Mental Health & Wellbeing

Scientists Find Brain Region That Helps You Make Up Your Mind

Thinkstock One of the smallest parts of the brain is getting a second look after new research suggests it plays a crucial role in decision making. A University of British Columbia study published today in Nature Neuroscience says the lateral habenula, a region of the brain linked to depression and avoidance behaviors, has been largely [...]

Wellbeing Protective Factors That Are Particularly Important For School Children 

Stock Images It’s now estimated that 1 in 7 children experience mental health difficulties. Half of all serious mental health problems begin before the age of 14. We also know however that early intervention to address difficulties can improve the chance of long-term mental health and wellbeing (KidsMatter, 2015). The work of Paul A. LeBuffe, Valerie [...]

Teenage Brain On Social Media: Findings Shed Light On Influence Of Peers, Much More

Getty Images The same brain circuits that are activated by eating chocolate and winning money are activated when teenagers see large numbers of "likes" on their own photos or the photos of peers in a social network, according to a first-of-its-kind UCLA study that scanned teens' brains while using social media. The 32 teenagers, [...]

How Kids Learn Resilience

Gillian Laub / Getty Images Here’s the problem: For all our talk about noncognitive skills, nobody has yet found a reliable way to teach kids to be grittier or more resilient. And it has become clear, at the same time, that the educators who are best able to engender noncognitive abilities in their [...]

Psychology Of A Paedophile: Why Are Some People Attracted To Children?

Getty Images Having worked with police forces in Australia and the United Kingdom identifying those who sexually prey on children, people are always asking me how you can tell a paedophile from everyone else. Well, I can tell you one thing – they don’t have horns and tails. They look and act like [...]

The Baby Business – Four Corners

udhao.net "All our savings go to IVF…Then you get that negative pregnancy result. There's another $6,000 gone." Grace Grace is one of the tens of thousands of Australian women who have put their faith in fertility treatments to help conceive a much longed for baby. "Sometimes I feel like I'm a fraud of a [...]

Why It’s Time To Ban Pornography

ShutterStock It is time to ban pornography. Nothing can shock us except this suggestion. We find it perfectly acceptable that smut, no matter how bestial or misogynistic, should be widely available. We even think it a moral imperative, a dictate of freedom. It does not trouble us that children can view acts of [...]

6 Silly Mistakes You Make In The Pursuit Of Happiness

Photo: Digital Vision Be happy. Do you get confused by that. I mean, happiness. You’re told to be happy no matter what. Everywhere you find advice on happiness. Books promising to deliver true happiness. Blog posts telling you do this and you’ll be happy. Friends and family telling you to add happiness on [...]

When Gaming Is Not A Problem 

Getty Images One of the most common questions I get asked by parents about gaming addiction is ‘How can I tell if my child has a problem?’ While there are well documented physical, behavioural and psychological symptoms of gaming addiction, the risk of reading through these checklists is that parents can sometimes become unnecessarily worried about fairly normal [...]

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