Retrospective reports of child feeding practices, current eating behaviors, and BMI in college students

Research concerning child feeding practices has focused on children and adolescents, and little is known about how feeding practices used in childhood relate to eating behaviors and weight status in early adulthood. We assessed college students' and their parents' retrospective reports of child feeding practices used when the students were in middle childhood. We also assessed the college students' current reports of their eating behaviors using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES), and measured their current BMI. Results showed that college students' and their parents' reports about previous parental use of child feeding practices were not correlated. Parent reports of their own use of child feeding practices were more related to students' eating behaviors and BMI than were students' recollections about feeding practices used by their parents. An analysis of gender effects showed that there were positive correlations between parental child feeding practices, BMI, and emotional eating for female students. These relationships did not exist for male students. The results suggest that child feeding practices recollected by parents are linked to the development of emotional eating and weight status of women in early adulthood.

The success of technical college students in relation to scores on attitude, personality and intelligence tests

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A statistical analysis of the structure of language found in the essay writing of a sample of technical college students and public school boys

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Imagined intergroup contact facilitates intercultural communication for college students on academic exchange programs

Imagined intergroup contact (Crisp & Turner, 2009) is a new cognitive intervention designed to improve intergroup relations. In two studies, we examined whether it could also facilitate intercultural communication among international students and host country natives engaged in a college exchange program. In Study 1, international students who had recently arrived in Italy and participated in an imagined contact session displayed increased self-disclosure toward, and improved evaluation of, host country natives. In Study 2, Italian students mentally simulated positive contact with an unknown native from the host country prior to leaving for the exchange. Results from an online questionnaire administered on their return (on average, more than 7 months after the imagery task) revealed that participants who imagined contact reported spending more time with natives during the stay and enhanced outgroup evaluation, via reduced intergroup anxiety. Implications for enhancing the quality and effectiveness of college student exchange programs are discussed.

A systems approach to students' motivation and academic achievement

This research followed earlier work (reported in a thesis presented in 1970) on factors associated with the academic performance of a sample of technical college students, which recommended the further study of students' motivation. The technical college then became part of a polytechnic, but the courses chosen for the continuation of the research were all of a specifically vocational character. The approach was influenced by Angyal (1941) in seeking to relate symbolic processes to broader behaviour patterns within a systems framework. Forms of semantic differential were developed to obtain the students' responses to words representing various activities and various people both within and outside the academic environment. Also, a "!growth motivation questionnaire" was produced using ideas from self-actualisation, job satisfaction and expectancy theory and examination marks were recorded. From pre-coded responses to the growth motivation questionnaire, scores on a 'study satisfaction' factor were calculated, and subsamples of students were taken at the extremes of this scale. Wriitten responses from the same questionnaire and semantic differential factor scores showed contrasting patterns between the two subsamples. Interpretation of these patterns suggested a diversity of approach to academic work among the students which calls for greater flexibility in the educational system serving them.