Inflammatory signs for adolescent depression differ between boys and girls

September 13, 2023

Science Daily/King's College London

New research led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London has found that depression and the risk of depression are linked to different inflammatory proteins in boys and girls.

When inflammation occurs in the body a host of proteins are released into the blood called cytokines. Previous research has shown that higher levels of cytokines are associated with depression in adults, but little is known about this relationship in adolescence.

Researchers investigated sex-differences in the relationship between inflammatory proteins and depression. Published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, the study found that different cytokines were implicated in depression risk and severity in boys compared to girls. The research was part of the IDEA (Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence) project funded by MQ Mental Health Research.

To assess inflammation, researchers measured the blood cytokine levels in 75 adolescent boys and 75 adolescent girls (aged 14-16 years) from Brazil. The 150 participants had been recruited into three groups with equal numbers (50 participants in each group: 25 girls and 25 boys). The groups were those at low-risk for depression and not depressed, those at high risk of depression and not depressed, and those currently experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD).

The findings indicated that there are sex differences between the individual inflammatory proteins that are associated with depression in adolescents. Higher levels of the cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2) were associated with both increased risk for depression and the severity of depressive symptoms in boys, but not in girls. However, higher levels of IL-6 were associated with severity of depression in girls, but not boys. In boys the levels of IL-2 were higher in the high-risk than the low-risk group and even higher in the group diagnosed with depression, indicating that in boys IL-2 levels in the blood could help indicate the onset of future depression.

Dr Zuzanna Zajkowska, Postdoctoral Researcher at King's IoPPN and first author of the study, said,

"This is the first study to show differences between boys and girls in the patterns of inflammation that are linked to the risk and development of adolescent depression. We found that the severity of depressive symptoms was associated with increased levels of the cytokine interleukin-2 in boys, but interleukin-6 in girls. We know more adolescent girls develop depression than boys and that the disorder takes a different course depending on sex so we hope that our findings will enable us to better understand why there are these differences and ultimately help develop more targeted treatments for different biological sexes."

Researchers recruited adolescents from public schools in Brazil. Risk of depression was assessed by a composite risk score for depression based on 11 sociodemographic variables that had been developed as part of the IDEA project. Adolescents completed several questionnaires, self-reporting their emotional difficulties, relationships, experiences, and mood. They also completed a clinical assessment with a child and adolescent psychiatrist.

Senior author on the study Professor Valeria Mondelli, Clinical Professor of Psychoneuroimmunology at King's IoPPN and theme-lead for Psychosis and Mood Disorders at the NIHR Maudsley BRC, said,

"Our findings suggest that inflammation and biological sex may have combined contribution to the risk for depression. We know that adolescence is a key time when many mental disorders first develop and by identifying which inflammatory proteins are linked to depression and how this is different between boys and girls we hope that our findings can pave the way to understanding what happens at this critical time in life. Our research highlights the importance of considering the combined impact of biology, psychology, and social factors to understand the mechanisms underlying depression."

The study is part of the Identifying Depression Early in Adolescence (IDEA) project, led by Professor Valeria Mondelli at King's IoPPN and funded by MQ Mental Health Research. The IDEA project is investigating how cultural, social, genetic and environmental factors lead to the development of depression in 10-24-year-olds across the UK, Brazil, Nigeria, Nepal, New Zealand and USA.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230913122709.htm

How education, work and motherhood shape women's life 'pathways'

September 13, 2023

Science Daily/North Carolina State University

A new study from North Carolina State University and Duke University offers insights into the ways that education, work and motherhood shape the lives of women in the United States. In a longitudinal study of more than 8,100 women, the researchers found seven "pathways" that illustrate the way major life events can have long-term ripple effects.

"Our goal here was to examine how family, work and education influence each other in the lives of women, rather than viewing education as a separate process from work and family," says Anna Manzoni, co-author of a paper on the study and an associate professor of sociology at NC State. "Our approach highlights the fluidity of education in many women's lives, and challenges the idea that completing one's education and transitioning from school to a full-time job are essential elements of how we define adulthood."

For the study, researchers examined data from 8,101 women who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which is a nationally representative panel study that followed people in the United States from youth through adulthood.

The researchers then conducted analyses of these data to find patterns and subgroups among study participants, which helped them identify distinct pathways or commonalities among subgroups. The researchers also assessed the extent to which these pathways related to the race and socioeconomic class of the study participants.

"We found that women's lives tend to take one of seven pathways, with six of those pathways broadly defined by when or if women become parents," Manzoni says. "These pathways really underscore the extent to which specific life events, opportunities or constraints can shape later patterns in women's lives. However, it's important to recognize that there are notable nuances in the way women's lives end up unfolding in more ways than one."

The first three pathways all include women who became parents between the ages of 18 and 25:

• Early Mothers with High School Interrupted (making up 13.29% of participants);

• Early Mothers with Limited Education (13.01%), which refers to women who obtained a high school diploma or GED;

• Early Mothers with Continuing Education (19.31%).

The second three pathways include women who got college degrees by the time they were 25:

• College then Work Focused (11.95%);

• College then Family Focused (8.97%); and

• Graduate Degree Professionals (13.31%).

The seventh pathway was Independents with Continuing Education (20.17%), which is largely made up of women who pursue education at community colleges and vocational schools into adulthood and are unlikely to marry or have children until they are in their 30s and 40s.

"These groups are based on various longitudinal patterns that we observe across the life course," says Jane Bo-Hyeong Lee, co-author of the paper and a research associate in Duke University's Center for Health Policy & Inequalities Research. "For example, about 24% of women in the Early Mothers with Limited Education pathway went on to get associate's degrees by the time they were in their late 30s or early 40s. However, this pattern is very different from that of women who postponed starting a family until they'd completed an advanced degree."

"Much of this is informed by socioeconomic background and the resources that women have access to," says Manzoni. "For example, the three college-centered pathways largely reflect the experiences of women who come from privileged socioeconomic backgrounds.

"This work is important because it provides a structured way of understanding the ways in which family, work and education influence each other in the lives of women," Manzoni says.

"Our work builds on previous research, many of which use qualitative methods or cross-sectional data," Lee adds. "We have the advantage of using a nationally representative dataset that followed these women for many years."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230913122644.htm

Sleep-wake therapy gives new hope for teens with depression

September 8, 2023

Science Daily/University of California - San Francisco

School systems aren't built for kids who fall asleep and wake up late, the so-called 'night owls,' which may help explain why this group of teens is more prone to depression.

Promoting healthy sleep in teen night owls brings adolescents' biology and school demands in alignment.

Now, researchers at UC San Francisco have found a way to help these kids adjust to their natural sleep-cycle rhythms while still fulfilling their school responsibilities. The findings are a welcome sign for adolescents with depression, who are more likely than most to report staying up late.

While 40% of teens overall report being night owls, in those with depression, 80% report late-night sleep patterns.

The key to success with the current intervention was teaching the night owls to structure their lives so they could sleep as late as possible, while gently training their bodies to fall asleep a little earlier.

"A big finding here is that there is a subgroup of teens for whom treating sleep is particularly important for improving depression symptoms," said Lauren Asarnow, PhD, a clinical psychologist with UCSF Health who specializes in sleep health. "And the other big finding is that they really need to be able to live a life that is more in line with their sleep-wake biology.

It's Biology, Not Laziness

The study, published in August in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, analyzed data from 42 participants with clinical depression who had been part of a larger study of 176 night-owl adolescents. Twenty-four of these adolescents received the intervention, called the Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention (TransS-C), and 18 received educational sessions on how to lead a healthy lifestyle. All participants kept sleep diaries and wore devices that measured the quality of their sleep. They also received 45-minute therapy sessions each week for eight weeks.

