How are children’s emotions impacted by lower amounts of sleep? Researchers who sought to answer this question studied how nap deprivation impacts toddlers’ emotional expressions. In their study, Berger et al. assigned 10 toddlers to nap or no-nap conditions and later provided them with emotion elicitation and challenge protocol to examine how napping impacts both. In the emotion elicitation protocol, researchers showed toddlers positive, negative, and neutral emotion-eliciting pictures and noted their reactions to each. In the challenge protocol, researchers provided toddlers with first a solvable, and then an unsolvable puzzle to see how the toddlers behaved when doing both. The researchers also collected data concerning each toddlers’ actigraphy, sleep diaries, and regular emotional behaviors.

Overall, Berger et al. discovered that in the emotion-eliciting trials, toddlers who didn’t nap were confused by fewer slides than those who napped, and also showed more negative reactions to the neutral pictures. In the challenge trials, toddlers who didn’t nap showed less positive emotions, more neutral emotions, were less confused when doing the unsolvable puzzle, and were overall more worried and anxious.

These findings suggest that children who do not receive enough sleep may struggle in challenging environments, such as school, as their lack of sleep can lead to confusion and negative emotions. Toddlers’ lack of confusion when trying to solve the unsolvable puzzle may have been because without sleep, they were deprived of attentiveness that would have otherwise allowed them to register that the puzzle could not be completed. In all, napping may be an essential component of toddlers’ regular sleep as it impacts their cognitive and emotional responses to stimulating environments.

Kylie Robinshaw

UConn KIDS, Research Assistant

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A team lead by Vanderbilt University Medical Center has developed the Perceptions of Research Trustworthiness (PoRT) scale to gauge minority populations’ perceptions of the reliability of scientific research. By enabling researchers to assess the degree of trust or mistrust in their work, the tool, as published in JAMA Network Open, intends to increase engagement in research. The historical perspective on trust in science has changed, and by emphasizing the trustworthiness of research and investigators, the responsibility of trust is moved from the participant to the researcher. A member of the research team’s leadership, Wilkins, said that research organizations should own responsibility for being trustworthy and measure their performance in gaining and keeping trust.

The goal of the research team is to assess and analyze how trust affects outcomes across the nation using PoRT. Although it took many years to develop and validate, PoRT is now regarded as essential for selecting study participants who are representative of the general population. Using this tool, researchers can actively better themselves prior to starting the study, putting their commitments to conducting equitable studies into practice.

Teaching empathy in schools can help young people retain it as a social skill, enhancing their learning and preparing them for adulthood.
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https://phys.org/news/2023-04-team-scale-rebalance-burden-science.html
Hsin-Yu Huang
UConn KIDS Research Assistant

Children often behave in ways we may not understand. It’s impossible to know exactly what is happening in their head, which can sometimes worry parents. Preschool teachers are taught that children’s behavior is the key to communication. They shared some of the best tips that parents can use when observing their children’s behavior. 

The first tip they shared is to look for patterns. Behaviors that occur repeatedly happen for a reason. Finding the pattern in which the behavior occurs is essential for stopping it. Preschool teachers recommend writing down when certain behaviors take place. Writing down behaviors can help parents remember when and why the behavior occurred.

The second tip given was the ABCs of behavior. The ABCs of behavior is what teachers refer to as the Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence model. This model essentially looks for what happened before the behavior, what the behavior was, and what happened right after. Understanding the catalyst and consequences of the behavior is crucial for determining why it might have taken place.

Many teachers emphasize the importance of writing down observations when stuck trying to understand a child’s behavior. Identifying the pattern is the first step to changing it. Writing down behavior may feel weird at first, but it will be greatly beneficial in the long run.

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Emma Dineen

UConn KIDS, Research Assistant

Empathy is often seen as a fixed trait, but research shows it can be taught. Reading is one-way children can develop empathy, as they can experience and reflect on situations different from their own and reflect on them. Empathy Week is a program that shows pupils documentary films with scenarios from different cultures to inspire empathy, and early findings suggest that as little as one week of empathy lessons can improve pupils’ emotional awareness. 

Levels of empathy vary depending on personality traits, genes, and environment. Research shows that only about 10% of our empathy is genetic, suggesting that a large amount of empathy can be acquired from everyday interactions. However, empathy can also decrease as we age, and biases can reduce empathy. 

Empathy helps children build relationships, engage with learning, and work and play together. Teaching empathy can also enhance creativity. In a study, pupils who were taught empathy and asked to design a product for children with asthma and their families showed increased levels of creative responses. 

Teaching empathy in schools can help young people retain it as a social skill, enhancing their learning and preparing them for adulthood.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant

Social media continues to make an impact on our world each day. It’s hard to go through our day-to-day lives without seeing some sort of social media. On top of this, many individuals worry that social media use is isolating and may be linked to youth mental health issues. Yet, evidence continues to be weak regarding the correlation between social media use and mental health problems among youth. 

The American Psychological Association (APA) initially testified that social media is harmful to youth. Naturally, many parents were frightened by these statements. However, the statements from the APA conflicted with a lot of scientific evidence that has been unable to prove a definite link between social media use and poor mental health outcomes. 

Many individuals, especially teen girls in the United States, are facing a mental health crisis. It’s easy to assume that these mental health crises are because of an increase in social media; however, this is not the case. Oftentimes, teens isolate for reasons besides social media, such as being bullied or exposed to loved ones’ isolation. Social media overuse is often a symptom of these factors. 

It’s important to emphasize that social media does not directly impact adolescents’ mental health. Many other factors can be involved, and blaming technology can avoid the origin of the issue. 

