It's that time of year again. For media working on stories about the seasonal return to school, here are the latest features and experts in the Back-To-School channel on Newswise.
Life is harder for adolescents who are not attractive or athletic. New research shows low attractive and low athletic youth became increasingly unpopular over the course of a school year, leading to subsequent increases in their loneliness and alcohol misuse. As their unpopularity grows, so do their problems.
An analysis published in Cancer Medicine reveals the trends of self-initiated deaths—including assisted suicide (AS) and conventional suicide (CS)—in Switzerland over a 20-year period, focusing on people who suffered from cancer.
The research, focused on Black women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an inflammatory autoimmune disease, sheds light on the detrimental effects of psychosocial stress on health and the role of inflammatory mechanisms.
Following up on positive results from preliminary research, scientists at University of Utah Health are evaluating whether an eight-week program based on positive psychology techniques can improve the mood and well-being of people who have had a stroke and those who care for them.
Despite federal and state laws, runaway youth continue to be arrested, charged and detained for prostitution. Findings show significant differences among detained runaways compared to youth incarcerated for more serious offenses.
Cambridge scientists have shown that the hypothalamus, a key region of the brain involved in controlling appetite, is different in the brains of people who are overweight and people with obesity when compared to people who are a healthy weight.
Chronic pain is often accompanied by depression and anxiety. An invited commentary discusses the relationship between pain, the most common symptom for which individuals visit a physician, and depression and anxiety, the two most prevalent mental health conditions worldwide. It highlights the importance of not neglecting psychological symptoms in patients experiencing pain.
“Your presence means the world to me” may sound like a wedding invitation cliché, but an Osaka Metropolitan University study has shown that the presence of others while working does generate a state of relaxation and positive brain activity.
Research from Saint Louis University School of Medicine finds that among patients 65 and older, a diagnosis of anxiety was significantly associated with an increased risk of dementia diagnosis, and benzodiazepine exposure was associated with a 28% increased risk of dementia.
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There’s more to back-to-school season than snagging the latest notebooks, bookbags, and trendy jackets and jeans. A new routine, new teachers, and new schools signal a big adjustment period for some students. “Anxiety can be associated with the unknown, such as what will the teacher this year be like, what friends will be in my class, where will my classroom be, and likely other worries can pop into children’s minds,” said Cindy Smith, director of the Children’s Emotions Lab at Virginia Tech and an expert in child emotional development, parent-child interaction, and parenting behaviors.
Research from the University of Illinois shows that a person’s own behavior is the primary driver of how they treat others during brief zero-sum-game competitions, carrying more weight than the attitudes and behaviors of others. Generous people tend to reward generous behavior and selfish individuals often punish generosity and reward selfishness – even when it costs them.
Academic performance has long been linked to how supported students feel at school. Now, a Rutgers study suggests this sentiment is also essential to preventing suicides.
How people feel about their sleep has a greater impact on their well-being than what sleep-tracking technology says about their sleep quality, research led by the University of Warwick has found.
Functional seizures resemble epileptic seizures but are not prompted by any electrical activity in the brain. People with functional seizures live with stigma, stress, and emotional and financial burden — and so do their care partners. Joy Mazur spoke with Shannon Guinard about the challenges and stigmas that face care partners of people with functional seizures.
Computers and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming increasingly important in the art world. AI-generated artworks fetch millions at auction, and artists routinely use algorithms to create aesthetic content. Now, a team of researchers from the University of Vienna has conducted experiments showing that, contrary to popular intuition, people perceive emotions and intentions when viewing art, even when they know the work was generated by a computer. The study was recently published in the journal "Computer in Human Behavior".
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Teens who have been bullied by their peers, or who have considered or attempted suicide, may be more likely to have more frequent headaches than teens who have not experienced any of these problems, according to a study published in the August 2, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that bullying or thoughts of suicide cause headaches; it only shows an association.
A sociological study by the University of Zurich confirms that a considerable proportion of employees perceive their work as socially useless. Employees in financial, sales and management occupations are more likely to conclude that their jobs are of little use to society.
A new study by an interdisciplinary team of researchers across six different countries found that affective polarization, or the tendency to dislike people who belong to opposing political parties while favoring people from their own political party, is a global bias — not just an American one. The research further indicates that the dislike grows stronger when two people think about political issues the same way but come away with different beliefs about those issues.
Las personas con convulsiones funcionales enfrentan estigma, estrés y cargas emocionales y financieras, al igual que sus cuidadores. Mientras cuidan a sus seres queridos, algunos cuidadores pueden desarrollar altos niveles de depresión y ansiedad.
Road safety is a critical issue in an era of increasing cannabis legalization. Cannabis is known to impair reaction time, decision-making, coordination and perception—skills necessary for safe driving. In the last three years, California has seen a 62% increase in the number of fatal crashes involving drug-related impairment.
Which types of personalities were more hesitant about COVID-19 vaccination during the pandemic’s peak? Extroverts — according to a new study on more than 40,000 Canadians.
From psychiatrists to experts in telehealth, public health and primary care, a range of reactions from University of Michigan faculty to the recent federal proposal for mental health policy, and related issues.
It’s easy to imagine that growing up in a neighborhood with safe and clean parks, little to no discrimination, and where people are not struggling financially makes for a lower-stress childhood.
A global study co-led by researchers from The University of Queensland and Harvard Medical School has found one in two people will develop a mental health disorder in their lifetime.
A new study finds unsupervised, online exams can provide a valid and reliable assessment of student learning, but instructors should be aware of potential weak spots.
Psychosocial stress profoundly affects people’s lives globally, not least because it can be a critical risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Thanks to an $11.5 million award renewal from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, distinguished researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and elsewhere aim to gain a deeper understanding of how stress influences cardiovascular health.
Though it’s just as likely to be worn while lounging on the couch as in the gym, a large driver of activewear’s popularity among women is its association with a dynamic lifestyle, positive wellbeing and overall good health. However, two new Edith Cowan University (ECU) studies suggest online shopping for activewear may in fact be harmful to women’s body image.
How are humans motivated to do what we do? That’s the fundamental question driving neuroscientist Pearl Chiu. “On a neurobiological level, each of our brains is similarly composed. We share the same general structures and cell types — yet as people, we’re all so different,” said Chiu, who the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors recently promoted to full professor with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and the College of Science’s Department of Psychology.
Roughly six million Black people moved away from the American South during the Great Migration between 1910 and 1970, hoping to escape racial violence and discrimination while pursuing economic and educational opportunities. Now, research has uncovered a link between this historic event with present-day inequalities and implicit biases.
A University of California, Irvine-led team of researchers working at the Center for Neural Circuit Mapping find links between brain disorders and dysfunction of newly identified inhibitory brain cell types.
A new study from UCLA Health researchers finds that the typical ways health systems store and track data on children receiving emergency care miss a sizable portion of those who are having self-injurious thoughts or behaviors. The researchers also found that several machine learning models they designed were significantly better at identifying those children at risk of self-harm.
Self-reported data from lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) patients shows these groups have poorer health outcomes compared to those who identify as heterosexual, but bisexual people disproportionally experience the worst outcomes in England.
Social media plays a significant role in everyday life for most teenagers. It helps them stay connected to friends, find community with others and feel a sense of belonging. But how much is too much, and is it more dangerous than beneficial?