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Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and it is well known that there are strong links between parental and child depression. Understanding this relationship is key to trying to prevent intergenerational transmission. Worldwide, one in five women suffers from postpartum depression. A new study published in BJPsych looked at maternal and paternal depression and child mental health trajectories. “Our study is about tracking mood over time in children of parents who were depressed in pregnancy and/or after birth,” study author, Professor Rebecca Pearson of Manchester Metropolitan University/University of Bristol told us. [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]

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]

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 Pediatric Research looked at family environment and development in children adopted from institutionalized care. “This prospective study followed children recently adopted from institutionalized care over two years to investigate the relationship between family environment, executive function, and behavioral outcomes,” study author Constantine A. Stratakis told us. “My research interest is how early life stress effects development.” [More]

The majority of children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) won’t outgrow the disorder. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that just 10 percent of children with ADHD will completely outgrow it. [More]

Parents experiencing financial hardship may talk less with their kids. Recent research from the University of California Berkeley found that economic context may be to blame for the “word gap”, where children from lower income households have heard millions of fewer words than their more affluent peers by kindergarten. [More]

Strong family relationships gives teenagers greater empathy for their friends. Research published in Child Development found that teenagers who had supportive and secure family relationships had greater empathy for their peers. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Aggressive Behavior looked at school bullying before and during COVID-19 using a population-based randomized design. “We wondered if the COVI-19 infection control measures would have an impact on the prevalence of bullying. In particular, we thought that rates would be lower because students were supervised more and were organized into smaller cohorts,” study author Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt told us. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Body Image looked at the effect playing with ultra-thin dolls has on the way young girls view their own bodies. “We were interested in understanding whether doll play would influence girls’ developing sense of an ‘ideal’ body,” study author Lynda Boothroyd, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Durham University in the UK told us. [More]