Publisher: Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town
This report describes a systematic review
surveying what is known about the barriers to and facilitators of
healthy eating amongst children aged four to ten years old. It reviews
the research available that has analysed the barriers and facilitators
experienced by young people in relation to diets that include fruit and
vegetables and how the over-consumption of high fat and high energy
foods has led to rising proportions of children classed as obese.
Published in October 2003, the report was produced by the EPPI-Centre,
the Evidence of Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating
Centre which is part of the Social Science Research unit based at the
Institute of Education, University of London.
http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk/cms/Default.aspx?tabid=246
From Intute.ac.uk
The Relation Between Parenting, Children’s Social Understanding and Language
Source: Economic and Social Research Council
From Press Release:
The way that mothers talk to their children when they are young has a lasting effect on children’s social skills, according to a research study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The researchers found that children whose mothers often talked to them about people’s feelings, beliefs, wants, and intentions, developed better social understanding than children whose mothers did not include much ‘mental state talk’ in their conversations.
The study, based at the University of Sussex, followed children from the age of 3 to the age of 12, measuring their ability to perform tasks designed to measure their social understanding. One of these tasks, developed by the researchers to test social understanding in middle childhood (from 8 to 12 years old), used clips from the TV comedy, ‘The Office’.
Dr Yuill, who led the later stages of the research, explains: “Ricky Gervais’s character, David Brent, is a typical example of someone who is very insensitive and reads social situations incorrectly. We cringe to watch it because we are embarrassed by his complete lack of social understanding.”
From the age of 8, the children in the study were beginning to cringe too, rating scenarios with David Brent’s faux pas as more embarrassing than those without and showing a good understanding of what he was doing wrong. By the end of the study, children did as well as mothers on this and other tasks measuring social understanding, showing that by the age of 12, children can be as socially sophisticated as adults.
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From The Docuticker
Short Sleep Duration in Infancy and Risk of Childhood Overweight
Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Daily sleep duration of less than 12 hours during infancy appears to be a risk factor for overweight and adiposity in preschool-aged children.
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Parent-Reported
Sleep Problems During Development and Self-reported Anxiety/Depression,
Attention Problems, and Aggressive Behavior Later in Life
Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Sleep problems are risk indicators of later emotional difficulties in childhood and adolescence and in adulthood, as well as across these developmental periods. Although most research, to date, has focused on symptoms of insomnia in association with emotional difficulties, there is emerging evidence that other sleep and sleep-related problems (referred to herein as sleep problems) may also be linked to subsequent difficulties that are not only emotional but also behavioral. Indeed, results of one study demonstrated that a composite of different sleep problems predicted symptoms of anxiety and depression, attention problems, and aggression later in life. For knowledge concerning links between sleep problems and later emotional and behavioral difficulties to be maximally beneficial to the physician, clarification of which particular sleep problems are associated with later difficulties is paramount. Toward this aim, this article documents associations between parental perceptions of 6 aspects of sleep (examined during development) and subsequent self-reported emotional and behavioral difficulties in a representative sample of 2076 participants from Zuid-Holland. This study is novel in allowing comparison of different types of sleep problems as predictors of different types of later behavioral and emotional problems. Based on previous research, associations between different aspects of sleep and different types of emotional and behavioral problems were expected, but hypotheses concerning specific patterns of association were considered premature.
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Safeguarding children in whom illness is fabricated or induced: A review of the implementation of the 2002 guidance within the NHS
Source: Department of Health (UK)
This report reviews how the guidance on Safeguarding Children in Whom Illness is Fabricated or Induced 1 is being implemented within NHS settings. The review followed a number of high profile serious case reviews highlighting system weaknesses in safeguarding children and young people. The review was established to consider how resilient the health system is in safeguarding children and young people being deliberately harmed by family and carers. The review was overseen by an Advisory Body of key stakeholders and individual experts.
The key findings of the review are drawn from a survey of NHS and social care staff attitudes on fabricated or induced illness, one-to-one interviews, focus groups and an analysis of serious case reviews in the public domain.
+ Full Report (PDF; 492 KB)
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Effects of Prolonged and Exclusive Breastfeeding on Child Behavior and Maternal Adjustment: Evidence From a Large, Randomized Trial
Source: Pediatrics
On the basis of the largest randomized trial ever conducted in the area of human lactation, we found no evidence of risks or benefits of prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding for child and maternal behavior. Breastfeeding promotion does, however, favorably affect breastfeeding of the subsequent child.
See also: Breastfeeding Helps Explain Racial and Socioeconomic Status Disparities in Adolescent Adiposity
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A Guide for Monitoring Child Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Source: Pediatrics
The Guide for Monitoring Child Development is an innovative method for monitoring child development that is designed specifically for use by health care providers in low- and middle-income countries. Studies in Turkey provide preliminary evidence for its reliability and validity.
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Beyond the “Big Talk”: The Roles of Breadth and Repetition in Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexual Topics
Source: Pediatrics
Adolescents whose sexual communication with their parents involved more repetition felt closer to their parents, felt more able to communicate with their parents in general and about sex specifically, and perceived that discussions with their parents about sex occurred with greater openness than did adolescents whose sexual communication with their parents included less repetition. Breadth of communication was associated only with the perceived ease of parent-adolescent sexual communication: adolescents who discussed more new topics with their parents between times 1 and 4 felt that their sexual discussions occurred with greater openness than did adolescents who discussed fewer topics.
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The control of instrumental action following outcome devaluation in young children aged between 1 and 4 years (PDF; 195 KB)
Source: Journal of Experimental Psychology
From press release (American Psychological Association):
Hang on, parents. After the terrible twos come the goal-oriented threes. Kids seem to grow into the ability to act in pursuit of goals outside of what they can immediately sense sometime around that age, according to a new study published in the February issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Researchers found that by around age 3, children appear to shape their behavior in response to the outcomes they’ve come to expect. Anticipated outcomes that they value move them to act more than do outcomes that they don’t – a hallmark of emerging autonomy.
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