Media releases

• Women’s basketball coach wants Brock to get #Compassionate

  Wednesday, July 12, 2017 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 12 July 2017 – R00129

  If Brock women’s basketball coach Ashley MacSporran is forced to put a label on youth with developmental challenges, the word she chooses to go with is “amazing.”

  And it’s those amazing young kids who will play a starring role in her Brock Badgers Women’s Basketball camp July 17-21.

  MacSporran, who is heading into her second year as the women’s basketball coach at Brock, made community outreach part of her mandate when she came to the region.

  Earlier this year, she was named one of 12 community ambassadors for #CompassionateSTC, a year-long social media campaign launched by JCI St. Catharines in collaboration with the mayor’s office and other community leaders and groups.

  Each month, a different community member is tasked with documenting their own efforts to make St. Catharines a more compassionate place.

  MacSporran is the ambassador for July, and she’s using her team’s youth camp next week to further the #CompassionateSTC movement.

  The Brock Women’s Basketball Camp is designed to help kids and youth from eight to 13 years old improve their skills through the teaching of MacSporran and the rest of her varsity women’s team.

  The coach decided the skills camp would be the perfect opportunity to show some compassion to a dozen or so young people from Niagara whose challenges mean they don’t always get included.

  “To me, compassionate city means inclusion,” said MacSporran, who is hoping the camp experience will benefit both the special needs youth and the other 50 or so players in attendance. “It’s not just about basketball, but it’s about helping these kids learn a bit more about things.

  “Kids can be mean, but they can be great about not seeing race, ethnicity and social status.”

  MacSporran said around 12 “amazing kids were invited to be part of the camp for free. They can come for the full days or a few hours or whatever is good for them.”

  Also taking part will be Gregory McPherson, the brother of incoming Badgers women’s basketball player Courtney McPherson. Gregory, who was born with Down syndrome, has a big local following on social media and runs a group called G-Mc’s Fitness Homies with Extra Chromies.

  He’ll be an assistant coach working with MacSporran and her team all week.

  The Badgers coach is also hoping the Brock community takes part in her week of compassion.

  “I’d like to challenge the University to be compassionate Badgers,” she said. “The great thing about this project is it can be anything — little acts of kindness or generosity, listening to someone who needs to talk, helping your neighbours.

  “The mayor talks about being the most compassionate city, and we want to be the most compassionate university.”

  MacSporran and the women’s basketball team will launch the skills camp and their #CompassionateSTC project on Monday, July 17 at 9 a.m. in Bob Davis Gymnasium. Everyone is invited to attend.

  The #CompassionateSTC movement was launched by St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik, who was inspired by the outreach efforts of Brock Social Justice and Equity Studies alumnus Tim Arnold (BBA ’96). Another alumnus, Steve Boese (BA ‘06), manager of the Generator at one interactive digital media incubator, became the campaign chairman, while three other Brock alumni are part of the roster of ambassadors.

  Sara Palmieri (BA ’03) was the ambassador for March, Crispin Bottomley (BA ’04, BEd ’05) took the role for April and Julie Rorison (BA ’10) will be the ambassador for December.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock study finds preschoolers aim to keep their word

  Tuesday, July 11, 2017 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 11 July 2017 – R00128

  While some parents may think their requests go in one ear and out the other, a new Brock study suggests that children aged three to five will make an effort to do what is asked of them, especially after committing to the request out loud.

  Angela Evans, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology, released the findings in “Verbalizing a commitment reduces cheating in young children,” which was published in the May edition of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

  The study was developed in Brock’s Social-Cognitive Development Lab along with Brock graduate student Alison O’Connor and University of Toronto Professor Kang Lee.

  It was Evans’ interest in how children are socialized to become honest that led the direction of her research.

  Other studies have shown that children over the age of five were more likely to be honest if they promised to tell the truth, but promises were shown to be ineffective in children under five.

  “We thought that this was likely due to younger children’s difficulty with understanding the word ‘promise,’” Evans explained. “We were interested to see if we could improve children’s honesty by asking them to state that they ‘will’ do something, rather than making them promise to do something.”

  The research team was also interested in “whether asking children to make a statement out loud, rather than just agreeing to a request to adhere to a rule, would improve honesty,” she said.

  The study found that 80 per cent of children cheated by peeking at a toy after being told not to or agreeing not to peek. However, asking children to make a specific, verbal commitment out loud not to peek at the toy significantly reduced the rate of cheating to 58 per cent.

  It also took much longer for the children who spoke their intention aloud to sneak a look at the toy.

  This is good news for parents who want to help guide their children toward good behaviour.

  “When parents ask their children to behave in a particular way — ‘don’t touch the iPad while I am out of the room’ — they shouldn’t just tell the child the rule or ask them to agree to the rule,” Evans said. Asking the child to state an intention out loud — ‘I will not touch the iPad while you are gone’ — can be a more effective strategy.

  Evans plans to continue exploring how verbalized commitments can shape behaviour.

  “We would like to assess whether a verbalized commitment without the word ‘promise’ would be equally effective for older children, compared to asking them to promise,” she said. “We are also interested in examining other novel methods for promoting honest behaviour with both children and adolescents.”

  Associate Professor Angela Evans is available for interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases