Tag: children

National Poll: Some parents may not be making the most of well child visits
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Newswise — While most parents and caregivers stay on top of scheduling regular checkups for their kids, they may not always be making the most of them, a national poll suggests.

Most parents report their child has had a well visit in the past two years and two thirds say they always see the same provider, according to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health at University of Michigan Health. However, fewer parents took all recommended steps to prepare themselves and their kids ahead of time.

“Regular well visits mean guaranteed face time with your child’s doctor and an opportunity to not only discuss specific concerns and questions about your child’s health but get their advice on general health topics like nutrition, sleep and behavior,” said Mott Poll co-director Sarah Clark, M.P.H. “We were pleased to see that the majority of parents regularly make these appointments and maintain relationships with a trusted provider. But they may not always be taking a proactive approach to ensuring they address all relevant health concerns impacting their child’s physical, emotional and behavioral health at every visit.”

In advance of well visits, a fourth of parents say they often prepare a list of questions to ask the provider, while a little over half said they sometimes wrote things down and about a fifth said they never do.

Meanwhile, about a fifth of parents say they often write down information about their child’s health changes while half say they sometimes take this step and three in 10 don’t do this at all.

“Well visits are busy, and in the moment, it’s easy for parents to forget to bring up questions or concerns with a doctor,” Clark said. “Writing them down ahead of time will help prioritize topics and help you get the most out of the appointment.”

Less than 15% of parents say they often research information online to discuss with the provider, while about half sometimes do and 38% never do.

“We are constantly learning new information that may impact children’s health and some recommendations may evolve or be updated,” Clark said. “Many pediatricians and care providers will bring these topics up themselves but not always. It’s always helpful for parents to do some homework ahead of time to make sure they’re aware of any timely topics affecting their child’s age group.”

Preparing children for the visit

Two in five parents say they often take steps to prepare their child for an upcoming well visit by addressing any fears they may have while slightly more than that sometimes do this while a little less than one in five never do this. A fourth of parents often also offer rewards for cooperating while less than half sometimes use such incentives.

For parents of children aged 6-12, a little more than one in five also regularly ask the child to think about questions for the provider.

“As kids approach puberty, their bodies begin changing. A well visit is a great opportunity to have the provider explain why these changes happen,” Clark said. “Having kids think about health topics themselves is also good practice for when they get older and parents become less involved with health visits. Preparing for this transition early will benefit them when they need to take more ownership of their health.”

Most parents also recall completing questionnaires and checklists about their child at well visits. Among these parents, the majority say they understand the purpose but just about three fourths say they receive feedback about how their child is doing.

“Children and their families are more often getting questionnaires at visits to help identify issues like sleep problems, challenges impacting emotional health and behavioral health concerns,” Clark said. “But when time is short, this may not come up during the actual visit. It’s important parents have conversations with providers about any issues that may surface from the child’s or family’s responses.”

Seeing providers familiar with your child’s history

Nearly half of parents say they schedule well visits with their child’s regular provider even if they have a long wait for an appointment. A third of parents also strongly agree their child is more likely to follow advice if it comes from a provider their child knows well.

For their child’s most recent well visit, more than half of parents also rate the provider as excellent for knowing the child’s health history, answering all their questions and giving recommendations that are realistic for the family.

A primary care physician familiar with a child and their specific health history will help them stay healthy, prevent disease and illness by identifying risk factors and taking the right steps to manage chronic disease care, Clark says.

“We know that continuity with the same provider has long term health benefits for children. Parents polled whose child always sees the same provider for well visits are also more likely to rate the provider as excellent,” Clark said. “Nurturing a relationship with a primary care provider means that the health professional who knows your child best is the one providing individualized care and helping your family navigate important decisions impacting their health.”

However, when well visits are scheduled with a different provider, either by choice or necessity, “parents may benefit from different explanations or perspectives on their child’s health,” Clark added.

The nationally representative report is based on responses from 1,331 parents with children aged 1 to 12 years who were polled in August-September 2022.

