news 2012

Even as adolescents struggle to lose weight through treatment programs, they often continue to experience weight-based discrimination - not just from their peers, but from adults they trust, including parents and teachers. The study by researchers at the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale appears online in the journal Pediatrics, and is the first comprehensive examination of how weight-based victimization impacts youth seeking weight-loss treatment.

Eating meals together as a family, even if only twice a week, boosts children's daily fruit and vegetable intake to near the recommended 5 A Day, according to researchers at the University of Leeds. It is published today in the British Medical Journal’s Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health .

New research from the University of Toronto answers one of the most common questions parents ask their doctors: How much milk should I be giving my children? The answer is two cups per day. And while too little milk is a problem, so is too much, the study found. "We started to research the question because professional recommendations around milk intake were unclear and doctors and parents were seeking answers," said Professor Jonathon Maguire of the Department of Paediatrics and Institute of Health of Policy, Management and Evaluation.

Mexican American toddlers lag in preliteracy skills, but not in their social skills, new study shows By Kathleen Maclay , Media Relations Mexican American preschoolers fall behind their white counterparts in terms of early language and preliteracy skills, but the social competencies between the two groups are indistinguishable, according to new research from the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA.

Stanford Report, December 5, 2012 In a sweeping study of the lifting of court-ordered desegregation plans, researchers show the fading of the dream of black and white students attending school together. The lifting of court-ordered school integration efforts over the last 22 years has led to the gradual unraveling of a key legacy of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

A new study mapping when children spend time with their father after divorce, has revealed a shift away from children only spending time with their father every second weekend. The study, based on a random sample of 408 separated parents registered with the Australian Child Support Agency, found that despite the complexity of some parenting arrangements, children generally moved between homes two or four times each fortnight.

Children are participating in growing numbers in online social sites like Facebook and Twitter at increasingly younger ages, says a study led by the University of Toronto's Sara Grimes . And that's not necessarily a bad thing, says Grimes, an assistant professor at U of T's Faculty of Information.

Infants are more likely to recognise words spoken in the dialect of their local communities than those used by their parents, psychologists have revealed. A study at Plymouth University has shown toddlers are more receptive to regional accents which might be spoken in nurseries and playgroups, even if they are vastly different to those spoken in the home.

Mums and Dads from opposite sides of the globe will share their experience of raising their children to help researchers build a picture of the effects of culture and individual beliefs on parenting practices. Merideth Gattis from the University's School of Psychology is working with Professor Terry Au of Hong Kong University to evaluate parenting choices in Britain and China.

Parents of young children who show extreme behaviour problems and a lack of empathy or remorse may find new hope from research at the University of Sydney. "We found that the quality of a parent's emotional interaction and attachment with a young child is crucial to predicting if that child will develop this high-risk pattern of behaviour," said David Hawes , the research leader from the School of Psychology at the University.

Children who are solely breast fed in the first six months of life are at an increased risk of developing a nut allergy, research from The Australian National University has found. A joint research project between the ANU Medical School, part of the ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, and the ACT Health Directorate, investigated a link between breast feeding and nut allergies using the ACT Kindergarten Health Check Questionnaire given to the parents of children starting primary school in the Territory.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Patients' mental and physical challenges, as well as family conflict, heighten caregivers' stress when they assist their ailing parents, a new University of Michigan study found. In addition, sons experience greater family conflict when taking care of the elder parent than daughters, U-M researchers said.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. New mothers who read and write blogs may feel less alone than mothers who do not participate in a blogging community, according to family studies researchers. "It looks like blogging might be helping these women as they transition into motherhood because they may begin to feel more connected to their extended family and friends, which leads them to feel more supported," said Brandon T. McDaniel, graduate student in human development and family studies, Penn State.

A fifth-grader's understanding of fractions and long division predicts their knowledge of algebra and overall math achievement in high school, according to new research published in the journal Psychological Science .

For a woman who is unable to bear children, the pain of infertility extends far into her everyday life and can impact her relationships with family and friends for years. Marni Rosner , who earned a doctorate in social work at the University of Pennsylvania in May, studied how infertility impacts female identity in her dissertation, " Recovery From Traumatic Loss: A Study of Women Living Without Children After Infertility." "I was curious as to how women living without children after infertility rebuilt their identity and life after this traumatic loss," Rosner says.

New research has found that a brand of baby wipes is just as safe and hydrating as using water alone on newborn skin, suggesting official guidance may need updating. The University of Manchester study, published in BioMed Central's open-access journal BMC Paediatrics , compared Johnson's Baby Extra Sensitive Wipes against cotton wool and water on 280 newborn babies split into two groups over a three-year period.

Dads with 'postnatal' depression are more likely to fix on negatives and be more critical of themselves when talking to their new babies. The study by Oxford University researchers is the first to look at the speech of new fathers with depression in their early interactions with their babies.

A new study concludes that Ofsted grades are too broad to provide a detailed measure of quality in nurseries and preschools. The study carried out by the University of Oxford and A+ Education for the charity, Daycare Trust, found that Ofsted reports are best used alongside other existing quality assessments.

A major register study from Karolinska Institutet shows that children born to certain groups of immigrants had an increased risk of developing autism with intellectual disability. The study includes all children in Stockholm County from 2001 to 2007, and brings the question of the heredity of autism to the fore.

At an age when "ba-ba" and "da-da" may be their only utterances, infants nevertheless comprehend words for many common objects, according to a new study. In research focused on 6-to-9-month-old babies, University of Pennsylvania psychologists Elika Bergelson and Daniel Swingley demonstrated that the infants learned the meanings of words for foods and body parts through their daily experience with language.