Child Psychology Archives

Review Supports Importance Of Active Father Figures - February 12, 2008

Regular contact with a father figure leads to fewer psychological problems in girls and fewer behavioral problems in boys. For low-income children, this contact also leads to a lower chance of criminal activity and improved language and reasoning skills. These...
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Low-Quality Day Care Means High Stress Levels For Children - February 7, 2008

Leaving home for daycare is often an upsetting experience for young children. However, the quality of child care can make a huge difference as to whether children stay upset or gain new social and linguistic skills while away from home....
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Bullying Both A Cause and Effect of ADHD - January 30, 2008

Research appearing in February's Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology shows that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to be bullies--and to have been bullied. The study followed 577 Swedish fourth graders for one year, interviewing parents...
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Guidelines for Psychopharmacological Treatment of Young Children Released - December 12, 2007

In light of a recent increase in the number of children aged 3 to 6 receiving psychiatric medication, medical professionals have released a set of treatment guidelines, published in this month's Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent...
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Infants Show Preference for Altruism - November 23, 2007

Are we born samaritans? New research from Yale University suggests infants as young as six months old show a preference towards people whose actions make them "helpers" as opposed to "hinderers." In an experiment involving 16 10-month-olds and 12 six-month-olds,...
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Playground Prowess and Popularity - October 23, 2007

A study published in the September issue of The Journal of Sport Behaviour draws of the familiar setting of the school playground for its subject matter. The team of researchers led by Janice Causgrove Dunn, from the Faculty of Physical...
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Toddlers Understand Whole Better Than Parts - October 17, 2007

For toddlers, understanding the difference between "doggy" and "tail" may present a challenge. Children in the early stages of language acquisition are more likely to attribute new vocabulary to whole objects rather than parts, shows a study in the current...
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Oxytocin Linked to Mother-Child Bonding in Humans - October 16, 2007

Maternal instinct is delivered in a hormonal package, shows new research establishing the connection between the levels of oxcytocin in a pregnant woman's body and her mothering skills. A study, led by psychology professor Ruth Feldman at Bar-Ilan University in...
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PsychBriefs: September 23-29, 2007 - September 28, 2007

Could Alzheimer's Be "Type III" Diabetes? New research from Northwestern University researchers shows that Amyloid beta oglimers in the brain of Alzheimer's patients remove insulin receptors from nerve cells, rendering neurons insulin resistent, thereby disrupting learning and memory functions. [ABSTRACT]...
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PsychBriefs: September 9-15, 2007 - September 14, 2007

Preschoolers Who Sleep Less Suffer Learning Problems Preschoolers who sleep less than ten hours per night are at risk for learning problems when they enter school, shows a six-year study of 1500 Canadian children. Children who regularly underslept before the...
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Study Shows Autonomy Essential to Children of All Cultures - September 13, 2007

University of Illinois researchers studying parenting styles in both the U.S. and China have shown that controlling parents are destructive to children's academic achievement no matter what the cultural context. The six-month study appearing in the September/October issue of the...
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Research Identifies Natural Treatments for ADHD, Compulsive Gambling - September 12, 2007

Findings to be published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience report that an extract from French maritime pine trees called Pycnogenol may help ease the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The study examined 57 Slovakian children with ADHD. Forty-one...
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PsychBriefs: September 2-8, 2007 - September 7, 2007

Suicide Rates Rise in U.S. Girls A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on 2004 suicide rates shows an eight percent increase in suicides among Americans age 10 to 24 following a 13-year decline. This increase was...
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Teen Suicides Increase After Antidepressant Warnings - September 6, 2007

In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European regulators issued warnings against the use of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in children and adolescents. Shortly thereafter, the FDA issued a mandate stating that these medications...
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PsychBriefs: August 19 - 25, 2007 - August 24, 2007

Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. Boys with Reading Problems Fare Better with Female Teachers A study of 175 third- and fourth-grade boys in a ten-week reading...
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Child Maltreatment Rates Soar During Military Deployment - August 16, 2007

War deployments place stress on both soldier parents and civilian spouses left behind. However, it is the children who may suffer the most as they both miss and worry about the deployed parent and are affected by the additional stress...
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Infants Have Theory of Mind By 13 Months - August 3, 2007

New research shows that babies can read minds...sort of. Theory of Mind, the ability to recognize that others have their own thoughts and emotions, has long been a hot topic in the field of infant cognition. Famous developmental psychologist Jean...
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Big Girls Don't...Go To College? - July 23, 2007

