Parents of elementary-aged children may engage in more helicopter parenting than they think
Report suggests gap between what parents say about fostering children's independence and what tasks they actually let their kids do without them
October 16, 2023
Science Daily/Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan
While most parents agree that kids benefit from opportunities to be independent, they may be engaging in more 'helicopter parenting' than they realize, suggests a new poll.
As they grow, children start doing certain activities without their parents watching over them, including trick-or-treating with friends, staying home alone or biking to a friend's house.
And while most parents agree that kids benefit from opportunities to be independent, they may be engaging in more "helicopter parenting" than they realize, suggests a new University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.
"There's a sizable gap between parent attitudes about promoting children's independence and what they actually allow or encourage their children to do without supervision," said Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.
"This suggests some parents may be missing opportunities to guide their children in tasks of autonomy and unintentionally hindering kids' development of independence and problem-solving skills."
Four in five parents of children ages 9-11 agree that it's good for children to have free time without adult supervision. But fewer report their child actually does certain things without an adult present, the poll suggests.
About three in five parents have let their tween-aged child stay home for 30-60 minutes while half say their child has separated from them to find an item at another aisle in the store. Less than half say their child has waited in the car while the parent runs a quick errand, walked or biked to a friend's house or played at the park with a friend, and less than a sixth of parents have let their child trick-or-treat with friends.
The top reason behind parents' hesitancy to promote such independent milestones was safety. Yet, while a little more than half worried someone might scare or follow their child, just 17% of parents say their neighborhood is not safe for children to be alone.
"To some extent, worrying about your child is natural. But some parents are limiting their child's independent activities due to highly publicized media reports, even if those outcomes are very unlikely to occur or cannot be prevented," Clark said.
"Parents can ease in with small steps such as letting their child spend time with a friend at a familiar public place. Discussions before and after can help parents assess if their kids understand the importance of following safety rules."
Other parents say they keep children from taking on such tasks alone because they don't believe they're ready while some parents believe state or local laws don't allow children that age to be alone and that someone might call the police. A little more than one in 10 parents also think others will think they are a bad parent if their child is seen unsupervised.
Over half of parents say that unsupervised children cause trouble while a quarter have criticized another parent, and 13% have been criticized for not adequately supervising their child.
"Parents may be affected by 'blame culture' -- the expectation that they will be criticized if something happens to their child," Clark said.
The poll report also suggests a disconnect between what parents of younger children ages 5-8 say and what they do in fostering independence.
Nearly three quarters say they make it a point to have their child do things themselves. But less than half of these parents say their child regularly engages in actions such as talking with the doctor or nurse at health visits, deciding how to spend allowance or gift money, speaking to unfamiliar adults in business situations, such as ordering at a restaurant, or preparing their own meal or snack.
Among reasons were safety, getting stuck in habits, the parent belief that their child doesn't want to do things themselves or isn't mature enough, thinking it will take too long or that it won't be done in the parent's preferred way.
The elementary school years, Clark notes, is an important phase for developing independence with parental guidance.
"Becoming independent is a gradual process of allowing children increasing amounts of freedom, with parents there to teach skills and help the child understand the consequences of their choices," Clark said.
"As children become more experienced and comfortable with tasks, they can assume responsibility for doing them regularly. Research shows encouraging independence fosters a child's self-confidence, resilience, problem-solving ability, and mental health."
The nationally representative poll is based on responses from 1,044 parents of children 5-11 years surveyed in August.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231016163128.htm
Depression, anxiety common among college students
Study underscores role of building culture of belonging for minority
October 17, 2023
Science Daily/University of Georgia
Depression and anxiety among college students is a growing public health problem. And new research from the University of Georgia suggests the problem may be worse for students who aren't the same race as most of their peers.
The new study found that students who were not the majority race at a predominantly white college reported significantly higher rates of depression than their white peers.
At the mostly white university, more than half of the students who self-identified as races other than white reported feelings of mild depression. An additional 17% said they were experiencing moderate to severe depression.
Students at the predominantly white institution all reported similar levels of anxiety, regardless of race, with more than three in every five students saying they experience mild to severe levels of anxiety.
At the historically Black college, students who weren't Black experienced higher rates of anxiety and depression as well.
"Our study adds to the evidence of how important the work around inclusivity and mental health is in the college environment," said Janani Rajbhandari-Thapa, an associate professor in UGA's College of Public Health. "It's important to be mindful that not all students come with the same background, and we need to support them more."
