Heena Sharma Blog

Fathers experience more well-being and satisfaction than mothers in their parenthood and even when interacting with their children, a new study suggests. Researchers from the University of California in the US analysed three separate studies consisting of 18,000 people that looked at the scale of happiness, psychological satisfaction, depressive symptoms and stress among others. The first two studies compared the well-being of parents with that of people who do not have children. The findings published in the journal "Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin", showed that fathers reported greater satisfaction with their lives and feelings of connectedness to others. They also reported greater positive emotions and fewer daily hassles than mothers, or relatives or peers without children. They even showed fewer depressive symptoms than men without children, whereas mothers reported more depressive symptoms than women who do not have children. Read ...

Children are more likely to receive fewer hours of sleep if their mothers have tight work schedules compared to those whose mothers gained flexibility, according to a new study. The findings of the study suggested that consistent bedtimes of children may be the key to offsetting damage done by tight work schedules. "We have seen this link between inflexible work schedules and children's sleep patterns before, but we did not know why it was happening. If parents can be there for their kids on a regular basis, and help them by having a regular bedtime routine, all of that is very beneficial for their long-term growth and development," said Orfeu Buxton, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the US. "We know positive routines especially are very important for positive child growth, so sleep may suffer if it's not there," he added. For the study, published in the journal of Child and Family Studies, the team from the varsity examine...

According to a recent study, a mother's weight during early pregnancy may affect how well her baby is able to self-regulate during its first months and years of life. The research suggested that there is a one in five chance that overweight or obese women will have babies who suffer from multiple regulatory problems, and these babies may also show a delay in some developmental milestones when they reach childhood. Previous research has found that one in every five infants struggles to self-regulate in the first year of life. This means that these babies may cry excessively, have problems feeding or difficulties falling asleep unless soothed by a caregiver. As they grow older, such children often show behavioural and neurodevelopmental problems such as hyperactivity or difficulties concentrating, as well as having poorer muscle function. Some have lower IQs or are placed on the autism spectrum. Read Complete Article Business Standard

A recent study suggests that children with mothers who use marijuana are more likely to try it at a younger age. According to the research, when mothers use marijuana during the first 12 years of their child's life, the children are more likely to start using cannabis at an earlier age than those with mothers who don't use it. Natasha A. Sokol, lead investigator of the research said, "Early initiation is one of the strongest predictors of the likelihood of experiencing health consequences from marijuana use. In a shifting regulatory environment in which we expect adult marijuana use to become more normative, developing a deeper and more nuanced understanding of social risk factors for early initiation is a critical step in intervention design and delivery." "Incorporating maternal cannabis use into our understanding of the important risk factors for early initiation may help us better identify at-risk youth for more tailored or intensive preven...