Obese girls are half as likely to attend college as their thinner peers, shows a new study appearing in Sociology of Education. They are also more likely to consider killing themselves and to try drugs or alcohol. Analyzing data on...
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Girl Talk Leads To Anxiety And Depression - July 16, 2007

It seems the normally calming effect of expressing your troubles may not kick in if you're a teenage girl who spends a lot of time discussing them. University of Missouri associate professor of psychological sciences Amanda Rose reports that 'co-rumination,'...
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PG-13 Films Teach Kids Violence - June 11, 2007

A report on top-earning movies marketed to adolescents published in Pediatrics shows that 87 percent of PG-13 films contain scenes of violence. Studying a sample of 77 films released between 1999 and 2000, researchers found 2251 acts of violence, with...
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Infants Begin Learning Rules Of Speech At Seven Months - June 5, 2007

From birth, babies show a preference for the sound of human speech over other sounds. Now, research published in Psychological Science shows that at just seven months, infants are already scanning what is said to them for patterns. The study...
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Quality Child Care Buffers Effects Of Poverty - May 29, 2007

Poverty in early childhood has been repeatedly linked to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety later in life. However, University of North Carolina researchers now show that high quality childcare during these years may help protect them from...
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PsychBriefs: April 28-May 4, 2007 - May 4, 2007

Our weekly wrap-up of news, interesting research, and noteworthy happenings in the worlds of psychiatry, psychology, and social work. This week: April 28-May 4, 2007. Mentally Ill Die 25 Years Earlier People treated for serious mental illness in public systems...
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Reading Troubles Lead To Depression, Anxiety In Disadvantaged Children - March 26, 2007

Difficulties in reading may precede depression and anxiety, especially for children from low-income families, report researchers from the University of Delaware and West Chester University of Pennsylvania. A study of 105 children age four to 12 published in the March-April...
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Day Care Linked to Behavior Problems - March 26, 2007

The good news for working parents? Children who spend ten or more hours per week at a day care center have stronger vocabulary skills by fifth grade, particularly if they receive high quality care. The bad news? The more time...
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Proposed DSM Addition to Cover Symptoms of Childhood Trauma - March 15, 2007

An article published in the latest issue of the American Psychological Association's Monitor on Psychology reports on a new diagnosis being proposed for inclusion into the 2011 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-V. "Developmental...
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Article: Is America Overmedicating Its Foster Children? - March 14, 2007

It seems the ever-increasing use of psychiatric drugs to treat children may be hitting hardest the troubled youngsters placed foster homes and residential facilities after their parents lose or forfeit custody: Parents and child advocacy groups are accusing many state...
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One in Three Young Teenage Boys Are Heavy Users of Pornography - February 25, 2007

Young teenage boys are very heavy users of sexually explicit media content on digital or satellite television, video, and DVD and the Internet. When surveyed anonymously, 90 percent of boys and 70 percent of girls aged 13 and 14 reported...
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Helping Girls Resist Media Sexualization - February 22, 2007

Imagine a 5-year-old girl walking through a mall wearing a short T-shirt that says "Flirt." Consider the instructions given in magazines to preadolescent girls on how to look sexy and get a boyfriend by losing 10 pounds and straightening their...
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How Teens Use Social Networking Sites - January 8, 2007

A nationwide survey of 12- to 17-year-olds shows that most teens are using social networking sites like MySpace responsibly and in ways that mimic normal social behavior. More than half of teens surveyed reported having a profile, but two-thirds of...
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Length of Inpatient Youth Mental Health Treatment Declines Dramatically - January 5, 2007

The median inpatient hospital stay for youth receiving mental health treatment declined from 12.2 days to 4.5 days between 1990 and 2000. This decrease occurred in spite of increases in the diagnosis of serious psychiatric disorders and cases of self-injury,...
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FDA Warning: Antidepressants May Increase Suicide Risks in Young Adults - December 29, 2006

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed that antidepressants such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft must now feature an FDA label warning of increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in patients under 24. This action follows a meta-analysis of...
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Report: Children's Shows Contain Twice the Violence of Primetime TV - December 27, 2006

An analysis of children's programming released by the Parents' Television Council (PTC) reports that shows aimed at five- to ten-year-olds involve even higher levels of violence and other mature content than many prime-time programs. Examining almost 450 hours of non-educational...
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Article: Increasing Number of Youth on Multiple Psychiatric Medications - November 28, 2006

