How does a parent help a child with anxiety move through the world? Researchers have discovered that being overly accommodating in reaction to anxious children’s fears can actually harm them more than help them. Overly accommodating and protective parental reactions have lead to worsening anxiety in children, and even more debilitating anxiety symptoms in adolescence and adulthood.

Researchers at Yale’s Child Center and Yale’s Dr Eli Lebowitz came up with the SPACE Program, “Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions”. It offers an alternative approach to treating anxiety disorders than medication and traditional cognitive behavioral therapy, and has been found to be equally as effective as CBT in trials. SPACE works by reducing over accommodating behavior in parents and instead replacing it with validating behavior that expresses understanding for a child’s fears, but still pushes them out of their comfort zone enough to grow. When parents feel more secure and that signal is passed to their children, children are more likely to feel less anxious and more willing to branch out. SPACE is an exciting development in the psychology world for those who’ve struggled to find helpful treatment for childhood anxiety in the past!

Read more about SPACE at Psychology Today

Research shows how being a responsible student, maintaining an interest in school, and having good reading and writing skills are not just limited to contributing to a students’ success in high school but could also be a predictor of educational and occupational success in years to come. According to researchers, said success is due to specific behaviors that have been present in high school which can then have a long-lasting effect on one’s later life, regardless of IQ and parental incomes. This idea highlights the importance of education and how it can not only benefit a particular individual but a collective society.

This investigation was based on collections and analysis of data from over 300,000 high school students in 1960, along with follow up data from 81,000 of those students 11 years later and 2,000 of them 50 years later. The qualities that made a good student in High School, for instance, responsibility, interest in school, and reading and writing skills, were all significantly associated with greater educational attainment and better and prestigious jobs both 11 years and 50 years after high school. Further analysis suggested that the importance of specific characteristics seen during high school were key predictors of success at a later point in life. “This study highlights the possibility that certain behaviors at crucial periods could have long-term consequences for a person’s life” – the researcher said.

Upon analysis, the idea that behaviors in early life could be predictors of success is effortlessly understandable. This study provides key evidence that highlights the importance of the education system and society. On another thought, it’s important to state the article presented above evaluates this idea in terms of education and life success in the future. However, I believe this same idea can be applied to bad behaviors and habits that can be translated from early life to adulthood. This means that the education system and society are not the only factors to consider, as parenting and appropriate education in the foundations of home can also contribute to better social outcomes in the future.

Link to article: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2018/02/high-school-behavior

 

Ambivalence is defined as the motivational inconsistency between simultaneously desiring and not desiring to make a given choice. In other words, ambivalence could be interpreted as a state of immediate confusion in which two contrasting or opposite ideas are being considered or evaluated. From a psychology standpoint, ambivalence can be a very complicated mindset to handle because it demands mixed evaluations, desires, or perspectives influenced by many confounding variables. With the idea of ambivalence in mind, it would be interesting to analyze it not just in a person, but in a particular stage or phase of life; more specifically, during adolescence.

Adolescence is full of many important decisions that will probably influence or shape the rest of the person’s life. Among some examples, the decision of choosing a group of friends, a particular clothing style, or even college may lead to great ambivalence in adolescents. Taking probably the most significant example, the decision of going to college stands out as one of the most important. This decision brings with its other implications like choosing what university or college to attend to or the debate of staying home and going abroad. These situations may bring emotional loads of stress and occasional differences in moods, which affect both the adolescent and the people around him. This then leads me to discuss the interactions that adolescents and parents have.

Adolescent and parent interactions tend to be more stressful and emotional in comparison to children and parent interactions. The adolescent tends to lean towards ideas of detachment and independence, as well as differences of expression. From the point of view of the adolescent growth may be seen as a process of not just managing differences or outweighing ideas but learning from mistakes and identifying what works best. Although ambivalence may seem to be a negative response, it is to be accepted and utilized as a part of the development process which will help shape the future ahead. From my personal perspective, it’s important for parents to acknowledge that they were once in that same situation and attempting to understand the adolescent and helping him/her would be ideal.

Link to article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/201809/adolescence-and-ambivalence-growing

There are many theories on how children develop their sense of right and wrong. One of the most prominent of these theories is by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg. 

