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Child Psychology News as of Feb 09, 2025
Children Enforce Social Norms
Fri, 27 Jul 2012 07:11:31 - Pacific Time
Social norms act as the glue that helps to govern social institutions and hold humans societies together, but how do we acquire these norms in the first place? In a new article summarized in Science Daily and published in the August 2012 issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, researchers Marco Schmidt and Michael Tomasello of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology aim to get a better understanding of this important 'social glue' by reviewing research on children's enforcement of social norms.
"Social norms are crucial for understanding human social interactions, social arrangements, and human cooperation more generally. But we can only fully grasp the existence of social norms in humans if we look into the cradle," says Schmidt. Schmidt and Tomasello were specifically interested in understanding children's use of a type of norm called constitutive norms. Unlike other norms, constitutive norms can give rise to new social realities. Police, for example, are given their power through the 'consent of the governed,' which entitles them to do all sorts of things that we would never allow an average citizen to do.
Constitutive norms can be found in many places, but they are especially important in rule games like chess -- there are certain norms that make chess what it is. So, for example, if you move a pawn backward in a game of chess, you're not just violating a norm by failing to follow a particular convention, you're also not playing the game everyone agreed upon. You're simply not playing chess.
In recent years, Schmidt and Tomasello, along with Hannes Rakoczy of the University of Göttingen, have conducted several studies with the aim of examining how children use constitutive norms and identifying the point at which they stop thinking of game rules as dictates handed down by powerful authorities and begin thinking of them as something like a mutual social agreement.
In one study, 2- and 3-year-old children watched a puppet, who announced that she would now 'dax.' The puppet proceeded to perform an action that was different from what the children had seen an adult refer to as 'daxing' earlier. Many of the children objected to this rule violation and the 3-year-olds specifically made norm-based objections, such as "It doesn't work like that. You have to do it like this."
In another study, Schmidt, Rakoczy, and Tomasello found that children only enforce game norms on members of their own cultural in-group -- for example, people who speak the same language. These results suggest that children understand that 'our group' falls within the scope of the norm and can be expected to respect it. And research also shows that children don't need explicit teaching from adults to see an action as following a social norm; they only need to see that adults expect things to work a certain way. Together, these studies suggest that children not only understand social norms at an early age, they're able to apply the norms in appropriate contexts and to the appropriate social group. "Every parent recognizes this kind of behavior -- young children insisting that people follow the rules -- but what is surprising is how sophisticated children are in calibrating their behavior to fit the circumstances," says Tomasello. Schmidt and Tomasello hypothesize that children enforce social norms as a way of identifying with their community's way of doing things. Enforcing social norms, then, is an integral part of becoming a member of a cultural group. Read More...
New Study Shows Significance of Father's Love
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 06:29:47 - Pacific Time
A new study reported in PsychCentral discovers that while mothers have a unique social and emotional bond with each child, a father’s love contributes as much - and sometimes more - to a child’s development. This finding is one of many stemming from a new large-scale analysis of research about the power of parental rejection and acceptance in shaping our personalities as children and into adulthood.
"In our half-century of international research, we’ve not found any other class of experience that has as strong and consistent effect on personality and personality development as does the experience of rejection, especially by parents in childhood," said Ronald Rohner, Ph.D., of the University of Connecticut. Rohner is co-author of a new study found in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review.
"Children and adults everywhere - regardless of differences in race, culture, and gender - tend to respond in exactly the same way when they perceived themselves to be rejected by their caregivers and other attachment figures."
In a review of 36 studies international studies that involved more than 10,000 participants, Rohner and co-author Abdul Khaleque discovered that parental rejection causes children to feel more anxious and insecure, as well as more hostile and aggressive toward others. Researchers discovered the pain of rejection - especially when it occurs over a period of time in childhood - tends to linger into adulthood, making it more difficult for adults who were rejected as children to form secure and trusting relationships with their intimate partners.
The studies are based on surveys of children and adults about their parents’ degree of acceptance or rejection during their childhood, coupled with questions about their personality dispositions.
Moreover, Rohner said, emerging evidence from the past decade of research in psychology and neuroscience is revealing that the same parts of the brain are activated when people feel rejected as are activated when they experience physical pain.