Five ways to ensure the most productive well child visit, according to Mott experts:
1. Build a long-lasting trusted relationship with the same primary care provider who your child always sees for appointments, which may include a pediatrician, other family physician or nurse practitioner.
1. Write down questions regarding your child’s physical, emotional and behavioral health in the same place as they come up to review again when a child is due for a well visit.
1. Share input from teachers or daycare providers about the child’s behavior or school performance and ask the primary care provider for the need for further assessment or therapy.
1. Prepare children for the visit. If there’s a physical exam, talk them through what to expect. For young children who need immunizations or blood draws, prepare them with books ahead of time, consider comfort positions and distractions like cartoons on screens during shots or give them something fun to look forward to after the visit like ice cream. Never promise them they won’t get a shot. More tips here.
1. For older children, help them come up with a list of questions to ask the doctor themselves.
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Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

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January 22, 2023
Opinion: Women don’t have to die from cervical cancer | CNN

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Editor’s Note: Dr. Eloise Chapman-Davis is director of gynecologic oncology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medicine. Dr. Denise Howard is chief of obstetrics and gynecology at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital and a vice chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. Read more opinion on CNN.

CNN
—

As doctors who specialize in women’s reproductive health, we are on the front lines of a preventable crisis. Imagine treating a woman with advanced cancer who has a five-year survival rate of 17%, knowing that she should have never developed the deadly disease in the first place.

This is what we are facing with cervical cancer. Yet we have the clinical tools not only to lower but also eliminate nearly all the roughly 14,000 new cases and 4,300 deaths from cervical cancer each year.

We have effective screenings: the traditional Pap smear and the HPV test. If these screening tests are abnormal, additional tests can determine who needs further treatment to prevent the development of cancer. Importantly, we have the HPV vaccine, which protects against high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types that cause the majority of cervical cancer cases and is nearly 100% effective, according to the National Cancer Institute.

A report published earlier this month shows the vaccine’s tremendous impact. The US saw a 65% drop in cervical cancer rates from 2012 through 2019 among women ages 20-24, the first to have received the vaccine. The vaccine, combined with screening, could wipe out cervical cancer and make it a disease of the past.

But the percentage of women overdue for their cervical cancer screening is growing, and, alarmingly, late-stage cases are on the rise.

We have had the heartbreaking experience of seeing mothers in the prime of life die from this avoidable disease, leaving small children behind — even women who had an abnormal screening but never received follow-up care. It’s devastating to see an otherwise healthy person slowly die from a preventable cancer.

Simply put, cervical cancer should never occur. This Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, we should commit to making that a reality. Here is what needs to happen.

Eliminating cervical cancer requires commitment at multiple levels, from public awareness campaigns with culturally appropriate messaging that broadcasts the power of the vaccine and screenings to prevent cancer to resources that ensure all women have easy access to routine health exams.

Timely screening reminders and systems to prioritize follow-up care are essential. Too many women with abnormal screenings don’t receive their results, reminders or follow-up instructions they understand and, therefore don’t receive the proper treatment. Barriers also include logistical challenges like transportation and language issues. Studies suggest that 13% to 40% of cervical cancer diagnoses result from lack of follow-up among women with an abnormal screening test.

Gynecology and primary care practices should be vigilant about reaching and monitoring patients with suspicious test findings. Large health systems can leverage the power of the electronic health record to track abnormal tests and ensure these women receive the proper follow-up.

Pediatricians should encourage parents of children 9 and older to get the HPV vaccine and stress its safety. About 60% of teenagers are up to date on their HPV vaccines, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Physicians not recommending the vaccine and parents’ rising concerns about its safety, despite more than 15 years of evidence that it is safe and effective, have been cited as top reasons why more children aren’t receiving this lifesaving vaccine.

College campuses should do large-scale, catch-up vaccination outreach. These students are at high risk for contracting HPV, yet only half report having received the full HPV vaccine series. This service should be provided at no cost to students.

Stark racial disparities also must be addressed. As Black women physicians, we are frustrated that Black women continue to be more likely to die from the disease than any other race, according to the American Cancer Society. The system failures contributing to this tragedy range from Black women receiving less aggressive treatment to barriers around access to affordable routine health care and the high-quality, specialized treatment needed to treat cancer. Everyone deserves access to quality care.