Many children and adolescents these days aren't simply on psychiatric medication, but on "cocktails" of two or more medicines a day designed to combat everything from poor concentration to insomnia. Without substantial proof that the benefits of such combinations outweigh...
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How Kids Seperate Truth from Fiction - November 24, 2006

Parents who urge children not to believe everything they hear need not worry: Children as young as four are able to distinguish fantasy from reality using context clues according to Effects of context on judgments concerning the reality status of...
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Depressed Youth Try Alcohol Sooner - November 23, 2006

Ten- to 13-year-olds who show signs of depression are more than twice as likely to try alcohol than their peers, a Columbia University study has shown. Interviewing more than 1000 children in this age group who had never tried alcohol,...
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Youth in Developing Countries Happiest - November 21, 2006

People between the ages of 16 and 34 in developing countries such as China are twice as likely to report leading happy lives as their peers in developed nations like Britain and Japan, a survey by MTV Networks International (MTVNI)...
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Article: Difficult Diagnoses in Child Psychiatry - November 15, 2006

Due to a shortage of child psychiatrists, uncertainties in the field and the rapid changes in growing patients, making psychiatric diagnoses in children and adolescents can be extremely difficult, leaving some troubled youth with a new label with every visit....
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Adolescents, Decision-Making and Rationality - November 13, 2006

Adolescents have never been known for their great decision-making skills, but a new study has shown them to be no more optimistic about the risks associated with actions such as smoking than are adults. Rather, they are more likely to...
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13 Percent of Teens with Problem Acne Attempt Suicide - November 13, 2006

Acne may have devastating effects on the mental health of teenagers, a new study shows. In a New Zealand study of nearly 9570 students age 12 to 18, nearly 35 percent of the students with problem acne also reported suicidal...
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Percentage of Infants Thought to be 'Depressed' - November 9, 2006

Some doctors now claim that infants too may suffer from depression, exhibiting tell-tale signs such as a lack of emotional expression and trouble eating and sleeping. Either a damaging home environment or genetic predisposition may account for the baby blues,...
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Children Benefit from Accurate Perceptions of Likability - November 6, 2006

Children with realistic perceptions of how well they are liked by peers are less likely to become depressed--even if they are not well liked, research at Florida State University shows. At the beginning and six months into the schoolyear, students...
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Child Abuse Alters Brain Chemistry - November 2, 2006

A long-term study on monkeys shows that being raised by an abusive parent may alter brain chemistry in such a way that children are more prone to abusing their own offspring as adults. Emory University researchers studied infant monkeys raised...
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Effects of Tsunami Trauma on Adults and Children - October 31, 2006

Researchers studying the mental health of Thai people affected by the 2004 tsunami have found interesting differences between the mental health of children and adults affected by the tragedy. Children were found to be at a key risk for Post-Traumatic...
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Mothers with PTSD Drawn to Violent Entertainment; Children May Suffer - October 31, 2006

A study of 76 mothers with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has found that these mothers watch more violent programming than other mothers, said researchers at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry...
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Study Okays Ritalin for Preschoolers, Debate Ensues - October 26, 2006

A long-term study of preschoolers with Attention Deficit Disorder which will appear in the November Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, suggests that the benefits of giving small doses Ritalin, a drug normally prescribed only to...
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Survey Shows 'Cyberbullying' Up - October 26, 2006

With the ever-increasing use of blogs, instant messaging and social networking sites among teens and children has come a rise in bullying via the Internet, or "cyberbullying," a study published in the most recent issue of Pediatrics says. In a...
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Ethnic Pride Leads to Happier Adolescents - October 22, 2006

A Wake Forest University study published in the September/October issue of Child Development shows that teens with positive feelings toward their ethnic group are happier than those with negative feelings about their ethnicity. More than 400 ninth graders from Chinese...
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Playtime Prescribed to Overscheduled Kids - October 10, 2006

As many parents enroll children in an ever-increasing number of sports, enrichment and academic-related activities, health officials say the one thing missing from many kids' schedules these days is some good old-fashioned play. A report presented at the annual meeting...
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Children Who Witness Violence at Home More Likely To Bully - September 13, 2006

A study by researchers at the University of Washington and Indiana University published in Pediatrics shows that children who have witnessed violence in the home are more likely to be bullies. In a study of 112 children age 6 to...
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Children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Are Prime Targets for Bullies - August 14, 2006

In Peer Victimization in Children With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Relations With Symptoms of Psychopathology, published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, vol. 35, No. 3, researchers find that children with OCD are almost three times more likely than...
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