Substance Use In Adolescents

I recently had the chance to chat with and listen to a seminar delivered by Dean Nicholson around substance use and sexual abuse.  Nicholson is the administrator of East Kootenay Addiction Services in Cranbrook BC. He recently conducted award winning research surrounding substance use and sexual abuse in youth.

Before diving too deep into his results, it is important to outline that drug and alcohol use occur on a spectrum. To start, there are none users. Next isexperimental users, this is 1-3 uses of a particular substance. Moving along there is social/recreational users. This means that usage occurs less than once a week, and the reasons for using are for socializing with peers. These levels are completely normal for adolescents to use. It should be noted that in these categories use typically occurs on weekends.

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Read the rest at Notes on Parenting.

SpongeBob is guilty.... along with other shows

SpongeBob has become a victim of the "protect-our-children" movement.

A study performed on kids measured their problem solving abilities after watching SpongeBob, Caillou (an apparently "calm" show said the researchers), and colouring.

The kids who watched SpongeBob performed significantly worse compared to the other to categories.

Of course colouring will produce the better outcome.  What I can't understand is why Caillou was used.  Yes, I understand it is calmer in the sense that the screen isn't bouncing around.  However, the quality, while at times education, promotes whining to get stuff.

I admit SpongeBob is banned in our house, as well as Rugrats, Alex, and Caillou. For reasons Angeline Lillard, the lead researcher said, it isn't just about how much TV children watch, it is the quality.

Be aware of what you are putting on in front of your kids.

Math Ability is "Pre-Destined"

If you are bad at math, blame your gene pool.  Apparently math ability, in this new study, is pre-destined.  In the sense that children have a "number sense" built into them.

So your number sense is something you are just going to have to live through throughout your life. Go Math!

Children of Cohabiting Couples Fair Worse Compared to Married Couples

A recent study released showed that children of cohabiting couples have a greater risk for negative outcomes compared to children of a married couple.

The great question is why?  Most of the factors are similar between the two couples: living together, in a committed relationship, have children, sharing expenses, sharing wealth, etc.  However, for some reason because married mom and dad have a certificate of marriage their children are at a lower risk for having negative outcomes?  It is an interesting phenomenon.

I recall once having a University professor who called those who cohabit a different breed of human relationship expression compared to married couples.  It could be that cohabiting couples have a different way of expressing and showing love.

Now I am not at all saying cohabiting parents are terrible and married couples are exemplary.  Of course cohabiting couples can raise fantastic children, and married couples can corrupt theirs.

Bitterness can influence your health

Are you still hanging on to that grudge from when Suzy made fun of your clothes? Are you still blaming your previous boss for not giving you a big enough pay raise? Are you still bitter about a lot of things in life?

It turns out that your bitterness, negative emotions in general, can have a have negative impact on your organ functioning to also making your immune system less responsive and also making you more likely to contract a disease.

Read the complete article here in the Ottawa Citizen.

If bitterness is impacting, or even controlling your life, seek help in subduing those feelings.  Holding grudges and pursuing bitter moments can have long term affects, not just on your physical health as mentioned in the article, but also on your relationships with your spouse, kids, siblings, nieces, nephews, parents, grandparents, and so on.

Seeking Participants for a Research Project: "Autonomous Motherhood: A Socio-Legal Investigation"

Research Team
Four researchers at universities in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, are involved in this project which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC).  The team leader is Professor Susan B. Boyd, Faculty of Law, University of BC.

Research Objective
The overall objective of the project is to investigate the experience of mothers who gave birth to or adopted a child while single and who then reared their children on their own for at least one year between 1945 and 2010 in Canada.  We call this practice of mothering outside of marriage or a cohabiting relationship "autonomous motherhood".

The Historical Interview Component
This component of the project will consist of 1 to 2 hour interviews with
 mothers who gave birth to or adopted and parented a child outside a marriage or common law relationship for at least a year between 1945 and 2010. There is very little research in Canada that highlights this experience. If you have a story of lone motherhood to tell, we would very much appreciate hearing from you.

Contacts
Professors Dorothy E. Chunn, Simon Fraser University (tel: 604-741-7889 (cell) or 778-782-4761; email: chunn@sfu.ca), and Wanda Wiegers, University of Saskatchewan (tel: 306-321-7822 (cell) or 306-966-5877; email: w.wiegers@usask.ca) are coordinating the historical interview component of the project. You may contact them at the telephone numbers or email addresses above to discuss possible participation in the historical interview study.

Research Idea: Love Language and Attachment Style

Is there a correlation between the attachment style we develop as infants and toddlers, and the love language we express as adults?

I think that there just might be one.

The attachment styles are:

• Secure
• Avoidant
• Ambivalent
• Disorganized

The love languages are:

• Words of affirmation
• Acts of service
• Quality time
• Receiving gifts
• Physical touch

Of course, it is important to understand that attachment styles, and love languages, do shift over time.  But are the shifts correlated to a matching love language.  I don't think each attachment style will have purely one particular love language, but there may be a dominant one or ones.

I believe that the implications of the findings in this research idea, is how parents play a role.  Parents may be, in a sense, creating their child's future love language.

Infant Movie Theme Song Exposure and It's Relation to Later Movie Watching

When my daughter was born, actually even before, I compiled a CD of 14 songs from eight movies and one TV show that my wife and I (well, mostly I) liked.  My hypothesis was that if I played these songs for bedtime, and at other times, that this would make the songs familiar to her and therefore she would welcome the movies or TV shows because they were familiar to her.

The theme songs selected had to be of a softer tone or a classical music type, similar to that of bedtime music.  This was to maintain the goal of the songs being soothing.