Kohlberg developed different theorized stages of morality that changed as children grew and developed. He tested these theories using the “Heinz Dilemma”, where a man’s wife has cancer and only a single drug may save her. A local pharmacist discovered the drug, and can make it for $200. However, he sells it for $2,000. The woman’s husband, Heinz, is only able to gather $1,000 to purchase the drug from the pharmacist. The pharmacist wouldn’t negotiate. So, Heinz breaks into the pharmacy in the night and steals the drug to cure his sick wife. Kohlberg then asked the children, “Should Heinz have done that?” The answers the children gave weren’t so much judged as right or wrong, but why they believed so. From here Kohlberg developed his stages of morality:

1. Preconventional Stage of Morality

This stage is the one most often exercised by younger children, though it can be used by people throughout the lifespan. In this stage, people view rules as important above all else. They believe morality is about avoiding punishment. So, kids at this stage may say what Heinz did was wrong because he broke the law by stealing.

1. Conventional Stage of Morality

This stage is present in older children, but like the preconventional stage of morality, it can be used by older people as well. This stage mostly focuses on conformity. People in this stage judge morality and their actions based on whether or not people would be mad at them, whether or not an act is “nice”, or if an action is “normal” or not. Since people in this stage try to think more of society as a whole and not just the self, they may say that it’s not nice to steal from the pharmacist since he may need the money to care for his own family, and law and order should be maintained, authority respected. 

1. Postconventional Stage of Morality

This stage is where people focus in on abstract reasoning and universal principles of ethics. These ideas may not conform to laws and generally held beliefs in society. For example, someone may say stealing the drug is right because it’s unethical to profit off the sick and dying for personal gain. 

There are many criticisms of Kohlbrg’s theory. His sample was biased toward white, middle-class male children. Psychologists such as Carol Gilligan observed that more often, women remained in the third stage of development, as they were generally more concerned with the well-being of others and social relationships. People also say that there’s a difference between knowing what to do versus our actions. Even if someone thinks it’s right to steal the drug, that may not actually be their course of action due to fear of consequences, etc. 

Morality is a complicated concept, as is figuring out how we develop morality as we grow up. Kohlberg’s theory is just one of many ways to begin thinking about it.

Read more here

The article, “How Does Father Involvement Impact Children’s GPA” describes how father figures can have an impact in the academic life of children. According to statistics on housework and the distribution of these, the involvement of fathers in children’s lives has slowly increased in recent years. This represents a positive outcome, as the author shows how previous research witholds evidence on how essential father figures are for children’s academic futures. Moreover, evidence shows that the presence of a father positively affects children in many other areas of life: “fathers who are more involved tend to have children who are psychologically, cognitively, and physically healthier”.

With the idea that a positive parent-child relationship is beneficial in mind, I propose the contrasting idea of an absent father in a child’s life. The article presents information that explains how fathers who don’t share the same household with their children find it challenging to remain involved in the children’s lives and therefore negatively impact their academic success. This may be due to external factors that may or may not have to be directly related with the children. No matter what the case is its effects extend and has repercussions on the children’s life. Going beyond presenting facts and statistics that explain the involvement of fathers I think it’s important to suggest the following question: What can a father do in such a case in which they have less contact with their children? The article offers advice like for example: frequently texting the child, knowing what they are up to, and having an idea of their academic calendar/progress.

There is small room to doubt that the father figure in a child’s life is excruciatingly important. Contemplating this fact, an involved father is more likely to have a positive impact on a child’s academic future. Naturally, this equation can be established the other way around. The absence of a father may have negative ramifications on a child’s educational future. This article calls fathers to contemplate, analyze, and evaluate the time investments with their children. Whether changes should be made, or things should stay the same is the father’s responsibility to acknowledge it.

 

Link to article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/its-all-about-the-dads/201906/how-does-father-involvement-impact-childrens-gpa

The concept of popularity is something that adolescents are keenly aware of. Popularity influences the social pecking order as long as kids are in school. Teenagers are well aware of the difference between being popular and being well-liked, and how the two sometimes aren’t interchangeable. So what is being popular, if not being well liked? Researchers have found that there are three types of popularity among teenagers: being feared, being loved, and being both feared and loved. The popular teens in the “loved” group maintain their status through kindness, and cooperation. The “feared” teens maintain their status through aggression and coercion. However, the third group, “feared and loved”, are aggressive in protecting their status and interacting with others, but are able to make amends and play nice when they need to. This group was found to be the one ranked most popular among their peers. Looks like “Mean Girls” got it right. 

Read the Science Daily article here.

