Marijuana Use Up Among Teens Since Legalized in Colorado, Washington

Marijuana use significantly increased and its perceived harm decreased among eighth- and 10th-graders in Washington state following the passage of recreational marijuana laws, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of California Davis and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health believe this is the first study in the nation to assess changes in teens’ perceptions and marijuana use before and after legalized recreational use, and compare these attitudes and use in 45 other states where marijuana use is not legal.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, showed that legalization of recreational marijuana use significantly reduced perceptions of marijuana’s harmfulness by 14 percent and 16 percent among eighth and 10th graders and increased their past-month marijuana use by two percent and four percent in Washington state, but not in Colorado.

Among states without legalized marijuana use, the perceived harmfulness also decreased by five percent and seven percent for students in the two grades, but marijuana use decreased by 1.3 percent and .9 percent.

Among older adolescents in Washington state and all adolescents surveyed in Colorado, there were no changes in perceived harmfulness or marijuana use in the month after legalization.

The researchers compared data on the perceived harmfulness of marijuana use to health and self-reported marijuana use for nearly 254,000 Colorado and Washington state students in the eighth, 10th, and 12th grades who participated in the Monitoring the Future survey.

The survey measures drug, alcohol, and cigarette use and related attitudes among adolescent students nationwide.

The researchers then compared Washington and Colorado with 45 other states in the contiguous U.S. that did not legalize recreational marijuana use. In a sensitivity analysis, they also compared Washington and Colorado data with 20 states with medical marijuana laws but no recreational marijuana laws. They report the results were unchanged.

The investigators attribute the lack of change in attitudes and marijuana use among __teens in Colorado after legalization to a more robust commercialization effort prior to the law taking effect.

Colorado had very developed medical marijuana dispensary systems before recreational use became legal, with substantial advertising which youth were exposed to. Colorado also had lower rates of perceived harmfulness and higher rates of use compared to Washington state and other states where recreational use is not legal.

“While legalization for recreational purposes is currently limited to adults, potential impacts on adolescent marijuana use are of particular concern,” said Magdalena Cerdá, an epidemiologist with the University of California Davis Violence Prevention Research Program and first author of the study.

“Some adolescents who try marijuana will go on to chronic use, with an accompanying range of adverse outcomes, from cognitive impairment to downward social mobility, financial, work-related, and relationship difficulties,” she noted. “We need to better understand the impact of recreational marijuana use so we’re better prepared to prevent adverse consequences among the most vulnerable sectors of the population.”

While more targeted research is needed to determine the influence of legalized recreational marijuana use among adolescents and how well the Washington and Colorado experiences can be generalized to the rest of the U.S., the researchers said they believe that states considering legalized recreational use may also want to consider investing in evidence-based substance abuse prevention programs for adolescents.

The potential effect of legalizing marijuana for recreational use has been a topic of considerable debate since Washington and Colorado first legalized its use for adults in 2012. Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, D.C., followed suit in 2014, and voters in California, Massachusetts, and Nevada approved recreational use this past November.

“The perceived harmfulness of marijuana has declined sharply in the U.S. in the last few years, despite the fact that there are adverse consequences associated with marijuana use in some adults and in adolescents,” said Deborah Hasin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and in psychiatry at Columbia University and principal investigator of the study.

“Epidemiologic monitoring of these consequences as more states legalize recreational use, and public education about potential health consequences, are important to protect public health.”

The study’s findings suggest that legalization of marijuana in Washington reduced stigma and perceived risk of use, which could explain why younger adolescents are using more marijuana after legalization, according to Cerdá.

“Other potential reasons for the increase in use include increased access to marijuana through third-party purchases, and lower price,” Cerdá said. “Older adolescents may also have had their attitudes and beliefs about marijuana formed before recreational marijuana use was legalized, making it less likely their use would change after legalization.”

Source: University of California Davis

Study Reveals Need for More Services for Young Adults with Autism

As children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) approach adulthood, milestones such as leaving school, finding jobs, and living alone can be extremely stressful experiences. In a new study, researchers from the University of Missouri (MU) analyzed the perspectives of adolescents with autism to identify the unique challenges they face as they “age out” of services. The new findings highlight the need for social workers and providers to continue assisting young people with autism as they transition to adulthood.

“The challenges of living independently, gaining employment, attaining postsecondary education, and building social relationships are greater for adolescents and young adults with autism,” said Nancy Cheak-Zamora, assistant professor of health sciences in the MU School of Health Professions.

“It is vital that professionals are prepared to assist with the transition, and that they have insight into adolescent and caregiver experiences during the difficult time of transitioning to adulthood.”

For the study, the researchers analyzed the reported experiences of adolescents with autism and their caregivers. They identified three main areas of stress that regularly impact autism families: challenges in accessing services, difficulties with adapting to transition changes, and managing multiple responsibilities and higher education challenges.

One of the study participants, a caregiver named Mary, related how the autism center in her community offered no support once children with autism leave home. She said that she wishes that services would increase during this period; but instead, once children reach a certain age, it becomes much more difficult to find help.

The researchers also found that caregivers and adolescents used a variety of strategies to help cope with the stress of transitioning to adulthood with autism. Some of their main forms of support included the following: accessing community support; receiving support from friends, family and teachers; and creating opportunities for self-determination, such as making independent choices and setting goals.

“For families who are experiencing a lack of available services for their adolescent with ASD, social workers can collaborate in forming family groups that advocate for more services for individuals living with autism into adulthood,” said Jennifer First, a doctoral candidate in the MU School of Social Work.

“Social workers should assist families with the coordination of essential services such as medical treatment, mental health supports, independent living, respite care, college support, and enhanced vocational support.”

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 45 children is diagnosed with autism.

The study, titled “A qualitative study of stress and coping when transitioning to adulthood with autism spectrum disorder,” was published in the Journal of Family Social Work.

Source: University of Missouri Health

How Violence Can Spread Like Disease Among Teens

A new study shows how violence spreads like a contagious disease among U.S. adolescents.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that adolescents were up to 183 percent more likely to carry out some acts of violence if one of their friends had also committed the same act.

But the spread of violence doesn’t just stop at friends, according to the study’s findings, which show the contagion extends by up to four degrees of separation — from one person to a friend, to the friend’s friend and two more friends beyond.

“This study shows just how contagious violence can be,” said Dr. Robert Bond, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University. “Acts of violence can ricochet through a community, traveling through networks of friends.”

Participants in the study were 48 percent more likely to have been in a serious fight, 183 percent more likely to have hurt someone badly, and 140 percent more likely to have pulled a weapon on someone if a friend had engaged in the same behavior.