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Emma Dineen

UConn Kids, Research Assistant

Sleep has been shown to assist with processes involved in self-regulation–the ability to control behavior, cognition, and emotion when challenged. As sleep decreases and toddlers begin their transition from physical to cognitive-based self-regulation strategies, they may struggle with controlling their emotions in trying situations. As such, Miller et al. conducted a study to investigates the impact of napping on self-regulation on toddler’s self-regulation skills.

Children in this study were assigned to either nap or no-nap conditions; both groups were given an unsolvable puzzle to complete an hour after their normal nap wake time. Overall, Miller et al. discovered that an absence of napping affects some, but not all self-regulation strategies, as children who didn’t nap showed decreases in skepticism and negative self-appraisal, and displayed increases in physical self-soothing and an insistence that they completed the unsolvable puzzle.

Thus, wakefulness in young children poorly impacts their capacity for self-regulation; this capacity can be restored through sleep. Further, children who didn’t nap resorted to old self-regulation strategies and were not attentive enough to the puzzle or their own abilities to recognize that the puzzle could not be completed. This study suggests that napping can aid young children with handling difficult emotions, and provides serious implications for school settings. Children who do not receive adequate sleep may struggle to remain engaged, assess their own abilities, and retain information that they learn. To fully understand the extent to which napping impacts self-regulation in older students, further research needs to be done.

Kylie Robinshaw

UConn KIDS, Research Assistant

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Today’s Friday Feature is Celine Li!

Celine currently works as the Program Coordinator for the TRANSCEND Ph.D. Training Program and is the project manager for the Socio-Emotional Competencies (SEC) project! Celine got her B.A. in Psychology at UC Berkeley in 2021 and a minor degree in Early Development and Learning Science. She is working alongside Caroline G. Richter, PhD, Fumiko Hoeft, MD Phd, and Jacqueline M. Chen, PhD on a study that evaluates a measure of socio-emotional competencies in children and adolescents (HR 18-113).

Celine’s lab is recruiting 11-14 year-olds for an exciting new project called Socio-Emotional Competencies study. All English-speaking children from 11  to 14 years of age are eligible to participate. Students with learning differences are encouraged to participate. In this study, children will complete a 60-90 minute assessment supervised by a research assistant via WebEx. In this session, you and your child can ask any questions you might have about the research. Participants who fully complete the assessment and survey will be mailed a $50 gift card. A resource guide will be provided at the conclusion of the study which will include helpful tips on how to improve your child’s socio-emotional skills. 

Celine’s experience growing up under fictive kinship has stamped her interest in researching the role of stress in psychological development. She’s particularly interested in understanding how we can expand our knowledge of resilience to better inform treatment and intervention for children and adults who experienced severe adversity, such as childhood trauma, disabilities, and mental health disorders. Her goal is to pursue a doctoral degree in clinical science/clinical psychology and become a research professor.

In her spare time, Celine loves spending time with her three pets, doing pilates and stretching. These activities really help her become more mindful and are her tools to cope with stress as well!

Montessori education was developed by Maria Montessori around 1900 and centers on learning through hands-on play and given materials. Children who attend Montessori schools are given the freedom to choose how they engage with the materials, and generally play in groups or individually. One unique aspect of Montessori schooling is that it does not use any reward or punishment system. It also focuses on the entirety of a child’s abilities, rather than just academic ability.

Recent research on the effectiveness of Montessori education is limited, yet the literature that exists displays the many benefits of Montessori schooling. Montessori education has been shown to correlate with higher reading and math scores, increased social skills, and heightened executive functioning in preschoolers. Montessori education has also been shown to have delayed effects on young children who enroll in it, as 3 years after completing Montessori school, the same preschoolers displayed increased growth in academics, theory of mind and mastery orientation.

Research on the advantages/disadvantages of enrolling children in Montessori education is still sparse and much remains to be studied within this domain.

Kylie Robinshaw

UConn KIDS, Research Assistant

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The benefits of reading stories to children go far beyond bonding and creating strong relationships. Stories can help children improve their theory of mind, empathy, self-regulation, and literary development. 

Social-emotional learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and applying it to different attitudes and skills necessary for understanding emotions. It helps us accomplish our goals, cultivate positive relationships, and show empathy for others. Many educators now recognize the importance of helping children learn social-emotional skills and work to develop them in the classroom.

Reading is one of the most beneficial ways to develop emotional recognition. It helps children identify others’ cues of what characters could be feeling. On top of this, reading can also help children learn empathy. By identifying characters’ emotions, children learn how to imagine what others are feeling. 

Reading stories ultimately fosters many essential skills for social-emotional development. It helps children learn empathy, self-regulation, perspective-taking, emotional recognition, and so much more. 

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Emma Dineen

UConn KIDS, Research Assistant

According to new research published in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, harsh discipline by parents on young children puts them at a higher risk of developing long-term mental health problems. Physical or psychological punishment, as well as hostile parenting, can increase the likelihood of children experiencing mental health symptoms. The study followed over 7,500 Irish children at three, five, and nine years old, tracking their mental health symptoms. 10% of the children were discovered to be at high risk for poor mental health. Children who had experienced hostile parenting were significantly more likely to fall into this category. Although many factors influence children’s mental health, the study emphasizes the significance of parenting in a child’s upbringing.

Multiple risk factors influence children’s mental health, including gender, physical health, and socioeconomic status. Mental health professionals, teachers, and other practitioners should be aware of the potential impact of parenting on a child exhibiting symptoms of poor mental health. According to the study, providing additional support to parents of children who are already considered at risk could help prevent these issues from developing.

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Hsin-Yu Huang

UConn KIDS Research Assistant