At the beginning of the study, all of the teens scored at least 40 on the Children's Depression Rating Scale, a level that indicates clinically significant depression. A score of 28 or lower indicates remission. Six months after the treatment, the intervention group's average score had fallen to 21.67, compared to 32.5 for the group that received the healthy lifestyle intervention. At 12 months post-treatment, the intervention scored 24.97, while controls were at 32.75.

A larger study has since been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and it will be open for enrollment to 200 teens in the Bay Area this fall.

About 3 million adolescents have at least one major depressive episode in a given year, and about 40% don't respond to treatment. Teens whose natural tendencies are to fall asleep later and wake up later are at higher risk for recurrent depression, more severe depression, suicidality and poor antidepressant response, research shows.

"There is a saying in our psychology and psychiatry clinics that the best treatment for depression and anxiety is summer break," Asarnow said. "We need to stop calling these kids 'lazy.' A lot of the time it is just their biology. It's not their fault."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230908161055.htm

Active children are more resilient

September 5, 2023

Science Daily/University of Basel

The school year has hardly begun and the first exams are already approaching. According to findings by researchers from the University of Basel, school children cope better with the stress if they get plenty of daily exercise.

"Get some exercise!" It's one suggestion adults frequently hear when they complain about stress in their lives. Exercise helps relieve stress. But does this also apply to children? Does exercise help them manage the pressures to achieve at school? A research team led by Dr. Manuel Hanke and Dr. Sebastian Ludyga from the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health recently examined the effect of physical activity on children's stress levels. Their findings appear in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport.

For their study, they had 110 children between the ages of 10 and 13 wear a sensor tracking their daily movement over the course of a week. They then brought the participants into the lab on two separate occasions to complete a stressful task and a non-stressful control task (see the box). The researchers tested the children's physical stress reaction via the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva.

Less cortisol in active children

"We wanted to determine whether physical activity makes children more resilient under laboratory-controlled circumstances," explains project director Sebastian Ludyga. The results showed that the participants who got more than an hour of exercise per day, as the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends, did in fact produce less cortisol in the stress task than the children who were less active.

"Regularly active children seem to have a reduced physiological stress reaction in general," notes Manuel Hanke, lead author of the study. Even in the control task, which involved an unfamiliar situation, making it still somewhat unsettling for the participants, there was a difference in cortisol levels between more and less active children -- though overall cortisol levels were lower than in the stress task.

Stress hormone levels increase during exercise

One possible explanation for this finding could be that cortisol levels also increase during exercise, says Sebastian Ludyga. "When children regularly run, swim, climb, etc., the brain learns to associate a rise in cortisol with something positive. The body's reaction always has a cognitive component as well: this positive association helps to prevent the concentration of cortisol from rising to too high a level in exam situations as well."

Besides their analysis of the saliva samples, the researchers also examined cognitive reactions to the stress task by recording participants' brainwaves via electroencephalogram (EEG). The team plans to analyze these data next. "Stress can interfere with thinking. Some of us are familiar with this in its most extreme form -- a blackout," Hanke explains. The team now aims to determine whether physical activity also has an influence on these cognitive effects of stress.

Methodology

For their study, the researchers used the Trier Social Stress Test for Children: the participants had to read a story with an open ending, then had five minutes to prepare before using their notes to tell the rest of the story for a jury. What they didn't know in advance was that the preparation time was intentionally kept so short so that it would not be sufficient. After about a minute, their notes were mostly exhausted but they still had to fill five minutes and think something up on the spur of the moment. This task was followed by a seemingly simple arithmetic task in which participants were asked to repeatedly reduce a number in the high three digits by a certain value over the course of five minutes. The stress in this task is primarily caused by errors, which require the participant to restart the task from the beginning. In the control task, which was conducted on a separate occasion, the children also had to read a story, but they then discussed general questions about the story with a researcher without any pressure to perform. In both sessions, the researchers took saliva samples at regular intervals before and after the tasks in order to measure cortisol levels.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230905124926.htm

Toddlers learn to reason logically before they learn to speak

September 5, 2023

Science Daily/Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona

Nineteen-month-old toddlers already use natural logical thinking, even before they learn to speak, to deal with uncertainties about the world. This natural logic contributes to their learning process, both in terms of language and in other fields of knowledge, according to a new study.

How do we learn to speak during childhood or how do we acquire knowledge about the world around us? Toddlers' social interactions in their social and family environment and in schools help to explain this, but they are not the only factors involved. Natural logical thinking, which manifests itself from a very early age and does not depend on knowledge of language, also facilitates the learning process, according to a study led by UPF's Center for Brain and Cognition, the results of which have been published this Friday, 1 September, in the journal Current Biology.

The study focuses on a question that still generates debate among neuroscientists: whether infants who have not yet learned to speak (or are developing speech) are capable of logical reasoning. This pioneering research shows that this natural logical reasoning exists from at least 19 months of age, does not depend on knowledge of language and is developed mainly through the strategy of exclusion by elimination. In other words, if toddlers are faced with an unknown reality, they would try to analyse it and reach some conclusion about it by ruling out the options that are not possible, according to their level of knowledge at the time.

The results of the paper are presented in the article entitled The scope and role of deduction in infant cognition, written by Kinga Anna Bohus, Nicolo Cesana-Arlotti, Ana Martín-Salguero and Luca Lorenzo Bonatti. The principal researcher, L. Bonatti (ICREA), is the director of the Reasoning and Infant Cognition (RICO) research group at the Center for Brain and Cognition (CBC) at UPF. Kinga Anna Bohus (main author) also belongs to the group. N. Cesana-Arlotti and Ana Martín-Salguero, previously linked to the CBC at UPF, are currently researchers at Yale University (USA) and at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Toddlers tend to solve uncertainties by ruling out impossible options according to the level of knowledge they have at any given moment

The study analyses the importance of two strategies for infants to deal with uncertainties: association and exclusion (or disjunction elimination). The first strategy would mean that toddlers hearing a new word that may refer to two unfamiliar objects that they can see, mentally associate the term with each of them. Subsequently, they would associate the term with the object with which this name fits better.

The second strategy (exclusion) explains how a toddler can learn a new word through logical reasoning by eliminating alternatives. For example, if they see two objects (A and B) and hear an unknown term that they know is not A (because they know the name of A), they will determine that it is the name of B. This is the predominant strategy, according to the results of the study.

Two experiments to analyse toddlers' natural logic posed with known and unknown objects and terms

The research team conducted two different experiments, the first with 61 monolingual (26) and bilingual (35) 19-month-old toddlers and the second with 33 (19 mono and 14 bilingual). The analysis of each group was crucial to determine whether deductive processes depend on linguistic experience.

In the first experiment, the participants were shown two objects, which they had to associate with one of the words they heard, through different tests. In the first test, they had to look at two objects they knew (e.g., a spoon and a biscuit) and, upon hearing a term (e.g., spoon), associate it with one of the two. In the second test, the infants were shown an object they knew (e.g., an apple) and an object they did not know (e.g., a carburettor), and they heard the word corresponding to the known object (apple), which they had to identify. The third test was the same as the second, except that the word heard corresponded to the unknown word (e.g., carburettor).

In the second experiment, two objects or animate beings were used (for example, an umbrella and a figure of a boy), each associated with a sound. Subsequently, the two objects were covered so that the infant could not see them and one of them was placed in a glass. When they were uncovered, the toddler could only see one of the two objects and had to guess, by elimination, which one was inside the glass. In a subsequent test (with the two objects covered and without changing their position), the infant listened to the sound associated with one of them and it was analysed whether he/she looked in the direction of the correct object.

