Talking about sex with parents, especially mothers, is associated with safer sex among adolescents, finds research conducted at North Carolina State University. The team pooled data from 30 years of research with more than 25,000 adolescents from 52 studies on the effects of parent-adolescent communication on sexual behavior and contraceptive use. Findings showed that parent-adolescent sexual communication is a protective factor for youth, particularly among girls and those adolescents who discussed sexual topics with their mothers (JAMA Pediatrics, online Nov. 2).
Relationships play a critical role in keeping a mother happy and healthy
, according to a study by Arizona State University psychologists. They asked more than 2,000 highly educated, upper-middle-class mothers to list the factors that helped them cope with motherhood. Four factors that stood out as main contributors to helping moms keep distress at bay were unconditional acceptance, feeling comforted when needed, authenticity in relationships and friendship satisfaction (
Developmental Psychology
, online Oct. 26
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Adolescents' mood swings decline as they get older , according to a study by psychologists at several Dutch universities. They followed 474 adolescents — 40 percent of whom often displayed aggressive behaviors — from ages 13 to 16. Using Internet diaries, the teens rated their daily moods during three weeks of the school year for five years. The researchers found that during the course of adolescence, teens' moods became more stable. Girls had higher variability than boys in happiness and sadness, but the rate of change across adolescence was similar for both sexes ( Child Development , November/December opens in new window ).
"Thank you" is key to a happy marriage
, finds a study conducted at the University of Georgia. Researchers
interviewed nearly 500 married couples
about their financial well-being, communication styles and how frequently they expressed gratitude to each other. Results indicated that spousal expression of gratitude was the most consistent predictor of marital quality. Further, couples who made saying "thank you" a habit were less affected by poor communication and other marital stressors (
Personal Relationships
, September
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The achievement gap between typical and dyslexic readers may be evident as early as first grade , according to a study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Yale University. They examined data from 414 students assessed yearly from first through 12th grades on measures of reading and IQ. Compared with typical readers, dyslexic readers had lower reading scores as early as first grade, and their trajectories over time never converged with those of typical readers. The authors suggest that interventions in kindergarten or even preschool might help close the achievement gap ( The Journal of Pediatrics , November opens in new window ).
Contrary to popular belief, birth order appears to have minimal effect on personality , according to a study by researchers at the universities of Mainz and Leipzig in Germany. After analyzing data from 20,000 adults from Germany, Great Britain and the United States, researchers concluded that personality traits such as extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness and conscientiousness were not affected by birth order. They did find, however, that firstborn children tended to have richer vocabularies and greater ability to understand abstract ideas ( Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , online Oct. 19 opens in new window ).
Neuroscientists have begun to map how the human brain processes gratitude . Researchers at the University of Southern California showed 23 participants — most in their 20s and who had no personal connection to the Holocaust — documentaries sharing Holocaust survivors' testimonies about the rise of Nazism, the concentration camps and the liberation in 1945. The researchers then asked participants to place themselves in various survivor stories in the video — such as one in which they're trying to escape from the Nazis and a family takes them in — and imagine the depth of gratitude they would have felt. Functional MRI scans taken while the participants imagined themselves in these scenarios showed that gratitude involves activation of areas in the medial prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortex, similar to the regions triggered during the experience of other positive feelings such as those related to reward, fairness and self-awareness ( Frontiers of Psychology , Sept. 30 opens in new window ).
Marijuana use among U.S. adults more than doubled from 2001 to 2013
, finds research by Columbia University scientists. They compared nationally representative prevalence rates gathered from federal surveys and found that past-year marijuana use climbed to 9.5 percent of adults in 2012–13 from 4.1 percent in 2001–02, with particularly notable increases among women, black and Hispanic individuals, middle-aged and older adults and those living in the South. The authors credit much of the increase in use to shifting laws and attitudes about marijuana, with 23 states now legally selling medical marijuana and four states legalizing marijuana for recreational use (
JAMA Psychiatry
, online Oct. 21
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Psychosocial treatment combined with a low dose of antipsychotic drugs is most effective in treating schizophrenia , according to a study led by researchers at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. Scientists followed 404 patients with first-episode psychosis at 34 community care clinics. Half received the traditional treatment of antipsychotic drugs and half received doses of the drugs that were up to 50 percent lower, along with a psychosocial intervention that included assistance with school, discussions with family members and psychotherapy to help manage symptoms. After two years, participants in groups that took less medication and had the psychosocial intervention had greater improvement in quality of life and psychopathology, and greater involvement in work and school compared with participants in traditional community care ( The American Journal of Psychiatry , online Oct. 20 opens in new window ).
Stereotypes may be harmful to patients' health , finds research led by University of Southern California psychologists. They surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults and found that about 17 percent of participants reported feeling vulnerable to prejudice with regard to racial or ethnic identity, gender, socioeconomic status, weight or age in health-care settings. Participants who felt threatened by these stereotypes were more likely to have hypertension, to be depressed and to rate their health more poorly. They were also more distrustful of their physicians, felt dissatisfied with their care and were less likely to use preventive care than those who did not report feeling judged because of negative stereotypes ( American Journal of Preventive Medicine , online Oct. 20).
Fear-based appeals may influence attitudes and behaviors, especially among women, according to a meta-analysis led by a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign psychologist. Researchers examined 127 research articles with more than 27,000 participants, published from 1962 to 2015. They found that messages that emphasize the potential danger and harm that will befall individuals if they do not adopt the messages' recommendations are effective, especially when they contain recommendations for one-time-only as opposed to repeated behaviors, such as voting for a particular candidate, and when the target audience includes a large percentage of women ( Psychological Bulletin , online Oct. 23 opens in new window ).