These results fit in with other studies that have shown that characteristics and behaviors from happiness to obesity to smoking spread within social networks, at about the same rates found in this research, according to the researchers.

“We now have evidence that shows how important social relationships are to spreading violent behavior, just like they are for spreading many other kinds of attitudes and behaviors,” said Dr. Brad Bushman, a professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State.

Data from the study came from 5,913 young people who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health) and who were interviewed in-depth in 1994-1995 and again in 1996. The ADD Health researchers interviewed as many students in grades seven to 12 as they could from 142 schools across the country so they could have information on social networks within each school.

Participants were asked to name up to five male and five female friends from their school at both of the two interviews. They were asked how often in the past 12 months they had been in a serious physical fight, how often they hurt someone badly enough to need bandages or care from a doctor or nurse, and how often they had pulled a knife or gun on someone.

The researchers then analyzed whether each student’s friends — and friends of friends, and so on — had said they committed the same acts of violence.

The finding that adolescents were more likely to commit acts of violence if their friends had done so is not surprising, according to Bond. Much of that association is related to what scientists call a “clustering effect” — people with similar interests, including the use of violence, tend to cluster together as friends, he noted.

But the researchers also tested whether friends could influence each other to commit more acts of violence than they might normally commit given their friendship.

They could estimate this influence effect because they had data from two different points in time, a year apart. They calculated the effect by determining whether friends had committed more violent acts at the time of the second interview than could be explained by what their shared history at the time of the first interview would suggest.

Results showed that each additional friend who had seriously hurt someone increased the likelihood that a participant had hurt someone badly by 55 percent, even after taking into account the clustering effects and other factors. If you include only male participants (who were more likely than females to seriously hurt others), then the likelihood increased to 82 percent, according to the study’s findings.

After taking the controls into account, the researchers didn’t find influence effects for being in a serious fight or pulling a weapon on someone. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the influence of friends doesn’t play a role in these violent acts, Bond said.

One explanation may be that fights are common enough among these adolescents that it is difficult to find the role of influence. On the other hand, pulling a weapon was rare enough that they may not have had a large enough sample size to determine influence, he said.

The study is the first to show how far violent behavior may spread within a social network, Bond said.

The findings showed that the influence of one person’s violent act can spread up to two degrees of separation (friend of a friend) for hurting someone badly, three degrees (friend of a friend’s friend) for pulling a weapon on someone, and four degrees for serious fights.

The influence declines with each degree of separation, but is still noticeable, he said.

For example, a student in the study was about 48 percent more likely to have participated in a serious fight if a friend had been involved in one. But they were still 18 percent more likely to have participated in a fight if a friend of a friend had.

This result is particularly important because it shows the value of anti-violence programs.

“If we can stop violence in one person, that spreads to their social network,” Bond said. “We’re actually preventing violence not only in that person, but potentially for all the people they come in contact with.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Source:Ohio State University

Kids May Learn Social Bias from Adults’ Non-Verbal Cues

While most conscientious adults avoid making biased or discriminatory comments in the presence of children, a new study finds that young children can learn bias anyway by observing adults’ non-verbal cues, such as a condescending look or tone of voice.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington (UW), found that children can essentially “catch” social bias by picking up on these gestural cues and are likely to spread that learned bias to others.

“This research shows that kids are learning bias from the non-verbal signals that they’re exposed to, and that this could be a mechanism for the creation of racial bias and other biases that we have in our society,” said lead author Allison Skinner, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences.

“Kids are picking up on more than we think they are, and you don’t have to tell them that one group is better than another group for them to be getting that message from how we act.”

For the study, a group of 67 boys and girls (ages four and five) were shown a video in which two different female actors expressed positive gestures to one woman and negative gestures to another woman. All people in the video were the same race to avoid any chance of racial bias factoring into the results.

The actors greeted both women the same way and did the same activities with both (for example, giving each a toy) but the actors’ nonverbal signals differed when interacting with one woman versus the other. The actor spoke to one woman in a positive way — smiling, leaning toward her, using a warm tone of voice — and the other negatively, by scowling, leaning away, and speaking in a cold tone.

After the video, the researchers asked the children a series of questions, such as who they liked the best and who they wanted to share a toy with. The questions were designed to gauge whether they favored the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the recipient of negative nonverbal signals.

The findings showed a consistent pattern of children favoring the recipient of positive nonverbal signals. Overall, 67 percent of children favored the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the other woman, suggesting they were influenced by the non-verbal bias shown by the actor.

To further determine whether these nonverbal signals could lead to group bias or prejudice, the researchers recruited an additional 81 children of the same age. The children were shown the same videos from the previous study, then a researcher introduced them to the “best friends” of the two women in the video. The “friends” were portrayed as members of the same group, with each wearing the same color shirt as their friend. The children were then asked questions to assess whether they favored one friend over the other.

Significantly, the children tended to favor the friend of the recipient of the positive nonverbal signals over the friend of the other woman, suggesting that biases extend beyond individuals to members of their “groups.”

Skinner notes that many American preschoolers live in fairly homogenous environments with limited exposure to positive interactions with diverse populations. So even brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals, she says, could result in the development of a generalized bias. The study simulations represent only a small sample of what children likely witness in real life.

“Children are likely exposed to nonverbal biases demonstrated by multiple people toward many different members of a target group,” she says. “It is quite telling that brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals was able to create a bias among children in the lab.”

The study’s findings underscore the need for parents and other adults to be aware of the messages — verbal or non-verbal — that they convey to children about how they feel about other people.

The study is published in the journal Psychological Science.

Source: University of Washington

White Matter at Birth May Predict Toddler’s Cognitive Function

Patterns of white matter microstructure present in babies’ brains at birth and that develop soon after birth have been found to predict the cognitive function of children at ages one and two, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine.

“To our knowledge, this study is the first to measure and describe the development of white matter microstructure in children and its relationship to cognitive development from the time they are born until the age of 2 years,” said John H. Gilmore, M.D., senior author of the study and director of the Early Brain Development Program in the UNC Department of Psychiatry.

White matter — tissue in the brain that contains axon fibers, which connect neurons in one brain region to another — is critical for normal brain function. Little is known about how white matter develops in humans or how it is related to growth of cognitive skills in early childhood, including language development.

For the study, 685 children (including 429 twins) received diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) scans of their brains. DTI is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that provides a description of the diffusion of water through tissue. This image can be used to identify white matter tracts in the brain and describe the organization and maturation of the tracts.