First-generation students more likely to suffer depression
More than 3,100 students participated in the study during the COVID-19 pandemic, answering questions about feelings of hopelessness, sleep issues and lack of energy, among other topics.
The researchers found that first-generation students were also significantly more likely to experience depression compared to students who weren't the first to attend college in their families.
All first-generation students surveyed expressed that they had some level of depression, regardless of the institution. Most reported mild symptoms, but more than half at the predominantly white university said they had moderate to severe levels of depression.
"I was an international student myself and can relate to the stresses of settling in during the first semester in the U.S. a little bit" Rajbhandari-Thapa said. "Being a first-generation student and experiencing college for the first time in your family comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities, and it is important that university faculty and staff work towards addressing the challenges.
"There are trainings and workshops in the workplace, but we need to do more to help new college students feel at home."
Socializing, sense of belonging helps safeguard against mental illness
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted daily life for most Americans. College students were particularly hard hit.
Where they would normally be socializing and engaging in group activities, many were masked up and socially distanced, preventing some of that integral interaction that strengthens social bonds. The additional stressors likely led to increases in stress and anxiety, but the researchers suggest that not all groups were affected equally.
Female students, for example, were harder hit with depression and anxiety than their male counterparts, which reflects the larger social pattern of mental health problems hitting women more intensely.
But the researchers say investing in diversity, equity, and inclusion resources can help students feel more at home on campus, regardless of their race or first-generation status.
"Belonging is so important," Rajbhandari-Thapa said. "I don't think there is ever enough support for first-generation and minority students. Universities are starting to do this already, but it's important that we provide as much support as possible."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231017123422.htm
Shyness could impact young children's performance on language tests
October 12, 2023
Science Daily/Southern Methodist University
A recent study from SMU psychologist Sarah Kucker and a student she mentored at Oklahoma State University suggests shyness can influence a child's performance in language assessments, depending on the level of social interaction required to complete the test.
Shy children tend to be reserved in everyday life, including communicating with others. The study concludes that the behavior can make accurately assessing a child's language abilities more challenging since shy children find it harder to verbally engage with clinicians and teachers than during less socially demanding tests.
The research by Liesl Melnick, now a graduate student at Eastern Illinois University, and Kucker was published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, and involved 122 children of varying temperaments between the ages of 17 and 42 months. Each child underwent a series of three language tasks that required different levels of social interaction: a looking task, a pointing task, and a production task that required children to say the answer verbally. In each, the children were asked to find a known object from a set of pictures. The order of tasks was randomized for unbiased results and data was collected through Zoom. Parents reported their child's shyness using an early childhood behavior questionnaire.
The results revealed significant differences in children's performance across the tasks depending on shyness. Shyer children did worse on the production task than their less-shy counterparts. However, all children performed well on the pointing task regardless of their shyness level. The looking task yielded more nuanced results, indicating that shyer children were occasionally more accurate but less likely to respond.
"A child's temperament, especially their shyness, could strongly impact how they will do in language tasks," said Kucker, SMU assistant professor of psychology. "When children are given assessments to evaluate their language abilities, clinicians and teachers should take into account the child's shyness level, perhaps using tasks that are less burdensome for them, such as pointing tasks instead of verbal ones."
Kucker believes acknowledging the impact of shyness will help professionals ensure language assessments are more effective and provide a more comprehensive understanding of a child's linguistic development. Moving forward, she and her team plan to explore the performance of shy and less-shy children on standardized language assessments.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231012111635.htm
Practicing mindfulness with an app may improve children's mental health
New research suggests daily mindfulness training at home helped reduce kids' stress levels and negative emotions.
October 11, 2023
Science Daily/Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Many studies have found that practicing mindfulness -- defined as cultivating an open-minded attention to the present moment -- has benefits for children. Children who receive mindfulness training at school have demonstrated improvements in attention and behavior, as well as greater mental health.
When the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, sending millions of students home from school, a group of MIT researchers wondered if remote, app-based mindfulness practices could offer similar benefits. In a study conducted during 2020 and 2021, they report that children who used a mindfulness app at home for 40 days showed improvements in several aspects of mental health, including reductions in stress and negative emotions such as loneliness and fear.
The findings suggest that remote, app-based mindfulness interventions, which could potentially reach a larger number of children than school-based approaches, could offer mental health benefits, the researchers say.