"Unlike physical pain, however, people can psychologically relive the emotional pain of rejection over and over for years," Rohner said. Read More...
Treating Childhood Anxiety With Computers
Tue, 12 Jun 2012 06:29:49 - Pacific Time
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, one in eight children suffers from an anxiety disorder. And because many anxious children turn into severely anxious adults, early intervention can have a major impact on a patient's life trajectory. The understandable reluctance to use psychiatric medications when it comes to children means child psychologists are always searching for viable therapeutic alternatives.
A story in Science Daily says that Prof. Yair Bar-Haim of Tel Aviv University's School of Psychological Sciences and his fellow researchers are pursuing a new method to address childhood anxiety. Based on a computer program, the treatment uses a technique called Attention Bias Modification (ABM) to reduce anxiety by drawing children away from their tendency to dwell on potential threats, ultimately changing their thought patterns. In its initial clinical trial, the program was as effective as medication and cognitive therapy for children -- with several distinct advantages.
Children are comfortable with computers, explains Prof. Bar-Haim. And because of the potential side effects of medications or the difficulty in obtaining cognitive behavioral therapy, such as the need for highly trained professionals, it is good to have an alternative treatment method. ABM treatments can be disseminated over the Internet or administered by personnel who don't have to be Ph.D.s. "This could be a game-changer for providing treatment," he says.
Anxious individuals have a heightened sensitivity towards threats that the average person would ignore, a sensitivity which creates and maintains anxiety, says Prof. Bar-Haim. One of the ways to measure a patient's threat-related attention patterns is called the dot-probe test. The patient is presented with two pictures or words, one threatening and one neutral. These words then disappear and a dot appears where one of the pictures or words had been, and the patient is asked to press a button to indicate the dot's location. A fast response time to a dot that appears in the place of the threatening picture or word indicates a bias towards threat.
To turn this test into a therapy, the location of the dot target is manipulated to appear more frequently beneath the neutral word or picture. Gradually, the patient begins to focus on that stimulus instead, predicting that this is where the dot will appear -- helping to normalize the attention bias pattern and reduce anxiety.
Prof. Bar-Haim and his colleagues enlisted the participation of 40 pediatric patients with ongoing anxiety disorders and divided them into three groups. The first received the new ABM treatment; the second served as a placebo group where the dot appeared equally behind threatening and neutral images; and the third group was shown only neutral stimuli. Patients participated in one session a week for four weeks, completing 480 dot probe trials each session.
The children's anxiety levels were measured before and after the training sessions using interviews and questionnaires. In both the placebo group and neutral images group, researchers found no significant change in the patients' bias towards threatening stimuli. However, in the ABM group, there were marked differences in the participants' threat bias. By the end of the trial, approximately 33 percent of the patients in this group no longer met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety disorder Read More...
Children May Self Injure As Early as Third Grade
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 07:07:35 - Pacific Time
A new study reported on Fox News says that As early as third grade, some children are hitting, cutting or otherwise hurting themselves. Studies have suggested about one-fifth of teens and young adults engage in self-injury at some point to relieve negative emotions or reach out for help, for example. But this report is the first to ask the question of kids as young as seven. Researchers found one in 12 of the third-, sixth- and ninth-graders they interviewed had self-injured at least once without the intention of killing themselves.
"A lot of people tend to think that school-aged children, they're happy, they don't have a lot to worry about," said Benjamin Hankin, a psychologist from the University of Denver who worked on the study. "Clearly a lot more kids are doing this than people have known."
Hankin and his colleagues spoke with 665 youth about their thoughts and behaviors related to self-harm. They found close to eight percent of third graders, four percent of sixth graders and 13 percent of ninth graders had hit, cut, burned or otherwise purposefully injured themselves at least once. In younger kids hitting was the most common form of self-injury, whereas high schoolers were most likely to cut or carve their skin.
