Published on Psychology Today

These days, social media has become so integrated into our lives that it’s hard to imagine a time before we had Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Facebook has nearly 2 billion users, and according to various online reports, we spend about 50 minutes on Facebook every day, and a whopping 5 hours each day looking at our smart phones. The frequency with which we typically engage with media has led several researchers to ask whether there are any consequences of spending so much time online, and in particular, whether all of this media time has negative effects on us, and on our children.

A recent study sugges...

Published on Psychology Today

There is a strong belief among many people that having children makes you happier. Indeed, most young adults have plans to have children when they get older, and believe that having kids will one day make them feel more satisfied with their lives (Hansen, 2012). On top of feeling that having children makes you a happier person, there is also a common belief among adults that having kids makes a marriage stronger. But although there is some evidence that couples with kids are less likely to divorce than couples without (e.g., White & Booth, 1985), it turns out that having children might not make your marri...

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With recent worry about mass shootings and gun violence in the United States, one of the questions that always comes up is whether violent media promotes violent or aggressive behavior. This is something that is especially important to think about for parents, as violent content is common on television and in movies, on the internet, and in some of the most popular children’s video games.

Although the issue is often presented as controversial in the media, we have pretty good evidence that exposure to violent media does make children more aggressive. And we’ve known it for decades. In one of the most well-...

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With the holiday season in full swing, the toy industry is bustling with moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends buying gifts for their littlest loved ones. Toy buying used to be simple: A nice doll for girls, and a matchbox car for boys. But these days, shopping for kids’ toys can be utterly overwhelming. There are hundreds of products that line the aisles of most toy stores, many of which have flashing lights, play music, and some even talk to you as you walk by. Some products even boast their utility in teaching children new words, musical skills, and even math. It’s enough to make your he...

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With Thanksgiving on the horizon, delicious food is on everyone’s mind. For many of us, eating a large meal with friends and family is a happy occasion, and one that we (and our stomachs) often look forward to. In fact, I look forward to dinnertime almost every night. At least I did, until I had my son. These days, mealtimes aren’t quite as much fun, as they mean sitting across the table from a 2-year-old who will likely refuse everything I put in front of him. Even when he was nursing, my son was a picky eater; he was particular about when he wanted to eat, and even which breast he would take milk from....

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With the fast approach of Halloween, there is no doubt that children everywhere have their minds on ghosts, goblins, and witches, along with other popular fantasy characters that commonly take the spotlight in the month of October. They’ll dress up as their favorite cartoon characters for trick-or-treating, and they may even pretend to be those characters as they travel in groups to ring neighborhood doorbells in search of chocolate or caramel covered treats.

Unfortunately, fantasies of ghosts and goblins can also come with some scary imagery, followed by the inevitable fears of monsters that might be hidi...

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Recently, many hospitals have placed an emphasis on skin-to-skin contact between mothers and newborns. After my son Edwin was born, he was placed immediately on my chest, touching my skin, for an extended period of time. This seems to be the new trend, and for good reason. Research suggests that skin-to-skin contact has immediate positive effects for babies, and can effectively reduce crying, stress, promote sleep, and even help establish a breastfeeding routine.

In fact, research suggests that the effects of skin-to-skin contact can even be long lasting, especially for premature babies who generally requi...

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No one likes teenagers—not even their own parents. On the subway, you can often watch adults scurry to find other seats as soon as they spot a group of teenagers hop on the train. Parents dread these infamous years, where they’ve been warned to expect a glass of cheek with a splash of rashness, and a dash of drama. Teenagers are bound to hang out with friends you don’t like, hate your rules, hate you even more, and react with utter contempt when you try to correct their irresponsible and often impulsive behavior. Even the term “teenager” carries with it such a strong connotation of misgiving that I’ve hea...

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How children learn is something that we are all interested in, some of us from a scientific perspective, others from a policy perspective, and most of us from the perspective of a parent. Watching my son figure out something new—like how to fit wooden blocks into a shape sorter or how to make his music box play—is both fascinating and exciting for both the mom and the researcher in me. At the ripe old age of two, every day offers him a new discovery, and I am more than happy to sit back and watch as he learns from the world around him. Some researchers have likened infants to “baby scientists”—experiment...

Published on Psychology Today.

When it comes to raising children and being a parent, usually most of the attention goes to moms. And why wouldn’t it? We’re the ones that endure pregnancy, labor, nursing, and most of us take on at least half of the child rearing responsibilities, if not more. Because of this emphasis on motherhood, coupled with the fact that women are getting married less often and having children later in life, several celebrities and writers have pointed out that women don’t actually need men to raise children. In fact, sperm banks have made it so that women don’t even need a man to get pregnant (unless that man is...