Child and Teen Studies Lab

Recruiting Participants!

Development of Social and Intellectual Integrity is a primary goal in education. In this study, we engage children in stories and games that allow us to observe their judgements of honest and deceitful story characters, and provide participants with opportunities to consider whether they should break rules or resist the temptation to do so in different situations.

We aim to track their moral development over the span of three years as a longitudinal study; by revisiting participants, we hope to better understand how children grow to tell right from wrong and learn to value ethical decisions. Check out the link below to find out more and sign up for this study!
http://www2.unb.ca/~cameron/recruitment/integrity.html

"When puberty begins, teens’ circadian rhythms will shift a few hours later, so teens may feel tired later in the day, (e.g. at 10:00 or 11:00 PM). In general, teenagers need 9 to 9.5 hours of sleep each night. Sleeping in on the weekends does not actually help 'catch up on sleep' but rather throws off the circadian rhythm. A consistent sleep schedule is crucial." - from "Teenagers and Sleep: How Much Sleep Is Enough?"

“Have you heard of the 'Pinocchio effect' in childhood lying? Your child’s nose will not grow longer, but it will get warmer as blood flow increases in the nose. New technology, called transdermal optic imaging, can be used to detect changes in blood flow that accompany lying.” - excerpt from "Can you really tell if a kid is lying?” Ted Talk
(https://www.ted.com/talks/kang_lee_can_you_really_tell_if_a_kid_is_lying?referrer=playlist-5_talks_on_the_truth_about_lyi -657800)

After our research on boys’ romantic relationships, we thought to expand on specific contextual factors that emerged: living within a multicultural community and juggling parental expectations.

There is a large population of Asian diaspora in Vancouver, and while other studies have examined their struggles with adjusting to Western masculine norms, not many have investigated the influence of Asian masculine norms on their lived experience in the West. This is a currently developing study that recruits adolescent Asian-Canadian boys to participate in focused group discussions to talk about the expectations they hold for themselves, and those of others. Hopefully by understanding how these boys view the incongruities between their heritage and mainstream cultural norms, we can work towards developing an inclusive community that these boys can thrive in.

In group discussions about dating, multicultural Canadian teenage boys disagreed with gender norms such as boys’ having to be the initiators of dating relationships and sexual double standards that make dating more acceptable for teenage boys than for teenage girls. “It’s stupid, it’s very stereotypical, and also it’s very biased. Guys get the girl.” – Grade 11 boy in (Un) Successful Communication: Sex-Based Differences and Contrasts.

In group discussions about dating, multicultural Canadian teenage boys said that they want more support for development of self-confidence. “The big, blank check to cover everyone is communication and confidence, ‘cause they’re both lacking.” - Grade 11 boy in (Un) Successful Communication: Sex-Based Differences and Contrasts.

As adolescents progress through highschool and meet new people, many start to explore romantic relationships. At such a pivotal development period, how they face the challenges that arise can drastically affect their emotional and social maturity, as well as influence their future relationships.

Previous studies have found that boys specifically struggle a lot with upholding communication and getting the emotional disclosure they need. Our first paper examines the expectations boys hold when anticipating romantic relationships amidst contextual categories such as masculine gender norms and cultural expectations. The second paper focuses on how adolescent boys navigate romantic relationships and incidents they face within different stages of relationships.

By learning more about how adolescent boys view these challenges, we can devise methods to help them build confidence and feel supported.

Girls are more likely to engage in “affiliative speech,” which involves the dialogues that work to establish a connection, and they are less likely to interrupt others while communicating. In contrast, boys use more “assertive speech,” which tries to influence other people. In addition, girls are more determined to engage in dyad relationships and expect more self-closure and intimacy in their friendships—‘Will They Listen to Me? An Examination of In-Group Gender Bias in Children’s Communication Beliefs’ (2019).

Following our previous studies on romantic relationships between boys and girls in Canada, we’ve found that miscommunication poses one of the largest challenges for teens in maintaining a healthy relationship. In other literature, women have been found to be more open to engaging in supportive conversations and to utilize collaborative strategies that foster good rapport. Putting two and two together, we’ve hypothesized that by examining how adolescent female friendships support their navigation of their personal life and lead to strong communication skills, we can learn how these relationships make it work and devise strategies to increase effective interpersonal engagement. The findings from this study will be used to further develop programs and interventions for teens who struggle to communicate and will provide teens the opportunity to learn from the experiences of others.

Do you have any idea why boys prefer to talk about sports, games, or general topics with their friends, and girls prefer to talk more about their personal stuff? Stay tuned to hear more from us, or you can read the paper (Un)Successful Communication: Sex-Based Differences and Contrasts (2019) and share your views with us!

"Girls ask for help and show sympathy to establish an intimate friendship, while in boys’ perspectives, this could be considered weak or dependent." — (Un) Successful Communication: Sex-Based Differences and Contrasts’ (2019).
For females, gossiping and sharing details are helping tools to establish intimacy with others. In contrast, males prefer to talk in formal situations to reach an end goal of transferring information to others, so they tend not to share details about their private lives.

Do you agree? What do you think are other gender-related differences between girls and boys? Do you have any idea where gender-differences in communication originate?