Just a few weeks ago you were anxiously counting the days until your precious child came home from college. Now you just can’t wait to restore the peace in your home and get the kid back to school again.
“Often when young adults come home for their first extended leave from college, there can be some conflict in the family,” says Heather Stewart, LCSW, a social worker and primary clinician at The Menninger Clinic. “Roles have changed while the young adult has been away at school. The young adult has had a sense of becoming a true adult. They’ve tested the waters on their own and have set new boundaries like self-inflicted curfews. Where the conflict comes in to play is when these boundaries are not completely in line with the parents’ wants.” [continue reading…]
How children respond to the smell of alcoholic beverages is related to their mothers’ reasons for drinking, according to a new study from the Monell Chemical Senses Center. When asked to smell both the odor of beer and an unpleasant odor and then indicate which they liked better, children of mothers classified as ‘Escape drinkers were more likely than children of Non-escape drinkers to select the unpleasant odor over beer.
“Children’s responses to odors provide us with a window into their emotions, says study lead author Julie Mennella, PhD, a Monell biopsychologist. “When given a choice between beer and pyridine – the smell of rotten eggs – children of mothers who drink to relieve tension and worry choose pyridine as smelling better. That’s pretty powerful.
In the study, which appears in the journal Alcohol, 145 children between the ages of 5 and 8 years were presented with seven pairs of odors. One of the odors was always beer; the others were bubblegum, chocolate, cola, coffee, green tea, pyridine, and cigarette smoke. For each pair, the children indicated which odor they liked better. [continue reading…]
Wonder if you could be one of “those ” parents who rant and rage at their kid’s soccer game? Well, you don’t have to look much farther than your car’s rearview mirror for clues.
According to a new study in the June issue of the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, if you have a tendency to become upset while driving, you’re more likely to be the kind of parent who explodes in anger at your kids’ sports matches.
Research by kinesiology Ph.D student Jay Goldstein of the University of Maryland School of Public Health found that ego defensiveness, one of the triggers that ignites road rage, also kicks off parental “sideline rage,” and that a parent with a control-oriented personality is more likely to react to that trigger by becoming angry and aggressive. [continue reading…]
Young children show evidence of smart and flexible behavior early in life – even though they don’t really know what they’re doing, new research suggests.
In a series of experiments, scientists tested how well 4- and 5-year-olds were able to rely on different types of information to choose objects in a group. In some situations, they were asked to choose objects based on color and in some cases based on shape. [continue reading…]