In all these tests, their gaze movement patterns were assessed. For example, when reasoning by exclusion, toddlers look at object A and, if they rule out that the term they have heard refers to it, then they turn their gaze towards B. This is known as the double check strategy.

There are no relevant differences in the logic of monolingual and bilingual toddlers

The main author of the research, Kinga Anna Bohus, summarizes the main findings of the study as follows: "We studied the presence of the concept of logical disjunction in 19-month-old infants. In a word-referent mapping task, both bilingual and monolingual infants display a pattern of oculomotor inspection previously found to be a hallmark of disjunctive reasoning in adults and children."

In short, the results of the study show no relevant differences between the logical reasoning of monolingual and bilingual toddlers, which confirms that it does not depend on linguistic knowledge. This natural logical thinking could be present before the age of 19 months, although there is still not enough scientific evidence to demonstrate its presence at earlier ages.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230905125028.htm

Kindergarten conduct problems could cost society later

August 30, 2023

Science Daily/Penn State

A new economic analysis has linked, for the first time, conduct problems among kindergarten students with significant costs to society in terms of crime and associated medical expenses and lost productivity when they are adults.

"Providing effective, evidence-based programming designed to address behavioral problems early on has the potential to improve students' wellbeing in the long term," said project collaborator Damon Jones, associate research professor in the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center (PRC). "This study implies that there could be an additional benefit of reduced need for government services and lower costs related to crime, where conduct problems are reduced."

Researchers reviewed teacher- and parent-reported data on conduct problems among more than 1,300 kindergarten students from two multi-site, longitudinal studies conducted in U.S. schools in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They used government and administrative data to determine the costs associated with crimes committed by the students through age 28. The team reported their results in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

The researchers found that increased behavioral problems -- such as oppositional or antisocial behavior -- in kindergarten students were linked to more than $144,000 in costs, on average, per student related to crime and associated medical expenses and lost productivity as these children reached adolescence and adulthood.

"This study is the first to establish a connection between kindergarten students' behavior and crime-related costs when the children became adults," said Yoon Hur, assistant research professor at Penn State's Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative. Hur collaborated with Natalie Goulter, lecturer at Newcastle University, on statistical analyses for the study.

Approximately 42% of the students with increased behavioral problems had costs related to crimes involving violence, substance use, public order or property. Further, 45% had costs related to government services use, 41% had costs related to medical services use and 58% had costs related to any of these categories.

"Data from studies such as these can be used by local, state and national governments to inform budget planning that could support prevention where early risk for conduct problems can be determined," Jones said. "Many studies have demonstrated that investing in young children through effective intervention can lead to economic benefits for people and public services over time."

Other collaborators on this study included Jennifer Godwin, research scientist, Duke University; Bob McMahon, investigator, BC Children's Hospital; Kenneth Dodge, the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies, Duke University; Jennifer Lansford, the S. Malcom Gills Distinguished Research Professor of Public Policy, Duke University; John Lochman, the Saxon Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama; John Bates, professor, psychological and brain sciences, Indiana University; Gregory S. Pettit, human sciences professor emeritus, Auburn University; and Max Crowley, professor of human development and family studies and public policy and director of the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative and the PRC, Penn State.

The National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Department of Education, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute Investigator Grant and Canada Foundation for Innovation Award funded this research.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230830195937.htm

Lengthy screen time associated with childhood development delays

August 30, 2023

Science Daily/Tohoku University

How much is adequate screen time for a child? It is the question at the forefront of many parents' minds. Now, a recent cohort study has found that the amount of screen time spent by one-year-olds is associated with developmental delays.

The amount of screen time spent by one-year-olds is associated with developmental delays. This finding, by researchers at Tohoku University, with collaborators at Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, was published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

The research examined 7,097 mother-child pairs participating in the Tohoku Medical Megabank Project Birth and Three-Generation Cohort Study. Each child's screen time exposure was assessed using parental questionnaires, covering viewing of televisions, video game displays, tablets, mobile phones and other electronic devices with visual displays.

The children in the study were almost evenly split between boys (51.8%) and girls (48.2%). Their screen time exposure was assigned to the categories of less than one hour (48.5% of subjects), from one to less than two hours (29.5%), from two to less than four hours (17.9%), and four or more hours (4.1%).

The children's development was assessed at two and four years of age in the five domains of communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal and social skills. Previous studies in the field have generally not broken development down into different domains, therefore offering a less refined view.

The association between screen time at age one and later developmental delay was assessed using an established statistical technique, revealing a dose-response association; meaning that the level of developmental delay (the response) was correlated to the amount (dose) of screen time.

For the children aged two, increased screen time when aged one was associated with developmental delays in all domains apart from gross motor skills. By the age of four however, increased screen time was associated with developmental delays in only the communication and problem-solving domains.

"The differing levels of developmental delays in the domains, and the absence of any detected delay in some of them at each stage of life examined, suggests that the domains should be considered separately in future discussions of the association between screen time and child development," says Tohoku University epidemiologist Taku Obara, corresponding author of the research article.

One reason for undertaking this study was recent evidence published by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics suggesting that only a minority of children are meeting guidelines for limiting screen time exposure. The guidelines were designed to ensure that children engage in sufficient physical activity and social interaction.

"The rapid proliferation of digital devices, alongside the impact of the COVID pandemic, has markedly increased screen time for children and adolescents, but this study does not simply suggest a recommendation for restricting screen time. This study suggests an association, not causation between screen time and developmental delay" says Obara. "We use the term 'delay' in accordance with previous research, but it is debatable whether this difference in development is really a 'delay' or not. We would like to gain deeper insight in future studies by examining the effects of different types of screen exposure."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230830131903.htm

Surprising study results: Students are bored during exams

Boredom has a negative effect on exam results

August 30, 2023

Science Daily/University of Vienna

In the case of boredom, we think of many situations in life but intuitively not of exams. However, an international team of academics led by Thomas Götz from the University of Vienna has now studied exactly this phenomenon of test boredom for the first time and found remarkable results. According to the study, school students are actually very bored during exams. The study also showed that utter boredom has a negative effect on exam results. The research results have been published recently in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Although boredom is currently a very intensively studied phenomenon, test boredom has so far been completely ignored in the research. For the first time and on an international basis, psychologists from the University of Vienna, the University of Konstanz, the University of Zurich, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, the LMU Munich, the City University of New York, the University of Essex and the Australian Catholic University (Sidney) have now been able to show that test boredom does actually occur and that it clearly deteriorates performance. The main causes were being both underchallenged and overchallenged during the exam. In addition, test boredom was significantly higher when the exam content had no personal relevance for the students. The main result of the study was that a high level of test boredom had a negative effect on exam results.

The academics proposed the so-called abundance hypothesis for the first time in their study, which they were able to confirm. On the one hand, the abundance hypothesis states that boredom especially deteriorates exam performance if students are overchallenged, because all mental resources would have to be allocated to completing the tasks, i.e. those that are used for experiencing boredom but are no longer available for working on the tasks. On the other hand, in the case of boredom as a result of being underchallenged, resources are available in abundance for processing the tasks anyway.

Exam tasks should relate to the reality of students' lives

In the study, a total of 1,820 German students in the 5th to 10th grades were examined. Questions about the extent of boredom, of being underchallenged and overchallenged and the personal relevance of the tasks were directly included in the test, between the different tasks.

From the study results, the researchers also derive some recommendations for teachers and guardians. "In order to combat test boredom, teachers should prepare exam tasks in such a way that they relate to the reality of students' lives. In addition, the tasks should not be very underchallenging or overchallenging," explains educational psychologist Thomas Götz from the University of Vienna, "Parents or guardians can also support young people by starting an open conversation about possible overchallenging or underchallenging tasks at school. Especially in the case of being overchallenged at school, it is important to react quickly to avoid boredom and also other negative consequences, such as a downward spiral of poor performance."

