Parenting News

May 1, 2025

Top Headlines

By 15 Months, Infants Begin to Learn New Words for Objects, Even Those They've Never Seen

Apr. 23, 2025 — A new study by developmental scientists offers the first evidence that infants as young as 15 months can identify an object they have learned about from listening to language -- even if the object ...

Father's Mental Health Can Impact Children for Years

Apr. 19, 2025 — Five-year-olds exposed to paternal depression are more likely to have behavioral issues in grade school, researchers ...

Screen Time Surprise Under Grandparents' Care

Apr. 18, 2025 — New research has found that nearly half of the time American children spend with their grandparents involves interacting with or watching media on a screen. How that screen time is managed can influence media habits and impact family ...

Nurturing Now, Thriving Later: The Lasting Power of Affectionate Mothering

Apr. 16, 2025 — Affectionate mothering in childhood may have a lasting impact on important personality traits, potentially influencing life outcomes such as educational achievement, economic success, and health and well-being, according to new research. The ...

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Primate Mothers Display Different Bereavement Response to Humans

Apr. 15, 2025 — Macaque mothers experience a short period of physical restlessness after the death of an infant, but do not show typical human signs of grief, such as lethargy and appetite loss, finds a new study by ...

Gestational Diabetes Linked to ADHD in Children

Apr. 14, 2025 — A new study has found children born to mothers who experienced gestational diabetes (GDM) during pregnancy are more likely to develop attention-deficient hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and externalizing ...

Father With Alzheimer's? You May Be More at Risk of Brain Changes

Apr. 9, 2025 — While some studies have suggested that having a mother with Alzheimer's disease may put you more at risk of developing the disease, a new study finds that having a father with the disease may be tied ...

Early Education Impacts Teenage Behavior

Apr. 8, 2025 — Researchers explored the long-term effects of preschool expansion in Japan in the 1960s, revealing significant reductions in risky behaviors amongst teenagers. By analyzing regional differences in ...

Childhood Experiences Shape the Brain's White Matter With Cognitive Effects Seen Years Later

Apr. 7, 2025 — Investigators have linked difficult early life experiences with reduced quality and quantity of the white matter communication highways throughout ...

Perceiving One's Own Body: Babies Sense Their Heartbeat and Breathing

Apr. 7, 2025 — Body signals such as heartbeat and breathing accompany us constantly, often unnoticed as background noise of our perception. Even in the earliest years of life, these signals are important as they ...

An Immune Cell May Explain How Maternal Inflammation Causes Neurodevelopmental Disorder

Apr. 1, 2025 — A research group has uncovered a potential mechanism linking maternal inflammation to delayed neurodevelopment in infants. The research suggests the ...

Using Everyday Products During Pregnancy Can Affect Newborn's Metabolism, Study Finds

Apr. 2, 2025 — A newly published study found that a mother's exposure to phthalates during pregnancy can affect their newborn's metabolism and brain development. ...

My Robot Therapist: The Ethics of AI Mental Health Chatbots for Kids

Mar. 31, 2025 — AI mental health apps may offer a cheap and accessible way to fill the gaps in the overstretched U.S. mental health care system, but ethics experts warn that we need to be thoughtful about how we use ...

How Family Background Can Help Lead to Athletic Success

Mar. 20, 2025 — Americans have long believed that sports are one area in society that offers kids from all backgrounds the chance to succeed to the best of their abilities. But new research suggests that this belief ...

Why Don't We Remember Being a Baby? New Study Provides Clues

Mar. 20, 2025 — Though we learn so much during our first years of life, we can't, as adults, remember specific events from that time. Researchers have long believed we don't hold onto these experiences ...

Oxytocin System of Breastfeeding Affected in Mothers With Postnatal Depression

Mar. 14, 2025 — The oxytocin system -- which helps release breast milk and strengthens the bond between mother and baby -- may be affected during breastfeeding in mothers experiencing postnatal ...

