The purpose of this study was to evaluate the different stereotypes that individuals, within a university’s general student population, held toward studentathletes and non-athlete students admitted to the university on a special admission basis (students admitted with requirements less than the stated minimum for admission). Two studies, one qualitative in nature and the other with a quantitative focus, were conducted to assess students’ perceptions of special admission students. The results of this study show that students from a university’s general population have more of a negative stereotype or perception of athlete special admissions, as compared to a non-athlete special admission student, when interacting in an academic setting. On the other hand, the general student population indicated a more positive perception for allowing special admission to athletes than they did for allowing special admission to non-athlete students.

To explore attributions about chronically ill peers, 545 older adolescents ages 17-26 read a short vignette describing a brief social encounter with a hypothetical peer suffering from a medical condition, and then responded to a series of questionnaires to assess their perceptions of that peer. Nine measures intended to assess perceptions of ill peers were developed and empirically validated. Test-retest reliability and internal consistency was moderate to good for all measures. Component structure of the Peer Acceptance Questionnaire (PAQ), Peer Acceptance Questionnaire ?? 3rd Person (PAQ-F), and Perceived Similarity Questionnaire (PSQ) were also evaluated. Principal components analysis yielded a 2-factor structure of Openness and Egalitarianism for both the PAQ and PAQ-F. A 6-factor structure of (a) Familial/Spiritual, (b) General Health, (c) Social, (d) Behavioral, (e) Physical, and (f) Educational was suggested for the PSQ. Results indicated an interaction between illness type and behavior on acceptance ratings, such that behavior potentiated the effect of illness type on acceptance. In addition, vignette characters with contagious illnesses were rated less favorably than those with noncontagious illnesses, and vignette characters displaying typical behavior were rated more favorably than either withdrawn or aggressive vignette characters. Illness-specific knowledge, ratings of perceived similarity, and ratings of assigned blame predicted acceptance ratings, whereas illness-specific knowledge and acceptance ratings predicted ratings of assigned blame. Finally, significant differences were observed between first- and third-person ratings of both acceptance and assigned blame.

Although foreign language instruction in mixed-age (M-A) is gaining popularity (Heizmann and Ries and Wicki 2015; Lau and Juby-Smith and Desbiens, 2017; Shahid Kazi and Moghal and Aziz 2018; Thurn 2011), the research is scarce. Drawing from multiple data sources, this study investigated to what extent do peer interactions among M-A and same-age (S-A) pairs aid L2 development and how students perceive their interactions. In this study, the same learners (N=24) aged between 10 and 12 interacted with the same and different age partners during common classroom lessons in two EFL classrooms. The results suggest that both S-A and M-A peer interactions aided L2 development. Although S-A pairs outperformed M-A pairs on the post-test, the results are not statistically significant. The analysis of students’ perceptions revealed that the majority of students prefer working in S-A to M-A pairs. In addition to age/proficiency differences, factors such as students’ relationships and perceptions of one’s own and partner’s proficiency greatly impact how they interact with one another.