"There is growing and compelling scientific evidence that mindfulness can support mental well-being and promote mental health in diverse children and adults," says John Gabrieli, the Grover Hermann Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT, and the senior author of the study, which appears this week in the journal Mindfulness.
Researchers in Gabrieli's lab also recently reported that children who showed higher levels of mindfulness were more emotionally resilient to the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"To some extent, the impact of Covid is out of your control as an individual, but your ability to respond to it and to interpret it may be something that mindfulness can help with," says MIT graduate student Isaac Treves, who is the lead author of both studies.
Pandemic resilience
After the pandemic began in early 2020, Gabrieli's lab decided to investigate the effects of mindfulness on children who had to leave school and isolate from friends. In a study that appeared in the journal PLOS One in July, the researchers explored whether mindfulness could boost children's resilience to negative emotions that the pandemic generated, such as frustration and loneliness.
Working with students between 8 and 10 years old, the researchers measured the children's mindfulness using a standardized assessment that captures their tendency to blame themselves, ruminate on negative thoughts, and suppress their feelings.
The researchers also asked the children questions about how much the pandemic had affected different aspects of their lives, as well as questions designed to assess their levels of anxiety, depression, stress, and negative emotions such as worry or fear.
Among children who showed the highest levels of mindfulness, there was no correlation between how much the pandemic impacted them and negative feelings. However, in children with lower levels of mindfulness, there was a strong correlation between Covid-19 impact and negative emotions.
The children in this study did not receive any kind of mindfulness training, so their responses reflect their tendency to be mindful at the time they answered the researchers' questions. The findings suggest that children with higher levels of mindfulness were less likely to get caught up in negative emotions or blame themselves for the negative things they experienced during the pandemic.
"This paper was our best attempt to look at mindfulness specifically in the context of Covid and to think about what are the factors that may help children adapt to the changing circumstances," Treves says. "The takeaway is not that we shouldn't worry about pandemics because we can just help the kids with mindfulness. People are able to be resilient when they're in systems that support them, and in families that support them."
Remote interventions
The researchers then built on that study by exploring whether a remote, app-based intervention could effectively increase mindfulness and improve mental health. Researchers in Gabrieli's lab have previously shown that students who received mindfulness training in middle school showed better academic performance, received fewer suspensions, and reported less stress than those who did not receive the training.
For the new study, reported today in Mindfulness, the researchers worked with the same children they had recruited for the PLOS One study and divided them into three groups of about 80 students each.
One group received mindfulness training through an app created by Inner Explorer, a nonprofit that also develops school-based meditation programs. Those children were instructed to engage in mindfulness training five days a week, including relaxation exercises, breathing exercises, and other forms of meditation.
For comparison purposes, the other two groups were asked to use an app for listening to audiobooks (not related to mindfulness). One group was simply given the audiobook app and encouraged to listen at their own pace, while the other group also had weekly one-on-one virtual meetings with a facilitator.
At the beginning and end of the study, the researchers evaluated each participant's levels of mindfulness, along with measures of mental health such as anxiety, stress, and depression. They found that in all three groups, mental health improved over the course of the eight-week study, and each group also showed increases in mindfulness and prosociality (engaging in helpful behavior).
Additionally, children in the mindfulness group showed some improvements that the other groups didn't, including a more significant decrease in stress. They also found that parents in the mindfulness group reported that their children experienced more significant decreases in negative emotions such as anger and sadness. Students who practiced the mindfulness exercises the most days showed the greatest benefits.
The researchers were surprised to see that there were no significant differences in measures of anxiety and depression between the mindfulness group and audiobook groups; they hypothesize that may be because students who interacted with a facilitator in one of the audiobook groups also experienced beneficial effects on their mental health.
Overall, the findings suggest that there is value in remote, app-based mindfulness training, especially if children engage with the exercises consistently and receive encouragement from parents, the researchers say. Apps also offer the ability to reach a larger number of children than school-based programs, which require more training and resources.
"There are a lot of great ways to incorporate mindfulness training into schools, but in general, it's more resource-intensive than having people download an app. So, in terms of pure scalability and cost-effectiveness, apps are useful," Treves says. "Another good thing about apps is that the kids can go at their own pace and repeat practices that they like, so there's more freedom of choice."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231011182140.htm
Young children who are close to their parents are more likely to grow up kind, helpful and 'prosocial'
October 9, 2023
Science Daily/University of Cambridge
A loving bond between parents and their children early in life significantly increases the child's tendency to be 'prosocial', and act with kindness and empathy towards others, research indicates.
