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Depressed Moms’ Parenting Style Linked to Toddler Stress
LiveScience: Preschoolers whose parents are depressed get stressed out more easily than kids with healthy parents, but only if their mothers have a negative parenting style, according to a new study. The research, set to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, measured the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in kids' saliva after mildly stressful experiences, such as interacting with a stranger. The researchers found that cortisol spikes were more extreme in kids whose parents had a history of depression and also exhibited a critical, easily frustrated parenting style.
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Tending to Japan’s Psychological Scars: What Hurts, What Helps
TIME: Even seen on tiny screens from thousands of miles away, the images of destruction in Japan are devastating. The emotional aftermath seems unimaginable, and yet once the immediate crisis is over, the survivors will certainly be faced with it. Experience with past disasters suggest that some types of psychological first aid may help those who have lived through them, but others can actually cause harm. Scott Lilienfeld, a professor of psychology at Emory University, has written and spoken about "critical incident stress debriefing," a technique often used by counselors who travel to disaster sites, such as Ground Zero and New Orleans.
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Experts adding to psychology articles on Wikipedia
NewsWorks: Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anybody can edit--but have you? That's the challenge the Association for Psychological Science is posing to its members. Wikipedia is home to more than 6000 articles related to psychology, but experts say many are written by lay people, and the quality is spotty. Read the whole story: NewsWorks
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Is Happiness Overrated?
The Wall Street Journal: The relentless pursuit of happiness may be doing us more harm than good. Some researchers say happiness as people usually think of it—the experience of pleasure or positive feelings—is far less important to physical health than the type of well-being that comes from engaging in meaningful activity. Researchers refer to this latter state as "eudaimonic well-being." Happiness research, a field known as "positive psychology," is exploding.
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Everybody say ‘om’
Buffalo News: Many people see meditation as an exotic form of daydreaming, or a quick fix for a stressed-out mind. My advice to them is, try it. Meditation is difficult, at least to begin with. On my first attempt, instead of concentrating on my breathing and letting go of anything that came to mind, as instructed by my cheery Tibetan teacher, I got distracted by a string of troubled thoughts, then fell asleep. Apparently, this is normal for first-timers. Experienced meditators will assure you that it is worth persisting, however. “Training allows us to transform the mind, to overcome destructive emotions and to dispel suffering,” says Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard.
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Why kids get hit by cars
Getting hit by a car is the third leading cause of death for kids 5- to 9-years-old, and kids up to age 15 make up a disproportionate number of pedestrian casualties worldwide. It’s not hard to think of reasons for this scary statistic: Children are easily distracted and don’t always pay attention, and they are also smaller, so they’re more likely to sustain fatal injuries when they are hit. But there may be another, even more basic, reason for this childhood peril: Kids simply don’t see the cars coming. The ability to see and avoid looming objects is a fundamental skill, crucial to survival not only for humans but for most animals.