According to studies within the fields of Social Psychology and Personality Sciences, first impressions are determined in about 3/10 of a second. In other words, with little empirical information about such person or even hearing them for the first time, we have already concluded a mental picture or idea of who, what, and how they are. However, for children, this analysis is quite different. Children tend to focus more on positive actions or selective information that leads to a positive judgment.

Following research statistics, children between 3-6 years of age only need to see one positive behavior to judge a story as nice, but several negative behaviors to judge a character as mean. A similar concept fits in for children within the ages 6-7, as they are more likely to trust an unfamiliar animal (such as “friendly”) but disregard negative descriptions (like “dangerous”). Altogether, research reveals that children begin to develop positive bias as early as 3 years of age. However, it usually tends to weaken in late childhood. According to psychologists, age promotes harsher realities that reveal children’s social standings when compared to their peers. With this in mind, a struggle may take place since the ideas of optimism and positivity are “ingrained” in the child’s mind. However, this same struggle is what motivates children to try new things fearlessly. Children who approach situations positively are more likely to have positive interactions in school and social settings. The best thing to do for children being raised in today’s society is to simply talk about beliefs that make them think about the evidence that supports them. A balance between a positive yet honest approach is probably the best way for children to develop in today’s society.

 

https://theconversation.com/children-are-natural-optimists-which-comes-with-psychological-pros-and-cons-93532

In recent years, natural disasters have taken the spotlight more frequently than what we are used to. Following the article, natural disasters are “unpredictable” and “hard to control”, but can we do something to prepare ourselves for the disasters? This is where psychology makes its entrance, not just to ease individual suffering, but also in organizing and assembling the resources for the community as a whole, therefore ensuring the most effective measures to counteract the catastrophe.

The circumstances of natural disasters in the past years led to the development of the study “Helping Families and Communities Recover from Disaster: Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina and its Aftermath” in which psychologists examine key “lessons learned” and offer recommendations and practical applications for better meeting the needs of children, families, and communities following disaster. Their research highlights the range of risks, resources, and factors relating to adaptations related to the aftermaths following disasters and emphasizes the role of the community in providing and enhancing resources. With this in mind, further research has taken part in emphasizing on how the needs of caregivers, children, and family are fulfilled after disasters. In their research findings, they realized how children needing the most attention when compared to adults. Among their most common needs, counseling, tutoring, and medical needs stand out. Due to the progress of natural disasters in the past years, psychologists and other field-related professionals are working on the development of new methods to manage disasters and their aftermaths.

https://www.apa.org/research/action/disaster

The question about whether or not violent video games lead to antisocial behavior has been one on the public conscious for decades now. Increasingly, research points to the answer being no.

A 2016 study assessed the correlation between violent video games and antisocial or bullying behavior in children, as well as parental involvement, using a survey. The children’s reasons for playing were also assessed. The research revealed no correlation between violent video games and real life violent behavior, and even a loose correlation between the usage of video games and civic engagement. Parental involvement also had no effect on violent video game exposure. It was found that boys played violent video games more than girls, but both did it simply for fun and many, as an escape or to release stress. These findings were in line with other studies that pointed to youth turning to action oriented games to reduce stress. 

Perhaps the notion of violent video games being a gateway to real life acts of violence will be a thing of the past. Afterall, we’ve moved away from the ideas that rock music or comic books inherently negatively impact youth. The more we study the phenomenon, the more we come to the conclusion that many art forms, video games included, aren’t a predictor of violence. 

Read the research paper here

A new study from researchers at the University of Kansas finds that children who experience informal mentorship from a non-kin adult are less likely to engage in risky behaviors such as physical fighting, shoplifting, and lying. The positive effects of these mentoring relationships were particularly noteworthy when teens were made to feel that they were important and appreciated. According to researchers, participants of the study indicated closeness, a sense of belonging, and an ongoing feeling of importance as the key factors of a successful mentor relationship. The study also indicated that when teens are able to continuously maintain these non-kin mentors, especially if the mentor is a teacher, they are less likely to get in trouble.

The results from this study may be particularly important for organizations that work with children by providing them with a designated mentor: the type of relationship that a child forms with a mentor is just as important as the existence of the relationship itself. The study also found that starting these relationships early in a child’s life is important. Encouraging children to develop relationships with teachers and other community members can go a long way in helping to reduce delinquency in adolescents.

 

Read the Science Daily article

Read the full scientific article in Children and Youth Services Review