At least one or two new parenting studies hit the headlines each and every week, adding more fodder to the debate about what it takes to be a better parent and to raise a healthier, smarter, kinder, more resilient kid. (Did I remember to say smarter?)
Some parenting studies confirm what you've known all along, which can be reassuring if you're thinking everyone else with a screaming baby is living on Bliss Boulevard. ("Fussy babies decrease marital satisfaction among first-time parents.")
Others leave you feeling like the research team recruited their research subjects in Utopia (or wherever it is that all the perfect parents and perfect kids reside).
Some studies make you cringe when you think about how the local busybody is going to apply her newfound scientific knowledge — like when she sees you holding your baby in the wrong position in the local coffee shop.
And then there are those studies that make you stop and take notice because you can immediately see how the findings coming out of these studies could be helpful to someone you know. Maybe even someone in your own family.
- Doctors in Germany have pioneered a groundbreaking technique for dealing with premature rupture of the membranes (PROM), a condition that occurs in approximately three per cent of pregnancies. The doctors describe the life-saving intervention that they performed during the 20th week of pregnancy-and which allowed the now-healthy baby girl to continue to grow in the mother's uterus until 33 weeks of pregnancy-in the current issue of the medical journal Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy.
- One in three girls is a mean girl — and the Internet is one of her favourite bullying haunts. A study of Australian girls between the ages of 11 and 19 found that 14 per cent of girls had experienced at least one incident of cyberbullying while 31 per cent had experienced some form of online or offline bullying (or both). The researchers found that the peak age for bullying was 13, with the majority of incidents occurring between the ages of 12 and 15.
- Video games can rewire people's brains in a positive way. Video game technology can be used to design games that help to boost self-esteem and reduce stress. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal were able to track actual physiological changes (reduced levels of the stress hormone cortisol) in people who played a custom-designed video game designed to reduce their social anxiety.
It's important to know which scientific studies are worth buying into and which ones have all the makings of a b-movie plot or an odd-spot column, but simply don't stand up scientifically. Here's a quick crash course in sorting out scientific studies — a great link to refer back to the next time you come across one of those "why chocolate is better for you than broccoli"-type studies that make their way into the headlines every now and again.
Now over to you. Any of these studies ring true for you? Have you read any studies recently that made you see red? (Sometimes that can happen, too.)
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