How to stop feeling like a Grinch and be more present with your kids this holiday season

Holidays are often depicted as picture-perfect moments: families blissfully united around a table filled with seasonal food favorites against an immaculate backdrop. For many parents, attempting to meet such unrealistic…

Moms Carry 71% of the Mental Load

Summary: New research shows that mothers take on 71% of household mental load tasks, including planning, scheduling, and organizing, while fathers manage just 45%. This imbalance often leads to stress,…

The Secret to Raising Independent Kids? Let Them Learn on Their Own

Summary: Parents are 50% less likely to intervene in their young children’s tasks, such as getting dressed, when these activities are framed as learning opportunities. A new study demonstrated that…

Parent-Child Synchrony Isn’t Always Better for Attachment Development

Summary: Researchers revealed nuanced insights into parent-child synchrony, differentiating between behavioral and brain-to-brain connections in 140 families. This research indicates that higher brain-to-brain synchrony, particularly in mothers with insecure attachment…

Vaccine-skeptical mothers say bad health care experiences made them distrust the medical system

Why would a mother reject safe, potentially lifesaving vaccines for her child? Popular writing on vaccine skepticism often denigrates white and middle-class mothers who reject some or all recommended vaccines…

Drinking during holidays and special occasions could affect how you parent your kids

How much alcohol do you typically drink in a week? A month? A year? Did your answer take into account how much you drink on New Year’s Eve? On Christmas?…

New treatment for postpartum depression offers hope, but the stigma attached to the condition still lingers

Postpartum depression can affect anyone, and it often sneaks in quietly, like a shadow in the corners of a new mother’s life. It presents significant challenges for around 1 in…

Early Parental Bonds Shape Future Empathy

Summary: A new study links early parental bonding with children’s future prosocial behavior, exhibiting kindness and empathy. Utilizing data from over 10,000 people born from 2000-2002, the study illustrates the…

Balanced Parenting Is Key to Nurturing Harmonious Sibling Bonds

Summary: A new study suggests that equal treatment of siblings by parents fosters better sibling relationships. Analyzing retrospective reports of 325 college-age adults, the researchers found that parental differential treatment…

Positive parenting can help protect against the effects of stress in childhood and adolescence, new study shows

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Warm and supportive parenting may buffer against the effects of stress during childhood and adolescence. That…