Psychology professor and Department Chair Campbell Leaper was interviewed in an article for Slate about how to talk to kids about hatred and hostility in the Trump era.
Melinda Wenner Moyer writes,
“It can also help, albeit indirectly, to educate your daughters about sexism and feminism. Campbell Leaper, a developmental and social psychologist at the University of California–Santa Cruz, and his colleagues have found that women who learn about sexism and feminism at an early age are more likely than other women to proactively respond to sexual harassment by reporting the incident, confronting the perpetrator, or saying No! I don’t like that. Young women who know little about feminism, on the other hand, are more likely to do little or nothing when they are harassed—and that’s a problem, because “we know from research on stress and coping that proactive coping strategies are much more beneficial for people in terms of reducing stress and promoting mental health,” Leaper says. Put another way: Educating your daughter about feminism may make her more resilient if she is ever sexually harassed or assaulted.”
Read the full article, Parenting Advice for the Trump Era, here.
