Children's health
14 May 2013
Teens with high blood pressure have less distress, better quality of life
Teenagers with high blood pressure appear to have better psychological adjustment and enjoy higher quality of life than those with normal blood pressure, suggests a study in the May issue of Psychosomatic Medicine: Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, the official journal of the American Psychosomatic Society. “This is the first report linking elevated…
Children's health
10 Apr 2013
Arguments at home linked to baby brain function
Being exposed to arguments between parents is associated with the way babies’ brains process emotional tone of voice, according to a new study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. The study, conducted by graduate student Alice Graham with her advisors Phil Fisher…
Mental Health
25 Mar 2013
Don’t dwell on the past! Stressful events not good for inflammation in the body
Dwelling on negative events can increase levels of inflammation in the body, a new Ohio University study finds. Researchers discovered that when study participants were asked to ruminate on a stressful incident, their levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of tissue inflammation, rose. The study is the first time to…
Children's health
14 Mar 2013
Research Explores Factors That Impact Adolescent Mental Health
Research indicates that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, well before adulthood. Three new studies investigate the cognitive, genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to mental health disorders in adolescence. The studies are published in Psychological Science and Clinical Psychological Science, journals of…
Children's health
06 Mar 2013
Perfectionistic parenting impacts childhood anxieties
In a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, researchers investigated the impact of perfectionistic rearing behaviors by parents on children. Results showed that while all children showed an increase in their self-oriented perfectionism under perfectionist rearing conditions, it was children in the non-perfectionistic rearing condition that improved…
Children's health
12 Feb 2013
ADHD medication can slow growth in teenage boys
Adolescent boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to be shorter and slimmer than their same-age peers, according to a new study published in the Medical Journal of Australia. Dr Alison Poulton from the University of Sydney and her coauthors investigated the influence of stimulant medication on…
Children's health
31 Jan 2013
Sweet taste comforts babies during injections
Fictional character Mary Poppins may have been correct when she sang “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” at least when it comes to injections for babies, according to a new systematic review published in the international Cochrane Library. The researchers found the sweet taste of sugar may…
Children's health
30 Jan 2013
Bullying causes significant emotional and physical consequences for children with autism
Nearly 70 percent of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience emotional trauma as a result of being bullied, according to findings published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, while a significant portion were concerned for their own safety at school. The study also found that children with…
Children's health
29 Jan 2013
Adolescent stress linked to severe adult mental illness
Working with mice, Johns Hopkins researchers have established a link between elevated levels of a stress hormone in adolescence – a critical time for brain development – and genetic changes that, in young adulthood, cause severe mental illness in those predisposed to it. The findings, reported in the journal Science,…