Older patients should be told that approval of the HPV vaccine has been extended up to age 45 and to discuss with their doctor whether it’s right for them. Insurance providers should cover the cost of the vaccine for these older ages.

Women should see a gynecologist on a regular basis well into their older years. We see patients with cervical cancer in their 60s and 70s who haven’t been screened in 20 years. Many people stop seeing a gynecologist after childbearing or menopause, but this shouldn’t be the case. Getting quality gynecological exams throughout a woman’s life is critical to preserving it.

We also need to empower women to be their own advocates through health education. Women should receive their screening result with an explanation of what it means and any next steps clearly delineated. No news after a screening is not good news. In an ideal world, women would see their HPV status as essential information with the power to save their lives.

Education makes a difference. At NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, we produced a series of easy-to-understand, publicly available videos on cervical cancer and the HPV vaccine. We showed several of the vaccine videos to more than 100 parents in one of our pediatric practices that serves mostly low-income families as part of a pilot study. Their knowledge scores on a questionnaire about the vaccine and HPV that they completed before and after watching the videos increased nearly 80%, and roughly 40% of the unvaccinated children received the HPV vaccine within one month. We aim to expand this effort.

We have the tools to prevent cervical cancer but fail to use them effectively. It’s unacceptable, and we can no longer ignore the problem. It’s time for a full-scale offensive focused on all fronts to make cervical cancer a disease of the past.

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January 21, 2023
Rest isn’t best: Getting kids back to school sooner after a concussion can mean a faster recovery
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Newswise — WASHINGTON, D.C. – (Jan. 20, 2023) Contrary to popular belief, rest may not always be the best cure after a concussion, new study published in JAMA Network Open finds. In fact, an early return to school may be associated with a lower symptom burden after suffering a concussion and, ultimately, faster recovery.

“We know that absence from school can be detrimental to youth in many ways and for many reasons,” says Christopher Vaughan, Psy.D., neuropsychologist at Children’s National Hospital and the study’s lead author. “The results of this study found that, in general, an earlier return to school after a concussion was associated with better outcomes. This helps us feel reassured that returning to some normal activities after a concussion – like going to school – is ultimately beneficial.”

In this cohort study, data from over 1,600 youth aged 5 to 18 were collected across nine pediatric emergency departments in Canada. Because of the large sample size, many factors associated with greater symptom burden and prolonged recovery were first accounted for through the complex statistical approach used to examine the data. The authors found that an early return to school was associated with a lower symptom burden 14 days post-injury in the 8 to 12 and 13 to 18-year-old age groups.

“Clinicians can now confidently inform families that missing at least some school after a concussion is common, often between 2 and 5 days, with older kids typically missing more school,” Dr. Vaughan says. “But the earlier a child can return to school with good symptom management strategies and with appropriate academic supports, the better that we think that their recovery will be.”

The findings suggest that there could be a mechanism of therapeutic benefit to the early return to school. This could be due to:
- Socialization (or avoiding the deleterious effects of isolation).
- Reduced stress from not missing too much school.
- Maintaining or returning to a normal sleep/wake schedule.
- Returning to light-to-moderate physical activity sooner (also consistent with previous literature).
Children’s National has been a leader in clinical services and research for youth with concussion, most notably through its Safe Concussion Outcome Recovery & Education (SCORE) Program. Given the multitude of other factors that can be expected to influence when a child returns to school after a concussion – including injury severity, specific symptoms, and pre-injury factors – a large sample size and complex statistical analytic approach was required. Future randomized clinical trials and other research can help determine the best timing for a student to return to school after suffering a concussion.

