Parenting

While societal beauty standards often cause women to feel dissatisfied with their breast size, new research suggests these aesthetic anxieties do not negatively affect a mother's confidence in her ability to successfully breastfeed her baby.

A three-year study of Chinese adolescents reveals how harsh discipline shapes mental health. Researchers found that repetitive thoughts about sadness and anger act as pathways linking strict parenting to later depression and aggressive behavior.

Taking a long time to fall asleep during pregnancy is associated with slightly lower offspring intelligence scores at age four. New research points to specific metabolic chemicals in the blood that may link prenatal rest to child brain development.

When anxious children have trouble managing their emotions, their families often bend over backward to help them avoid distress. Researchers suggest that teaching kids to tolerate negative feelings could reduce this well-meaning but counterproductive cycle.

Recent research in Mindfulness suggests that when mothers mindfully observe their distressed infants without getting overwhelmed, they engage brain regions tied to emotional regulation. This "decentering" alters their neural responses and is linked to lower parenting stress.

Children growing up without a father in the home during their first year may experience earlier signs of puberty. A recent study published in the Biology of Sex Differences suggests early family environments relate to long-term biological development.

Young adults are more likely to share their parents' religious habits if they view their upbringing as warm but structured. A recent study reveals that regional geographic culture alters how different parenting strategies shape this intergenerational transmission of faith.

While working mothers often face career penalties, a new study reveals a hidden "motherhood advantage." Researchers found that mothers are highly likely to view their jobs as a way to be role models, driving greater workplace effort.

When a nursing parent gets sick, immune stress alters the genetic messages carried in breast milk. A new study shows that an engaging environment protects these microscopic messages, buffering the infant's brain against lasting behavioral changes.

A new study tracking thousands of youth in an open mental healthcare system reveals that a parent's education level strongly predicts a child's cognitive scores. The research highlights hidden disparities in how families utilize medical support.

A new study reveals how a history of childhood trauma can lead to depressive symptoms in fathers raising toddlers, operating through a sequential pathway of masculine gender role stress and emotional dysregulation.

A new study finds that Japanese fathers whose first child is a girl tend to develop more equal views on gender roles. The findings show how raising daughters can shift political attitudes, even in culturally conservative societies.

A new study reveals that job loss disrupts family planning, but the effects are highly gendered. A woman losing her job makes couples less likely to have their first child, while a man’s job loss deters having a second.

A recent study published in Nature reveals that motherhood permanently remodels the brain through dopamine, enhancing learning and memory. The findings challenge the "mommy brain" myth, while warning that severe postpartum stress can disrupt these natural adaptations.