This first study of test boredom also opens up a completely new field of research. The academics are making a decisive contribution to clarifying the negative effects of boredom in school. "A large number of studies already show that boredom has not only a detrimental effect on learning and performance but also on mental and physical health. With our work, we are now expanding the view to a central area in the everyday school life of children and adolescents, namely exams," says Götz.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230830131726.htm

Researcher combats bullying of students with disabilities

Online professional development can help teachers prevent, recognize and respond to students with disabilities being bullied

August 30, 2023

Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia

Students with disabilities are often bullied and socially excluded in school at a far greater rate than their classmates. To help teachers recognize, respond to and prevent bullying toward these students, researchers at the University of Missouri collaborated to develop an evidence-based, online professional development curriculum.

The curriculum highlights the value of teachers building a strong rapport with their students, noticing changes in student behavior as potential warning signs, incorporating social skills and communication skills into classroom learning objectives, as well as practicing behavior-specific praise in a way that showcases students' strengths and encourages collaboration with peers.

While the online curriculum has recently been successfully received and implemented by 200 elementary school teachers in a pilot study in the southeastern region of the United States, the researchers hope that, with additional federal funding, the online curriculum can be soon accessed by teachers nationwide.

"Teachers often tell us they don't feel prepared to address bullying issues at school, especially those complicated cases involving at-risk youth or kids with disabilities," said Chad Rose, an associate professor in the MU College of Education and Human Development. "Students with disabilities often get bullied more than their peers without a disability. For example, kids with a stutter or kids that may walk or talk differently than their neurotypical peers often get mimicked, which could actually be a violation of federal civil rights laws related to disability-based harassment."

Given the busy schedules of teachers, Rose and colleagues created an evidence-based online curriculum that can be completed in four hours, compared to most bullying-related professional development courses that take place in-person for a full day and don't always include evidence-based information. The trainings are broken up into different modules, covering how to recognize and respond to bullying, as well as overall strategies to improve classroom climates in a way that reduce or prevent bullying in the first place.

"In the diverse public school district where we piloted this program, the teachers found it enjoyable and relevant. It increased their knowledge in bullying prevention, and it increased their willingness to intervene when they see bullying happening," Rose said. "One of the easiest, fastest, simplest and most effective things teachers can do is implement social and communication skills as a learning objective into their already-made lesson plans. Instead of just teaching students math or science, tell them you will be monitoring how well they interact with one another."

Rose encourages teachers to walk around their classroom and praise students who are having positive interactions with others.

"The two biggest predictors of bullying I have seen throughout my career are deficits in social and communication skills," Rose said. "If we can improve those two areas, not only will the bullying decrease, but the confidence students have in themselves will increase. That sets them up for success regardless of what they go on to do in their lives."

Rose explained that students with disabilities are often socially excluded by their peers for being "different" at a much higher rate than other students. In a 2022 study, Rose found that social exclusion is a far more common form of bullying than physical or verbal aggression.

"Imagine trying to learn algebra if you are more focused on if the kid sitting next to you even likes you in the first place," Rose said. "We don't all have to be best friends, but we need to be friendly to everyone."

Rose added that for students who are bullied most often, he encourages them, depending on the situation, to know when to be assertive and to stand up for one's values system, know when to walk away from a situation, as well as know who to tell if the environment seems unsafe.

"From the students' perspective, self-advocacy, self-determination, goal setting and knowing how to be assertive without being aggressive is key," Rose said. "From the teachers' perspective, we want them to highlight students' strengths in front of the entire class so that others start to perceive them differently. Some students tend to focus on what makes someone different, but if teachers can give behavior-specific praise when they see good things happening, it can improve the way students look at themselves."

Rose is the director of the Mizzou Ed Bully Prevention Lab and has been researching bullying prevention for 18 years. He became interested in the topic during his first job out of college as a high school special education teacher working with at-risk youth.

"I want to help the kids who go to bed thinking about what they don't like about themselves," Rose said. "If I can help them feel better about themselves by emphasizing what makes them great, that is my ultimate goal."

Future plans include incorporating bullying "office hours" into the online curriculum so that teachers can reach out to Rose, his collaborators, and their team of bully prevention coaches about specific case studies they may be dealing with in real time.

"Development of online professional development for teachers: Understanding, recognizing, and responding to bullying for students with disabilities" was recently published in Education and Urban Society. Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230830131715.htm

Boys' snooze patterns remain stable before their teenage years

Children's sleep problems may be better explained by social and behavioral factors

August 30, 2023

Science Daily/Flinders University

The time it takes for boys to fall asleep remains the same between 10 and 12 years of age, according to new Flinders University research.

With these new findings, families, clinicians and researchers can expect that before the age of 12, children's sleep problems may be better explained by social and behavioural factors rather than biological factors.

Previous research has shown that as children grow into adolescents, they build up more tolerance against the feeling of sleepiness during the evenings. This development means they can take longer to fall asleep and therefore don't wake up feeling refreshed for school in the morning or for sports activities on weekends.

A new study led by Dr. Chelsea Reynolds, a Clinical Psychologist at Flinders University, has investigated when this change in sleepiness levels happens in pre-adolescent boys to better inform future therapies that can prevent sleep problems in adolescence.

To measure the boy's sleepiness levels, experts invited twenty 10-year-old boys to stay at a sleep camp every 6 months for an 18-month period. They were given activities to complete during the day and experts measured their sleep throughout the night through a series of tests.

During each test, the boys were woken up if they showed signs of falling asleep. These tests happened nine times across the night, from 7:30 pm until 3:30 am, and enabled sleep experts to measure the time it took them to reach the point of sleepiness again.

Dr. Chelsea Reynolds says that while biological changes during puberty can make adolescent sleep difficult, new findings show that these changes don't become a problem up to the age of 12.

"As you would expect, we found that the 10-year-old boys took a long time to fall asleep early in the night and fell asleep very quickly as the tests reached the early hours of the morning and they grew more tired."

"However, what was interesting was that across the 18-month period, the boys took about the same amount of time to fall asleep during each sleep test. This means that their sleep remained stable over time. Overall, this indicates that for boys up to 12 years of age, they will not experience any changes to their sleepiness levels in the evening."

"What happens after the age of 12, however, is still to be researched in this same level of detail over time. We'd expect that some time before the age of 15, they will start to show less sleepiness in the evening and take longer to fall asleep. That is the time when parents may start seeking help for their teenagers who can't get up on time for school."

Dr. Reynolds says that it's common for teenagers to present to a sleep psychologist for help with delayed sleep patterns and extreme sleepiness in the morning.

Treatments of sleep problems in this age group may therefore focus on night-time fears, bedtime schedules and improving children's sleep environment.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230830131909.htm

More sleep could reduce impulsive behavior in children

UGA study found that improved sleep can reduce environmental stressors' negative influence on behavior

August 29, 2023

Science Daily/University of Georgia

Sleep is a critical part of a child's overall health, but it can also be an important factor in the way they behave.

According to a new study from the Youth Development Institute at University of Georgia, getting enough sleep can help children combat the effects of stressful environments.

"Stressful environments are shown to make adolescents seek immediate rewards rather than delayed rewards, but there are also adolescents who are in stressful environments who are not impulsive," said lead author Linhao Zhang, a fourth-year doctoral student in UGA's College of Family and Consumer Sciences. "We looked at what explains that link and what makes some people differ from others. One mechanism we found is sleep."

Researchers analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, a multi-year brain development study funded by the National Institutes of Health. Using information from 11,858 children from 9-10 years old, they found that lack of sleep and long sleep latency -- the amount of time it takes to get to sleep -- had a significant link to impulsive behaviors down the line.

