Student ChatGPT Use Survey

 

Twenty-six percent of US teens ages 13 to 17 say they are using ChatGPT for schoolwork, doubling the figure who reported that use in 2023, a recent survey indicates. The survey also reveals that 54% of respondents consider using the AI tool acceptable for researching new topics, while 18% say the same about using it to write essays. 

Black and Hispanic teens (31% each) are more likely than White teens (22%) to say they have used ChatGPT for their schoolwork. 

Sidoti, O., Park, E., & Gottfried, J. (2025). About a quarter of U.S. teens have used ChatGPT for schoolwork - double the shrae in 2023. Pew Research Center. 

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/15/about-a-quarter-of-us-teens-have-used-chatgpt-for-schoolwork-double-the-share-in-2023/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/15/about-a-quarter-of-us-teens-have-used-chatgpt-for-schoolwork-double-the-share-in-2023/

Race and gender in children's books research

 Using artificial intelligence, researchers combed through 1,130 children’s books written in the last century, comparing two sets of diverse children’s books—one a collection of popular books that garnered major literary awards, the other favored by identity-based awards. The software analyzed data on skin tone, race, age, and gender. Among the findings: While more characters with darker skin color begin to appear over time, the most popular books—those most frequently checked out of libraries and lining classroom bookshelves—continue to depict people of color in lighter skin tones. More insidiously, when adult characters are “moral or upstanding,” their skin color tends to appear lighter. (excerpted from Eutopia)

Adukia, A. et al. (2021). Wajt we teach about race and gender: What  representation in images and text in children's books. Brown University Annenberg Institute.

https://www.edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai21-462.pdf

Representation in children's books study

 1,133 books from 19 different award categories, published over the last 100 years, were studied to examine issues of race and gender. The analysis of images revealed the following about race in children’s books:

•  Books in the Mainstream collection are more likely to depict lighter-skinned characters than those in the Diversity collection.  Specifically, books in the Mainstream collection are much more likely to depict characters who are racially ambiguous in terms of skin color, disproportionately using skin colors that cannot be classified either as that of light-skinned characters nor as that of dark-skinned characters, a technique the authors call “butterscotching.”
• Over the last two decades, representation of lighter skin tones in Mainstream books has actually increased.
• Children are more likely than adults to be shown with lighter skin, in both Mainstream and Diversity collections.
• Females have always appeared in pictures over time, but they are predominantly white females and still average less than 50 percent of pictures and text.

The authors also compared the female appearances in images to female mentions in text and found:

• Females are more consistently seen in images than written about in the text, except in the collection of books specifically selected to highlight females. The authors deduced that this suggests “symbolic inclusion of females in pictures without their substantive inclusion in the actual story.”
• Males, especially white males, are persistently more likely to be represented by every measure, with little change over time.
• Adukia, A. et al. (2021). What we teach about race and gender: Representation in images and text of children's books. Becker Friedman Institute. 
• https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=new-study-looks-race-gender-representation-in-award-winning-childrens-books&utm_source=Marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=april22AcademicNewswire

 

Race/Identify Learning Report

Ten percent of parents say they often have conversations with their children -- ages 3 to 12 -- about race and identity, according to a recent report. A parent’s race impacts how often these conversations are happening. Twenty-two percent of black parents discuss race often with their children, compared to 6 percent of white parents. About 35% of parents say they never speak with their children about social class, the report states. Experts say this trend can have serious implications, because when adults don’t talk to kids about these topics, kids learn that identity is a taboo topic. They may also start to believe the stereotypes and biases they’re presented with in everyday life.
Kotler, J., Haider, T., & Levine, M. (2019). Identity matters. New York, NY: Sesame Workshop.
https://www.sesameworkshop.org/sites/default/files/2019-10/sw_identitymatters_screen_0.pdf

 

Examining Bullying Today

YouthTruth analyzed anonymous feedback from over 180,000 students across 37 states in grades five through twelve to understand how much, in what ways, and why students are being bullied. This analysis also explored how students of different gender identities are experiencing bullying, and uncovered valuable insights. The implication from this study is that understanding students’ experiences with bullying is crucial for schools and communities to build safe and supportive environments for learning.

Key findings include:

1.     It’s still true that 1 in 4 students are bullied.

2.     Most bullying happens in person.

3.     The top three reasons students believe they are bullied include their appearance, their race or skin color, and because other students thought they were gay.

Youthtruth Student Survey (2018). Learning from student voice: What do students tell us about bullying? San Francisco, CA: Youthtruth Student Survey. http://youthtruthsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/YouthTruth-Learning-from-Student-Voice-Bullying-2017.pdf

Video Games Representations of Race, Gender, and Age

In this study, a large-scale content analysis of characters in video games was employed to answer questions about their representations of gender, race and age in comparison to the US population. The study was conducted in a manner in which the results were able to be analyzed in proportion to the games that were actually played by the public, and thus allowed the first statements able to be generalized about the content of popular video games. The results show a systematic over-representation of males, white and adults and a systematic under-representation of females, Hispanics, Native Americans, children and the elderly. Overall, the results are similar to those found in television research. The implications for identity, cognitive models, cultivation and game research are discussed.

Williams, D., Martins, N., Consalvo, M., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). The virtual census: representations of gender, race and age in video games. New Media and Society, 11(5), 815-834. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444809105354.