Feature Channels: Family and Parenting

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Barbara Risman, professor and head of sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is available to discuss contemporary families and the challenges working mothers, as well as fathers, face in today's society. She says conventional thought is that American culture values families, but we don't really value what it takes to care for them. Risman contends we have a society in flux and workplaces, many of which lag behind with outdated beliefs and policies, must catch up to address these contradictions.

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The most frequent turning point in father-daughter relationships is shared activity — especially sports — ahead of such pivotal events as when a daughter marries or leaves home, according to a study by Baylor University researchers.

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Most parents carefully select what television programs and movies their children can watch. But Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University, says educational shows could come with an added lesson that influences a child’s behavior.

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NSU’s subject matter expert John Miller, Ph.D., is available to speak on the value of family therapy.

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Toddlers whose parents praised their efforts more than they praised them as individuals had a more positive approach to challenges five years later. That’s the finding of a new longitudinal study that also found gender differences in the kind of praise that parents offer their children. The study, by Elizabeth Gunderson, asst. professor of psychology at Temple, and researchers at the University of Chicago and Stanford University, appears in the journal Child Development.

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Parents are more accepting of their teenage daughters using birth control pills than any other form of contraception, including condoms, according to a recent study from UC San Francisco (UCSF). The most effective contraceptive methods, the implant – a matchstick-sized rod that is inserted in the arm to prevent pregnancy – and the intrauterine device (IUD), were acceptable to a minority of parents.

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Both chronically jealous men and women show less interest in infants and decreased happiness upon receiving pregnancy news. But jealous women show a higher level of “parental investment” in a child than do jealous men.

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In an effort to increase father participation in parenting programs, as well as improve father-child interactions, Patricia L. Kohl, PhD, associate professor of Social Work at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, has helped develop Engaging Fathers in Positive Parenting, a program funded by the CDC designed to be used in conjunction with the evidence-based parenting intervention, Triple P, Positive Parenting Program.

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The “Go Slow Whoa” color-schemed system can help combat rising obesity trends in K thru 12 schools.

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Like the chicken pox or fifth disease, a bout of "Bieber Fever" is a childhood passage for many young girls. Moreover, it's a way to explore their sense of identity, according to a Kansas State University family studies researcher.

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A new study finds assumptions that men take unfair advantage of parental leave at universities – using the leave as an opportunity to further their research while shirking the responsibility of childcare – are false.

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Only 1 in 5 parents say they are very concerned about children, teens misusing narcotics, according to U-M’s National Poll on Children’s Health.

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Many mothers of newborns in neonatal intensive care units have difficulty finding private, quiet places in the hospital to express milk, according to a new study from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

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A new study found that college students’ GPAs decreased with increased financial support from their parents. The study also found that students with financial aid from their parents were more likely to complete college and earn a degree.

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Washington University in St. Louis researcher Michal Grinstein-Weiss is lead author on new research that studies loan activity in low- and moderate-income homeowners. The research confirms: financial literacy begins at home. Grinstein-Weiss offers five steps parents can take.

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Infants who have started crawling wake up more often at night compared to the period before the crawling, reveals a new study by Dr. Dina Cohen of the University of Haifa’s Department of Counseling and Human Development.

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Adults who had parents who struggled with addiction, unemployment and divorce are 10 times more likely to have been victims of childhood physical abuse, according to a new study prepared by the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

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Many parents dread that moment when they need to have “The Talk” about sex with their teens. For the New Year, Wake Forest University psychology professor Andrew Smiler suggests parents resolve to start an ongoing conversation about relationships and sexuality long before their children reach double digits.

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A team of family scholars today released “The President’s Marriage Agenda for the Forgotten Sixty Percent” to tackle the striking yet little-discussed decline in marriage among “Middle America” – the nearly 60 percent of Americans who have completed high school, but do not have a four-year college degree. Among that group, 44 percent of children are now born outside of marriage, up sharply from 13 percent in the 1980s.

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When it comes to Santa Claus, a Kansas State University expert says let children believe in the jolly old elf as long as they want.

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When he left, he was your child whose meals you prepared and whose laundry you dutifully did. Now he’s home from college for an extended winter break – possibly bringing with him more laundry for you to do. For parents readjusting to life with their college students at home for a few weeks, it can be…an adjustment, according to a psychologist at Saint Joseph's University.

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Kennedy Krieger expert advises parents on how to plan ahead.

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Warm moms who give their children lots of love and lots of rules serve as the best conduits.