Sleep problems, such as sleep latency (the time it takes an individual to fall asleep) and impulsive behaviors, were checked at multiple time points over the course of two years. When children got less than the recommended nine hours of sleep or took more than 30 minutes to get to sleep, there was a strong link to impulsive behaviors later down the line. Some of these behaviors included acting without a plan, seeking thrills or sensations, and lacking perseverance.

Sleep was a mediator between these actions, however, and when sleep problems were absent during the study, impulsivity was also less likely to be observed in the future.

Neurological hyperconnectivity, wherein the adolescents' brains remained very active even when they were not actively engaged in tasks, also played a role, Zhang said. This study looked at the default mode network, a brain network related to goal-directed behaviors. When this network was hyperactive during resting-state, it could exacerbate the link between stressful environments, sleep and impulsivity. This connection could be linked to ADHD, which Zhang would like to explore in future studies.

"We can look at the default mode network and emotional regulation regions," Zhang said. "It's also possible that this hyperactivity and ADHD are highly correlated, so in a future study, we could test that in a more clinical setting. That could have great implications on intervention or counseling programs."

These findings not only highlight sleep's role in cognitive and behavioral development, but could also inform low-cost interventions to aid in the psychological development of children facing at-home stressors, Zhang said.

"If you want to develop interventions for people in stressful environments, it's very costly, and sometimes it needs generational work to change," Zhang said. "Sleep is a modifiable behavior, however, and these changes can be cost-efficient."

Zhang said that too little sleep can be an issue even outside stressful environments. For example, teenagers often have a circadian rhythm that is geared toward staying up later and sleeping in, but early school start times and late nights completing homework can throw off that rhythm.

"A lot of adolescents don't have enough time to sleep, and they are sleep deprived," Zhang said. "This study shows why it is important to promote longer sleep duration by delaying school start times or establishing routines so that adolescents know, 'OK, after this event, I'm going to bed.'"

Establishing these routines, no matter the environment, can create healthier patterns and reduce the time it takes to get to sleep. It's also vital to act early when developing sleep habits, Zhang said.

"For people who may be in disadvantaged environments, if we can provide some strategies that help sleep, it can have a positive impact, especially for adolescents that are at such a critical developmental stage for their brain development."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230829124717.htm

Sedentary time in children linked with heart damage in young adulthood

August 23, 2023

Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology

Hours of inactivity during childhood could be setting the stage for heart attacks and strokes later in life, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2023.1 The study found that sedentary time accumulated from childhood to young adulthood was associated with heart damage -- even in those with normal weight and blood pressure.

"All those hours of screen time in young people add up to a heavier heart, which we know from studies in adults raises the likelihood of heart attack and stroke,"2 said study author Dr. Andrew Agbaje of the University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. "Children and teenagers need to move more to protect their long-term health."

This was the first study to investigate the cumulative effect of smartwatch-assessed sedentary time in young people and cardiac damage later in life. It was conducted as part of the Children of the 90s study, which began in 1990/1991 and is one of the world's largest cohorts with lifestyle measurements from birth.3

At 11 years of age, children wore a smartwatch with an activity tracker for seven days. This was repeated at 15 years of age and again at 24 years of age. The weight of the heart's left ventricle was assessed by echocardiography, a type of ultrasound scan, at 17 and 24 years of age and reported in grams relative to height (g/m2.7). The researchers analysed the association between sedentary time between 11 and 24 years of age and heart measurements between 17 and 24 years of age after adjusting for factors that could influence the relationship including age, sex, blood pressure, body fat, smoking, physical activity and socioeconomic status.

The study included 766 children, of whom 55% were girls and 45% were boys. At 11 years of age, children were sedentary for an average of 362 minutes a day, rising to 474 minutes a day in adolescence (15 years of age), and 531 minutes a day in young adulthood (24 years of age). This means that sedentary time increased by an average of 169 minutes (2.8 hours) a day between childhood and young adulthood.

Each one-minute increase in sedentary time from 11 to 24 years of age was associated with a 0.004 g/m2.7 increase in left ventricular mass between 17 to 24 years of age. When multiplied by 169 minutes of additional inactivity this equates to a 0.7 g/m2.7 daily rise -- the equivalent of a 3 gram increase in left ventricular mass between echocardiography measurements at the average height gain. A previous study in adults found that a similar increase in left ventricular mass (1 g/m2.7) over a seven-year period was associated with a two-fold increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and death.4

Dr. Agbaje said: "Children were sedentary for more than six hours a day and this increased by nearly three hours a day by the time they reached young adulthood. Our study indicates that the accumulation of inactive time is related to heart damage regardless of body weight and blood pressure. Parents should encourage children and teenagers to move more by taking them out for a walk and limiting time spent on social media and video games. As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, 'If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. But by all means keep moving.'"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230823122511.htm

Why childhood adversity impacts how a person's behavior is judged

August 22, 2023

Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia

It's human nature to be judgmental. But why do we place less blame on someone, or give more praise, if we find out that person had a history of suffering in childhood? In a recent study, University of Missouri researchers discovered why someone's childhood adversity influences how others judge their behavior.

The finding contributes to a growing body of evidence that suggests judgments of praise and blame are "asymmetrically sensitive" to certain types of information about someone's life history, said Philip Robbins, associate professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy.

"In the case of negative or anti-social behavior, we see the actions of people with adverse childhood experiences as less of a reflection of their fundamental moral character, and more as a reflection of the environment they were raised in, so we blame them less for those actions," Robbins said. "On the other hand, when someone has experienced adversity in childhood and does something good, we tend to think of that behavior as more reflective or expressive of who the person is deep down, so we praise them more for it."

The research, based on statistical analysis of survey results from 248 participants, suggests that struggling with adversity in early life can be a "deformative experience," reshaping an individual's moral development.

"Experiences deform people's behavior in the sense that adverse experiences can pull people away from who they really are on a deeper level by pushing them onto an 'alternative' track of anti-sociality that they otherwise wouldn't be on," Robbins said.

The research conducted by Robbins and Fernando Alvear, a doctoral candidate in philosophy at MU, builds upon earlier work by Robbins and other colleagues, including Paul Litton, dean of the MU School of Law. Previously, Robbins and his colleagues found that people tend to think of a violent criminal as less culpable and less deserving of punishment when told that the accused had suffered serious harm in childhood. They also found that people tend to give more praise to someone for their good deeds as an adult after discovering that person had to overcome adversity or suffering earlier in life, such as abuse and neglect as a child.

The current study by Robbins and Alvear aimed to address a largely unanswered question from the earlier work about why this kind of information has this effect on people's judgements.

"This has all sorts of implications for people's social interactions," Robbins said. "Moral judgment is tremendously important for how we relate to others as people because they form an essential part of social judgment. The current research is part of a larger project aimed at understanding how moral judgment works. This understanding could potentially reorient people's thinking in ways that could have positive effects on the everyday practice of blaming and praising."

Robbins believes there is a natural "track" for a person's development, and people who haven't experienced challenging life events, including loss, trauma or other social disadvantages, do not typically develop strong anti-social tendencies later in life.

"People generally learn to behave in morally appropriate ways toward other people, such as not hurting, harming or speaking ill of them," Robbins said. "When people don't learn these lessons, they are pulled off-track from the natural path of development. People may not be saints or heroes, but most of us aren't villains either."

In future work, Robbins plans to explore the role that gender stereotyping may play in determining how judgments of blame and praise are affected by information about a person's life history.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230822151724.htm

Want to increase resiliency in kids? Teach creativity

Study finds program helps children cope with problems

August 22, 2023

Science Daily/Ohio State University

Train elementary school students how to be creative and you can help increase their resilience in the face of real-life problems, new research suggests.

