A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
"It's not surprising parents think the worst thing that could happen to their child is to grow up fat. It's not. It's far more damaging for a child to grow up feeling ashamed and unloved." Photo: Stocksy "My daughter is fat, isn't it my job to tell her?" a well-meaning father wrote to [...]
Credit: Mathis Dance Studios The booming children's dance industry is set to be overhauled in a bid to combat lacklustre regulation and increasing injury risks. Dance – encompassing jazz, tap, ballet, hip hop, cheerleading, contemporary, Irish, acrobatic, musical theatre and lyrical – is more popular than all other Australian children's sports or leisure activities except swimming, according [...]
Credit: © Tatyana Gladskih / Fotolia Depression is a serious mental illness that has many negative consequences for sufferers. But depression among pregnant women may also have an impact on their developing babies. Children of depressed parents are at an increased risk of developing depression themselves, a combination of both genetic and environmental [...]
iStock Photo How do parents feel when they regulate their emotional expressions in ways that do not match their genuine feelings? Recent research suggests that parents' attempts to suppress negative and amplify positive emotions during child care can detract from their well-being and high-quality parent-child bonds. The findings were published in the March [...]
iStock photos Domestic violence statistics in Australia are horrifying. In the past year one in six women has experienced violence from a current or former partner, 63 women have been killed by family violence and childhood exposure to partner violence increases the likelihood of intergenerational violence [1]. The effect that domestic violence exposure [...]
Shutterstock This past week we've discovered that one of my kids has been living with a significant hearing impairment for some time. I, being the attentive, in tune and observant mother that I am - had no flipping idea. I only took him to the appointment because his Dad was concerned, and the kids [...]
Pornography is easily accessible to children online. Photo: Phil Carrick The sooner parents realise the risk their child will be exposed to pornography online is real the better. No longer is it OK, if it ever was, to say, "I don't understand tech", or "I don't use it, so I don't get it". The [...]
\Weasel words and unpublished data are hiding the extent of antidepressant harms to children and adolescents, including a likely doubling of aggression and suicidality, researchers suggest. - Rada Rouse Source: True antidepressant harms to kids being hidden | 6minutes Image from Unsplash
ALAMY It’s become something of a self-esteem cliché in the classroom: assuring kids that it’s fine if they messed up their homework assignment on long division, because, hey, they tried really hard. The underlying intention is a good one, and it can be traced back to Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck’s work on mind-sets. Dweck [...]
The moment of truth. No pressure, kid. Photograph: Allen Donikowski/Getty Images/Flickr RM Children from religious families are less kind and more punitive than those from non-religious households, according to a new study. Academics from seven universities across the world studied Christian, Muslim and non-religious children to test the relationship between religion and morality. They [...]
