelligence and Adolescent Well-being: An APA Health Advisory,” warns against repeating the mistakes made with social media and urges stakeholders to ensure youth safety is considered early in AI development.

The APA expert advisory panel notes that adolescence is a complex period of brain development, spanning ages 10-25. During this time, age is not a foolproof marker for maturity or psychological competence. The report emphasizes the need for special safeguards aimed at younger users.

“We urge all stakeholders to ensure youth safety is considered relatively early in the evolution of AI,” said APA Chief of Psychology Mitch Prinstein, PhD. “AI offers new efficiencies and opportunities, yet its deeper integration into daily life requires careful consideration to ensure that AI tools are safe, especially for adolescents.”

The report makes several recommendations to make certain that adolescents can use AI safely:

1. Healthy boundaries with simulated human relationships: Ensure that adolescents understand the difference between interactions with humans and chatbots.
2. Age-appropriate defaults in privacy settings, interaction limits, and content: Implement transparency, human oversight, support, and rigorous testing to safeguard adolescents’ online experiences.
3. Encourage uses of AI that promote healthy development: Assist students in brainstorming, creating, summarizing, and synthesizing information while acknowledging AI’s limitations.
4. Limit access to and engagement with harmful and inaccurate content: Build protections to prevent adolescents from exposure to damaging material.
5. Protect adolescents’ data privacy and likenesses: Limit the use of adolescents’ data for targeted advertising and sale to third parties.

The report also calls for comprehensive AI literacy education, integrating it into core curricula and developing national and state guidelines for literacy education.

Additional Resources:

* Report:
* Guidance for parents on AI and keeping teens safe: [APA.org](http://APA.org)
* Resources for teens on AI literacy: [APA.org](http://APA.org)

Breastfeeding

Singing to Babies Boosts Their Mood and Improves Quality of Life

Singing to your infant can significantly boost the baby’s mood, according to a recent study. Around the world and across cultures, singing to babies seems to come instinctively to caregivers. Now, new findings support that singing is an easy, safe, and free way to help improve the mental well-being of infants. Because improved mood in infancy is associated with a greater quality of life for both parents and babies, this in turn has benefits for the health of the entire family, the researchers say. The study also helps explain why musical behaviors may have evolved in parents.

Published

3 months ago

May 31, 2025

Veronic D.

The study published in Child Development found that singing to infants can significantly boost their mood. This is according to researchers at Yale University’s Child Study Center, who conducted an experiment where parents were encouraged to sing more frequently to their babies. The results showed a measurable improvement in infants’ moods overall, compared to those in the control group.

The study included 110 parents and their babies, most of whom were under four months old. Parents were randomly assigned into two groups: one group received encouragement to sing more frequently by teaching them new songs, providing karaoke-style instructional videos, and sending weekly newsletters with ideas for incorporating music into daily routines. For four weeks, these parents received surveys on their smartphones at random times throughout the day.

The researchers found that parents were successfully able to increase the amount of time they spent singing to their babies. Not only did the parents sing more frequently, but they also chose to use music especially in one context: calming their infants when they were fussy.

“This simple practice can lead to real health benefits for babies,” said Eun Cho, postdoctoral researcher at the Yale Child Study Center and co-first author of the study. “We show that singing is something that anyone can do, and most families are already doing.”

The researchers believe that the benefits of singing may be even stronger than the current study shows, especially in a family that does not already rely on music as a way of soothing their infants.

A follow-up study, “Together We Grow,” will investigate the impact of infant-directed singing over an eight-month period. The Child Study Center researchers are currently enrolling parents and babies under four months old in this study to further explore the benefits of singing.

The findings have implications for alleviating stress or conditions such as postpartum depression in the long term, and may also show benefits beyond mood in infants, such as improved sleep.

As Samuel Mehr, an adjunct associate professor at the Child Study Center and director of The Music Lab, said, “Our understanding of the evolutionary functions of music points to a role of music in communication. Parents send babies a clear signal in their lullabies: I’m close by, I hear you, I’m looking out for you — so things can’t be all that bad.”