Feature Channels: Family and Parenting

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With back-to-school season in full swing, imagine this: Your child orders lunch via computer and gets a little message saying he or she needs to add more nutritious food groups.

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Setting and achieving goals related to income and education may improve the overall health of Native Americans--that’s the premise behind a new research project, We RISE—raising income, supporting education—targeting young mothers on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in north central South Dakota. Health disparities research typically controls for socioeconomic status in analyses, but this study looks changing those socioeconomic variables.

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A type of sugar found naturally in some women's breast milk may protect new born babies from infection with a potentially life threatening bacterium called Group B streptococcus, according to a new study from Imperial College London.

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Researchers know that youth with a family history of alcoholism have a greater risk of developing an alcohol use disorder; this heightened vulnerability may be due to impulsive behavior. For this study, researchers examined “waiting” impulsivity – a tendency toward prematurely responding to a reward, and previously associated with a predisposition to drinking. The study sample comprised young, moderate-to-heavy social drinkers who were either positive (FHP) or negative (FHN) for a family history of alcoholism. Impulsivity was assessed after an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday issued an advisory that all U.S. blood banks screen donated blood for Zika virus.

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Prenatal exposure to chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, may threaten fertility in female mice, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s journal Endocrinology.

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Researchers at the University of Adelaide have successfully trialed a new technique that could aid the process of choosing the "best" embryo for implantation, helping to boost the chances of pregnancy success from the very first IVF cycle.

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BOSTON – In a special report released August 23 in the journal Radiology, a team of researchers including Deborah Levine, MD, Director of Obstetric & Gynecologic ultrasound at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), documented the brain abnormalities associated with congenital Zika in 45 confirmed and presumed cases from northeastern Brazil.

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People with a family member who had an aortic dissection—a spontaneous tear in one of the body’s main arteries—should take note of the age that family member was when the aortic dissection occurred. According to a new study published online in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, aortic dissections have the potential to run in families and often occur within 10 years of the same age.

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Queen's University researchers Tom Hollenstein and Jessica Lougheed have published new research on the emotional bonds between mothers and adolescent daughters. The study examined how well mother-daughter pairs were able to manage rapid transitions between emotional states and the so-called "emotional rollercoaster" of adolescence.

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Contrary to traditional expectations of unbalanced sex ratios, places with more men than women do not typically experience higher rates of family and social instability, according to a University of Utah study.

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Preschool-aged children, and their parents, are more likely to view the physical actions of prayer (i.e., closing eyes, folding hands) to help with reflection and communicating with God. This is according to a new study by Rebekah Richert, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside. The paper, titled “Folding Your Hands Helps God Hear You: Prayer and Anthropomorphism in Parents and Children,” was published in Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion.

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UW-Milwaukee Director of Financial Aid Tim Opgenorth talks about the new FAFSA timelines, how it affects college-bound students and what families can do to help their students successfully complete the all-important FAFSA application.

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Understanding how parents cope while their child is in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) could lead to better support for the family and a more successful transition to home when their baby is healthy, according to Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Harrisburg researchers.

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UCLA Health experts are available to discuss a wide variety of topics of interest, with a focus on back-to-school issues, for the month of September.

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Leaving a child unattended is considered taboo in today’s intensive parenting atmosphere, despite evidence that American children are safer than ever. So why are parents denying their children the same freedom and independence that they themselves enjoyed as children? A new study by University of California, Irvine social scientists suggests that our fears of leaving children alone have become systematically exaggerated in recent decades – not because the practice has become more dangerous, but because it has become socially unacceptable.

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A tiny hair barrette and an anguished moment marked the turning point for one mother in coming to fully accept that her child, who was born a boy, was a transgender girl.

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A simulation forceps training program developed for Northwestern Medicine obstetrics residents reduced third and fourth degree perineal tears by 26 percent during real-life deliveries with forceps.

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Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center now have demonstrated that umbilical cells from children of obese or overweight mothers show impaired expression of key genes regulating cell energy and metabolism, compared to similar cells from babies of non-obese mothers.

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Beginning pornography use is associated with a substantial increase in the probability of divorce for married Americans, and this increase is especially large for women, finds a new study.

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New research led by scientists from King's College London and the University of Bristol has found that a high-fat, high-sugar diet during pregnancy may be linked to symptoms of ADHD in children who show conduct problems early in life.

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To everything there is a season — even divorce, new research from University of Washington sociologists concludes.

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For older adults, having more or closer family members in one’s social network decreases his or her likelihood of death, but having a larger or closer group of friends does not, finds a new study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

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For heterosexual couples, most Americans still believe in the traditional division of household labor between husbands and wives, while for same-sex couples, they think the “more masculine” partner and the “more feminine” partner should generally be responsible for stereotypically male and female chores, respectively, suggests a new study.

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University of Washington sociologists have found what is believed to be the first quantitative evidence of a seasonal, biannual pattern of divorce filings. The researchers analyzed filings in Washington state over a 14-year period and found that filing consistently peaked in March and August, the periods following winter and summer holidays.

