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• They Say: Teen Violence Has Many Mothers

  Not literally, of course! But a new study published in the journal Child Development suggests that neither genetics nor environment alone can be blamed for causing violent behavior in teenagers. As reported in the New York Times, the researchers found that for most teens, an early history of small behavioral problems tended to snowball into bigger issues, usually as parents pulled away from difficult children and schools washed their hands of them. Led by Dr. Kenneth Dodge at the Center for Child and Family Study at Duke University, researchers followed 750 children from preschool to high school. What they found, in Dodge's words, confounds both typical liberal and conservative responses to teen problems. Read More... Posted Nov 18 2008, 01:30 PM by Kate Tuttle with | with no comments Filed under: teens, teenagers, child development, nature versus nurture, child psychology, teen violence, super-predators, duke university, dr. kenneth dodge

• Talking About Death With Your Kids

  My nanny's two parakeets just died.  But my seven-year-old daughter, Erika, who liked to take care of the birds and had been the one to christen them Blueberry and Lemon (because they were blue and yellow, natch), doesn't know yet.  The nanny came up with some crazy story about how Blueberry is sick and at the vet, and Lemon is staying at the pet store so she won't be lonely while Blueberry is away. Even I knew this wasn't right.  Today I gave the nanny the ultimatum:  tell Erika, or I will. Maybe some guidelines from an expert would make it easier on both of them.    Read More... Posted Apr 27 2008, 09:36 AM by Amy S.F. Lutz with | with no comments Filed under: child psychology, grief process, explaining death to children, funerals, loss of loved ones

• Dialing Down the Negativity

  We've all been guilty of this – or okay, maybe it's just me – saying something negative in your child's hearing. "She is such a three-year-old, I am losing my mind today." "It's okay. I didn't like school either." "Clowns are terrifying." Turns out? Not such a good idea. When your kid hears you assigning certain traits to them or reinforcing a fear or negative feeling they have, it sticks in their head as truth. Sucks to be so influential, doesn't it? Now I don’t agree with this columnist's assertion, that if you ask other parents for help with a problem you're having with your child in their hearing, that you give them the idea you don’t know what you're doing. Of course, I am only the parent of a three-year-old, who still thinks I can conjure up Pirate's Booty and new episodes of Dora out of thin air because I am just that cool.   Read More... Posted Jan 23 2008, 05:33 PM by Amy Kuras with | with no comments Filed under: sibling rivalry, negativity, labeling, parental influence, child psychology