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Childhood adversity and disease
Mounting evidence has demonstrated long-term negative physical and psychological health effects of stressors experienced in early childhood (Repetti, Taylor, & Seeman, 2002). But as health psychology researchers, what we’re interested in is why. How is it possible that something that happened in childhood could affect your health 50 or 60 years later? What are the…
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How to Raise a Bilingual Child
As promised from my previous blog on the costs and benefits of bilingualism, here are some strategies to create a home environment ripe for bilingualism. With its many benefits, parents may choose to raise their children as bilinguals. But after making that decision, the goal of helping their children “obtain” bilingualism becomes the next biggest…
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China – Education and Parenting — How does it differ from US?
This is the last piece in a four part series on sociocultural forces that influence academic achievement in India, Japan and China first posted on Parenting in the Digital Age. The last article talked about Japan. China: Educational Promise Out of the three countries of comparison, China holds the most promise to overtake the US…
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Affirming Values and Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap
As school performance becomes a bigger issue in the United States, many policy leaders, teachers and administrators are looking at the plethora of issues faces our schools. One such issue is the racial achievement gap. It seems that many minorities are not receiving the same grades as their white and Asian peers. A number of…
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To Bilingual or Not to Bilingual? – That is the Question
Raising a child is no easy task (or so I’ve heard from my own mother). With many decisions to make regarding your child, where do you even begin? Well, let’s take it one question at a time. Have you ever thought of or are currently considering raising your child as a bilingual? There has been…
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ADHD and Memory: Differences in What is Remembered
Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD (formerly known also as ADD) are classically seen as the kids in class who have trouble staying in their seats and paying attention during long lessons. Underlying these problematic behaviors is a confluence of factors, with evidence pointing to genetics, neural function, and environmental factors (including parenting…
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Child development outcomes with same-sex parents
In November 2010, the Pew Research Center released results of a poll that showed that 43% of people agreed with the statement that gay or lesbian couples raising children are bad for society, 41% believe that it doesn’t make a difference, and only 12% saying that they believed it was good for society. The authors…
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Who are superior – American or Chinese Parents?
It seems you can’t read or watch anything without hearing about the Wall Street Journal Article written by Amy Chua, the author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Time Magazine is one of the latest to talk about her article about why Chinese mothers are superior to American ones. Most people are horrified by…
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Teens and drugs: Drug use statistics and a different approach to prevention
Here are some drug use statistics: Over 80% of teens engage in some form of deviant behavior (1). Over 50% of high-school seniors admit to having used drugs (2). Only 10%-15% of the population develop drug addiction problems related to their drug use (1). The question is: If the majority of teens experiment with drug…