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Group B streptococcus (GBS) is the most common life-threatening bacterial infection in newborns worldwide. GBS typically resides in the lower genital tract but does not cause infections in healthy women. But if the infection is transmitted to an infant during pregnancy, it can lead to preterm birth or stillbirth. If the infection is transmitted to a newborn, it can cause pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis, all of which can occur within the first week of life or within 90 days of birth. The goal of my research is to prevent maternal to infant transmission of GBS.

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If you want to mix drinks for a living, don’t expect to have a typical family life.

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The ethnicity of women undergoing fertility treatments like IVF can affect the rate of successful live births, according to new research by experts at The University of Nottingham and the Royal Derby Hospital’s Fertility Unit.

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CHAPEL HILL, NC –UNC School of Medicine’s Anne Lyerly is addressing the urgent need for effective HIV prevention and treatment for the estimated 1.5 million women worldwide with HIV who give birth each year. Lyerly, associate director of the UNC Center for Bioethics and associate professor of social medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, is also an obstetrician/gynecologist who studies ethically complex clinical and policy issues related to women’s reproductive health.

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Experts give advice on parents coping with a child of autism

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A study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that, over a 21-year period from 1990 through 2010, almost 361,000 children aged 5 years and younger were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments for stroller- or carrier-related injuries – that’s about two children every hour.

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Numerous challenges face providers who are administering developmental screenings for refugee children, including differences in cultural and religious beliefs, language barriers, and disparate education levels, according to new research from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) published in the journal Pediatrics.

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A report from the University of Washington finds that inconsistent practices and policies leave many foster children in the state without an advocate in decisions that shape virtually every aspect of their lives.

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Complex family dynamics that surround a hearing-impaired child’s development have few outlets for exploration.The camp is designed to help dispel the isolation that pediatric deafness can impose on children and their parents.

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Food advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry, with approximately $1.8 billion annually aimed at children and adolescents, who view between 1,000 and 2,000 ads per year. Some studies have shown that there is a relationship between receptivity to food commercials and the amount and type of food consumed. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers studied the brain activity of children after watching food commercials and found that the commercials influence children's food choices and brain activity.

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Change will come as students move from their homes to college campuses across the nation these next few weeks. For the parents left behind, that pivot to the “empty nest” and a new stage in life can spark myriad emotions and some challenging moments, said Becky Scott, M.S.W, lecturer in Baylor University’s Diana R. Garland School of Social Work. She offers four tips to help parents adjust when their children transition to college.

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Dublin, Ireland, August 10th 2016: A new study by academics in Trinity College Dublin has found that there is a strong positive relationship between planned birth at home and breast feeding: breastfeeding was twice as likely after planned home births compared to hospital births. The research involved the largest population cohorts comprehensively examined to date for an association between breast feeding outcomes and place of birth in low risk pregnancies.

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Researchers at University of Iowa Children's Hospital and the UI College of Nursing have developed an application that can be accessed from parents' smart phones, tablets, or computers and used to distract children during painful procedures.

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With a little advance planning, going back to school can be a fun and exciting adventure for kids and parents. The specialists at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) have put together their top five tips to ensure parents and kids transition smoothly from summer vacation to the new school year.

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About 7 percent of all Danish children are born prematurely. This is of significant im-portance not only to the child's development, but it also affects the mother's body that - unexpectedly - has to produce the necessary nutrition for the newborn baby.

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For new mothers concerned about hair loss, dermatologists say they needn’t worry. Many women experience noticeable hair loss after having a baby, and experts say it is normal, temporary and caused by changes in hormones.

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Most grade school students are likely to claim recess as their favorite period of the day; however, in many cases recess still can be sedentary with students not engaging in enough physical activity. Now researchers from the University of Missouri have found that zones with specific games can improve physical activity, improving a child’s chance of engaging in the recommended 60 minutes of “play per day,” an effort endorsed by many health organizations as well as the National Football League.

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Many regions of the world today still lack ready access to audiology, auditory-verbal therapy and educational support services for young children with hearing loss and their families. JTC’s International Summer Sessions help to address the service gap.

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The start of the school year is the most dangerous time on neighborhood streets and in school zones for child-pedestrians and bus riders.

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Even after working 40 or more hours a week, thousands of Florida parents would need to earn nearly double the state's current hourly minimum wage in order to break even, according to policy analyses conducted by researchers at the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Findings from NCCP's latest brief, on Florida's minimum wage, underscore the importance of considering the consequences of policies--and policy interactions--on the lives of working families.

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On January 24, 2013, Iris Vega-Figueroa’s life changed completely.That’s the day she gave birth to her twin girls, Iris and Geraldine.

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Although welcoming a pet into your home is a big commitment, children can learn responsibility by learning to care for pets with adult supervision. In addition, childhood pets can also introduce children to friendship and family bonding.

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More children are coming to hospital emergency departments this summer for drownings or near-drownings, including at Penn State Children’s Hospital, where staff members say they have seen more cases recently than they can recall in several years.