Ten of the kids, or 1.5 percent, met proposed psychological criteria for a diagnosis of non-suicidal self-injury, meaning they had hurt themselves at least five times and had a lot of negative feelings tied to the behavior, the researchers reported Monday in Pediatrics. Youth who self-injure often say they do it to help stop bad emotions, or to feel something -- even pain -- when they are otherwise feeling numb, according to psychologists. "You can have young kids who are experiencing a lot of emotions, things that they don't know how to deal with it, so they start banging their head against the wall," Hankin said. Or, parents might ask kids to do chores, and to protest they self-injure. "I think a lot of times parents think this is just attention-seeking behavior," said Steven Pastyrnak, head of pediatric psychology at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
But, he added, most kids he sees self-injure because they are looking for ways to express their depression, anxiety or anger. Parents might not know kids are hurting themselves, especially older youth who if they do self-injure, often do so in private. But it's always a good idea to pay attention to changes in kids' behavior, as well as trouble eating or sleeping, and talk to their pediatrician if parents are worried, researchers said.
Stephen Lewis, who has studied self-injury at the University of Guelph in Ontario, said parents who do find out their child may be self-harming should consider the most helpful way to respond, even if they're upset.
"What's important is to react in a way that conveys the parent cares about their child, and to act in a calming way and a non-judgmental way," Lewis, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.
"For parents, the first step would be to talk to their child about it, to try to understand what's going on -- what's motivating it, and what might be going on in the child's life that's contributing to it."
"The bright side is, typically anxiety and depression as well as (self-injury) are very treatable," Pastyrnak, who also wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. Read More...
Premature Babies Have Higher Psychiatric Risk
Sun, 3 Jun 2012 19:55:22 - Pacific Time
Babies born prematurely have a much higher risk of developing severe mental disorders including psychosis, bipolar disorder and depression, according to a study to be published on Monday. Reuters Health reports that scientists in Britain and Sweden found that people born very prematurely - at less than 32 weeks' gestation - were three times more likely than those born at term to be hospitalized with a psychiatric illness at age 16 and older. The researchers think the increased risk may be down to small but important differences in brain development in babies born before a full 40 week gestation period. The risk varied depending on the condition - psychosis was 2.5 times more likely for premature babies, severe depression 3 times more likely, and bipolar disorder 7.4 times more likely for those born before 32 weeks.
The study, to be published in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal, also found smaller but significant increased psychiatric risks for babies born only moderately early, at between 32 and 36 weeks. Chiara Nosarti from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, who led the research, said it showed "a very strong link" between premature birth and psychiatric disorders. "Since we considered only the most severe cases that resulted in hospitalization, it may be that in real terms this link is even stronger," Nosarti told reporters at a briefing.
She stressed, however, that: "The majority of individuals who are born prematurely have no psychiatric or cognitive problems and are absolutely healthy and well functioning." The disorders affect between 1 and 6 percent of the population as a whole, she said.
Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said the findings should help doctors spot people most at risk of psychiatric disorders before they become severely ill. "Early identification of those who are vulnerable could lead to possible prevention and better outcomes," she said in a statement, adding that "any study which throws light on the yet-unknown causes of most mental illnesses and the development of the brain could be an important step forward." Read More...
Babies With Developmental Delay Go Untreated
Sun, 27 May 2012 15:23:40 - Pacific Time
About one out of every three infants who scores well below average on a test of developmental skills -- and is therefore considered at a high risk of having delays -- does not get referred to early intervention services, according to a new study summarized in Reuters Health.
"It's a problem, because I think that early intervention services can really make a difference in kids who are at risk for developmental delay," said Dr. Joanne Cox, a pediatrics professor at Children's Hospital Boston, who was not involved in the research.
Early intervention services try to get kids who lag behind in physical or mental skills to catch up with their peers.
Doctors, other health providers and parents can refer a child for early intervention, and states set the standards for which children are eligible for government-coordinated services.
Dr. Brian Tang, lead author of the study and a clinical instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine, said there's been a big push in the public health and medical communities to screen for developmental delays and get kids into early intervention programs.
Among children who spent time as a newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a hospital, the risk of having delays is higher, and "I thought it was important to see how good of a job we're doing in terms of getting (them) referrals," Tang said. He and his colleagues collected data from a quality improvement program in California that has tracked the medical care and health outcomes of children who have been hospitalized in a NICU.
All of the more than 5,000 children in the study were eligible for three follow-up visits with a specialist to check up on their developmental progress after they left the NICU. The visits occurred before the child turned three. The researchers measured how often kids at high risk of delays got a referral for early intervention during one of these follow-up visits. They considered the children high risk if they failed a screen for developmental progress or scored near the bottom of the pack on a standardized test.
