News by Subject Social & Behavior

Assessing adverse childhood experiences and current anxiety and depression symptoms may help ease cognitive distress in women who have undergone a surgical menopause for cancer risk-reduction, or RRSO, according to a new study published in Menopause.

Older people are generally more emotionally stable and better able to resist temptations in their daily lives, a new study says. Researchers from Duke and Vanderbilt pinged 123 study participants aged 20 to 80 on their cell phones three times a day for ten days. They indicated how they felt on a five-point scale for each of eight emotional states, including contentment, enthusiasm, relaxation and sluggishness, and whether they were craving chocolate, cigarettes or sex.

Infants from rural families tend to display negative emotions such as anger and frustration more frequently than their urban counterparts, according to a recent study in the Journal of Community Psychology. Babies born in big cities, on the other hand, typically are less fussy and not as bothered by limits set by their caregivers.

Many babies cry or show other signs of distress when a parent departs and they are left behind with a stranger. But secure babies are soothed when the parent returns. That, however, is not the case with babies classified with insecure-resistant attachments, as shown in a new University of Miami study of infants who are at high risk for developing autism.

Premature birth, low birth weight, and neonatal intensive care are associated with the risk of being diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD). The disorder causes problems in emotional bonding, social interaction, and expression of emotions, and it can lead to severe and expensive consequences later in life. The disorder will impair child's social interactions and it is connected with later child protection issues, psychiatric and substance use disorders, and social exclusion.

Two weeks of 20 minutes less time per day on Facebook: a team of psychologists from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) invited 140 test persons to participate in this experiment. Lucky those who took part: afterwards they were more physically active, smoked less and were more satisfied. Symptoms of addiction regarding Facebook usage decreased. These effects continued also three months after the end of the experiment.

Researchers from Michigan State University are the first to pinpoint social factors that can reduce these stressors and improve health for LGBT people.