Parenting While Abroad

The mental ability of teenagers can improve or decline on a far greater scale than previously thought, according to new research. The results show that a change in verbal IQ was found in 39% of the teenagers, with 21% showing a change in performance IQ" - a test of spatial reasoning.

Hanging out with the right group of friends is especially important as children transition from elementary to middle school. The new friendships may directly influence a teenager’s potential academic success or future challenges in high school and beyond. A new study, appearing in the February issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence," found that boys and girls whose friends are socially active in ways where rules are respected do better in their classroom work.

A new study soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics explores the relationship between fast food advertisements, parental influence, and the food choices made by children. Children in the study watched a series of two cartoons, with commercials shown between each cartoon. The children were divided into two groups; half watched a commercial for French fries, and the other half watched a commercial for apple slices with dipping sauce. After watching the cartoons and commercials, the children were allowed to choose a coupon for either advertised food with input from their parents, half of whom encouraged their child to choose the healthy option, and the other half remained neutral. Of the children who viewed the commercial for French fries, 71% chose the coupon for French fries if their parents remained neutral. However, the number only dropped to 55% when the children were encouraged by their parents to choose the healthier option.

People with many close friends tend to be more creative than those with smaller social circles according to new research. The study analyzed traits such as IQ, inhibition and social network size and assessed their creativity by asking them about their creative achievements. Higher IQ and lower inhibition both contributed to more creative achievements, but the biggest predictor of creativity was the number of close friends. Having a large group of acquaintances and faint friends wasn’t associated with greater creativity.

A controlled diet could help alleviate symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, according to a new study. Researchers assigned half of participants to a control group and restricted the other children’s diet to foods such as rice, white meat and fruits and vegetables, and excluded potentially allergenic foods, such as tomatoes, dairy, wheat and eggs. More than half of the children in the diet group showed improvement in their symptoms. Among these children, the researchers selectively added back into their diets excluded foods and watched to see if the improvements persisted or disappeared. Different children’s symptoms reacted to different foods indicating that selectively investigating and controlling the diets of children with ADHD could help manage the disorder’s symptoms.

Changing your lifestyle to include a better diet and more exercise, time outdoors or helping others could offer relief from such mental health disorders as depression and anxiety, according to a study of current research. Regular exercise reduces feelings of depression and anxiety and boosts cognitive performance; vegetable-, fruit- and fish-heavy diets reduce symptoms of affective and schizophrenic disorders; spending time in nature promotes general well-being; and participating in community service enhances feelings of love, joy and generosity.

Adding pureed vegetables to entrees reduces the number of calories the meals pack without sacrificing texture or taste, according to Pennsylvania State University researchers who tried it on unsuspecting study subjects. Using "stealth vegetables" to pad dishes provided a double-helping of dietary benefit because some of the participants more than doubled their intake of fiber- and vitamin-packed veggies — without even knowing it. It's a great way to get your children to eat vegetables without a fuss.

Having rich exposure to science, technology, engineering and math experiences early in one’s academic life predicts success in the disciplines as an adult, according to recent studies.

Girls who start puberty early could be more likely to experience adolescent depression than girls whose puberty begins later, finds a new study. The study found that girls who began menstruating before age 11.5 were at an increased risk of experiencing depression by age 13 or 14. Girls who began menstruating after age 13.5 were at lower risk of experiencing depression over the same age range, the researchers found. Other researchers have theorized that the results could reflect the fact that girls who mature faster than their peers tend to have lower self-esteem and poorer body image.

A new study says that self-control makes the difference between getting a good job or going to jail — and we learn it in preschool. "Children who had the greatest self-control in primary school and preschool ages were most likely to have fewer health problems when they reached their 30s," says Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychology at Duke University and King's College London.

A simple writing exercise can relieve students of test anxiety and may help them get better scores than their less anxious classmates, a new study has found. The report in Friday's edition of the journal Science" says students who spend 10 minutes before an exam writing about their thoughts and feelings can free up brainpower previously occupied by testing worries and do their best work.