The researchers used these brain scans to analyze the microstructure of 12 white matter fiber tracts important for cognitive function, their relationship to developing cognitive function and their heritability.

They found all 12 of the fiber tracts in the newborns were highly related to each other. By age one, these fiber tracts had begun to differentiate themselves from each other, and by age two this differentiation was further advanced.

The most interesting finding from the study was that the relationship between white matter tracts at birth predicted overall cognitive development at age one and language development at age two, suggesting that it may be possible to use brain imaging at birth to better understand how a child’s cognitive development will proceed in the first years after birth.

Because the study involved twins, the researchers were also able to calculate that this predictive trait was moderately heritable, suggesting that genetics may be a factor in its development.

“There is rapid growth of brain structure, cognition and behavior in early childhood, and we are just starting to understand how they are related,” said Gilmore.

“With a better understanding of these relationships, we ultimately hope to be able to identify children at risk for cognitive problems or psychiatric disorders very early and come up with interventions that can help the brain develop in a way to improve function and reduce risk.”

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: University of North Carolina Healthcare

Using More Social Media Platforms Tied to Depression, Anxiety

Young adults who use seven to 11 social media platforms are three times more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety than those who use zero to two platforms, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Media, Technology and Health (CRMTH).

The link remained strong even after adjusting for the amount of time spent on social media overall.

For the study, the researchers sampled 1,787 U.S. adults ages 19 through 32, using an established depression assessment tool and questionnaires to determine social media use.

The questionnaires asked about 11 popular social media platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine, and LinkedIn.

Participants who used seven to 11 platforms had 3.1 times the odds of reporting higher levels of depressive symptoms than their counterparts who used zero to two platforms. Those who used the most platforms had 3.3 times the odds of high levels of anxiety symptoms than their peers who used the least number of platforms.

The researchers controlled for other factors that may contribute to depression and anxiety, including race, gender, relationship status, household income, education, and total time spent on social media.

“This association is strong enough that clinicians could consider asking their patients with depression and anxiety about multiple platform use and counseling them that this use may be related to their symptoms,” said lead author and physician Brian A. Primack, M.D., Ph.D., director of CRMTH and assistant vice chancellor for health and society in Pitt’s Schools of the Health Sciences.

“While we can’t tell from this study whether depressed and anxious people seek out multiple platforms or whether something about using multiple platforms can lead to depression and anxiety, in either case the results are potentially valuable.”

Primack, who also is a professor of medicine at Pitt, emphasized that the directionality of the association is unclear.

“It may be that people who suffer from symptoms of depression or anxiety, or both, tend to subsequently use a broader range of social media outlets. For example, they may be searching out multiple avenues for a setting that feels comfortable and accepting,” said Primack.

“However, it could also be that trying to maintain a presence on multiple platforms may actually lead to depression and anxiety. More research will be needed to tease that apart.”

Primack and his team propose several hypotheses as to why multi-platform social media use may drive depression and anxiety.

One suggestion is that users of multiple platforms would be constantly multitasking — as would happen when switching between platforms — which is strongly linked to poor cognitive and mental health outcomes. Also, they note that there is greater opportunity to commit a social media faux pas when using multiple platforms, which can lead to repeated embarrassments.

“Understanding the way people are using multiple social media platforms and their experiences within those platforms — as well as the specific type of depression and anxiety that social media users experience — are critical next steps,” said co-author and psychiatrist César G. Escobar-Viera, M.D., Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate at Pitt’s Health Policy Institute and at CRMTH.

“Ultimately, we want this research to help in designing and implementing educational public health interventions that are as personalized as possible.”

The findings are published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.

Source: University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences

Anxiety, Depression Plague Cancer Survivors

Results from a new study show that more than four in five cancer survivors suffer from anxiety and a similar number had depression a year after diagnosis.

“We urgently need new ways of supporting cancer survivors and addressing wider aspects of wellbeing,” said lead author Shridevi Subramaniam, a research officer at the National Clinical Research Center, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “Instead of just focusing on clinical outcome, doctors must focus equally on quality of life for cancer patients, especially psychologically, financially, and socially.”

Researchers included 1,362 Malaysian patients from the ACTION study (ASEAN Cost in Oncology Study). Nearly a third — 33 percent — had breast cancer, researchers noted.

All the patients filled in questionnaires to assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Anxiety and depression levels were also included in the survey.

A patient’s satisfaction with their physical health and mental wellbeing — or health-related quality of life — is an important end result in cancer care. But the study’s findings showed that patients’ mental and physical wellbeing was low overall 12 months after diagnosis. The more advanced the cancer, the lower the HRQoL, according to the findings.

The type of cancer was also a factor, because disease severity differs, the researchers noted.

Women with reproductive system cancers, for example, had higher wellbeing scores than lymphoma patients. This could be explained by the fact that lymphoma is often aggressive and progresses quickly, while reproductive system cancers, such as cervical, can spread slowly over a number of years, the researchers hypothesized.

“The key message is to focus more on supporting patients throughout their whole cancer ‘journey,’ especially in their lives after treatment,” added Subramanian, who presented the research at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Asia 2016 Congress.

Cancer also has a significant impact on the lives and wellbeing of adolescents and young adults, as reported in a separate ongoing study at the ESMO Asia 2016 Congress.

Researchers set out to identify the extent of wellbeing issues and other problems among patients in this age group, who not only are at major milestones in their lives, but do not expect to develop the disease.

The study included patients who were newly diagnosed with cancer and with an average age of 28. They completed a survey that included questions on occupation and lifestyle, and were also asked about problems around physical symptoms, mental wellbeing, and financial issues.

Results showed that more than a third (37 percent) were suffering distress at the diagnosis of cancer. Nearly half identified the top cause as treatment decisions, followed by family health issues, sleep, and worry.

“The young differ from older people because they don’t expect to be ill, and certainly not with cancer,” said senior author Associate Professor Alexandre Chan of the Department of Pharmacy at the National University of Singapore and a Specialist Pharmacist at the National Cancer Center in Singapore.

“They’re also at a stage when they’re facing many social responsibilities and family burdens. That’s why they need effective supportive care and help in managing the physical, psychological, and emotional side-effects that come with both cancer diagnosis and treatment.”

Commenting on the studies, Ravindran Kanesvaran, an assistant professor at Duke-NUS Medical School, and a Consultant Medical Oncologist at the National Cancer Center in Singapore, said: “There is a critical need to find ways of addressing the high levels of distress among cancer survivors in general, as highlighted by the Malaysian study.

“The psycho-social impact of cancer on adolescents and young adults also clearly needs further evaluation. What’s required are specific interventions to meet the needs of this age group, as well as specially tailored survivorship programs and supportive care.

