Feature Channels: Behavioral Science

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Athletes’ experience of using mental health support – and their attitudes towards these services – could be better understood with a more robust approach to research.

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Communities in Southwest Houston have something to smile about: UT Dentists, the clinical practice of UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry, is collaborating with HOPE Clinic to bring accessible dental care as an integrated health service line at a brand new Alief clinic location called the HOPE Health and Wellness Center.

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A 2019 Florida Department of Health survey showed that 12.7 percent of Florida high schoolers had carried a weapon; 21.2 percent were involved in a physical altercation; and 11.3 percent and 14.9 percent were bullied electronically or on school property, respectively. In addition, 15.6 percent reported they had seriously considered attempting suicide. Alarmingly, results indicated a 50 percent increase in the suicide attempt rate for black females. These numbers demonstrate the need for timely, immediate prevention and intervention in mental health services for Florida youth.

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Aretrospective study of temperatures in the province of Barcelona reveals that low temperatures increase the risk of going on a period of sick leave, due in particular to infectious and respiratory diseases.

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MTSU management professor Jackie Gilbert has spent years researching the topics of civility and bullying in the workplace and is building on that expertise with the development of a new online course addressing the unique challenges brought about by the pandemic.

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Power often boosts an employee’s creativity because being powerful liberates the individual from constraints, such as worrying that their ideas will be rejected. However, new research shows that employees who are not in positions of power can become more creative when given time to “warm up” to a task by engaging in the creative task more than once.

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A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals that a connection between the body and mind is built into the structure of the brain. The study shows that parts of the brain area that controls movement are plugged into networks involved in thinking and planning, and in control of involuntary bodily functions such as blood pressure and heart rate.

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The study, which appears in the journal Psychological Science, found participants showed more generosity toward strangers when prompted to think about God. Moreover, participants’ giving increased equally no matter if recipients were members of the same religious group or a different group.

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A research article by scientists at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics developed a neural control algorithm to coordinate the adhesive toes and limbs of the climbing robot.

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About one in five cases of child abuse and neglect is committed by both mothers and fathers, but nearly all the research attention has been focused on when just one parent is involved. A new study that aimed to shine a light on risk factors for mistreatment coming from both parents found some surprising results.

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U.S. middle and high schools with the most students taking prescription stimulants to treat ADHD also had, overall, the highest percentage of students who misused prescription stimulants within the past year.

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A cross-cultural comparison study is the first to investigate factors that influenced the decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine in an international sample of college students from the U.S., Israel and the Czech Republic. Results provide evidence of country-specific varying perceptions of susceptibly, severity, benefits and barriers associated with a virus and vaccine.

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Having a four-year college degree and a low level of stress are strongly linked to psychological resilience in American women aged 80 and older, a new study suggests.

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University of Minnesota Twin Cities computer science researchers found that the nature of TikTok’s algorithm can have both positive and negative outcomes for users’ mental health and sense of belonging on the platform.

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Eleven California State Universities were recently awarded a combined $35 million to increase the state's supply of staff trained to provide behavioral health care.

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Stewards of parks and wild lands would do well to understand the term “typography as image” and to employ it in practice, according to the results of a new study of how trailside signs influence users’ behavior.

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Virtual fitting rooms can cut down on returns and nudge hesitant online shoppers to click the checkout button. But findings from a recently published study indicate the technology could backfire on retailers if they assume consumer interactions are uniformly positive. The authors provide several recommendations based on their research.

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The first study to examine evaluation scores for professionalism and interpersonal communication skills among physicians-in-training and what happens afterward as these doctors begin their practice was reported April 11 in . The study tracked 9,340 early-career physicians from across the country.

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We are often attracted to others with whom we share an interest, but that attraction may be based on an erroneous belief that such shared interests reflect a deeper and more fundamental similarity—we share an essence—according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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People who experience periods of high inflation are more likely to buy a home, according to a new study from the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management.

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As a four-day work week is trialled in countries across the globe, health researchers at the University of South Australia say they’re ‘all in’ when it comes to a long weekend, especially as new empirical research shows that the extra time off is good for our health.

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Coaxing blood cells from patients to develop into three-dimensional brain “organoids” is allowing scientists at University of Utah Health to gain insights into pediatric bipolar disorder.

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Dopamine, a brain chemical long associated with pleasure, motivation and reward-seeking, also appears to play an important role in why exercise and other physical efforts feel “easy” to some people and exhausting to others, according to results of a study of people with Parkinson’s disease led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers. Parkinson’s disease is marked by a loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain over time.

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The majority of research on disordered eating has focused on the experiences of white women, contributing to the myth that eating disorders don’t affect Black women, according to researcher Jordan E. Parker (University of California, Los Angeles). Her new research debunks this myth.

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A type of cell usually characterized as the brain’s support system appears to play an important role in OCD, providing a surprising new clue about potential therapeutic strategies for the disorder.

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Managers who disconnect from work are rated as stronger leaders the next day

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A new study shows promise for reducing risky drinking among Army National Guard members over the long term, potentially improving their health and readiness to serve. The number of days each month that Guard members said they had been binge-drinking dropped by up to half over the course of a year of either online only education or online and peer-based support.

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In the first study to systematically identify aggressive driving behaviours, scientists have measured the changes in driving that occur in an aggressive state. Aggressive drivers drive faster and with more mistakes than non-aggressive drivers – putting other road users at risk and posing a challenge to researchers working on self-driving car technology.

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Alexander Friedman, Ph.D., assistant professor in the UTEP College of Science, received a $1.15 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. The funding will support his work on the neural mechanisms of decision-making.

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A new study from Dean Shepherd, the Ray and Milann Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business considers meaning-making in the face of difficult dirty work by examining the “ragpickers” in Mumbai, India. These members of the lowest caste in Indian society live in the slums and dig through trash for food and necessities. And yet, they manage to embrace hope, destiny and survival.

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South Carolina residents were more hesitant than Americans as a whole to receive the COVID-19 vaccine during the fall of 2020, report researchers in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in the Journal of Psychiatry Research.

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A new analysis led by Alex K. Gertner, MD, PhD, psychiatry resident at UNC Hospitals, has added further evidence that the new model is effective.

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New research from the University of Kansas shows that in one such city that also has school choice policy, families are making decisions that perpetuate school segregation despite more opportunities for integration.

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Most kids know it’s wrong to yell or hit someone, even if they don’t always keep their hands to themselves. But what about if that someone’s name is Alexa?

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Plants are capable of responding to people and have behaviors comparable to tameness, according to authors of new research that calls for a reappraisal of the process of plant domestication, based on almost a decade of observations and experiments.