Despite known risks of serious side effects, antipsychotic use among older adults increases with age , finds research led by a Columbia University psychiatrist. Investigators looked at antipsychotic prescriptions filled from 2006 to 2010. They found that the percentage of adults with an antipsychotic prescription was approximately twice as high among people ages 80 to 84 as among those ages 65 to 69. They also found that in 2010, more than three-quarters of older adults who received an antipsychotic prescription had no documented psychiatric diagnosis during the year ( Journal of Clinical Psychiatry , October opens in new window ).
Time seems to slow down for white Americans who feel threatened by an approaching black person , suggests research at Princeton University. In a series of experiments, 500 white adults viewed faces of white and black people who appeared to be moving toward them on a computer screen. Participants rated the apparent speed or approximate time that each face was on the screen and completed a survey that measured their anxiety when they saw people of a different race. Participants who reported more racial anxiety perceived the approaching black faces as moving more slowly or appearing for a longer duration on the computer screen than the white faces. The same effects weren't found when the black faces appeared to be moving farther away, perhaps because they weren't perceived as a threat, the authors suggest ( Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , online Nov. 2).
Early damage to the amygdala or hippocampus can affect adult social behavior , finds research at the University of California, Davis. Scientists recorded the social behavior of adult rhesus macaque monkeys that received bilateral lesions to the amygdala or hippocampus or a sham control operation at approximately 2 weeks old. They found that amygdala-lesioned animals were less social than control animals, spending more time being active but still out of reach of their pair-mate. They spent significantly less time grooming other animals, and displayed more repetitive and stress-related behaviors when alone. Researchers also found that these social impairments became less pronounced as the animals matured. In contrast, animals with early hippocampus damage were more social than controls, spending more time in close social interactions that they were more likely to initiate, and this hyper-sociability became more pronounced as the animals matured. The authors suggest that a greater understanding of how the brain adapts to early damage may help enhance recovery of function in human children who have suffered early brain damage ( Behavioral Neuroscience , June opens in new window ).
"Ferguson Effect" does not necessarily keep police from doing their jobs , according to a study by investigators at the University of South Carolina. The researchers examined data from a February 2015 survey of 567 deputies at a midsized sheriff's department in the southeastern United States that serves 393,000 residents. Participants completed an anonymous questionnaire examining the extent to which they agreed that negative publicity associated with police actions — such as the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri — made them less motivated or less proactive on the job than they were in the past. Results suggest that negative publicity does decrease officers' motivation on the job, and makes them less willing to work directly with community members to solve problems. However, the researchers also found that officers who have confidence in their authority or perceive their agency as fair are more willing to partner with the community, regardless of negative publicity ( Law and Human Behavior , online Oct. 12). (Given the ongoing national focus on race relations and policing, the study received significant media coverage, including a plug on The Daily Show. Watch a reportopens in new window .)
Frequently monitoring and publicly reporting progress toward goals increases the chance of success , finds a meta-analysis led by University of Sheffield psychologists. They examined 138 studies comprising nearly 20,000 participants that looked at the effectiveness of an intervention designed to prompt participants to monitor their progress on such goals as losing weight, quitting smoking, changing diet or lowering blood pressure. Participants who were prompted to monitor their progress were more likely to achieve their goal, and the more frequently they monitored, the greater the chance of their success. Participants who recorded or publicly reported their monitoring progress had even more success at meeting their goals ( Psychological Bulletin , online Oct. 19).
By age 5 children have a sense of self-esteem similar to that of adults , according to a study by University of Washington researchers. They administered a task to 235 5-year-olds to measure how strongly the preschoolers feel positive about themselves. The task used small unfamiliar flags, with researchers instructing the children which of the flags were "yours" and "not yours." Then, using buttons on a computer, children responded to a series of "me" and "not me" flags and "good" words, such as fun, happy and nice, and "bad" words, such as mad, mean and yucky, presented over a loudspeaker. The patterns of presentation and responses indicated that the 5-year-olds associated the "good" words more with the "me" flags than the "not me" flags, indicating generally high self-esteem, to an equal degree in girls and boys ( Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , January).
Men will eat significantly more food in the company of women than they will with other men , according to research from the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab. Researchers observed 105 men and women who ate pizza and salad at a buffet over two weeks. After eating, the diners completed short surveys on their level of fullness, feelings of hurriedness and comfort while eating. Men who dined with at least one woman ate 93 percent more pizza and 86 percent more salad than men who dined with only other men. The amount that women ate didn't differ when eating with other women or with men ( Evolutionary Psychological Science opens in new window , Nov. 10).
The food on your kitchen counter can predict your weight
, suggests research conducted at Cornell University. Scientists studied photos of more than 200 American kitchens and compared them to the weight of the women living in those homes. They found that women who had breakfast cereal sitting on their counters weighed about 20 pounds more than those who didn't, and women with soft drinks sitting out weighed 24 to 26 pounds more. In kitchens with visible fruit bowls, women weighed about 13 pounds less than women from kitchens without one (
Health Education & Behavior
, online Oct. 19
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Songs calm babies longer than speech , according to a University of Montreal study. In the experiment with 30 6- to 9-month olds, researchers played either recordings of a Turkish play song or "baby talk" by an adult speaking in Turkish, until the infants showed signs of distress. They found that when listening to the Turkish song, babies remained calm for an average of approximately nine minutes, compared with roughly half as long when listening to speech.
Singing together produces faster group bonding than other activities
, finds research by psychologists at the University of Oxford. They followed seven newly formed singing, crafting and creative-writing adult education classes, asking participants to rate their closeness to their group after one month, three months and seven months. The researchers found that although singers and nonsingers felt equally connected at three months and seven months, singers experienced a much faster bond with the group (
Open Science
, Oct. 28
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— Amy Novotney