“While it’s not surprising that the young adult cancer population has a higher risk of suicide, conducting studies like this help us find new ways to address this issue effectively,” he concluded.

Source: European Society for Medical Oncology

The Secret to Raising a Smart Shopper

As we hurry to finish up our last-minute holiday shopping, parents may wonder how they can raise children who will become wise consumers once they are adults.

To find the answer, they just need to look in the mirror.

According to a new study, parents are the primary agents who socialize their children — more than friends, other adults, or organizations, such as churches.

But which parenting style is the best to help children learn the skills and attitudes they need to be smart consumers?

To find the answer, researchers analyzed data from 73 studies nationwide. They then created categories to define four basic parenting styles.

Authoritative parents are more likely to tell children what they want them to do while also explaining why, which the researchers describe as “restrictive” and “warm” communication. These parents tend to relate quite effectively with their children and expect them to act maturely and follow family rules, while also allowing a certain degree of autonomy.

Authoritarian parents are also restrictive, but not as likely to exhibit as much warmth in their communication, said researcher Les Carlson, a professor of marketing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“They are more likely to tell a child what to do and not explain why,” he says.

Neglecting parents offer little guidance for their children’s development and limited monitoring of activities.

Indulgent parents are lenient, compliant, and give children adult rights without expecting them to take on responsibilities.

The researchers found that many of the studies showed children of authoritative parents had the best outcomes when interacting with the world around them. These children consumed healthier foods like fruits and vegetables, and made safer choices, such as wearing a bike helmet.

They also provided valuable opinions on family consumption decisions, the researchers discovered.

“I think that our culture has changed over time to be more permissive with children, but we found a lot of evidence that demonstrated that it is okay to be restrictive with kids,” Carlson said. “It’s also important to explain to kids why the restrictions are important.”

The analysis also showed that children of restrictive parents were less likely to engage in cyberbullying, theft, vandalism, drug use and feelings of having an unattractive body shape, what the researchers termed “negative consumer socialization outcomes.”

To apply these findings to daily life, parents could proactively train their children by taking them shopping and guiding them in decisions, according to Carlson.

“For example, parents can talk about why they are skeptical of advertising they may see in a store to teach children how to filter information,” he said. “Watching television with children is another opportunity to engage with them in conversation about what they are seeing to teach them how to be fully informed consumers.”

The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Source: Society for Consumer Psychology

Rural Areas See Spike in Babies Born Addicted to Opioids

The number of babies born addicted to opioids has increased at a much higher rate in rural communities than in urban areas, according to a new study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

The findings also show that rural mothers and infants with opioid-related diagnoses were more likely to come from lower-income families, have public health insurance, and must often transfer to another hospital following delivery.

Over the last two decades, the U.S. has seen a surge in prescriptions for opioid pain relievers like Vicodin and Opana. In recent years, opioid-related complications, both from painkillers and street drugs like heroin, significantly increased in the U.S., including among pregnant women and their infants.

Newborns exposed to opioids in the womb may experience painful withdrawal symptoms after birth, known as neonatal abstinence syndrome. Symptoms include seizures, low birthweight, breathing, sleeping, and feeding problems. These infants have higher risk of adverse outcomes and longer, costlier hospital stays compared to healthy infants.

“The opioid epidemic has hit rural communities especially hard and we found that these geographical disparities also affect pregnant women and infants,” says lead author Nicole Villapiano, M.D., a pediatrician at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

“Our study highlights an urgent need to fund providers and programs that will help improve access to opioid prevention and treatment services for rural women and children. Maternal opioid use requires special attention given the poor outcomes and high costs. If we can provide resources to the areas that need them the most, we can do more on the frontlines to address the opioid crisis for our most vulnerable patients.”

For the study, researchers from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University tracked newborns treated for opioid-related complications over 10 years.

They discovered that in rural areas, the rate of newborns with neonatal abstinence syndrome increased from nearly one case in 1,000 births from 2003-2004 to 7.5 from 2012-2013. This increase is nearly 80 percent higher than the growth rate of such cases in urban communities.

The findings show that rural infants accounted for over 21 percent of all infants born in the U.S. with neonatal abstinence syndrome between 2012 and 2013 — a large spike from 2003 when rural infants made up only 13 percent of the neonatal abstinence syndrome cases.

The nation saw similar regional trends in maternal opioid use. In 2012, maternal opiate use in rural counties was nearly 70 percent higher than in urban areas — eight per 1,000 childbirth hospitalizations compared to 4.8 in urban counties.

Furthermore, the researchers found that compared to urban peers, rural infants, and mothers with opioid-related diagnoses were more likely to come from lower-income families, have public insurance, and be transferred to another hospital following delivery.

Villapiano says that families in urban areas typically have better access to treatment and addiction services that can help affected babies have better outcomes.

“We need to consider what kind of support moms with opioid disorders have in rural communities,” she says.

After a baby is born with signs of opioid withdrawal, it is important that community hospitals are adequately staffed and resourced to treat women and infants impacted by opioid use, the authors note.

“As a nation, there is an urgent need to develop strategies tailored to rural communities focused on prevention and expansion of treatment,” says senior author Stephen W. Patrick, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., assistant professor of pediatrics and health policy at Vanderbilt University.

“We need to develop means to support rural hospitals, especially critical access hospitals, that are on the front lines in providing care for mothers and infants impacted by the opioid epidemic.”

Source: University of Michigan Health System

Body Image Problems Tied to Alcohol Issues

New research finds that body image misconceptions among teen-aged girls are associated with alcohol consumption.

Notably, teen girls who report and act on body image confusion have an increased risk of heavy drinking than girls of the same age without body image misperceptions.

In the study, researchers sought to identify the behavioral effects associated with teen body image behavioral misperceptions (BIBM). Investigators discovered trying to lose, maintain, or gain weight when there is no medical need to do so, based on self-reported weight status, is associated with a bevy of substance use behaviors.

Specifically, girls with BIBM have an increased odds of ever having had alcohol, current alcohol use, or episodic heavy drinking (five or more alcoholic beverages within a couple hours).

“Negative self-image can lead to negative behaviors. Body image and behavioral misperception occurs when actions are taken based on a perceived weight status or body image,” said senior study author Margie Skeer, Sc.D., M.P.H., M.S.W.

“We found significant relationships between this misperception and reporting ever having had alcohol, as well as reporting episodic heavy drinking among high school girls,” said Skeer, assistant professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts.