The University of Cambridge study used data from more than 10,000 people born between 2000 and 2002 to understand the long-term interplay between our early relationships with our parents, prosociality and mental health. It is one of the first studies to look at how these characteristics interact over a long period spanning childhood and adolescence.
The researchers found that people who experienced warm and loving relationships with their parents at age three not only tended to have fewer mental health problems during early childhood and adolescence, but also displayed heightened 'prosocial' tendencies. This refers to socially-desirable behaviours intended to benefit others, such as kindness, empathy, helpfulness, generosity and volunteering.
Although the correlation between parent-child relationships and later prosociality needs to be verified through further research, the study points to a sizeable association. On average, it found that for every standard unit above 'normal' levels that a child's closeness with their parents was higher at age three, their prosociality increased by 0.24 of a standard unit by adolescence.
Conversely, children whose early parental relationships were emotionally strained or abusive were less likely to develop prosocial habits over time. The researchers suggest this strengthens the case for developing targeted policies and support for young families within which establishing close parent-child relationships may not always be straightforward; for example, if parents are struggling with financial and work pressures and do not have much time.
The study also explored how far mental health and prosocial behaviour are fixed 'traits' in young people, and how far they fluctuate according to circumstances like changes at school or in personal relationships. It measured both mental health and prosociality at ages five, seven, 11, 14 and 17 in order to develop a comprehensive picture of the dynamics shaping these characteristics and how they interact.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231009191705.htm
Calls for verbal abuse of children by adults to be formally recognized as form of child maltreatment
October 2, 2023
Science Daily/University College London
A new systematic review by researchers at UCL and Wingate University has highlighted the importance of identifying childhood verbal abuse by adults as a standalone subtype of child maltreatment, to ensure targeted prevention and address the lasting harm it can inflict.
Child maltreatment is currently classified into four subtypes: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. These classifications guide the creation of interventions and the monitoring of affected populations.
The study, published in Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal and commissioned by charity, Words Matter, examines a total of 149 quantitative and 17 qualitative studies to assess how child verbal abuse is currently defined and measured.
Researchers found that there needs to be a more consistent way of defining childhood verbal abuse, as it currently varies between parents and other authorities, with it being normalised in some cultures as a form of discipline.
The nature of childhood verbal abuse involves behaviours that can be detrimental to a child's wellbeing, such as belittling, shouting, and threatening language.
It was found that these actions could have a lasting impact throughout the child's life, creating underlying emotional and psychological repercussions, including increased risks of anger, depression, substance abuse, self-harm and obesity.
However, the team noted that there was a noticeable void in acknowledging childhood verbal abuse by adults as a distinct maltreatment subtype and that doing so would be a starting point for its identification and prevention.
Co-author, Professor Peter Fonagy (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences), said: "This systematic review is timely and of significant clinical value. Preventing the maltreatment of children is the most effective way we can reduce the prevalence of child metal health problems. A sharp focus on childhood verbal abuse by adults around them by the new charity Words Matter, and this review will help make significant change, and support and direct our efforts to identify and respond to this risk in an effective and timely manner."
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) has found that emotional abuse is now the most prevalent form of child maltreatment, ahead of physical or sexual abuse.
However, researchers found that the term "emotional abuse" was ambiguous and focused on the victim.
Whereas the term "childhood verbal abuse" zeroes in on the adult's actions and this onus could be a starting point for prevention, were it to be made a subtype in its own right.
There was also a range of varying terminology associated with "verbal abuse" across the studies, with terms such as "verbal aggression," "verbal hostility" and "verbal abuse" being used -- highlighting the need for standardised terminology in this area.
The review found that the main perpetrators of childhood verbal abuse by adults were parents (76.5%), other adult caregivers in the home (2.4%), and teachers (12.71%). Other adults noted were coaches (0.6%) and police (0.6%).
Shouting and screaming were the most documented characteristics of verbal abuse. However, the research emphasises that definitions of childhood verbal abuse should not only consider the words used but also the intent, delivery, and the immediate impact on children.
More research would need to be carried out on specific age groups to further understand the effects of this behaviour.
Lead author, Professor Shanta Dube (Wingate University, US), said: "Childhood verbal abuse desperately needs to be acknowledged as an abuse subtype, because of the lifelong negative consequences.
