Even though they know it’s wrong, roughly 70 percent of high school and college students have passed off, at least once, someone else’s work as their own, according to studies from Duke University’s Center for Academic Integrity.

Many experts blame the intense pressure students feel to get into top colleges. “They think everybody else cheats, so they do, too, because they don’t want to lose ground,” says Timothy West, Ph.D., an accounting professor at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville, who conducted his own study on cheating. In Dr. West’s study, even students who rate themselves “highly moral” were likely to cheat; what set them apart from their peers was that they were more likely to rationalize their action. For example, when answers to problems were available online, such students told themselves their teachers wanted them merely to copy the answers rather than solve the problems.
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For parents who are dismayed by this trend but who may be genuinely uncertain what constitutes cheating and plagiarism, a book by University of Chicago professor Charles Lipson, Ph.D., can help clarify matters. In Doing Honest Work in College, Dr. Lipson offers clear ethical guidance, including a detailed analysis of some of the admittedly murky issues surrounding Web-based research.

Parents Fail Sportsmanship

- Debbe Geiger

At their best, youth sports aren’t just fun, they also teach participants solid values such as teamwork and fair play. If only parents would learn those lessons! On the first National Youth Sports Report Card, issued in late 2005 by the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance, America’s moms and dads received poor grades because they’re doing a lousy job of emphasizing the goals of “fun, friendship and fitness,” says Dan Gould, report card panel member and director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports at Michigan State University.

The problem, Gould believes, stems from the “professionalization” of youth sports, which, he says, “have been infected with the idea that superior performance and winning are everything.” Often parents pressure heir kids because they unrealistically think that they might win scholarships. At games parents scream at players, berate officials and boss coaches around. After games, many critique their child’s very play.

Most coaches in youth sports are volunteers, so parents should cut them some slack—and get involved themselves. But don’t sign on without training, Gould cautions. “Otherwise you’ll act like coaches on TV,” he says. “That behavior is totally inappropriate with kids.”

The Peril of Popularity

- K. Emily Bond

Parents of nerds, take heart:
While your teen was home watching a Friday-night PBS special, the cool kids were probably doing something risky. Or so say researchers at USC and the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville. In two studies, popular teens were found to be more susceptible to peer pressure and more likely to drink, smoke marijuana and cigarettes, shoplift and vandalize property than their less-popular counterparts. For example, 26 percent of popular kids have experimented with alcohol or marijuana by age 14, versus only 9 percent of the less popular.

These findings may seem counterintuitive, acknowledges head researcher Joseph P. Allen, Ph.D., psychology professor at Virginia. “We tend to think that being well liked provides a safety net,” he says. The good news is that popular teens in both studies showed strong family attachments and a healthy sense of personal identify. “Popular kids are like politicians,” Dr. Allen notes. “They look like leaders, but in reality they may only be tracking peer opinion, as politicians do with polls.” The message for parents? “If your child is popular, be happy for 10 seconds,” he says. “Then ask, ‘What group is she popular with?’”

Copyright 2006 by Ladies Home Journal Magazine. All rights reserved.
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