“Paying attention to this behavior in this population could help identify factors supporting the relationship between this misperception and drinking, as well as other risk behaviors, beyond high school.”

The study comes at a time when alcohol is the most commonly used and misused drug among adolescents in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

It is also a time when dieting culture is omnipresent throughout American society. For adolescents, the two go hand-in-hand: weight-loss behavior has been associated with substance abuse.

The researchers analyzed data from the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a national, school-based survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of the 6,579 female students ages 14-18+, 37.5 percent reported having a BIBM; 67.7 percent of the girls had had at least one drink in their lifetime; and 17.8 percent had episodes of heavy drinking in the past 30 days.

Among high school girls with a BIBM, the odds of ever having had alcohol was 1.21 times greater than among girls who did not have a BIBM. When considering additional variables:

• the odds of alcohol use increased to 1.29 times among girls with BIBM;
• factors that increased the odds of alcohol use included being in 10th, 11th or 12th grade compared with being in ninth grade;
• identifying as Hispanic or Latina compared with identifying as white;
• being sexually active before age 13 compared with girls who were not;
• and cigarette smoking in the past 30 days compared with those who did not.

Looking at episodic heavy drinking, the researchers found that girls who had a BIBM had a 1.22 times greater odds of having five or more alcoholic beverages in a short period of time compared with girls who did not have a BIBM.

Additional factors that increased the likelihood of heavy alcohol use included being in 12th grade, reporting depressive symptoms and smoking cigarettes in the last 30 days. Girls who had a BIBM and identified as black or African American as compared to white or other races and ethnicities were associated with decreased odds of episodic heavy drinking.

“We are beginning to understand how the relationship between BIBM and alcohol use is manifesting. Next up is to figure out when the relationship is developing and what is further driving it,” said first and corresponding author Anna Schlissel, M.P.H.

“Further longitudinal research examining excess alcohol use as a coping mechanism or as a way to gain or lose weight, as well as underlying risk factors in childhood, may shed more light on this relationship.”

The authors note that the self-reporting nature of the 2013 Youth Risk Behavioral Study is a significant limitation of the study. In addition, the authors acknowledge that “it is not possible to conclude whether the respondents are using alcohol as a weight change mechanism or as a technique to feel more socially accepted and more comfortable with themselves.”

Source: Tufts University/EurekAlert

Sexual Harassment May Be Common Part of Bullying

Sexual harassment is a prevalent form of victimization that most antibullying programs ignore and teachers and school officials often fail to recognize, according to bullying and youth violence expert Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D.

The recent teen suicide of Brandy Vela, a teen in Texas City, Texas, is a case in point. According to Vela’s parents, the teen fatally shot herself following months of bullying and sexual harassment, perpetrated in part through text messages and social media.

Espelage recently led a five-year study that examined links between bullying and sexual harassment among schoolchildren in Illinois.

Nearly half — 43 percent — of middle school students surveyed for the study reported they had been the victims of verbal sexual harassment such as sexual comments, jokes, or gestures during the prior year.

Researchers followed 1,300 Illinois youths from middle school to high school, examining the risk factors associated with bullying and sexual harassment and the characteristics of the perpetrators.

Students from four middle schools completed the surveys, and some of the youths and their teachers also were interviewed by the researchers.

Investigators discovered that while verbal harassment was more common than physical sexual harassment or sexual assault, 21 percent of students reported having been touched, grabbed, or pinched in a sexual way, and 18 percent said peers had brushed up against them in a suggestive manner.

Students also reported being forced to kiss the perpetrators, having their private areas touched without consent and being “pantsed;” having their pants or shorts jerked down by someone else in public.

About 14 percent of the students in the study reported having been the target of sexual rumors, and nine percent had been victimized with sexually explicit graffiti in school locker rooms or bathrooms.

According to Espelage, “sexual harassment among adolescents is directly related to bullying,” particularly homophobic bullying.

Homophobic name-calling emerges among fifth- and sixth-grade bullies as a means of asserting power over other students, Espelage said.

Youths who are the targets of homosexual name-calling and jokes then feel compelled to demonstrate they are not gay or lesbian by sexually harassing peers of the opposite sex.

About 16 percent of students in the study reported that they had been the targets of homophobic name-calling or jokes, and nearly five percent of youths reported that this harassment happened to them often.

On the surveys, youths were asked an open-ended question about their most upsetting experience of sexual harassment.

Fourteen percent of students who reported being victimized negated their experiences by writing that their peers’ behaviors were “not really sexual harassment” because the incidents were “meaningless” or intended as jokes.

“What was most surprising and concerning was that these young people were dismissive of these experiences, even though they described them as very upsetting,” Espelage said.

“Students failed to recognize the seriousness of these behaviors in part because teachers and school officials failed to address them. Prevention programs need to address what is driving this dismissiveness.”

Youths who were dismissive of sexual harassment experiences also were more likely to perpetrate homophobic name-calling, the researchers found.

While students reported that large proportions of these sexual harassment incidents occurred in places such as school hallways, classrooms, gym locker rooms, or gym classes where faculty and staff members ostensibly might witness them, the researchers found that many teachers, school officials, and staff members failed to acknowledge that sexual harassment occurred in their schools.

Many of these adults also were unaware that they were mandated by school district or federal policies to protect students from sexual harassment, Espelage said.

“These findings highlight the importance of making sexual harassment prevention efforts a priority in U.S. school districts, and that will require the efforts of students, faculty and staff members, school administrators, and practitioners such as school psychologists,” Espelage said.

“Schools need to have a consistently enforced policy that clearly defines sexual harassment and establishes regulations against engaging in such behavior. School officials also must provide guidelines for faculty and staff members on how to address these incidents and how to respond appropriately to student reports of sexual harassment.”

Sexual harassment experiences varied across socio-demographic groups, depending on students’ age, race, and sex. For example, females were at greatest risk of sexual harassment, while African-American girls and boys were at greatest risk of being victimized by romantic partners, the researchers found.

Source: University of Illinois

Letting Preschoolers Win May Backfire

New research suggests letting your preschooler win at games does not build self-confidence and in fact may be detrimental.

Amherst College researchers discovered that when young kids experience “illusory success” related to a particular task, their ability to formulate and act on judgments they make about their own performance suffers.

As a result, the children may become conditioned to ignore valuable information they could use in future decision-making, according to a study coauthored by Dr. Carrie Palmquist and former student Ashleigh Rutherford.

The research article appears in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

The paper explains the results of a series of experiments in which four and five year-olds were asked to play a hiding game with objects, in which two adult “experimenters” offered them clues. One experimenter gave accurate clues; the other gave inaccurate ones.

Investigators then manipulated the game for half of the children so that no matter where the kids looked, they always found the hidden objects. The successes of the remaining children were left to chance, meaning that the kids were more likely to find the hidden objects with the helpful adult than the unhelpful one.

After the games, the scientists asked their young research subjects which of the two people they would like to ask for help in finding additional hidden objects.

“Kids who had been in the rigged version of the game showed no preference for the previously helpful person,” said Palmquist. “In fact, they didn’t even think of her as having been helpful.”

The kids who were in the unrigged version showed a clear preference for the helpful person.

“When children were extremely successful, they seemed to ignore otherwise relevant cues as to who would be a better source of information,” Palmquist said.

“This is important for two reasons. First, it suggests that children may not be as savvy as previous research has suggested.

“Second, it suggests that in the real world, when children experience a great deal of success on a task — mom or dad always letting them win at a game, for example — they may become less aware of important information that they could use to learn about the world, because they see it as less relevant to their future success.”

Source: Amherst College/Newswise

Teasing Apart Anxiety and Autism in Kids

Identifying and treating anxiety in children with autism can be difficult, since anxiety behaviors are often masked by symptoms of autism. Now, a professor at Drexel University has made changes to a pre-existing anxiety assessment tool so that it can accurately detect anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Since children with autism may have difficulty expressing themselves, it is often up to their parents to discern whether their behavior is actually a symptom of autism or of anxiety. But since those symptoms are sometimes difficult to differentiate, even for the child’s parent, clear clinical guidelines would greatly improve the ability to reliably diagnose anxiety issues.

“For example, a child may avoid a social situation because they are not socially motivated — a symptom of autism spectrum disorder — or because they are afraid of being socially rejected — a symptom of anxiety,” said assessment developer Connor Kerns, Ph.D., an assistant research professor at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

With a correct diagnosis of anxiety, many children with ASD could begin crucial treatment.

“While autism may make it difficult for you to know what to do in social situations, anxiety makes it difficult to look at your strengths and challenges in an even way,” Kerns said.

“This is a particularly pernicious threat, in my opinion, because it can prevent individuals from coping with and, eventually, overcoming real challenges in their lives and seeking out opportunities and experiences, such as education, social interaction, and employment, that are crucial to their development.”

“Put another way, when your anxiety is high, you are focusing on surviving rather than living, and this has real consequences on your mental, emotional, and physical health,” she added.

Kerns’ Autism Spectrum Addendum (ASA) — the new addition to the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS) — incorporates new questions into the original interview to help determine which behaviors might be part of the child’s autism and which might be related to anxiety.

Kerns first developed the ASA method in 2014. She recently tested it in a study of 69 children with autism who had a concern about anxiety, but no prior diagnosis. The study results are published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.

“All children interested in the study completed a comprehensive evaluation to determine if they did, in fact, demonstrate clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and autism according to the ADIS/ASA interview,” Kerns said.

“All ADIS/ASA interviews were video- or audio-recorded and listened to a second time by a blind assessor, who came to their own conclusions about the child’s diagnosis.”

Those results were also run against other measures of anxiety to make sure they came to the same conclusions, further confirming the new addition’s reliability as a diagnostic tool.

“These findings are extremely important to those who may wish to use the ADIS/ASA in their research or in their clinical work with youth on the spectrum,” Kerns said.

Finally, Kerns emphasized the importance of treating ASD children with anxiety.

“Treating anxiety is important in autism spectrum disorder because anxiety is associated with significantly more impairment for the child and their family,” Kerns explained. “That can include more stress, more self-injurious behavior and depression, and more social difficulties and physical ailments.”

Source: Drexel University

Teen Alcohol Use Can Alter Brain Development

New research suggests heavy alcohol use during adolescence alters the development of brain.

Investigators from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital found cortical thinning in young people who had been heavy drinkers throughout their adolescence.

Researchers performed magnetic resonance imaging of the brain structure on young and healthy, but heavy-drinking adults who had been heavy drinkers throughout their adolescence. As a comparison, they also used MRI to study age-matched light-drinking participants.

Researchers performed three cross-sectional studies conducted over the course of ten years, in 2005, 2010 and 2015. The participants were 13 to 18 years old at the onset of the study.

All participants were academically successful, and the prevalence of mental health problems did not differ between the two groups. Although the heavy-drinking participants had used alcohol regularly for ten years, approximately six to nine ounces roughly once a week, none of them had a diagnosed alcohol use disorder.

Imaging results, however, revealed statistically significant differences between the groups. Among the heavy-drinking participants, grey matter volume was decreased in the parts of the brain known as the anterior cingulate cortex bilaterally as well as in the right insula.

“The maturation of the brain is still ongoing in adolescence, and especially the frontal areas and the cingulate cortex develop until the twenties. Our findings strongly indicate that heavy alcohol use may disrupt this maturation process,” says Ph.D. Student Noora Heikkinen, the first author of the study.

The effects of heavy teen alcohol consumption may not become evident until later in life. Researchers note that cingulate cortex has an important role in impulse control, and volumetric changes in this area may play an important role in the development of a substance use disorder later in life.

Structural changes in the insula, on the other hand, may reflect a reduced sensitivity to alcohol’s negative subjective effects, and in this way contribute to the development of a substance use disorder.

“The exact mechanism behind these structural changes is not known. However, it has been suggested that some of the volumetric changes may be reversible if alcohol consumption is reduced significantly. As risk limits of alcohol consumption have not been defined for adolescents, it would be important to screen and record adolescent substance use, and intervene if necessary.”

Source: University of Eastern Finland

Teenage Weight Problems May Influence Midlife Mental Health

It is a sad reality that being overweight or obese is prevalent among __teens as well as adults. Currently, a third of the adolescent population in many developed countries are overweight or obese.

While it is well known that teen obesity can lead to a bevy of physical health issues, new research suggests problems with weight during adolescence, coupled with social economic status and physical development, can also impact mental health during adulthood.

To shed light on this issue, scientists at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine set out to determine the association between cumulative life course burden of high-ranked body mass index (BMI), and cognitive function in midlife.

The research, which will appear in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 55(3), was led by Prof. Jeremy Kark from the Braun School, in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Faculty of Medicine, working with colleagues in Israel and the United States.

Investigators used weight and height data from 507 individuals tracked from over 33 years starting at age 17. The participants completed a computerized cognitive assessment at ages 48-52, and their socioeconomic position was assessed by multiple methods.

Using mixed models (quantitative and qualitative research) the researchers calculated the life-course burden of BMI from age 17 to midlife. They then used statistical methods to assess associations of BMI and height with global cognition and its component domains.

