Feature Channels: Behavioral Science

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Graduate students in the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago will receive specialized training to help individuals with mental health issues in Chicago’s marginalized communities.

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Improving pedestrian safety even in the presence of warnings remains a challenge.

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Adolescence is a critical time for development of the brain, as well as accompanying cognitive and socioemotional abilities. It is also a time of high media activity. Results of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study that examined the effects of media activity on psychopathology among youth will be shared at the 41st annual scientific meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) in San Diego June 17-21.

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A pair of recent studies performed by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania represents a significant step forward in understanding the role of the brain’s “reward circuit” and certain hallmarks of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), namely difficulty interpreting or engaging in typical social behavior and restricted or repetitive interests or behaviors.

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“Pregaming” is defined as drinking alone or with other people before going to an event or get-together where alcohol may be present. Pregaming often involves rapid drinking, which can quickly produce high blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) that meet or exceed the legal limit for intoxication. It is a common, high-risk drinking activity among college students that remains largely unaffected by efforts to reduce its occurrence. This study sought to identify profiles of pregamers to characterize the specific risks associated with the behavior, and to develop more effective prevention strategies on college campuses.

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Knowing what to do to save a life in the aftermath of a mass trauma event is now at the touch of a button. The Uniformed Services University’s (USU) National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) recently launched “Stop the Bleed,” a free iPhone and Android app designed to teach users how to stop life-threatening bleeding in an emergency – and hopefully save lives.

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One of the joys of shopping for many people is the opportunity to brag about their purchases to friends and others.But new research found one common situation in which people would rather not discuss what they just bought: when they’re feeling like money is a little tight.

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WASHINGTON -- It’s natural for parents to do whatever they can to keep their children safe and healthy, but children need space to learn and grow on their own, without Mom or Dad hovering over them, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. The study, published in the journal Developmental Psychology, found that overcontrolling parenting can negatively affect a child’s ability to manage his or her emotions and behavior.

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Almost anyone can relate to being afraid of needles and injections. A pilot study is the first to use a 3D virtual reality headset to test this tool as a distraction method in a pediatric setting. Children were given the choice of a roller coaster ride, helicopter ride or a hot-air balloon ride. Results show that anticipated versus actual pain and fear were reduced in 94.1 percent of the pediatric study subjects.

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Parents varied in their views about reporting unsafe ride operator behavior, with 9 in 10 saying they would definitely report suspicions that the operator was drunk or on drugs.

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Like everyone, people with type 2 diabetes and obesity suffer from depression and anxiety, but even more so. Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center now have demonstrated a surprising potential contributor to these negative feelings – and that is the bacteria in the gut or gut microbiome, as it is known.

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Impulsivity is broadly described as the tendency to act without prior thought. It is often linked to alcohol misuse in college students. However, impulsivity is a complex concept and it is likely that different subtypes of this psychological construct are associated with different patterns of alcohol misuse. This study examined links among several categories of impulsivity with both the frequency of alcohol consumption and the frequency of alcohol intoxication.

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When are primary school children willing to share valuable resources with others and when are they not? A team of researchers from the University of Vienna lead by cognitive biologist Lisa Horn investigated this question in a controlled behavioural experiment. The motivation to share seems to be influenced by group dynamical and physiological factors, whereas friendship between the children seems to be largely irrelevant. The results of their study have been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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Rapid expansion of human activity across the globe is causing wildlife to become more nocturnal, according to a new joint study conducted by researchers at Boise State University and the University of California, Berkley, and published in the journal, Science.

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A recent study published in American Psychiatric Association’s Psychiatric Services journal found previous research on youth hospitalizations associated with behavioral and mental disorders failed to adequately consider children exhibiting suicidality or self-harm. Previous studies assigned behavioral health disorders, such as depression, as the primary diagnosis, while identifying suicidality or self-harm as a secondary diagnosis. By looking closely at the data, the new study found that nearly 24 percent of all behavioral-related admissions are complicated by suicidality or self-harm.

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Using MRI measurements of the brain's neural connections, or “white matter,” UW researchers have shown that, in struggling readers, the neural circuitry strengthened — and their reading performance improved — after just eight weeks of a specialized tutoring program. The study, published June 8 in Nature Communications, is the first to measure white matter during an intensive educational intervention and link children's learning with their brains' flexibility.

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People react differently to positive events in their lives. For some, a small reward can have a large impact on their mood, while others may get a smaller emotional boost from the same positive event.These reactions can not only be objectively measured in a simple office evaluation, but researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago report that they can help clinicians determine whether a patient with anxiety or depression is responding to treatment and if they will do better on an antidepressant drug, or in talk therapy.

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An international team led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers has conducted what is believed to be the largest detailed published study of people with a poorly understood skin condition known as prurigo nodularis (PN). Such studies collect information on a whole subset of people at once and at a particular point in time.

