Published on Psychology Today Last month, the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, “The Era of the Tiger mom is over. Enter the beta mom.” The article is referring to a recent TikTok trend featuring “beta moms” who reject intensive, highly managed parenting in favor of a more relaxed approach. The “beta moms” are pushing back against a trend that started in the early 1990s favoriting hyper-involved parenting, especially for mothers, stemming from a growing knowl

Published on Psychology Today I’m a full professor and the chair of the psychology department at my university, which means I frequently give hour-and-a-half long lectures for classes and conferences, and even more frequently sit through such lectures. But even though I’ve been at this for years, I can’t for the life of me pay attention through an entire session. My mind wanders to other things I have to do that day, or what I’m making for dinner that night, or how many email

Published on Psychology Today It’s been a very long winter for those of us who live in the north east United States. We’ve had several big snow storms—one of which got me stuck in Arizona for several days—and a major arctic outbreak that resulted in freezing temperatures for weeks. Some states experienced their coldest winter in decades, and there were even reports from Florida of iguanas freezing and falling out of trees. But winter didn’t just bring freezing temperatures; i

Published on Psychology Today My parents are fairly anxious people. They are always 10 minutes early to every event and are typically sitting at the airport terminal 2 hours before boarding a flight. My brother and I inherited this trait and have dealt with anxiety for most of our childhood and adult lives. It’s easy to recognize that anxiety can be passed down to us from our parents, whose parents (my grandparents) were probably also somewhat anxious like their parents befor

Published on Psychology Today Sometimes it feels like getting my children to listen to me is like pulling teeth. Getting out of the house in the morning for school unfolds as a series of prompts that my kids have heard every single day for years , yet somehow, they respond to each request—get dressed, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, comb your hair—like it’s the very first time they’ve ever heard it. Sometimes I have to call their names 4 or 5 times just to get them to pay at

Published on Psychology Today January 23 is Maternal Health Awareness Day—the one day a year where we highlight the maternal mortality crisis in the US and advocate for improved care for moms everywhere. Maternal mortality is the death of a mother during pregnancy or birth, and maternal morbidity is when labor and delivery nearly causes death and results in serious health consequences. You might assume with our advanced medical technology that the US would be a world leade

Drawing by 2nd Grade Girl Published on Psychology Today Last week was a holiday week with fewer days of school for my kids, so I decided to do a little experiment with them, and the other kids on our street who were willing to participate. What I asked them to do was simple; I said, “draw a scientist.” I didn’t give them any other directions. I didn’t make up this experiment—researchers have been asking children of various ages to “draw a scientist” for over 5 decades. They

Published on Psychology Today This past month, I lost my mentor, my friend, and the person who served as my career role model. Her name was Judy DeLoache, and she plucked me out of college at the ripe old age of 22 to start a career in academia. I worked in her lab throughout graduate school, earning a master’s and PhD under her mentorship. She taught me how to write, how to do research, and how to think scientifically. Most importantly, she taught me how to navigate a diffi

Published on Psychology Today Last month, US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kenney Jr. alongside President Donald...

Published on Psychology Today When my oldest son Edwin first started preschool, it was incredibly stressful. He was about 3 and it was...