PsychWorld

If you’ve ever observed a little baby grow, you’ve seen how much they can learn in a very short period of time. It’s incredible! Now, new brain scanning technology for babies is allowing researchers to discover how this amazing learning occurs.

A kindergarten teacher saying seemingly innocuous phrases such as ”Goodmorning, boys and girls” or “Girls line up on this side, boys on that” may actually be promoting gender stereotypes in kids according to new research from The Pennsylvania State University.

Does the girl in the picture deserve to be hurt? You probably (and hopefully) answered NO! to that question, but teen Latino and Asian girls just like her are physically hurt every day by discrimination from people like you according to a new study from the University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA).

As more forms of entertainment become available for both parents and children via more mediums (iphones, ipads, computers, etc…), children are increasingly left alone to enjoy their favorite educational (or not so educational) TV show or video game while their parents are enjoying their favorite entertaining TV show or online magazine. To emphasize the importance of sharing the TV experience with your kid, co-viewing expert Melissa Morgenlander recently started a blog to help kids and parents get the most out of the television set.

As a teenager in an Indian school, one would think that the only thing I would need to think or worry about is studies and friends. And this might have been the case 10, or even 5 years ago. Not anymore. Now, if you study in a half way prestigious school, there will be parties. And these parties will be crazy. The ‘crazy’ you see in TV shows and movies. With drinks, cigarettes and inappropriate behavior, which hopefully one would regret in the future.

Advertisers are shameless when it comes to selling their products. They specifically target children because they know that children are the most vulnerable to their message. You might think that children don’t have buying power, but think again. Advertisers call this “The Nag Factor” – when a child wants something enough, he or she will nag their parents until the parent finally gets it for them. The tobacco and alcohol advertisers have the least shame when it comes to getting sales. Learn how new research provides the tools to fight back.

What do you want to be when you grow up? As an adult, you’re probably not what you imagined you’d be as a child. If you are, that’s great! But most people don’t grow up to be ballerinas or rock-stars or professional football players, etc… Yet, that is what young children base important life decisions, like whether or not to do homework, on according to a new study from the University of Michigan.

Every day, we wake up and go through the routine of fulfilling our basic human needs. Hopefully, we have access to food, water, and safe shelter to take care of our physical needs. If we have those, we hopefully also have some friends and some kind of status within a community, which feeds into our need for self esteem. So if you are lucky enough to have all these things, including a high self-esteem, what are you striving for next? Forget self-actualization. Arizona State University researchers believe the answer is parenting…

Although some girls may find bad boys irresistible, raising a bad boy is not what parents or society want for their sons. Parents and society have the power to raise responsible individuals who contribute to society, but as the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child”. Parent and peer involvement makes a big difference in whether aggressive and hyperactive boys grow up to be good responsible individuals or deviant and drug-using teenagers and adults according to a new University of Montreal study.

In a nation where everything can be “cured” by simply taking a drug, kids are no exception when it comes to the countless victims of the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry. Kids are started off with simple children’s Tylenol, and move up to ADHD drugs as early as kindergarten simply for acting like children. At least 4.5 million kids under the age of 18 are diagnosed with ADHD, the most common diagnosis for kids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The biggest victim is the youngest kid in the class, who is the most likely to be unnecessarily misdiagnosed with ADHD according to a new study.