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A new study suggests that the so-called “minority bias” exerts a powerful influence — important since one in five Americans is expected to identify as multiracial by 2050. University of Utah psychology professor Jacqueline M. Chen, lead author of the study published by the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, that found observers were most likely to categorize someone who is black-white multiracial as non-white. The findings are the first to document minority bias as a guiding principle in multiracial categorization.

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Susie Layne, program manager at the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services, is the recipient of the West Virginia University School of Social Work’s 2018 Anita S. Harbert Outstanding Achievement in Aging Award.

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A new nationwide study of obituaries has found that people with religious affiliations lived nearly four years longer than those with no ties to religion.

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A study is the first to use gold-standard methods to test the hypothesis that antipsychotic treatment in youths adversely increases body fat and decreases insulin sensitivity. All three antipsychotics tested – oral aripiprazole, olanzapine, and risperidone, which are common first line use medications for children with nonpsychotic behavior disorders – increased not only total body fat, but also visceral and subcutaneous abdominal fat, associated with long-term risk for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

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The rate of adolescent suicide for kids age 10-14 is rising. Why? Dr. Gabrielle A. Carlson is available for comment.

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A new study from University of Illinois at Chicago researchers suggests that more than one-third of U.S. adults may be using prescription medications that have the potential to cause depression or increase the risk of suicide.

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New research reveals that kids are more likely to drown in lakes, rivers and oceans than they are in a pool. Teens, boys and African Americans are at highest risk. Experts offer tips on how to keep kids safe this summer.

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Mount Sinai Researchers Discover That Aggressive Behavior and the Motivation to Act Aggressively Have Distinct Molecular Bases; Finding Suggests Possibility of Reducing Aggression by Targeting a Protein Associated with Addiction in a Reward Region of the Brain

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Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have designed a new technique for spotting nasty personal attacks on social media networks like Instagram.

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The former goaltender has teamed up with HealthyMenMichigan.org and Jodi Jacobson Frey, PhD, MSW, associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, in a statewide campaign designed to engage working-aged Michigan men in online screening for suicide and depression and to encourage help-seeking behaviors and referral to treatment.

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How a new mother reacts to her partner’s early interactions with their baby may affect his parenting quality later on, a new study suggests. Researchers found that fathers did not perform as well as a parent to their 9-month-old child if the dads felt their partner was critical of their parenting skills six months earlier.

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A Kansas State University linguistics team has found that people in southwest Kansas are developing a distinct accent.

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Today's news of Anthony Bourdain's suicide, and earlier this week Kate Spade's death are tragic reminders that mental illness and suicide can affect anyone regardless of income or success.

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What makes someone go from simply being hungry to full-on “hangry”? More than just a simple drop in blood sugar, this combination of hunger and anger may be a complicated emotional response involving an interplay of biology, personality and environmental cues, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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It's not unusual for teens to skip breakfast or announce, "I'm trying to be more healthy." And so unhealthy food-related behaviors can fly under parents' radar. Here are the signs to look for:

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Children of highly critical parents show less attention to emotional facial expressions, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University at New York.

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There is consensus among adoption researchers that for many birth mothers the experience of placing their children for adoption brings feelings of grief, loss, shame, guilt, remorse and isolation. Any level of satisfaction (or lack thereof) in such a decision varies. But how is that level of satisfaction – that feeling that the right decision was made – affected by time?

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Rats injected with beneficial bacteria weekly for three weeks showed lasting anti-inflammatory changes in the brain and more resilience when exposed to stress. The findings could lead to new microbiome-based immunizations for anxiety and PTSD and new treatments for depression.

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Alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders in the U.S. greatly increased between 2001 and 2013, particularly among African-American emerging adults (i.e., those 18-29 years of age). Previous research showed that African American youth are unequally exposed to risk factors for substance use such as economic pressures, neighborhood disorder, and racial discrimination. This study examined how African American mothers’ protective parenting and alcohol use influenced their offspring’s drinking and perceptions of drinkers.

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News stories about terrorism, disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and other potential threats become increasingly negative, inaccurate and hysterical when passed from person to person, according to new research by the University of Warwick.

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When narcissistic individuals are able to imagine themselves in a victim’s situation, they are more likely to donate to charity, according to new research from the University at Buffalo School of Management.

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New research from Kaitlin Woolley shows that immediate rewards increase interest and enjoyment in tasks, compared with rewards given at the end of a task.

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What matters is whether moments of hate are truly fleeting moments versus ongoing states.

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Half of patients surveyed in the clinics and hospitals of ten major medical centers said that what physicians wear is important to them – and more than one-third said that what a doctor wears influences their satisfaction with their care. The patients also picked their preferred attire for physicians in different settings and specialties.

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Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) will provide $45 million to Rush University Medical Center to substantially grow its Road Home Program for military veterans. Most of the money will be used to expand a program that provides three weeks of concentrated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment that has been proven to significantly reduce PTSD symptoms.