In a small study, researchers trained third, fourth and fifth graders to use literary techniques such as perspective shifting, counter-factual (what if) thinking and causal (why) thinking to improve creativity in dealing with difficulties.

The techniques helped kids come up with new, creative and practical ways to solve problems, said Angus Fletcher, lead author of the study and a professor of English at The Ohio State University and member of the university's Project Narrative.

"There are concerns about the resiliency of American children in the wake of COVID-19 and this sense that many kids are having a hard time in school and in life," Fletcher said.

"Creativity training can help kids come up with a second plan when things aren't working out for them."

The study was published recently in the Journal of Creativity.

Fletcher said the program used to help kids in this study was similar to one he and his colleagues used successfully with the U.S. Army -- and which resulted in Fletcher receiving the Public Service Commendation Medal, the fourth-highest public service decoration that the Army can bestow upon a civilian.

The researchers did two separate studies involving students attending a summer camp in a Columbus suburb.

In one study, 32 students were split into two groups. In the control condition, the children were told to identify a special quality about themselves. They were told this was their special power that could help them solve any problem.

In the creative condition, the students were told to think of a friend who did something special and think of them as their "creative friend" who could help them solve any problem. This type of creativity training is called perspective-shifting, in which the kids look at a problem through the eyes of someone else.

"When you ask people to shift their perspective and imagine receiving advice from a friend, you get a lot more creative and effective solutions to problems than just trying to solve the problem yourself," Fletcher said.

And that's what the study found. In one part of the study, teachers identified a problem that was challenging for their students -- for example, not being able to go to a friend's birthday party because you're going to be out of town with your parents.

Students also thought about a challenging problem in their own lives. Some problems that were mentioned included "my brother has a communication disorder," "my dad has to be away for two months" and "my sister bullies me."

Results showed that without the perspective-shift training, fewer than half of the students were able to provide a solution to the age-typical problems and almost none were able to provide a solution to their own problems.

But 94% of those who were trained in perspective-shifting provided a solution to both.

Judges (who were trained teachers) also rated the children's solutions on creativity, as assessed by how surprising or unique the solutions were.

With the intervention, the average creativity score was 6.44 out of 10 (moderate creativity) compared to 3.05 (low creativity) for those who did not receive the perspective-shifting intervention.

These results showed how creativity training could boost children's sense of self-efficacy -- the belief that they had some control and power over their own lives, Fletcher said.

When considering their own problems, most of the children who received the intervention came up with a potential solution. But 15 of 16 children in the control group essentially gave up, Fletcher said. They either said they didn't know how to fix their problem, or displayed some version of magical thinking, such as saying they could become a superhero.

A second longitudinal study involving 28 students in the same camp was designed to test the effects of a five-day, 10-hour narrative creativity curriculum on creativity, self-efficacy and resilience.

In addition to perspective-shifting, the students were also trained in other narrative creativity techniques, such as causal thinking, Fletcher said.

"If children can't solve a problem, we train them to back up and think about what they are trying to accomplish -- the why problem," Fletcher said.

"Step back and say why does this matter? We often find that if you think more broadly about what you are trying to accomplish, and why it is so important, then you can see there are other ways of getting what you want."

At the end of the curriculum, the students were presented with age-typical problems similar to the first study and also examined one of their own problems.

In order to test resilience, the researchers provided an unexpected challenge when the children presented their proposed solution to their problems: they told the kids it wouldn't work.

Results showed that every student who took the five-day curriculum was able to provide a second solution to both the age-typical and personal problems.

"With this training, the children were unfazed by being told their first solution didn't work. They came up with a second plan, which is a good test of resilience," Fletcher said.

And the second solution to the problems averaged higher creativity scores from the judges -- 7.5, which indicated moderate to high creativity, compared to 5.45 for their first solution.

Second solutions also scored higher on utility, which is how likely they are to succeed in the real world.

Fletcher said this study provides a hopeful message: There are things we can do to help children cope with their problems.

"We are at this moment in our society where our kids need help. We found that before this training, kids had this propensity to just give up when faced with problems. That could lead them to get angry, or embarrassed that they can't solve their problems, or look for adults to offer solutions."

What narrative creativity training can do is teach children there are ways to approach real-life problems that don't have easy answers, he said.

Fletcher said that kids can learn creativity through the arts, such as literature and theater, if they are done the right way. Rather than just asking students to analyze works of art, teachers can have students imagine themselves as different characters, explore new perspectives and engage in why and what-if thinking.

"The ability to use this type of thinking can't be assessed via standardized tests. But it is still very important and can help children use and grow their creativity to solve real-world challenges," he said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230822111639.htm

Overuse of social media and devices top parent concerns as kids head back to school

Over half of parents worried about mental health issues; children's health concerns greater among parents in low-income households

August 21, 2023

Science Daily/Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

As children head back to school, two issues have climbed higher on their parents' list of concerns: the role of social media and the internet in kids' lives.

Over half of parents also rate mental health issues as leading health concerns for children and teens, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

Overall, emotional health and technology use dominated this year's top 10 list of parent concerns about health-related issues for kids in the U.S.- surpassing childhood obesity, which parents rated the number one children's health issue a decade ago.

"Parents still view problems directly impacting physical health, including unhealthy eating and obesity, as important children's health issues. But these have been overtaken by concerns about mental health, social media and screen time," said Mott Poll co-director and Mott pediatrician Susan Woolford, M.D., M.P.H.

Two-thirds of parents are worried about children's increased time on devices, including overall screen time and use of social media, taking the No.1 and No.2 spots on the list of children's health concerns this year, according to the nationally representative poll.

"Children are using digital devices and social media at younger ages, and parents may struggle with how to appropriately monitor use to prevent negative impacts on safety, self-esteem, social connections and habits that may interfere with sleep and other areas of health," Woolford said.

Screen time became a growing concern for parents during the pandemic, previous reports suggest. Woolford encourages parents to regularly evaluate their children's use of technology and consider limiting use if they notice signs of unhealthy interactions or behaviors. Certain social media and device settings can also help protect kids.

Mental, emotional health concerns top of mind

The poll findings, which are based on 2,099 responses collected in February,also demonstrate parents' continued concern about children's mental health. The majority of parents view depression, suicide, stress, anxiety, and related topics like bullying as big problems.

And nearly half of parents expressed concern with a lack of mental health services.

"The mismatch between the growing number of youth with mental health concerns and the limited access to mental health services has serious implications for children's well-being," Woolford said.

Parents also shared a high level of concern about school violence, which may reflect direct experience with school shootings or fights as well as media coverage about such events, Woolford says.

She adds that changes to the school environment, such as metal detectors, armed guards and locked doors, as well as active shooter drills may remind children and parents about the potential for school violence. Parents may struggle with how to manage their own stress and anxiety while they try to reassure their child.

"Parents may want to talk with their child periodically about how safe they feel at school and what they've heard about violent incidents," Woolford said. "They should tailor the information to their child's age and avoid sharing graphic details while offering reassurance about safety measures that their school has in place."

Parents in low-income households were more likely to view several children's health issues as a major concern, including depression and suicide, bullying, school violence, unsafe neighborhoods, drinking and drugs, smoking and vaping, teen pregnancy and sexual activity, child abuse and neglect, parental stress, discrimination, COVID, and health risks from pollution.

Meanwhile, parents in middle and high-income homes are more likely to rate overuse of devices and social media as significant problems.

"Differences in how parents view children's health problems may reflect their day-to-day experiences dealing with environmental challenges such as unsafe neighborhoods, as well as discrimination that may be more frequently experienced by children from low-income homes," Woolford said.

