Stress and Environment: How Gender Affects Children’s Response
One method for measuring reactivity to stress is to assess the level of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning. In a recent study, Lisa M. Diamond of the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah used skin conductance (SCL) to measure ANS among 110 children 14 years old. The purpose of her experiment was to determine if teens’ reactions to stress were influenced by their own predisposition or by their environments. Specifically, Diamond wanted to find... Read More
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After having worked in a residential treatment facility for abused and neglected girls for 8 years, I observed that the phenomenon of learned helplessness had become an all-to-common denominator for these children. It was very rare that an abused child was placed with us for a single incident of abuse. By the time these children reached our facility, many of them had already been physically or sexually abused numerous times throughout their childhood and adolescence.
Many times these children had been abused not by a single perpetrator but by several different people, including members of their... 
Half a dozen years ago, less than one-fifth of 12-year-old girls had a cell phone or iPod. Now, according to recent statistics, more than half of our young women own one if not both of these devices. Our culture has taken a dramatic technological shift over the past decade. And although there has been much research dedicated to examining the effects of multimedia on college students and adults, little attention has been given to the effects this has on the social skills and academic functioning of our young girls. Roy Pea of the School of Education at Stanford University wanted to find out exactly... 
A lot of attention has been paid to postpartum depression, due in part to celebrities such as Brooke Shields, Marie Osmond, and Gwyneth Paltrow helping to destigmatize the most common complication of childbirth. As an advocate, therapist, mother, and survivor of postpartum depression, I am happy that medical communities and the public at large are becoming familiar with perinatal mood/anxiety disorders (PMADs, the clinical term). However, there is still much work to be done.
Most women of childbearing age are not aware of the potential to develop depression or anxiety during pregnancy. A myth... 
The decision has been made. You and your spouse are divorcing. There are a multitude of decisions to be made, and it is often difficult to know where to begin. You will be making decisions regarding when the children are with you and when they are with your spouse, whether to keep the family home and, if so, who keeps it. There will also be a host of other decisions you did not realize you made automatically on a daily basis that will now become conscious decisions because living in two different homes requires more coordination. While you are addressing these decisions and working to manage your... 
Attachment bonds are formed in early childhood. Relationships with nurturing attentive caregivers result in secure attachment bonds in children as they age. However, dismissive caregivers who neglect or avoid relationships with their children tend to cause insecure and dismissive attachment behaviors and perceptions in these children. The 
Adolescents receive various messages from their mothers. But a new study, led by Laura Wray-Lake of the School of Behavioral and Organization Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, suggests that messages of caution and compassion have a particularly significant influence on the socialization and behaviors of teens. Compassion messages are inferences that people should all be treated with respect and value, whereas caution messages teach children to be wary of the world and people around them. Wray-Lake and her colleagues looked at several factors that influenced the value messages of the mothers,... 
It is well established that racial discrimination can have negative emotional consequences, including 
In my efforts as a counselor, helping couples and individuals raise children with autism, I've combined what I learned in school with what I've learned in my own journey. My last blog talked about that gravitational pull autism has on a family. I'd like to address a few ways we can limit that pull from affecting every aspect of our lives negatively. These are not quick fixes, and you won't find a step-by-step guide here. It's a process that requires daily practice, much like yoga. There is no end point, and you will not have “arrived”; it's ongoing. I like to call it living mindfully and with... 
Value affirmations, also known as self-affirmations, are positive assessments of one’s abilities, traits, and personality qualities. Value affirmations can increase 
Definition: Gravitational Pull; The attraction that one object has for another object due to the invisible force of gravity. The mass of an object affects its gravitational pull. The gravitational pull of the Sun keeps the planets in orbit around it.
I was counseling a couple the other day, with a newly diagnosed child. Let's call them John and Mary. Mary described feeling unappreciated by her husband, tired all the time, and frustrated by having to "do everything" around the house. John complained that Mary spent all of her time with their 3-year-old son, Jimmy, who is severely affected by... 
Reality television depicts average people rising rapidly to instant fame. Other media outlets, including YouTube and Facebook, provide people with the opportunity to gain the attention of a virtual audience with the push of a button. Young people today are bombarded with images of fictional fame, as in the case of Hannah Montana and other television characters, and real fame, through reality programming and media coverage of athletes, musicians and actors. But how has this phenomenon affected the aspirations of our youth? Yalda T. Uhls, of the Department of Psychology at the University of California,... 
Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) teens are at increased risk for 
It is not a surprise that we have heard much stirring in the last several years about the importance of empathy and its role in everything from attachment, to neural development, to world positivity. There is an empathy shortage in the world, and we are seeing the far-reaching effects. Bullying. Violence. Insensitivity. Selfishness. In practice, we often see the damage done with children who are traumatized because of early life experiences characterized by a lack of empathy. Abuse, neglect, emotional bankruptcy, painful attachments and a violation of trust all contribute to a child’s ability... 
