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A recent study found a link between depression and social anxiety on increased phubbing. It also showed that smartphone usage during face-to-face interactions can be problematic and harmful in friendships. “Results showed that those with higher levels of depression, social anxiety, and neuroticism were significantly related to greater friend phubbing while agreeableness was negatively related to friend phubbing.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology looked at miscalibrated expectations and how they create a barrier to deeper conversation. “In this research, we wanted to understand why people often engage in small talk in everyday life rather than initiate deeper and more intimate conversations that might strengthen their social relationships,” study author Michael Kardas told us. “We reasoned that people's decisions about what topics to discuss in conversation are guided by their expectations about the likely outcomes of the conversation.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Child Development looked at infant exuberant object play at home. “Researchers have long considered play to be a primary context of infant learning,” study author Catherine Tamis-LeMonda told us. “However, studies of play are confined to laboratory tasks. Our study is about how infants interact with objects spontaneously at home. We wanted to know how much infants interacted with objects outside from the laboratory confines, with the objects that they typically have access to in their everyday environments." [More]

Social media has opened up new ways for us to interact and share our experiences with others. It lets us connect with people around the world and keep up with people through their posts, pictures, and memories. However, it can also be overwhelming when we experience low response rates from those we thought would like our posts. Not getting any likes on our posts can feel like rejection, which makes us feel unappreciated and ignored. [More]

A recent study published in the Journal of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience looked at white matter in infancy and its association with language outcomes in kindergarten. “Our study conducted a five-year longitudinal investigation of children from infancy to examine how early brain structure (here focusing on white matter axonal connections between different brain areas) relates to children’s later language outcomes at the start of formal schooling (i.e., kindergarten),” study author Dr. Jennifer Zuk told us. [More]

People who live in apartments may have experienced more mental health issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic than their peers in the suburbs. Research from the University of Georgia found apartment dwellers, and in particular those who lived alone, had higher odds of experiencing mental health issues than people who lived in condos or standalone homes. [More]

Children from less wealthy families are likely to have found COVID-19 lockdowns more difficult due to less time spent in nature than their more affluent peers. Researchers from the University of Cambridge found that children who spent more time in nature during lockdown had less emotional and behavioural problems. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Behavioural Brain Research looked at how chronic vicarious social defeat stress (cVSDS) attenuates newborn neuronal cell survival in a mouse hippocampus. “In the current research, we examined influences of psychological stress on the adult hippocampal neurogenesis, which is assumed to be inseparably connected to the depressive states,” study author Akiyoshi Saitoh told us. [More]

A new study published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health looked at the associations between food worry and mental health during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our study focused on better understanding the mental health impacts due to worry about not having enough food to meet one’s household’s basic needs during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic,” study author Corey McAuliffe told us. “We aimed to identify the impact that food worry (concerns of meeting one’s basic food needs) had on different mental health experiences (e.g., anxiety/worry, depression, overall mental health, suicidal thoughts), as well as to explore potential inequitable impacts across the population.” [More]

Uncertainty motivates people to change behaviors, even when that change may not provide a better outcome. People feel a need to take some action in the face of uncertainty. [More]