Concern about a greater number of child health issues may be reflected in this group's higher reports of parental stress as a big problem, Woolford adds.

But parents across income groups rated other topics similarly, including unhealthy diet, obesity, healthcare costs, and lack of mental health services.

Falling just outside the top 10 children's health concerns are obesity (48%), guns/gun injuries (47%), lack of mental health services (47%), poverty (45%), drinking/using drugs (44%), child abuse/neglect (42%), followed by unequal access to health care (35%), parental stress (35%), inaccurate/misleading health information (31%), teen pregnancy/sexual activity (31%), discrimination (31%), unsafe neighborhoods (30%), gay/gender issues (LGBTQ) (29%), and health risks from polluted water and air (23%).

At the bottom of the list: safety of vaccines (16%), over-involved parents/parents doing too much (13%) and COVID (12%).

"Today's school aged children have experienced dramatic shifts in classroom environments, technology norms and increased mental health challenges," Woolford said.

"Parents should partner with schools, mentors and their child's health care providers to address both ongoing and emerging health concerns. They should also regularly revisit conversations with their children and teens that encourage them to share any concerns they might be experiencing, both physically and emotionally."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230821114406.htm

Perils of not being attractive or athletic in middle school

Growing unpopularity leads to more loneliness and alcohol misuse

August 10, 2023

Science Daily/Florida Atlantic University

Life is harder for adolescents who are not attractive or athletic. New research shows low attractive and low athletic youth became increasingly unpopular over the course of a school year, leading to subsequent increases in their loneliness and alcohol misuse. As their unpopularity grows, so do their problems. Put simply, the peer group punishes those who do not have highly valued traits such as being good-looking or being good at sports. Results also put to rest stereotypes about sex differences. The findings reveal a transformation in adolescent social culture such that the social penalties attached to being low in attractiveness or low in athleticism are no longer gender specific.

Despite the many changes in school culture since the 1960s, a new study reveals that some things never change: life is harder for middle school students who are not attractive and for those who are not athletic.

As children head back to school, the first-of-its-kind longitudinal study by Florida Atlantic University helps to explain why adolescents who lack traits valued by peers are at risk for adjustment difficulties.

Results, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, show that low attractive youth and low athletic youth became increasingly unpopular over the course of a school year, leading to subsequent increases in their loneliness and alcohol misuse. Put simply, the peer group punishes those who do not have highly valued traits such as being good-looking or being good at sports.

The study put to rest stereotypes about sex differences in traits important for success with peers. For decades, it was assumed that not being athletic was particularly problematic for boys and that not being attractive was particularly problematic for girls.

The findings reveal a transformation in adolescent social culture such that the social penalties attached to being low in attractiveness or low in athleticism are no longer gender specific. Boys and girls did not differ in the extent to which unpopularity and adjustment problems flowed from low attractiveness and low athleticism. As their unpopularity grows, so do their problems.

"Children who lack the traits valued by their peers suffer from a host of adjustment difficulties, many of which stem from their deteriorating stature in the group," said Brett Laursen, Ph.D., senior author and a professor of psychology in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. "Children who are not attractive and children who are not athletic become increasingly unpopular. Growing marginalization, in turn, precipitates loneliness and alcohol misuse. Growing unpopularity is the key to understanding why the unattractive and the unathletic develop behavior problems. Of those who began drinking to intoxication during the course of the school year, almost two-thirds were above average in unpopularity."

The dangers attached to stigmatized traits were comparable for boys and girls.

"Children who are not attractive and children who are not athletic become increasingly unpopular over time, suggesting that they must endure the indignities of powerlessness to remain attached to the peer group, a position that eventually takes a toll on individual well-being," said Mary Page James, first author and a Ph.D. student in FAU's Department of Psychology. "Being unattractive harms the popularity of boys as much as it does that of girls, and being unathletic is an important contributor to low popularity among girls, just as it is among boys. Despite widespread public messages about body acceptance, the adolescent social world is often still quite unforgiving."

The study included 580 middle school students who ranged in age from 10 to 13. Participants were asked to identify classmates who best fit the following descriptors: athletic ("good at sports"), attractive ("really good looking"), and unpopular ("unpopular"). They also described how often they felt lonely and how often they drank alcohol to the point of intoxication during the past month.

Replication is a strength of the study. The same pattern of associations emerged in a heterogeneous sample of youth from a large metropolitan area in Florida and from a homogeneous sample of youth from a small community in Lithuania.

Laursen, James and study co-authors offer several strategies to help children who lack these peer-valued traits:

• For teachers, consider altering classroom norms. It may be difficult to devalue physical appearance or athletic prowess given their prevalence in popular culture, but it may be possible to boost tolerance for those who are different or to emphasize the merits of other traits. A positive classroom climate also can buffer against loneliness for at-risk youth.

• Finally, parents should provide opportunities for children to establish and maintain close friendships with well-adjusted age-mates, because friends can mitigate against loneliness.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230810110305.htm

Poor time management causes poor sleep for college students

August 8, 2023

Science Daily/University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa

A lack of time management skills, particularly in organization, can lead to poor sleep quality for college students according to research conducted at The University of Alabama.

Dr. Adam Knowlden, associate professor of health science with the UA College of Human Environmental Sciences, investigated time management and how it influences sleep health in full-time college students in the areas of setting goals and priorities, mechanics of time management, and preference for organization.

"College students tend to deal with lifestyle-related sleep problems," said Knowlden. "For example, balancing academic and social obligations can be challenging for college students. Stress and anxiety also impact college students and we know that stress can impact the sleep quality college students receive by causing insomnia."

According to Knowlden, more than 65% of college students describe their sleep quality as poor.

The study, which was recently published in the American Journal of Health Education, found the three factors associated with time management significantly influenced the overall sleep quality of college students. Knowlden reported that time management explained around 20% of the sleep quality outcomes measured.

"Among the three factors, having a preference for organization was the most crucial factor influencing sleep quality," said Knowlden. "This suggests that individuals who prioritize and maintain an organized environment tend to experience better sleep quality."

Knowlden, who has also conducted sleep health studies related to body composition and stress, says time management strategies should be learned and implemented prior to the start of the school year.

"We know that there is a tradition of college students staying up late, sometimes an entire 24 hours, to study or cram for exams," said Knowlden. "This is a tell-tale sign of the need for more focus on time management.

"However, until now, no study has looked specifically at time management to determine how much influence it has on the sleep of college students. We felt this was important to investigate because time management is something college students can work on improving."

Knowlden recommends blocking out eight to nine hours of sleep and making it the most important appointment of the day.

"We know that during sleep is when learning takes place," said Knowlden. "You can think of your mind like a computer. When we sleep, our brain is getting rid of information it doesn't need, and keeping information it does need. This is why students that prioritize sleep do better academically."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230808151250.htm

A mother's diet can protect her grandchildren's brains: genetic model study

August 3, 2023

Science Daily/Monash University

Mothers who eat apples and herbs in early pregnancy could be protecting the brain health of their children and grandchildren, a Monash University study using genetic models has found.

The discovery is part of a project that found a mother's diet can affect not just her child's brain but also those of her grandchildren.

Published in Nature Cell Biology, the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute study found that certain foods could help protect against the deterioration of brain function.

More specifically, the study used roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans) as the genetic model because many of their genes are also found conserved in humans, allowing insights into human cells.

The researchers found that a molecule present in apples and herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and sage) helped reduce the breakdown of communication cables needed for the brain to work properly.

Senior author Professor Roger Pocock and his team were investigating nerve cells in the brain that connect and communicate with each other through about 850,000 kilometres of cables called axons. For axons to function and survive, essential materials need to be transported along an internal structure that contains microtubules.

