There are some friends who are so needy that the friendship begins to weigh you down like an emotional ball and chain. They’re always in need of one thing or another: money, favors, help, coddling, praise—or simply more time and attention than you are able or willing to give. Like a wailing toddler, they can […]
Category Archives: Relationships
Relationships
Though almost three-quarters of Americans believe spanking a child is good for them, I’ve never been able to understand how we figured that hitting a child could teach a child not to hit others.
The parents of a 15-year-old girl recently went to court to get turned over to police the computer IP address for whoever created a fake Facebook page that made defamatory and sexually lewd comments about their daughter. While Facebook took down the page after the complaint, the internet service provider is still wrestling with whether […]
Changing how a person perceives and thinks about others was the most effective intervention for loneliness, a sweeping analysis of previous research has determined. The findings may help physicians and psychologists develop better treatments for loneliness, a known risk factor for heart disease and other health problems. Recently, researchers have characterized the negative influence of […]
Accentuating the Positive: As We Grow Older, Changing Priorities Can Have a Surprising Effect on Emotional Health Peace. Contentment. Happiness. This wasn’t what Allan Schwartz expected he would find in his late 60s, as he left middle age behind. Like many people, he expected the transition into older age to be difficult; instead it has […]
Your family may not be storybook, but you can cheer up the house by breaking bread, finding fun, and following a few proven plotlines. When I was a child, I loved the All-of-a-Kind Family books. Five sisters sharing a bedroom in a small New York apartment at the turn of the last century—what could be […]
Laughter can play key roles in group communication and group dynamics – even when there’s nothing funny going on. That’s according to new research from North Carolina State University that examined the role of laughter in jury deliberations during a capital murder case. The researchers were given access to the full transcript of jury […]
when a grown child struggles Even into adulthood, problem children continue to give their parents heartache, and it doesn’t matter if other children in the family grow up to be successful, according to a new study of middle-aged parents. “What this study finds is that the children may have their own lives and moved on, but […]
Parents understand the challenge of getting infants to sleep through the night, and now Penn State researchers show that being emotionally receptive can reduce sleep disruptions and help infants and toddlers sleep better. “Bed time can be a very emotional time. It heralds the longest separation of the day for most infants,” said Douglas Teti, […]
New research also shows loving siblings promote good deeds more than loving parents Something about having a sister – even a little sister – makes 10- to 14-year-olds a bit less likely to feel down in the dumps. That’s one of several intriguing findings from a new study on the impact siblings have on one […]