Hanging out with the right group of friends is especially important as children transition from elementary to middle school. The new friendships may directly influence a teenager’s potential academic success or future challenges in high school and beyond. A new study, appearing in the February issue of the Journal of Early Adolescence," found that boys and girls whose friends are socially active in ways where rules are respected do better in their classroom work.

Having a mother who lived within 1,000 feet of a freeway while pregnant doubles a child's odds of having autism. The finding comes from a study looking at environmental factors that might play a role in autism. University of Southern California researcher Heather E. Volk, PhD, MPH, and colleagues collected data from 304 California children with confirmed autism and from 259 children who developed normally. Exposure to air pollution during pregnancy is suspected of a wide range of negative effects on the fetus. A particularly crucial period may be the third trimester, when the brain develops rapidly."

Air pollution is particularly heavy within a thousand feet of a highway. Volk and colleagues found that the 10% of women who lived closest to a freeway during pregnancy were within about 1,000 feet of center line. Children born to these women were 86% more likely to have autism than kids born to women who lived farther from the freeway.

Children over the age of seven suffered worse asthma attacks if their mother was over protective. But younger children suffered more in the following year if their mother was chronically angry, irritated or suppressed their emotions. Apparently stressed mothers made children more stressed which increased their suffering from asthma. Researcher Jun Nagano said: "Our results suggest that the mothers of younger children may be advised to pay more attention to the reduction of their own stress. Mothers of older children may be encouraged to increase their own wellbeing via proper egocentric and self-defensive activities, being careful to avoid too much interference with their children."

Children do not see objects in a fully grown-up way until the age of 13, a new study suggests. When judging whether shaded images are convex or concave, adult brains assume that light comes from above unless there is reason to think otherwise. Young children have to learn this ability. "Children really do see the world differently to adults, inasmuch as their perceptions seem to be more variable," says UK researcher Jim Stone. "No wonder they can't look at a cloud without seeing a dog or a bear."

A new study reveals that people are less happy when they day dream than if they remain focused on the activity they are doing at the time their mind wandered.

The UK's Department of Health is putting the fast food companies McDonald's and KFC and processed food and drink manufacturers such as PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo at the heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease, according to the Guardian.

Children exposed to high levels of manganese in drinking water perform more poorly on intelligence tests. Researchers discovered that children who drank higher concentrations of the naturally occurring metal performed more poorly on tests of cognition and motor skills than did children who drank manganese in lower concentrations — though researchers aren’t sure yet why manganese might cause adverse effects to the brain.

A simple online intervention could help stave off depression, according to recent research done by Acacia Parks, PhD, a psychology professor at Reed College in the US. After six weeks of online exercises designed to evoke pleasure, engagement and meaning, such as writing to a loved one, 661 mildly depressed self-help seekers reported a significant decrease in their depression for the following year. This may be a useful tool for expats in remote areas to help alleviate their depression.

Very young children and those with autism don’t contagiously yawn, possibly indicating a lack of empathy. In the study, only typically developing children age 4 and older reliably yawned when they watched other people yawn. Across all ages, the children with autism were less likely to yawn responsively than their same-age peers.

A new study in Pediatrics found that children of military parents in wartime are more stressed than we can imagine and their mental health and behavior suffers when a parent is deployed overseas. Over two years the study found the overall rate of doctor visits for behavioral or mental health problems was 0.6 visits per child per year. That rate was 11 percent higher during a parent's deployment compared with when he or she was home.

Children who sneak time on their cell phones, computers and other electronic devices after bedtime are more likely to have sleep disorders that may be linked to other difficulties, such as learning problems, anxiety, ADHD and depression, according to a study conducted at the Sleep Disorders Center at JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J.

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There is no reason why we cannot say 'No' to children in just as kind a way as we say 'Yes'. -- John Holt