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Children who are exposed to negative parenting - including abuse, neglect but also overprotection - are more likely to experience childhood bullying by their peers, according to a meta-analysis of 70 studies of more than 200,000 children. The research, led by the University of Warwick and published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, found the effects of poor parenting were stronger for children who are both a victim and perpetrator of bulling (bully-victims) than children who were solely victims.

Teaching students how to argue based on available evidence engages them in the scientific process and provides a better idea of how science actually works. The challenge is training teachers. Earth orbits the sun. Microorganisms cause infectious disease. Plants use carbon dioxide to grow. Most of us know these scientific truths from our earliest school days.

05 Apr 2013 Experts from The University of Manchester have revealed their findings from the most in-depth study ever to take place in the UK into the tragic instances of child killing by parents, known as filicide. The research, published in journal PLOS ONE, found 37 per cent of parents and step-parents who killed their children were suffering from some form of mental illness and 12% had been in with mental health services within a year of the offence.

Both daughters and sons from divorced families are significantly more likely to initiate smoking in comparison to their peers from intact families, shows a new analysis of 19,000 Americans. "Finding this link between parental divorce and smoking is very disturbing," said lead author Esme Fuller-Thomson , Sandra Rotman Chair at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, the UC Davis Health System and the National Institute of Psychiatry in Mexico are studying the impact of the deportation of undocumented Mexican migrants on their U.S.-born children. Thousands of families have to decide whether the children, who are United States citizens, will accompany their parents to Mexico or remain in the land of their birth without them.

A research group at the University of Sussex is looking to enlist baby scientists to help with an exciting new project. The call-out for babies comes from the Sussex Baby Lab , 1 where researchers study tiny tots at play to find out what babies can understand, how they experience the world around them and how they develop and learn.

Research into adoptive families headed by same-sex couples paints a positive picture of relationships and wellbeing in these new families. The study, which was carried out by Cambridge University, suggests that adoptive families with gay fathers might be faring particularly well. Overall we found markedly more similarities than differences in experiences between family types.

ANN ARBOR-Multiethnic and mixed-race youth feel less satisfied with their moms-but more independent-compared to other youth, according to a new University of Michigan study. U-M researcher Elma Lorenzo-Blanco and colleagues compared parenting and family-related experiences between multiethnic/mixed-race youth and those from one racial/ethnic background.

Toddlers who receive praise of their efforts, such as "you worked hard on that," rather than praise of their personal qualities, such as "you're a good girl," are more likely to prefer challenging tasks and to believe that hard work can improve intelligence and personality, new research at the University of Chicago reveals.

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.