"We've seen tremendous strides in increased awareness and interventions targeting physical and sexual abuse perpetrators leading to the reduction in these forms of maltreatment. If we focus on 'verbal abuse' by perpetrators rather than just 'emotional abuse' among victims, we may develop similar actions to prevent childhood verbal abuse and its consequences.
"Breaking the intergenerational cycles starts with the adults."
Jessica Bondy, Founder of Words Matter, a newly established charity with the mission of enhancing children's overall health and wellbeing by curtailing verbal abuse by adults in their lives, said: "It's paramount to grasp the true scale and impact of childhood verbal abuse. All adults get overloaded sometimes and say things unintentionally. We have to work collectively to devise ways to recognise these actions and end childhood verbal abuse by adults so children can flourish.
"Words have weight, they can uplift or destroy. Let's build children up, not knock them down."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/10/231002124354.htm
Increased risk of depression and anxiety when in higher education
September 29, 2023
Science Daily/University College London
Young people who are in higher education in England face a small increased risk of depression and anxiety, compared to their peers who are not attending higher education, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.
The research paper, published in The Lancet Public Health, is the first to find evidence of higher levels of depression and anxiety among higher education students compared with their peers.
The authors found that by age 25, the difference had disappeared between graduates and non-graduates.
Lead author Dr Gemma Lewis (UCL Psychiatry) said: "In recent years in the UK we have seen an increase in mental health problems among young people, so there has been an increased focus on how to support students. Here we have found concerning evidence that students may have a higher risk of depression and anxiety than their peers of the same age who are not in higher education.
"The first couple of years of higher education are a crucial time for development, so if we could improve the mental health of young people during this time it could have long term benefits for their health and wellbeing, as well as for their educational achievement and longer-term success."
The researchers used data from the Longitudinal Studies of Young People in England (LSYPE1 and LSYPE2). The first study included 4,832 young people born in 1989-90, who were aged 18-19 in the years 2007-9. The second study included 6,128 participants born in 1998-99, who were aged 18-19 in the years 2016-18 (i.e., prior to the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic). In both studies, just over half attended higher education.
Participants in the studies have completed surveys about their general mental health, to investigate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and social dysfunction, at multiple time points over the years.
The researchers found a small difference in symptoms of depression and anxiety at age 18-19 between students (including those at university and other higher education institutions) and non-students.
This association persisted after adjustment for potentially confounding factors including, among others, socioeconomic status, parents' education, and alcohol use.
The analysis suggests that if the potential mental health risks of attending higher education were eliminated, the incidence of depression and anxiety could potentially be reduced by 6% among people aged 18-19.
First author Dr Tayla McCloud (UCL Psychiatry) said: "Based on our findings, we cannot say why students might be more at risk of depression and anxiety than their peers, but it could be related to academic or financial pressure. This increased risk among students has not been found in studies in the past, so if the association has only recently emerged, it may be related to increased financial pressures and worries about achieving high results in the wider economic and social context.
"We would have expected higher education students to have better mental health than their non-student peers as they tend to be from more privileged backgrounds on average, so these results are particularly concerning. More research is needed to clarify the mental health risks facing students.
"Improving our understanding of modifiable risk factors for depression and anxiety is a global health priority, and it is clear that supporting the mental health of our young people is vitally important."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230929131322.htm
How parents' work stress affects family mealtimes and children's development
September 29, 2023
Science Daily/University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Family mealtimes are important for parents and children as a space to communicate, socialize, and build attachment relationships. But it can be difficult for busy parents to balance family and work life. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how parents' job stress influences their attendance at family mealtimes, and in turn, children's socioemotional development.
"We all struggle to maintain the balance between work life and family life. But this might be especially challenging for parents, who are engaging in childcare after a busy and stressful day at work. And when it comes to co-parenting in dual-earner families, which comprises 65% of families with children in United States, we do not know much about how mothers and fathers share caregiving roles under work stress," said lead author Sehyun Ju, doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at U. of I.
The study included data from more than 1,400 dual-earner families, consisting of heterosexual married couples with children, in a nationally representative survey that traced children's development across family, home, child care, and school environments from 9 months to kindergarten. The researchers focused on the interplay of child characteristics, family mealtimes, and parents' job and financial dissatisfaction.
"We found that children of parents who expressed higher work-related stress when the children were 2 years old had lower socioemotional competency at age 4 to 5, measured by lower positive and higher negative social behaviors," Ju explained.
