Parental Divorce Linked to Suicidal Thoughts

ScienceDaily for January 19, 2011 reported on divorce and suicides among children.

In a paper published online in the journal Psychiatry Research, investigators examined gender specific differences among a sample of 6,647 adults, of whom 695 had experienced parental divorce before the age of 18. The study found that men from divorced families had more than three times the odds of suicidal ideation in comparison to men whose parents had not divorced. Adult daughters of divorce had 83 per cent higher odds of suicidal ideation than their female peers who had not experienced parental divorce.

Bonding With Newborn Baby: Once Upon a Time in the Intensive Care Unit ...

ScienceDaily for December 28, 2010 reported on bonding of newborns and their parents.

The first few days after birth is an important time when babies learn to recognize the sound of their parents' voice and the parents in turn bond with their children. However, the separation between parents and newborns admitted to the intensive care unit can be very difficult and can disrupt the early development of this relationship.

You Are What Your Father Ate, Too: Paternal Diet Affects Lipid Metabolizing Genes in Offspring, Research Suggests

ScienceDaily for December 24, 2010 reported on how the diet of fathers affects the offspring.

We aren't just what we eat; we are what our parents ate too. That's an emerging idea that is bolstered by a new study showing that mice sired by fathers fed on a low-protein diet show distinct and reproducible changes in the activity of key metabolic genes in their livers. Those changes occurred despite the fact that the fathers never saw their offspring and spent minimal time with their mothers, the researchers say, suggesting that the nutritional information is passed on to the next generation via the sperm not through some sort of social influence.

A LiveScience article is here.

Love Takes Up Where Pain Leaves Off, Brain Study Shows

ScienceDaily for October 14, 2010 reported on love as a pain-killer.

"It turns out that the areas of the brain activated by intense love are the same areas that drugs use to reduce pain," said Arthur Aron, PhD, a professor of psychology at State University of New York at Stony Brook and one of the study's authors. Aron has been studying love for 30 years. "When thinking about your beloved, there is intense activation in the reward area of the brain -- the same area that lights up when you take cocaine, the same area that lights up when you win a lot of money."

The Kids Are All Right: Few Negative Associations With Moms' Return to Work After Having Children, Review Finds

ScienceDaily for October 14, 2010 reported on working mothers.

"Overall, I think this shows women who go back to work soon after they have their children should not be too concerned about the effects their employment has on their children's long-term well-being," said psychologist Rachel Lucas-Thompson, PhD, lead author of the study conducted with Drs. JoAnn Prause and Wendy Goldberg at the University of California, Irvine.

Alienated Youths Are More Likely to Lash Out, Study Finds

ScienceDaily for October 9, 2010 reported on youths who lash out at others.

When people are rejected by peers, they often lash out. In children, that aggression occasionally takes horrifying directions, leading to school shootings or other deadly acts. Researchers in the Netherlands found that some children are more likely than others to lash out in response to acute peer rejection: children who already feel like outcasts.

Nearly One in Three Adolescents Participated in a Violent Behavior Over Past Year, U.S. Study Finds

ScienceDaily for September 26, 2010 reported on teen violence.

A new national study reveals that nearly 7.8 million adolescents aged 12 to 17, almost one third (30.9 percent), participated in any of three violent behaviors over the past year. The study, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), showed that 22.6 percent of adolescents reported having participated in a serious fight at school or work; 16.1 percent reported involvement in group-against-group fighting; and 7.5 percent reported attacking others with intent to seriously hurt them.

Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child? Excessive Punishment Can Have Lasting Psychological Impact on Children, Researchers Say

ScienceDaily for September 22, 2010 reported on parental discipline.

"Several studies have shown that coercive parenting practices are linked to anxiety," says Françoise Maheu a professor at the Université de Montréal's Department of Psychiatry and lead investigator of the study. "We know that common practices such as spanking or excessive punishment do not instill a strong discipline. Quite the opposite, they have a lasting psychological impact on children."

Father Absence Linked to Earlier Puberty Among Certain Girls

ScienceDaily for September 17, 2010 reported on the influence of absent fathers on daughters.

"The age at which girls are reaching puberty has been trending downward in recent decades, but much of the attention has focused on increased body weight as the primary culprit," said study lead author Julianna Deardorff, UC Berkeley assistant professor of maternal and child health. "While overweight and obesity alter the timing of girls' puberty, those factors don't explain all of the variance in pubertal timing. The results from our study suggest that familial and contextual factors -- independent of body mass index -- have an important effect on girls' pubertal timing."

Young People Identify With an Online Community Almost as Strongly as With Their Own Family

ScienceDaily for August 23, 2010 reported on relationships among teenagers.

An international study of the users of teenage online community Habbo reveals that users identify more strongly with the online community than with their neighbourhood or offline hobby group. The study is based on a survey with 4299 respondents from United Kingdom, Spain and Japan. All three nationalities yielded similar results.

Childhood Abuse, Adversity May Shorten Life, Weaken Immune Response Among the Elderly

ScienceDaily for August 16, 2010 reported on child abuse and its effect in ones later life.

"What happens in childhood really matters when it comes to your immune response in the latter part of your life," explained Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University. She explained her work at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in San Diego.

Pep Talk to Teens in the ER Helped Reduce Violence, Alcohol Misuse, Study Finds

ScienceDaily for August 3, 2010 reported on the impact of a pep talk given in ER to teenagers.

A brief, motivational talk in the emergency room reduced by half the chances that teenagers would experience peer violence or problems due to drinking, according to a study published Aug. 4 in a theme issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

High Heels May Lead to Joint Degeneration and Knee Osteoarthritis, Study Finds

ScienceDaily for August 2, 2010 reported on
the effect of women's shoes with high heels on their body.

"Obviously with research like this, you can't say with any certainty that if you wear high heels regularly you will develop osteoarthritis. We don't know that," Barkema said. "There are probably people [high heel wearers] who do and those who do not. However, based on this information, wearing high heels puts individuals at greater risk for developing osteoarthritis. And it seems to be that the higher the heel height, the greater the risk."

Can I Buy You a Drink? Genetics May Determine Sensitivity to Other People's Drinking Behavior

ScienceDaily for July 23, 2010 reported on sensitivity to drinking by others.

Your friend walks into a bar to meet you for happy hour. He sidles up to the bar and orders a drink -- does that make you more likely to get a drink yourself? According to new findings reported in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, genetics may determine the extent to which you are influenced by social drinking cues -- signals such as advertisements, drinks placed on a bar, and seeing other people around you drinking.

Stem Cells for Eating and Sex Pinpointed

ScienceDaily for July 22, 2010 reported on new stem cells.

New research, published in the journal Development, by Dr. Anthony-Samuel LaMantia, professor of Pharmacology & Physiology and director of the newly formed GW Institute for Neuroscience, and his colleagues have identified the stem cells that generate three critical classes of nerve cells -- olfactory receptors (ORNs), vomeronasal (VRNs) and gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons -- that are responsible for enabling animals and humans, to eat, interact socially and reproduce.