Parenting

Childcare :: Center-based childcare yields more behavior problems

The latest installment of a long-term study of child care in the United States has found that children who spent more time in center-based settings from birth through school entry have somewhat more problems with aggressive and disobedient behavior through sixth grade than children who spent less time in centers, regardless of the quality of care. However, problem behavior and teacher-child conflicts experienced by children who spent extensive time in other types of child care did not continue beyond first grade.

Parenting :: Parenting program helps improve child behavior

Research in Wales has demonstrated that the Incredible Years parenting programme, an evidence-based programme developed at the University of Washington, Seattle, is very effective in reducing the likelihood of children going on to develop behavioural problems in the UK.

Fever :: Children under stress develop more fevers

Children whose parents and families are under ongoing stress have more fevers with illness than other children. Published this month in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, the study also shows the unanticipated conclusion that children’s natural killer cell function, part of the body’s innate immune system, increases under chronic stress, unlike adults, whose function is decreased.

Dogs :: Children should not be left unsupervised with dogs

Children should not be left unsupervised to play with a dog, say experts in this week?s BMJ. Their advice is part of a review aimed at doctors who deal with dog bites.

Parenting :: Adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in children

Adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in their children compared with biological parents, according to the results of a national study that challenges the more conventional view — emphasized in legal and scholarly debates — that children are better off with their biological parents.

Love :: 14 Ways to Show Love for Your Child This Valentine’s Day

The following are Valentine’s Day tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Please feel free to excerpt these tips or use them in their entirety for any print or broadcast story with appropriate attribution of source.

Parenting :: Adoptive Parents Invest as Much in Raising Children as Biological Parents Do

The February 2007 issue of the American Sociological Review (ASR), the flagship journal of the American Sociological Association (ASA), features new research on adoptive and biological parents, comparing child-rearing factors between parents who adopt versus biological parents.