“In this population-based study of a Jerusalem cohort, followed longitudinally from adolescence for over 33 years, we found that higher BMI in late adolescence and the long-term cumulative burden of BMI predicted poorer cognitive function later in life.

“Importantly, this study shows that an impact of obesity on cognitive function in midlife may already begin in adolescence, independently of changes in BMI over the adult life course,” said the paper’s senior author, Prof. Jeremy Kark of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

The effect of obesity on cognitive decline in adulthood was also associated with physical development.

“Our results also show that taller stature was associated with better global cognitive function, independent of childhood and adult socioeconomic position, and that height increase in late adolescence, reflecting late growth, conferred a protective effect, but among women only,” added Irit Cohen-Manheim, doctoral candidate at the Braun School and lead author.

Moreover, the researchers point out that while socioeconomic position may have a particularly important role in the trajectory of a person’s lifetime cognitive function, it has rarely been adequately taken into account.

“To the best of our knowledge, the association between BMI and cognition as a function of childhood and adult socioeconomic position has not been previously reported. Childhood household socioeconomic position appears to strongly modify the association between adolescent BMI and poorer cognition in midlife, the inverse association being restricted to low childhood socioeconomic position,” said Prof. Kark.

“Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that childhood living conditions, as reflected also by height, infuence cognitive function later in life. However, our study is unique in showing that an adverse association of higher BMI with cognitive function appears to begin in adolescence and that it appears to be restricted to adults with lower childhood socioeconomic position,” said Prof. Kark.

“Evidence for the association between impaired cognitive function in midlife and subsequent dementia supports the clinical relevance of our results. Findings of the relation of BMI in adolescence with poorer midlife cognitive status, particularly in light of the ongoing epidemic of childhood obesity, require confirmation,” said Irit Cohen-Manheim.

Source: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem/EurekAlert

Parental Tactics to Manage Adolescent Behavior

New research finds that the way your teen perceives your parenting tactics, makes a big difference in whether they will comply or rebel with your admonitions.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), found that when __teens viewed their parents’ parenting tactics more negatively that parents did, they showed elevated levels of aggressive behaviors.

“Most, if not all, parents agree that they and their teenage children hold different views about how parenting is going at home,” explains Misaki Natsuaki, a psychology professor at UCR.

“In some cases, __teens perceive parenting to be harsher than how their parents intend to — in other cases, teens perceive parenting to be more lenient than how parents intend to. With this study, it’s become clear that both the teens’ and parents’ views of how parents manage their teens’ difficult behaviors were uniquely important in predicting teenage problem behaviors.”

The study, authored by Natsuaki and graduate student Laura Dimler, is called “Parenting Effects are in the Eye of the Beholder: Parent-Adolescent Differences in Perceptions Affects Adolescent Problem Behaviors. The work appears in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Investigators focused on how parents manage their teenagers’ challenging behaviors (e.g., anger) and examined teen-parent discrepancies in views about those behaviors. Using data from 220 families, the researchers found that, when teens viewed parenting more negatively than parents did, they showed more elevated levels of problem behaviors, such as aggression.

“This effect of teen-parent discrepancies in perceptions of parenting behaviors was above and beyond how negatively the adolescent and parent each felt about the parenting,” Natsuaki said.

“Therefore, nuanced characteristics of the family, such as who holds more negative views than whom and how much the differences in views exists within the relationship, contribute to teens’ problem behaviors.”

The study also highlights the importance of adolescents’ evaluation on how mothers and fathers handle their difficult behaviors.

Mother’s perception of her response to her teenager’s anger was significantly correlated with externalizing behavior, but not with aggressive behaviors. Father’s perception of his response to his teenager’s anger was significantly correlated with externalizing behaviors and with aggressive behaviors.

“Fathers are relatively understudied compared to mothers, but our findings show that the father-teen relationship is a unique one, and has the potential to exacerbate or hinder the teens’ problem behavior, including aggressive behavior,” Natsuaki said.

Source: University of California, Riverside

Weight Problems Increase Risk for Bipolar Teens

New research suggest medications alone do not increase the risk of being overweight or developing obesity among adolescents with bipolar disorder. But there appears to be a direct relationship between obesity and greater severity of bipolar disorder.

The relationship is complex and the new study is the first to examine the relationship in __teens between being overweight and bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is one of the most disabling medical conditions among adolescents worldwide. Similarly, being overweight or obese is common in adolescents and is known to confer risk for cardiovascular disease and other poor health outcomes in adulthood.

Previous studies have demonstrated that obesity and being overweight are more prevalent among adults with bipolar disorder as compared to the general population. The conditions also are associated with proxies of increased bipolar disorder severity, such as suicide attempts and greater symptom burden.

The new study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), is the first to examine this topic in a large, representative sample of the U.S. adolescent population. The NCS-A is a face-to-face survey of mental disorders in a representative sample of adolescents 13-17 years old. Participants included 295 adolescents with bipolar disorder, 1,112 with major depressive disorder, and 8,716 with neither of these conditions.

Researchers discovered 37.9 percent of adolescents with bipolar disorder were also overweight, compared to 32.4 percent of adolescents with major depressive disorder, and 32 percent of adolescents with neither of these conditions. Although differences present, they were not determined to be statistically significant.

“We were somewhat surprised about the fact that obesity was not more prevalent among the adolescents with bipolar disorder compared to their peers. But this is good news, as it confirms that there is a window of opportunity to intervene in order to prevent the increased risk of obesity that is evident in adults and in clinical samples of adolescents with bipolar disorder,” said Dr. Benjamin Goldstein.

Goldstein director of the Centre for Youth Bipolar Disorder in Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and lead author of the study.

Although being overweight is not more common among bipolar teens, overweight adolescents with bipolar disorder showed signs of increased illness severity. This included more suicide attempts, psychiatric hospitalizations for depression, co-occurring conduct disorder and bulimia/binge-eating, and history of physical or sexual abuse.

“It is concerning that despite the fact that this a non-clinical sample, the links between obesity and indicators of greater bipolar disorder severity are already evident. Some have wondered whether these links are secondary to greater exposure to psychiatric medications, some of which confer risk of weight gain, among adolescents with greater severity of bipolar disorder,” added Goldstein.

“Our findings, based on a community sample with low rates of medication use, confirm that there is more to the story than medications — there appears to be a direct relationship between obesity and greater severity of bipolar disorder.”

Asked what next steps should be taken, Goldstein responded, “The main clinical question now becomes: what strategies are most effective for preventing obesity in this specific group of teens, for whom the risks of obesity in terms of both physical and mental health may be especially significant?