There were significant differences regarding the impact of mothers' and fathers' work stress. For mothers, higher job dissatisfaction did not impact frequency of family mealtimes; however, it was directly associated with lower socioemotional competency in their children.
On the other hand, fathers who had higher job and financial dissatisfaction were less likely to attend family mealtimes with their children, and this in turn resulted in the children having lower socioemotional competency at age 4 to 5.
"Even when the mother increased her mealtime presence to compensate for the father's absence, the child's socioemotional development was still negatively impacted. This indicates fathers may have a unique influence that cannot be replaced by the mother. Future intervention programs should help both parents obtain a better balance between work and family, and highlight the importance of family routines to promote healthy child development," stated co-author Qiujie Gong, a doctoral student in HDFS.
The findings speak to the pervasiveness of traditional gender roles, added Karen Kramer, associate professor in HDFS and co-author on the study. "Mothers are considered primary caregivers, and they are expected to be present and feed their children no matter what. The study showed they didn't adjust their mealtime frequencies in response to job dissatisfaction as fathers did."
Kramer notes the study is unique in combining topics from different disciplines, including psychology, sociology, economics, and nutrition, and connecting them in a holistic way that provides insights for policy measures.
"We have to acknowledge the challenges that families face in creating consistent routines. It's not just an outcome of individual influences. Outside factors, such as parents' work environment and financial situation can affect their interactions, mealtimes, and child development. For example, dinner time for young kids is typically around five or six o'clock, but the expectation that parents are home early in the day doesn't align with being an ideal worker. Policy initiatives to help provide a work environment and community support that facilitate family mealtimes would be important," Kramer concluded.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230929131409.htm
A network that spreads light and the role of thalamus in our brain
September 22, 2023
Science Daily/University of Liège
New research conducted at the University of Liège, using ultra-high field 7 Tesla MRI, provides a better understanding of how light stimulates our brain and could provide new insights into how it works.
A research team at the ULiège GIGA Institute tried to understand better how light stimulates our cognition. Light acts like a cup of coffee and helps keep us awake. That's why we recommend not using too much light on our smartphones and tablets in the evening. This can disrupt our sleep. On the other hand, the same light can help us during the day. Many studies have shown that good lighting can help students in schools, hospital staff and patients, and company employees. It's the blue part of the light that's most effective for this, as we have blue light detectors in our eyes that tell our brains about the quality and quantity of light around us.
Once again, the brain regions responsible for this stimulating impact of light (also known as the 'non-visual' impact of light) are not well understood. "They are small and located in the subcortical part of the brain," explains Ilenia Paparella, doctoral student in the GIGA CRC IVI laboratory and first author of the article published in Communications Biology. The team of researchers from the GIGA-CRC-IVI was once again able to take advantage of the higher resolution of 7 Tesla MRI to show that the thalamus, a subcortical region located just below the corpus callosum (that connects our two hemispheres), plays a role in relaying non-visual light information to the parietal cortex in an area known to control attention levels. "We knew of its important role in vision, but its role in non-visual aspects was not yet certain. With this study, we have demonstrated that the thalamus stimulates the parietal regions and not the other way around, as we might have thought."
These new advances in our knowledge of the role of the thalamus will ultimately enable us to propose lighting solutions that will help cognition when we need to be fully awake and focused, or that will contribute to better sleep through relaxing light.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230922110728.htm
Young children do better at school if their dads read and play with them
September 20, 2023
Science Daily/University of Leeds
Fathers can give their children an educational advantage at primary school by reading, drawing and playing with them, according to a newly published report.
Research led by the University of Leeds has found that children do better at primary school if their fathers regularly spend time with them on interactive engagement activities like reading, playing, telling stories, drawing and singing.
Analysing primary school test scores for five- and seven-year-olds, the researchers used a representative sample of nearly 5,000 mother-father households in England from the Millenium Cohort Study -- which collected data on children born 2000-02 as they grew up.
According to the research, dads who regularly drew, played and read with their three-year-olds helped their children do better at school by age five. Dads being involved at age five also helped improve scores in seven-year-olds' Key Stage Assessments.
Dr Helen Norman, Research Fellow at Leeds University Business School, who led the research, said: "Mothers still tend to assume the primary carer role and therefore tend to do the most childcare, but if fathers actively engage in childcare too, it significantly increases the likelihood of children getting better grades in primary school. This is why encouraging and supporting fathers to share childcare with the mother, from an early stage in the child's life, is critical."