Professor Pocock explained that a malfunction that caused the axons to become fragile led to brain dysfunction and neurodegeneration.

He said his team used a genetic model with fragile axons that break as animals age. "We asked whether natural products found in the diet can stabilise these axons and prevent breakage," he explained.

"We identified a molecule found in apples and herbs (ursolic acid) that reduces axon fragility. How? We found that ursolic acid causes a gene to turn on that makes a specific type of fat. This particular fat also prevented axon fragility as animals age by improving axon transport and therefore its overall health."

Professor Pocock said this type of fat, known as a sphingolipid, had to travel from the mother's intestine, where food is digested, to eggs in the uterus for it to protect axons in the next generation. He said while the results were promising, they still need to be confirmed in humans.

"This is the first time that a lipid/fat has been shown to be inherited," he said. "Further, feeding the mother the sphingolipid protects the axons of two subsequent generations. This means a mother's diet can affect not just their offspring's brain but potentially subsequent generations. Our work supports a healthy diet during pregnancy for optimal brain development and health."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230803213815.htm

Better coaching to promote a person's growth

New research suggests more effective approach -- for managers, therapists, teachers and parents

August 3, 2023

Science Daily/Case Western Reserve University

What if there was a more effective way to coach and inspire your employees? Athletes? Students? Even your kids? A new study suggests there is. Their newly published work used neuroimaging to peer into the brains of participants as they responded to two different styles of coaching. The researchers wanted to see what happens in the brain that either helps people grow or causes them to resist change.

What if there was a more effective way to coach and inspire your employees? Athletes? Students? Even your kids?

A new study by a team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University suggests there is.

Their newly published work used neuroimaging to peer into the brains of participants as they responded to two different styles of coaching. The researchers wanted to see what happens in the brain that either helps people grow or causes them to resist change.

"You could say it's about how we get around the problem that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink," said Anthony "Tony" Jack, the Elmer G. Beamer -- Hubert H. Schneider Chair in Ethics and an associate professor in philosophy at Case Western Reserve and the study's lead researcher.

Jack was joined by Richard Boyatzis, Distinguished University Professor and professor in the departments of organizational behavior, psychology and cognitive science at Case Western Reserve; and Case Western Reserve PhD graduate Angela Passarelli, now an associate professor of management at the College of Charleston.

All three are members of the Coaching Research Lab at Case Western Reserve's Weatherhead School of Management.

"This work applies to all helping roles and professionals," Boyatzis said, "from therapists, physicians, nurses, clerics, managers, teachers, faculty, social workers, dental professionals, and, yes, even parents."

"Many who seek to help, conflate helping with fixing problems," Passarelli said. "This research demonstrates that when we begin helping interactions by doubling down on someone's immediate problems, we inadvertently constrain their ability to see future possibilities -- and this undermines the very intention of helping."

The study

The study involved 47 full-time Case Western Reserve undergraduates. Each had a series of 30-minute coaching sessions before entering a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. The researchers examined brain function to compare what is described in psychology as a person's "ideal self" -- the person you'd like to be -- with their "real self" -- the person you actually are.

An example of ideal self would be, "I am excited about the possibilities my future holds;" and real self: "I am afraid I will not achieve what is expected of me."

The researchers used fMRI to reveal neural activity while subjects engaged in coaching and visual attention tasks. Face-to-face coaching sessions were conducted before the fMRI scan. All subjects had one coaching session focused on the real self and were randomly assigned to a varying number of ideal-self coaching sessions.

The coaching task simulated ideal and real self-based coaching interactions in a video-conference-style interaction between the participant and the coaches.

Each of the subjects was presented 96 pre-recorded videos of the coaches making statements about the participant's educational experience or outlook on the future. The statements were developed around the themes of hope, compassion, mindfulness and playfulness in the ideal-self condition and lack thereof in the real-self condition. Subjects indicated the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with each statement.

The study built on neuroimaging research by the same team 10 years ago. Both studies used neuroscience to test aspects of Boyatzis' Intentional Change Theory, a multi-level theory of how to achieve sustained, desired change for individuals to teams, organizations, communities and countries.

Their findings…and how to make them work for you

The researchers found something surprising that most typical coaching approaches fail to appreciate. They saw evidence of conflict between these two different ways of thinking about ourselves. This insight matters because it shows how easily "shoulds" and other self-critical thoughts can get in the way of developing a strong vision of our ideal self.

To set ourselves on a path to personal development, we need to recognize these kinds of negative thoughts create defensiveness and resistance to change, the researchers concluded.

Individuals whose ideal self is salient are better able to scan the broad environment and perceive emerging themes, the researchers asserted. They experience more positive emotion, are more open to new ideas and possess more sustained intrinsic motivation.

"Many think the best way to get others -- and themselves -- to change is to use some combination of carrot and stick, for instance by sandwiching a criticism with compliments," Jack said. "These findings show why it works better to get the individual to focus first and foremost on their dreams and aspirations for the future."

Once someone has developed a clear vision of their ideal self, he said, they become willing and eager to grow instead of willful, resistant and prone to denial.

"Many managers overestimate the importance of telling their employees about their strengths and weaknesses. The real trick is to help someone get to a place where they are actively seeking feedback for themselves," Jack said. "Companies, coaches and managers who want people to change must hold their tongue about what they think needs fixing. Instead, they must put their faith in the individual's intrinsic desire to grow and allow them to direct their own development process. Otherwise, they are likely to hit a wall of psychological resistance."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230803112946.htm

Early-life lead exposure linked to higher risk of criminal behavior in adulthood

Still, multi-study review highlights need for more individual-level data to strengthen understanding

August 1, 2023

Science Daily/PLOS

An evaluation of 17 previously published studies suggests that exposure to lead in the womb or in childhood is associated with an increased risk of engaging in criminal behavior in adulthood -- but more evidence is needed to strengthen understanding. Maria Jose Talayero Schettino of the George Washington University, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health.

Lead exposure can cause a variety of health challenges, such as cardiac issues, kidney damage, immune system dysfunction, reproductive problems, and impaired neurodevelopmental function in children. Research has also uncovered statistical associations between lead exposure and criminal behavior, both at the level of the entire population and at the level of individual people. However, the findings of individual-level studies have been inconsistent.

To help clarify the existing evidence, Talayero Schettino and colleagues conducted a systematic review of studies that address links between individual lead exposure and crime or other antisocial behaviors. Their analysis included 17 studies, which employed a variety of methods for measuring lead exposure -- using blood, bones, or teeth -- and addressed the effects of exposure at different ages, including in the womb or early childhood, later childhood, and adolescence or adulthood.

The review highlighted a wide range of findings among the studies. For instance, in some cases, no statistical links were found between early childhood lead exposure and later delinquent behavior. One study showed a link between exposure and antisocial behavior, but not arrests. Still, several studies found links between early childhood exposure to lead and later arrests, including drug-related arrests. The authors also used a tool called ROBINS-E to evaluate each study for statistical bias, finding some studies to be more statistically robust than others.

Overall, in light of the known biological effects of lead, this review suggests that an individual exposed to lead in the womb or in early childhood may have a higher risk of engaging in criminal behavior as an adult.

On the basis of their findings, the researchers note a need for more individual-level evidence to be collected in order to deepen understanding of the associations seen in the 17 studies they reviewed. However, policy action to prevent lead exposure is of paramount importance to safeguard public health.

The authors add: "Policy action to prevent lead exposure is of utmost importance as our research shows an excess risk for criminal behavior in adulthood exists when an individual is exposed to lead in utero or during childhood. Preventing lead exposure is crucial to safeguard public health and promote a safer society for all."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/08/230801152856.htm