Children Who Lack Fish in Their Diets Are Less Sociable and Kind, Study Finds

Mar. 11, 2025 — Children who consumed the least amounts of seafood at 7-years-old were likely to be less 'prosocial' at ages 7 and 9 years than those who regularly consumed seafood, according to a new ...

Good Parenting Helps, but Has Limits Under Major Deprivation

Mar. 11, 2025 — Parenting skills can make a big difference in fostering a newborn's language acquisition and cognition, but there may be a limit to how far parenting can go to make up the challenges to ...

Study Pinpoints the Impact of Prenatal Stress Across 27 Weeks of Pregnancy

Mar. 10, 2025 — Researchers found new insights on the timing of prenatal stress and its effect on infant stress reactivity and temperament -- including differences between ...

What's in a Label? It's Different for Boys Vs. Girls, New Study of Parents Finds

Mar. 10, 2025 — Research has shown that adults instinctively think of men when asked to think of a person -- they describe the most 'typical' person they can imagine as male and assume storybook characters ...

Improving School Readiness for Children With Low Birth Weight

Mar. 7, 2025 — School readiness not only impacts kids' academic success, but also their long-term economic and health outcomes. Unfortunately, research reveals a concerning gap in school readiness for children ...

Prenatal Maternal Stressors Linked to Higher Blood Pressure During First Year After Birth, Study Shows

Mar. 4, 2025 — Psychosocial stress during pregnancy could lead to higher blood pressure during the first year postpartum according to new ...

Researchers Uncover Blood Metabolites That May Influence Early Childhood Development

Feb. 28, 2025 — Researchers have identified small molecules in the blood that may impact early childhood development, showing how dietary exposures, early life experiences, and gut health can influence a ...

How Many Languages Can You Learn at the Same Time? -- Ghanaian Babies Grow Up Speaking Two to Six Languages

Feb. 28, 2025 — Africa is a multilingual continent and many adults speak several languages fluently. An empirical study by a psycholinguist now shows that the roots of this multilingualism can be found in infancy: ...

Improving Relationships Between Dads and Daughters... It's a Walk in the Park

Feb. 27, 2025 — A simple walk in the park could hold the key to unlocking a close and loving relationship between fathers and daughters, a new study has ...

How Parenthood May Help Keep Your Brain Young

Feb. 26, 2025 — Researchers find that parents show patterns of brain connectivity that oppose age-related ...

Screening and Treating Maternal Psychological Health Key to Improving Cardiovascular Health

Feb. 25, 2025 — Identifying and treating risk factors for depression, anxiety and other psychological health conditions during pregnancy and postpartum may improve short- and long-term health outcomes for both ...

Child ADHD Risk Linked to Mother's Use of Acetaminophen

Feb. 20, 2025 — Fetal acetaminophen exposure increases the likelihood that a child will develop attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a new ...

Another Way Longer Paternity Leaves Help New Parents

Feb. 20, 2025 — A longer paternity leave after the birth of a child can improve the co-parenting relationship between moms and dads in a key way, a new study finds. Researchers found that mothers were less likely to ...

Promising Results from First Prenatal Therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy

Feb. 19, 2025 — Scientists report results from a promising new approach to treat the rare neurodegenerative ...

Lack of Discussion Drives Traditional Gender Roles in Parenthood

Feb. 13, 2025 — Conversations about parental duties continue to be led by mothers, even if both parents earn the same amount of money, finds a new ...

Group Childcare Positively Affects Toddler Development

Feb. 13, 2025 — Many Japanese mothers are reluctant to send their children to childcare before the age of three due to the 'Three-Year-Old Myth,' which suggests that healthy development requires a child to ...

Postpartum Depression Discovery Opens Door to Blood Test, Earlier Treatment

Feb. 13, 2025 — New postpartum depression findings could lead to a blood test to identify women at risk and possibly even to a preventive ...

More Sunshine as a Baby Linked to Less Disease Activity for Children With MS

Feb. 12, 2025 — Getting at least 30 minutes of daily summer sun in the first year of life may mean a lower relapse risk for children who are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) later, according to a new study. ...