Dads' involvement impacted positively on their children's school achievement regardless of the child's gender, ethnicity, age in the school year and household income, according to the report.
There were different effects when mums and dads took part in the same activities -- the data showed that mums had more of an impact on young children's emotional and social behaviours than educational achievement.
The researchers recommend that dads carve out as much time as they can to engage in interactive activities with their children each week. For busy, working dads, even just ten minutes a day could potentially have educational benefits.
They also recommend that schools and early years education providers routinely take both parents' contact details (where possible) and develop strategies to engage fathers -- and that Ofsted take explicit account of father-engagement in inspections.
The research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and led by Dr Helen Norman, Research Fellow at Leeds University Business School, in collaboration with co-author Dr Jeremy Davies, Head of Impact and Communications at the Fatherhood Institute, and co-investigators at the University of Manchester.
Dr Jeremy Davies, Head of Impact and Communications at the Fatherhood Institute, who co-authored the report, said: "Our analysis has shown that fathers have an important, direct impact on their children's learning. We should be recognising this and actively finding ways to support dads to play their part, rather than engaging only with mothers, or taking a gender-neutral approach."
Andrew Gwynne MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood, said: "This study shows that even small changes in what fathers do, and in how schools and early years settings engage with parents, can have a lasting impact on children's learning. It's absolutely crucial that fathers aren't treated as an afterthought."
Report: https://business.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/download/314/piece-report
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230920111234.htm
Most people rely on parents for material support into adulthood
September 20, 2023
Science Daily/North Carolina State University
A new study finds that only a third of adults in the United States did not rely on their parents for some form of material support between their late teens and early 40s. The study highlights the extent to which parents and adult children rely on each other for financial assistance or a place to live well into the children's adult years, challenging popular conventions and expectations about adulthood.
"This work really challenges the notion that complete independence is a necessary marker of adulthood," says Anna Manzoni, co-author of the study and an associate professor of sociology at North Carolina State University. "Instead, we see a pattern of interdependency that changes over time and appears to be influenced by race and educational background."
For the study, researchers analyzed data on 14,675 U.S. adults who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, focusing on data collected from study participants between the ages of 18 and 43.
Specifically, the researchers looked at various ways in which these adults exchanged financial and residential support with their parents over time, as well as various social and demographic factors -- such as gender, race/ethnicity, and parents' educational background.
"We found that there is no single pathway that most people take regarding independence from their parents," Manzoni says. "Instead, people tend to fall into one of six different categories."
The researchers call these categories "pathways of intergenerational support":
• Complete Independence (comprising 33.44% of survey respondents) refers to children who become financially and residentially independent in their late teens or early 20s and retain that independence;
• Independent with Transitional Support (20.14%) is similar to the "Complete Independence" group, but received some financial support from parents in their 20s or early 30s;
• Gradual Independence (15.07%) refers to children who lived at home into their 20s and received significant financial support, with that support declining very gradually over time;
• High to Low Support (14.63%) refers to children who lived at home into their 20s and received significant financial support, but that support declined rapidly as the children grow older;
• Extended Interdependence (10.22%) refers to children who lived at home for extended periods of time and who not only received financial support from parents but also provided financial support to parents; and
• Boomerang (6.51%) refers to children who moved out in their late teens or early 20s, moved back in with parents in their mid-20s to early 30s, and then moved out again in their 30s or early 40s.
"We also found that these pathways are not evenly distributed across the population," Manzoni says. "For example, Complete Independence is least likely among Black families and most likely among white families, while Extended Interdependence is least likely among White families and most likely among Hispanic families.
"Educational background also appears to be a significant factor. For example, people whose parents completed less than a high school education are far more likely to experience the Extended Interdependence pathway, while people whose parents completed a graduate or professional degree are significantly more likely to experience the Complete Independence pathway.
"Ultimately, the work drives home the extent to which access to resources and structural restraints -- such as access to education -- influence which pathways to independence people have access to. It also makes clear that we need to reevaluate how we think of independence and adulthood, given that only a third of study participants were able to take the Complete Independence pathway that is often presented as being the norm."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230920111144.htm
At which age we are at our happiest?
September 19, 2023
Science Daily/Ruhr-University Bochum
At what age are people at their happiest? This seemingly simple question has been studied extensively over the past decades, but a definitive answer has long been elusive. A research team has now shed light on the question in a comprehensive meta-analytic review. The findings show that the respondents' life satisfaction decreased between the ages of 9 and 16, then increased slightly until the age of 70, and then decreased once again until the age of 96.
