In brief

• Taking a walk may lead to more creative thinking than sitting, according to research at Stanford University. In one of several experiments, 48 college students sat alone in a small room at a desk facing a blank wall. When a researcher named an object, the student was asked to name alternative ways to use the object. For example, for the word "button," a person might say "as a doorknob on a dollhouse." The students heard several sets of words and were asked to name as many responses as possible. The participants then repeated the task with different words while walking on a treadmill facing a blank wall in the same room. They found that the students gave more creative responses when walking than when sitting (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, online April 21).
• Young dads appear to be at high risk for depression, according to research by scientists at Northwestern University. Using data collected from more than 10,000 young men over nearly 20 years, researchers found that depressive symptoms increased on average by 68 percent over the first five years of fatherhood. The men were about 25 years old on average when they became fathers and lived in the same homes as their children. Previous research has shown depressed dads use more corporal punishment, read less and interact less with their children, and are more likely to be stressed and neglect their children (Pediatrics, May 1).
• Children often misbehave again within 10 minutes of spanking, finds a study led by scientists at Southern Methodist University. The research relied on real-time audio recordings that captured parent and child interactions in 33 families over four to six evenings. The recordings captured 41 instances of corporal punishment, mainly during everyday activities such as fixing supper and bathing children. In 90 percent of the incidents, the spanking was triggered by noncompliance with parents' rules, such as eating improperly, getting out of a chair or going outside without permission. On average, less than 30 seconds elapsed from the time parents initiated nonviolent discipline to when they used corporal punishment. In 30 of the 41 incidents, the children misbehaved again within 10 minutes of being hit (Journal of Family Psychologyopens in new window, online April 14).
• Being depressed and angry as a teen may undermine future romantic relationships, according to a study conducted by scientists at the University of Alberta in Canada. The researchers followed 341 people for 25 years, surveying them about their transitions to adulthood from age 18 to 25, their perceived stress levels at age 32 and the quality of their intimate relationships at age 43. The researchers found that negative emotions that the participants experienced as young adults appeared to have adversely affected their intimate relationships well into middle age. They also found that higher perceived life stress at age 32 was associated with less adaptive interactions and increased relationship problems at age 43 (Journal of Family Psychology, April).
• Word choice appears to influence how much preschoolers help with household tasks, finds research led by a University of California, San Diego, psychologist. In the study, scientists broke 150 3- to 6-year-olds into two groups: one in which the researchers used the verb "help" when talking about doing chores with adults, and the other in which they used the noun "helper" when describing the same tasks. The children were then allowed to play with toys and given four opportunities to help the experimenter pick up a mess or put away toys. Children who heard the noun "helper" pitched in significantly more than children who heard the verb "help"(Child Developmentopens in new window, online April 29).
• SSRI use during pregnancy is linked to autism and developmental delays in boys, according to research conducted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Scientists analyzed data from nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs and found that prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) was nearly three times as likely in boys with autism spectrum disorder, with the greatest risk when exposure took place during the mother's first trimester. A mother's SSRI use during the third trimester was also linked to developmental delays in boys (Pediatricsopens in new window, May 1).
• Euthanasia frequency appears to explain only a small amount of variance in a veterinarian's risk for depression and suicide, finds a study led by a psychologist at Macquarie University in Australia. Previous research suggests that veterinarians are four times more likely to commit suicide than the average person and twice as likely to take their own lives as human health-care providers. In a study of 540 Australian vets age 23 to 74, researchers found that the more a vet performed euthanasia in an average working week, the greater the risk he or she had of feeling depressed. However, performing a greater amount of euthanasia in a typical week actually reduced the risk of suicide in depressed veterinarians. Thus, rather than contributing to greater suicide risk in depressed veterinarians, performing euthanasia more frequently — more than 11 times in a typical week — may be a protective factor against suicide risk in depressed veterinarians, according to the authors (Journal of Occupational Health Psychologyopens in new window, April).
• People who grew up with a parent who abused alcohol may be 85 percent more likely to attempt suicide than people whose parents did not abuse alcohol, according to a study led by Columbia University researchers. Scientists examined data from a nationwide survey of more than 43,000 people age 18 or older. Among the participants who reported that they had attempted suicide at some point in their lives, 46 percent said one or both parents had abused alcohol, compared with 21 percent reporting this among the study's full sample. The study also found that having divorced parents increased by 14 percent the risk that participants would try to end their lives compared with the study's full sample. However, putting those two factors together — divorce and drinking — did not result in increased suicide attempts, possibly because divorce may lead to decreased hostility at home and therefore lower the chance of a child becoming distressed as an adult, the authors speculate (American Journal of Orthopsychiatryopens in new window, May).