Of the 185 children who failed the screening test, some had already been in early intervention and most of those who weren't received a referral for it during their first follow-up visit. But 42 of the 118 who had no early intervention before failing the screen -- 36 percent -- did not get a referral to early intervention or other services at the first follow-up visit when they were four to eight months old. Similarly, 136 of the 401 kids (34 percent) who scored low on the standard test and had no previous early intervention did not get any referrals.
Tang said he suspected that doctors might be taking a wait-and-see approach before referring the children to early intervention.
But at the second follow-up visit, when the kids were 12 to 16 months old, the numbers were about the same -- 34 to 37 percent of the children without previous early intervention did not get a referral for it at that point either.
"I think it was really shocking to see that... a significant proportion of them weren't getting referrals," Tang told Reuters Health. Read More...
Moms' smoking linked to psychiatric meds in kids
Sun, 28 Aug 2011 08:31:13 - Pacific Time
Kids whose moms smoked while pregnant were more likely to end up on medications such as antidepressants, stimulants and drugs for addiction in a new study from Finland that hints at maternal smoking's effect on a baby's developing brain. hile the findings don't prove that cigarette smoking during pregnancy causes changes in kids' brains or behavior, they offer one more piece of evidence that should encourage women not to light up while pregnant, the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Epidemiology. he new study is "entirely consistent with a large and still-growing research literature on the effects of prenatal and secondhand smoke exposure on the mental health of children," said Dr. Michael Weitzman, who studies that topic at New York University Medical Center and was not involved in the new study. I found it very interesting and very important," Weitzman said. he research, he added, is the first he knows of that looks specifically at use of psychiatric medications in kids whose moms had smoked. hat's important, the authors noted, because tracking medication prescriptions may pick up on more mild conditions than studies that only include kids who are hospitalized for mental illness, for example. Read More...
Study Claims Puberty Cming Earlier for U.S. Girls
Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:27:45 - Pacific Time
Girls in the U.S. may be continuing to hit puberty at earlier ages, according to new research. The findings suggest earlier development than what was reported in a 1997 study and show a worrying pattern, say the study's authors, led by Dr. Frank Biro of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Girls who hit puberty earlier are more likely to engage in risky behavior, Biro's team notes, and might be at a higher risk for breast cancer, than their peers who develop later. "This could represent a real trend," Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Michigan who was not involved with the new research, told Reuters Health. Doctors are unsure of what could be causing girls to develop at a younger age, but rising obesity rates may be to blame, they say. In a study published today in Pediatrics, Biro's team examined about 1,200 girls aged 7 and 8 in Cincinnati, New York and San Francisco. Researchers, as well as the girls' doctors and nurses, used a standard measure of breast development to determine which girls had started puberty. Compared to the 1997 findings from girls across the U.S., girls in the current study - especially white girls - were more developed at a younger age. As previous research has shown, there were also large differences in development based on race.This study and another published today in Pediatrics suggest that being overweight, both as a young child and growing up, makes girls more likely to enter puberty earlier. In the second study, Dr. Mildred Maisonet from Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and her colleagues observed that gaining weight quickly in infancy - a predictor of later obesity - was linked to early puberty in girls in Great Britain. Read More...
Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative produces long-term gains
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:22:06 - Pacific Time
Lyricist Johnny Mercer may have stumbled onto a significant therapy when he cajoled his audience to “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative” and “don’t mess with Mr. In-between.” The latest findings on the long-term effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) suggest that it has positive effects for children up to 13 years after they first receive treatment. CBT teaches individuals to reassess their negative thoughts and beliefs to try to instill a more positive set of judgments. There are some additional benefits to individual CBT over group-based approaches, but overall the findings suggest that practitioners working with children can be flexible about which treatment approach to adopt and remain confident about the chances of success. The research, due to be published in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, involved young people that originally participated in randomized experiments investigating the effectiveness of CBT (for children with anxiety and phobic disorders) over a decade ago. CBT itself is described in more detail elsewhere on Prevention Action (See: The value of looking on the brighter side). At the time of those original experiments, all of the children had a diagnosed anxiety disorder. A common behavior adopted by clinically anxious children (and adults) is the avoidance of situations that make them fearful. Avoidance can become extreme enough to interfere with day-to-day life. The CBT prescribed to participants of these trials relied on the principles of exposure therapy. This meant exposing participants to anxiety producing situations so that the therapist could teach them how to cope. Some participants received the treatment on an individual basis (ICBT); others attended group sessions with four to eight other children (GCBT). Both formats were standardized to ensure treatment integrity. They consisted of 10 to 12 sessions delivered by trained therapists. Wendy Silverman, a psychologist at Florida International University’s Child Anxiety and Phobia Program (CAPP), designed the program evaluation. The experiments demonstrated significant short-term reductions in symptoms of anxiety—both reported by parents and the individuals themselves—compared to control group children who did not receive CBT. A decade later, Silverman, with the help of a new team of researchers, tracked down many of the original participants to investigate whether the treatment gains observed all those years ago had been sustained. In all, 67 (out of 106) young people agreed to participate in the new assessment. They were now between 16 and 26 years old, having received CBT initially between 8 and 13 years earlier. The results were more than reassuring. The reduction in symptoms of anxiety (the target of the intervention) reported by Silverman in 1999 was sustained over the long term. Not only that, but CBT also had positive effects on other associated disorders such as depression and substance abuse. This was especially true for participants who had received individual treatment. But outcomes were also good for those who attended group sessions Read More...
News Archive
Teens With More Screen Time Have Lower-Quality Relationships: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 05:09:07 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Teen pot smokers at high risk of mental illness: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 06:23:16 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 07:28:17 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Kids of bipolar parents at risk for mental woes: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:05:50 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Many children 'hear voices'; most aren't bothered: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:22:37 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Siblings Play Formative, Influential Role as 'Agents of Socialization': Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:31:29 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Environment Plays Key Role in Developing Reading Skills: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:48:07 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Smacking your kid is good for him: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 08:05:59 - Pacific Time: Read More...
More Toddlers, Young Children Given Antipsychotics: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 07:43:11 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Later-to-bed teens risk sadness, suicidal thoughts: Mon, 4 Jan 2010 16:56:50 - Pacific Time: Read More...
New therapy method aids kids who cut selves: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 08:00:33 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!": Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:36:54 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Brit kids as young as 10 being treated for cocaine addiction: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:50:23 - Pacific Time: Read More...
10 Most Fascinating Savants in the World: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:14:12 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Why do psychologists reject science?: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:42:00 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Video Games Develop Better Visual Skills: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:24:44 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Premature birth tied to later behavioral problems: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:28:50 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Psychotherapy Offers Obesity Prevention for 'at Risk' Teenage Girls: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:53:21 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Witnesses to Bullying May Face More Mental Health Risks Than Bullies and Victims: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:00:33 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Kids' mental problems often unaddressed: U.S. survey: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:48:51 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Support for new parents 'crucial': Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:56:33 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Miller bill would limit how school officials can control unruly students: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 16:23:47 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Psychologists Suggest Parents Should Wait to Teach Toddlers Self-Control: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 07:26:36 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Delinquent Boys at Increased Risk of Premature Death and Disability by Middle Age: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 07:13:36 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Difficult Childhood May Increase Disease Risk in Adulthood: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 07:09:44 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Heavier kids tend to underestimate their size: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 14:48:39 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Physically active boys are smarter, study hints: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 14:42:36 - Pacific Time: Read More...
FDA staff urge more antipsychotic review in kids: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 14:38:39 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Teen internet addicts more apt to self harm: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 22:15:11 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Depression, peers top influences on youth violence: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 22:06:59 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Heavy Criticism from a Parent Can Increase Aggressive Behavior in Children: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:28:22 - Pacific Time: Read More...
How to Find Mental Health Care When Money Is Tight: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:21:18 - Pacific Time: Read More...
Tips on Taming the 'Boogie Monster': Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:19:11 - Pacific Time: Read More...
A fresh look at child psychology: Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:09:18 - Pacific Time: Read More...
![]() | Please See Our Catalog of Books About Child Psychology for More Information About This Subject | ![]() | Please See Our Catalog of Free Online Videos About Child Psychology for More Information |