An evaluation of over 400 samples shows how subjective well-being develops over the course of a lifespan.
More than 460,000 participants
In their study, the researchers examined trends in subjective well-being over the lifespan based on 443 samples from longitudinal studies with a total of 460,902 participants. "We focused on changes in three central components of subjective well-being," explains Professor Susanne Bücker, who initially worked on the study in Bochum and has since moved to Cologne: "Life satisfaction, positive emotional states and negative emotional states."
The findings show that the life satisfaction decreased between the ages of 9 and 16, then increased slightly until the age of 70, and then decreased once again until the age of 96. Positive emotional states showed a general decline from age 9 to age 94, while negative emotional states fluctuated slightly between ages 9 and 22, then declined until age 60 and then increased once again. The authors identified greater median changes in positive and negative emotional states than in life satisfaction.
Positive trend over a wide period of life
"Overall, the study indicated a positive trend over a wide period of life, if we look at life satisfaction and negative emotional states," as Susanne Bücker sums up the results. The researchers attribute the slight decline in life satisfaction between the ages of 9 and 16 to, for example, changes to the body and to the social life that take place during puberty. Satisfaction rises again from young adulthood onwards. Positive feelings tend to decrease from childhood to late adulthood. In very late adulthood, all components of subjective well-being tended to worsen rather than improve. "This could be related to the fact that in very old people, physical performance decreases, health often deteriorates, and social contacts diminish; not least because their peers pass away," speculates the researcher.
The study highlights the need to consider and promote subjective well-being with its various components across the lifespan, as the authors of the study conclude. Their findings could provide significant guidance for the development of intervention programmes, especially those aimed at maintaining or improving subjective well-being late in life.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230919155016.htm
Early treatment of child obesity is effective
September 17, 2023
Science Daily/Karolinska Institutet
The early treatment of obesity in children is effective in both the short and long term, researchers from Karolinska Institutet report in a study published in The International Journal of Obesity.
The researchers followed over 170 young children in Sweden who had received treatment for diagnosed obesity. The children were recruited to the randomised controlled study when they were between four and six years old via children's clinics in Region Stockholm.
The children and their parents were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: standard treatment, parental support group, or parental support group with follow-up telephone support.
The children and parents in the standard treatment group had meetings focusing on diet and exercise with a doctor, paediatrician and/or dietician. The two parental support groups did not involve the children and focused on how the parents could promote healthy lifestyles in the family in a positive way and without conflict.
"Such conversations can centre on how to set boundaries, how to teach children new behaviours and how to communicate with preschools, grandmothers, neighbours and other adults in the children's world," says principal investigator Paulina Nowicka, Associate Professor in Pediatric Science at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, and professor of Food studies, nutrition and dietetics at Uppsala University.
After attending the parental support groups, half of the participants were then randomly assigned a follow-up phone call.
Studies have been done on children who have been treated for obesity before," says Professor Nowicka. "But most of them have only been followed up after six months or a year, so we have no data on how the children fared over a longer period than that."
The study that she and her colleagues have now published suggest that early obesity treatment has a lasting effect.
"The children in all three groups improved their weight status and saw a reduction in their degree of obesity," she says. "The children whose parents received parental support had the best results, especially so those who also received follow-up phone calls. We also found that more children in this third group showed a clinically relevant improvement of their weight status associated with better metabolic health, by which I mean better levels of blood lipids and glucose."
According to Professor Nowicka, most parents know what kind of food they are to serve their children:
"They usually know this -- but what do you do with a child who loves food and always wants to eat, or one that's always hungry? How do you go about it without making a taboo of food?" she says. "You have to try to build a clear structure at home, one that makes the child know that lunch is on its way and know that they'll be getting supper."
She continues: "But you also need to do things together to strengthen family bonds, like getting the child involved in the cooking, giving the child vegetables if they're hungry and not rewarding them with food. It's also important to make sure that food isn't associated with emotions and achievement."
While obesity is difficult to treat, she explains, the study shows that intensive treatment is safe and efficacious for pre-school children:
"Treating children at that age is much more effective than if you start treating them in their teens," she says. "Some adolescents are looking at possible bariatric surgery and we hope that this can be avoided with earlier treatment."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/09/230917230749.htm