• Women who own property may be less likely to experience interpersonal violence, finds research by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The study was based on interview data collected from 492 women in Nicaragua and Tanzania, and examined the link between land ownership, relationship power and women's receipt of violence. Researchers found that women's land ownership challenges traditional relationship power dynamics and is associated with reduced levels of physical and psychological violence (Psychology of Women Quarterly, online May 6).
• Mental illness is not usually linked to crimes, finds a study led by a psychologist now at Normandale Community College in Minnesota. The researchers analyzed 429 crimes by 143 offenders with three major types of mental illness: major depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The researchers rated a crime as "mostly unrelated" or "mostly related" to mental illness symptoms if those symptoms contributed to the cause of the crime but weren't solely responsible for it. The researchers found that only about 3 percent of offenders' crimes were directly related to symptoms of major depression, 4 percent to symptoms of schizophrenia disorders and 10 percent to symptoms of bipolar disorder (Law and Human Behavioropens in new window, online April 14).
• Suppressing positive emotions may increase the likelihood of postpartum depression, according to research conducted at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Scientists asked 200 women to complete a questionnaire between their 24th and 34th weeks of pregnancy to determine their depressive symptoms and cognitive responses to negative and positive emotions. The researchers then polled the women for depressive symptoms at 12 weeks and 24 weeks postpartum. They found that the more a pregnant woman indicated dampening responses to happy feelings, the more depressive symptoms she experienced after her child's birth. In contrast, dwelling on negative feelings was not found to be indicative of postpartum depression (Journal of Psychosomatic Researchopens in new window, online May 8).
• Teachers' scare tactics may lead to lower exam scores, finds a study led by a scientist at Edge Hill University in Lancashire, England. Researchers asked 347 high school students to complete questionnaires about how frequently their teachers tried to motivate them with fear of failure, asking questions such as "How often do your teachers tell you that unless you work hard you will fail your exam?" Three months later, they asked the students about their motivation for completing their schoolwork, then collected the students' final grades. The researchers found that students who said they felt threatened by their teachers' failure-focused messages reported feeling less motivated and scored worse on exams than students who said their teachers used fewer fear tactics (School Psychology Quarterly, online April 14).
• Taking notes by hand is better for conceptual comprehension than using a laptop, finds research led by psychologists at Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles. The researchers asked 65 college students to watch a TED Talk with the option of taking notes via laptop or by hand. A half-hour after the talk, the students answered factual-recall questions and conceptual-application questions about the lecture. The researchers found that while both types of note takers performed equally well on questions that involved recalling facts, laptop note takers performed significantly worse on the conceptual questions. The researchers also found that longhand note takers still beat laptop note takers on conceptual questions one week later when participants were given a chance to review their notes before taking the test (Psychological Science, online April 23).
• The effects of childhood bullying persist far into midlife, according to research conducted by scientists at Kings College London and the University of Tokyo. The five-decades-long study followed the lives of 7,700 children born in England, Scotland and Wales during one week in 1958. Researchers found that the children who were bullied frequently had higher rates of anxiety and suicidal thoughts or plans at age 45, compared with children who were not bullied. The bullied children were also less likely to be living with partners, more isolated and had lower levels of life satisfaction. Even those bullied occasionally were more likely than those who were not bullied to have psychological distress or depression at midlife. They also had poorer cognitive functioning, general health, social support and quality of life (American Journal of Psychiatryopens in new window, online April 18).
• Perceived age and weight discrimination may be worse for health than perceived racism or sexism, finds a study led by Florida State University social scientists. Researchers examined physical, emotional and cognitive health data, as well as perceived experiences with discrimination, from 6,000 adults in the Health and Retirement Study, a National Institute on Aging study of Americans age 50 and older and their spouses. The researchers found that older adults who felt discrimination because of their weight, age, a physical disability or other aspect of appearance had significantly lower physical and emotional health and greater declines in health compared with people who reported no such discrimination (American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatryopens in new window, online March 21).
• Spending time online may ward off depression among retirees, particularly among those who live alone, according to research conducted at Michigan State University. Scientists polled more than 12,000 Americans age 50 and older over four years, gathering data on regular Internet and email use and evaluating depression symptoms. They found that Internet use reduced the probability of depression by 33 percent, with the largest reduction occurring among participants who lived alone (The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciencesopens in new window, May).
• Girls make higher grades than boys in all school subjects, according to a study conducted at the University of New Brunswick. Researchers examined samples from 308 studies conducted from 1914 to 2011, reflecting the grades of 538,710 boys and 595,332 girls from more than 30 countries. The differences in grades between girls and boys were largest for language courses and smallest for math and science. The female advantage in school performance in math and science did not become apparent until junior high or middle school. The researchers also found that the degree of gender difference in grades increased from elementary to middle school, but decreased between high school and college (Psychological Bulletinopens in new window, online April 28).

— Amy Novotney