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Most people are looking forward to the food, family gatherings and gift giving that comes along with the holiday season. Dr. William Hansen, a psychologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, reminds parents that this is also the time of year when they should pause to say thanks and also reinforce this idea in their children.

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Four types of family cultures – the Faithful, the Engaged Progressives, the Detached and the American Dreamers – are molding the next generation of Americans, a three-year study by the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture finds.

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Blending religion with familism — a strong commitment to lifelong marriage and childbearing — dampens secular civic participation, according to research by a Baylor University sociologist.

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Parents with children younger than 18 are very focused on the nutrition and health needs of their offspring but are less likely to think about the healthfulness of the foods they choose for themselves or believe in the health benefits of regular exercise, according to results from the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation’s 2012 Food & Health Survey.

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Not only is TV not endangered, but it also has a unifying social impact on the nuclear family across the country. This is the main conclusion of a cross-Canada study—Are the Kids All Right?—on the television viewing habits of families with at least one child aged between 9 and 12 years.

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The Regional Burn Center and Emergency Departments at UC San Diego Health System - along with the California Poison Control System - San Diego Division located at UC San Diego Medical Center - offer the following safety precautions to help parents and guardians make Halloween safe this year.

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While Halloween is a time for fun and treats, certain dangers abound. The key to keeping kids safe this year, and every year, is close parental supervision and a few trick-or-treat precautions.

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Parents with a higher number of stressors in their lives are more likely to have obese children, according to a new study. Children also ate fast food more often if their parents perceived themselves as stressed.

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In a new University of Michigan poll, one-third of parents of young children report they are concerned about losing jobs or pay when they stay home to care for sick children who can’t attend child care.

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A new study in animals shows that chronic stress during pregnancy prevents brain benefits of motherhood, a finding that researchers suggest could increase understanding of postpartum depression.

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Infants who have a close, intimate relationship with at least one parent are less likely to experience emotional or behavioral problems in childhood, according to a University of Iowa study. The researchers found that a child can be close to either the mother or the father to reap the emotional dividend, and that closeness with both parents conferred no additional advantage. Results published in the journal Child Development.

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A new report finds that Texas policies to exclude Planned Parenthood clinics from a state family planning program – the Women’s Health Program (WHP) – would result in leaving tens of thousands of women unable to get care.

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Support programs for teen parents and their children can help facilitate education, behavior change and access to resources, but more work is needed to meet the needs of this population, according to a series of new articles, two of which were coauthored by researchers at RTI International.

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Despite popular wisdom and findings from much previous research that suggests the beneficial impact of family mealtime, a rigorous analysis of 21,400 children, ages five to 15, brings a new argument to the table: When researchers controlled for a host of confounding factors, they didn’t find any relationship between family meals and child academic outcomes or behavior.

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One in four mothers believe that letting young children taste alcohol may discourage them from drinking in adolescence and 40 percent believe that not allowing children to taste alcohol will only make it more appealing, according to a new study by RTI International and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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University of Arkansas professor, Lynne Webb, researches the impact on families and their communication methods with surviving children, after experiencing a death of a child.

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Like reading, learning to sing and make music can be modeled by parents and teachers. Special areas called music play zones encourage children to make music.

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In Effective Family Communication for Coping with Crises, edited by Lynne M. Webb and Fran C. Dickson, communication researchers offer families strategies for communicating during times of crisis.

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Although mothers are usually the ones who have “the birds and the bees” talks with their children, with targeted prompting and guidance, fathers will also step up to the plate, finds a new study in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

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Parents of teen girls are more ready to accept their daughters being offered birth control pills and condoms during doctor visits than other, more effective and long-acting contraceptive methods, according to a new study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

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A Johns Hopkins PhD student is attempting to differentiate child abuse from physcial discipline through an examination of Chinese-American mothers and pediatric nurses.

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Public health messages may help encourage fathers to have more conversations with their children about waiting to become sexually active, according to researchers at RTI International and George Washington University.

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Grandparents, an increasingly important source of child care in the United States, vary greatly in the kind of care they provide. A new study shows that 60 percent of grandparents provided some care for their grandchildren during a 10-year period, and 70 percent of those who did provided care for two years or more.

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Elaine Mitchell Palmore, the director of MTSU's Child Development Center, is writing children's literature for the needs of today's children. She tries to help children understand about divorce and families dealing with substance abuse or any life-controlling issue. Illustrated by Norris Hall.