The answer to that question will require additional research, informed in part by the findings of this study. In addition, there are scientific questions about the biological, psychological, and environmental factors that explain the increased severity of bipolar disorder among obese __teens with bipolar disorder.”

To that end, Goldstein and his team are studying how overweight is associated with brain structure, cognition, and blood markers of inflammation and other processes, among adolescents with bipolar disorder.

Goldstein is planning to study intervention strategies to prevent and treat overweight among adolescents with bipolar disorder, and is hopeful that if successful these strategies will improve mental as well as physical health.

“Wouldn’t it be interesting, and efficient, if an intervention focused on optimizing weight could also yield mental health benefits?” he concluded.

Source: Elsevier

Parents Should Not Put Too Much Pressure on Kids

New research suggests there is more to helping kids become successful than pushing them to be involved in a multitude of activities and to score at the top of their class. In short, being a Tiger mom may be a little short-sighted.

The Arizona State study finds obsession over grades and extracurricular activities for young schoolchildren could be counterproductive, especially if such ambitions come at the expense of social skills and kindness.

Researchers discovered a fixation on grades and involvement in excessive activities can work against helping kids become well-adjusted and successful later in life.

“When parents emphasize children’s achievement much more than their compassion and decency during the formative years, they are sowing the seeds of stress and poorer well-being, seen as early as sixth grade,” said Suniya Luthar, one of the co-authors of the study.

“In order to foster well-being and academic success during the critical years surrounding early adolescence, our findings suggest that parents should accentuate kindness and respect for others at least as much as (or more than) stellar academic performance and extracurricular accolades.”

The study, “When mothers and fathers are seen as disproportionately valuing achievements: Implications for adjustment among upper middle class youth,” appears in the early online edition of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. Luthar co-authored the study with Lucia Ciciolla of Oklahoma State University, Alexandria Curlee, an Arizona State University doctoral student, and Jason Karageorge, a psychologist in private practice in San Francisco.

The study focused on perceptions of parents’ values among 506 sixth grade students from an affluent community. Kids were asked to rank the top three of six things their parents valued for them. Three values were about personal successes such as good grades and a successful later career, and the other three were about kindness and decency towards others.

The researchers examined underlying patterns on scores based on children’s perceptions of their parents’ achievement emphasis (relative to children’s kindness to others). These patterns on perceived achievement emphasis were compared against the children’s school performance and actions as measured by grade point average and in-class behaviors.

The authors tried to determine if there were differences in how children were doing psychologically and academically, depending on their parents’ values.

They chose students entering middle school because of the immense changes that children experience at this stage, both physiologically and psychologically. Results showed that mothers and fathers perceived emphases on achievement versus interpersonal kindness played a key role in the child’s personal adjustment and academic performance, as did perceptions of parents’ criticism.

Specifically, Luthar said that the best outcomes were among children who perceived their mothers and fathers as each valuing kindness toward others as much as, or more than, achievements.

Much poorer outcomes were seen among children who perceived either mothers or fathers valuing their achievements more highly than they valued being kind to others. These youth experienced more internalizing symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, externalizing or acting out behaviors and lower self-esteem, as well as more parental criticism.

And paradoxically given their parents high emphases on achievements, these students also had lower GPAs, and were reported by teachers to have more learning problems and disruptive behavior at school.

The findings demonstrate the value of being socially oriented, Luthar said. “It is beneficial for kids to be strongly connected with their social networks, whereas focusing too much on external validations (such as grades, extra-curricular honors) for their sense of self-worth can lead to greater insecurity, anxiety, and overall distress.”

What was surprising in the study, Ciciolla said, was how strongly children’s psychological and academic performance, consistently across a number of different measures, were tied to what children believed their parents cared most about.

And it did not matter much whether both parents or either parent were thought to more highly value achievement than kindness to others — having disproportionate emphasis on achievement coming from either parent was generally harmful.

It was also surprising, she said, that children who viewed their parents as valuing kindness to others much more highly than achievement did not appear to be suffering academically.

“It seems that emphasizing kindness as a top priority may not take the spotlight off achievement, because we found that these children did very well over all, including in their academics,” Ciciolla explained.

“But when children believed their parents cared most about achievement, possibly related to how parents communicated this message and if it came across as critical, they did worse across the board.”

“To be clear,” said Ciciolla, “our data did not show that encouraging achievement in itself is bad. It becomes destructive when it comes across as critical, and when it overshadows, or does not co-exist with, a simultaneous value on more intrinsic goals that are oriented toward personal growth, interpersonal connections, and community well-being.”

“The key is balance,” added Luthar. “Not pushing kids to achieve or succeed at the expense of maintaining close relationships to others. And, we as parents must watch our tones,” she cautioned, “because sometimes, what we might think is encouragement to perform better comes across to our kids as criticism for not being ‘good enough’ by their standards.”

“The more parents are able to balance their encouragement of personal success with encouragement of maintaining kindness and personal decency, the more likely it is that children will do well,” she added.

“This is especially true for kids in high achieving schools and communities where the reverberating message they hear from their earliest years is that above all else they must distinguish themselves as top-notch, or the very best, across their various activities, academic as well as extracurricular.”

Source: Arizona State University

Less Physical Activity Tied to Lagging Reading in Boys

Emerging research suggests little physical activity may leave 6- to 8-year-old boys behind on their reading skills.

Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, in collaboration with the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Cambridge, discovered sedentary behavior was linked to less than optimal academic performance in the first three school years.

The findings have been recently published in the Journal of Science and Medicine and Sport.

Researchers discovered high levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and low levels of sedentary time in first grade were related to better reading skills in grades 1-3 among boys.

Conversely, boys who had a combination of low levels of physical activity and high levels of sedentary time had the poorest reading skills through Grades 1-3, said researcher Eero Haapala, Ph.D.

The review was a component of the Physical Activity and Nutrition in Children Study, conducted at the University of Eastern Finland.

In the study, investigators investigated the longitudinal associations of physical activity and sedentary time with reading and arithmetic skills in 153 children aged 6-8 years old in grades 1-3 of the primary school.

Physical activity and sedentary time were measured objectively using a combined heart rate and movement sensor in grade 1, and reading and arithmetic skills were assessed by standardized tests in grades 1-3.

Interestingly, girls did not show a strong association between sedentary time and physical activity as related to performance of reading or arithmetic skills.

Researchers believe the findings suggest that promoting physically active lifestyle may kick-start boys’ school performance.

Source: University of Eastern Finland/EurekAlert