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Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to smoke cigarettes

Children who grow up in poverty are more likely than wealthier children to smoke cigarettes, but they are less likely to binge drink and are no more prone to use marijuana, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

30 Jul 2013

Experts team up to launch International Centre for Mental Health Social Research

Mental health experts from around the world are teaming up to undertake a unique research programme applying social science to mental health practice.

22 Jul 2013

Infants who spend nights away from caregivers have more insecure attachments

Babies have an innate biological need to be attached to caregivers, usually their parents. But what happens when babies spend a night or more per week away from a primary caregiver, as increasingly happens in cases where the parents share custody, but do not live together?

20 Jul 2013

Very preterm babies have trouble bonding with their care-givers due to neurological impairments

A new study suggests that some very preterm babies have trouble bonding with their care-givers due to neurological impairments and not to the way their parents interact with them.

16 Jul 2013

SMU and Sweden government launch “Project Support” program to reduce child abuse and neglect

The government of Sweden is partnering with psychologists at SMU to launch a parenting program shown to reduce child abuse. A two-year study funded by the Swedish government will look at the feasibility of implementing the program nationwide in that country.

11 Jul 2013

Exposure to political violence may have long-lasting effects on children's behavior

Even short-term exposure to political violence may have long-lasting effects on children's adjustment and behavior, says a new study by a team of researchers from Kenya, Italy and the United States.

1 Jul 2013

Parents’ concern over adolescents’ weight can promote unhealthy habits

Overweight or obese adolescents who were spoken to about their weight by their mothers and fathers were more likely to engage in binge eating and use unhealthy weight-control behaviors than teens whose parents spoke with them in terms of eating healthier, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

25 Jun 2013

Home environment and parenting can influence child's health by shaping dietary and physical behaviors

Kids whose moms encourage them to exercise and eat well, and model those healthy behaviors themselves, are more likely to be active and healthy eaters, according to researchers at Duke Medicine.

19 Jun 2013

SLU professor to study treatment services offered to young mothers and children

Through a $300,000 grant from Administration of Children and Families, part of Department of Health and Human Services, Debra Zand, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University, will study treatment services offered by a local community provider to St. Louis area women who abuse illegal substances, and for their infants and toddlers.

14 Jun 2013

Mother's lack of education has impact on child's risk of major depressive episode

Children of women who did not finish high school were twice as likely to experience a major episode of depression in early adulthood as children whose mothers obtained a high school diploma, according to a new study by researchers at McGill University.

1 Jun 2013

Study finds gender gap when it comes to behavior, self-control in American young children

A new study shows there is a gender gap when it comes to behavior and self-control in American young children - one that does not appear to exist in children in Asia.

24 May 2013

Parental influence can dissuade children from smoking and drinking in their later teen years

Early, substantive dialogue between parents and their grade-school age children about the ills of tobacco and alcohol use can be more powerful in shaping teen behavior than advertising, marketing or peer pressure, a University of Texas at Arlington marketing researcher has shown.

26 Apr 2013

1 in 4 teens misused or abused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime

New, nationally projectable survey results released today by The Partnership at Drugfree.org and MetLife Foundation confirmed that one in four teens has misused or abused a prescription (Rx) drug at least once in their lifetime - a 33 percent increase over the past five years.

23 Apr 2013

Researchers examine health promotion and obesity prevention initiatives

More than 12 percent of preschoolers are obese, which means they have a body mass index above the 95th percentile. Among Black and Hispanic children, the figure rises to 16 percent.

19 Apr 2013

Research shows infants experience automatic calming reaction when carried by their mothers

There is a very good reason mothers often carry their crying babies, pacing the floor, to help them calm down. New research published in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on April 18 shows that infants experience an automatic calming reaction upon being carried, whether they are mouse or human babies.

19 Apr 2013

Painful effects of harsh discipline can be moderated by a loving mother

The use of harsh discipline of unwanted behaviour in children has long been controversial. Whether verbal (insults, disparaging remarks, threats) or physical (slapping/spanking), harsh discipline at all stages of childhood carries a large risk of manifesting antisocial 'externalising behaviours' in the child, including aggression, delinquency or hyperactivity.

18 Apr 2013

Focus on early childhood critical to new development framework

"UNICEF's latest report [.pdf] on child nutrition, launched at the Dublin Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, Climate Justice hosted by the Mary Robinson Foundation and Irish Government, revealed that every year 2.3 million children under the age of five still die of malnutrition and 165 million children are stunted as a result of not receiving enough nutritious food within the first 1,000 days of life," British Member of Parliament Ivan Lewis, the shadow secretary of state for international development, writes in a Huffington Post U.K. "Politics" opinion piece.

17 Apr 2013