About Children’s National Hospital

Children’s National Hospital, based in Washington, D.C., was established in 1870 to help every child grow up stronger. Today, it is the No. 5 children’s hospital in the nation. It is ranked No. 1 for newborn care for the sixth straight year and ranked in all specialties evaluated by U.S. News & World Report. Children’s National is transforming pediatric medicine for all children. The Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus opened in 2021, a first-of-its-kind pediatric hub dedicated to developing new and better ways to care for kids. Children’s National has been designated three times in a row as a Magnet^® hospital, demonstrating the highest standards of nursing and patient care delivery. This pediatric academic health system offers expert care through a convenient, community-based primary care network and specialty care locations in the D.C. metropolitan area, including Maryland and Virginia. Children’s National is home to the Children’s National Research Institute and Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. It is recognized for its expertise and innovation in pediatric care and as a strong voice for children through advocacy at the local, regional and national levels. As a non-profit, Children’s National Hospital relies on generous donors to help ensure that every child receives the care they need.

For more information, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
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January 20, 2023
CHOP Researchers Develop New, More Accurate Computational Tool for Long-Read RNA Sequencing

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Newswise — Philadelphia, January 20, 2023—On the journey from gene to protein, a nascent RNA molecule can be cut and joined, or spliced, in different ways before being translated into a protein. This process, known as alternative splicing, allows a single gene to encode several different proteins. Alternative splicing occurs in many biological processes, like when stem cells mature into tissue-specific cells. In the context of disease, however, alternative splicing can be dysregulated. Therefore, it is important to examine the transcriptome – that is, all the RNA molecules that might stem from genes – to understand the root cause of a condition.

However, historically it has been difficult to “read” RNA molecules in their entirety because they are usually thousands of bases long. Instead, researchers have relied on so-called short-read RNA sequencing, which breaks RNA molecules and sequence them in much shorter pieces – somewhere between 200 to 600 bases, depending on the platform and protocol. Computer programs are then used to reconstruct the full sequences of RNA molecules. Short-read RNA sequencing can give highly accurate sequencing data, with a low per-base error rate of approximately 0.1% (meaning one base is incorrectly determined for every 1,000 bases sequenced). Nevertheless, it is limited in the information that it can provide due to the short length of the sequencing reads. In many ways, short-read RNA sequencing is like breaking a large picture into many jigsaw pieces that are all the same shape and size and then trying to piece the picture back together.

Recently, “long-read” platforms that can sequence RNA molecules over 10,000 bases in length end-to-end have become available. These platforms do not require RNA molecules to be broken up before they are sequenced, but they have a much higher per-base error rate, typically between 5% to 20%. This well-known limitation has severely hampered the widespread adoption of long-read RNA sequencing. In particular, the high error rate has made it difficult to determine the validity of novel, previously unknown RNA molecules discovered in a particular condition or disease.

To circumvent this problem, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a new computational tool that can more accurately discover and quantify RNA molecules from these error-prone long-read RNA sequencing data. The tool, called ESPRESSO (Error Statistics PRomoted Evaluator of Splice Site Options), was reported today in Science Advances.

“Long-read RNA sequencing is a powerful technology that will allow us to uncover RNA variation in rare genetic diseases and other conditions, like cancer,” said Yi Xing, PhD, director of the Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine at CHOP and senior author of the study. “We are probably at an inflection point in how we discover and analyze RNA molecules. The transition from short-read to long-read RNA sequencing represents an exciting technological transformation, and computational tools that reliably interpret long-read RNA sequencing data are urgently needed.”

ESPRESSO can accurately discover and quantify different RNA molecules from the same gene – known as RNA isoforms – using error-prone long-read RNA sequencing data alone. To do so, the computational tool compares all long RNA sequencing reads of a given gene to its corresponding genomic DNA, and then uses the error patterns of individual long reads to confidently identify splice junctions – places where the nascent RNA molecule has been cut and joined – as well as their corresponding full-length RNA isoforms. By finding areas of perfect matches between long RNA sequencing reads and genomic DNA, as well as borrowing information across all long RNA sequencing reads of a gene, the tool is able to identify highly reliable splice junctions and RNA isoforms, including those that have not been previously documented in existing databases.

The researchers evaluated the performance of ESPRESSO using simulated data and data on real biological samples. They found that ESPRESSO performs better than multiple currently available tools, both in terms of discovering RNA isoforms and quantifying them. The researchers also generated and analyzed over 1 billion long RNA sequencing reads covering 30 human tissue types and three human cell lines, providing a useful resource for studying human transcriptome variation at the resolution of full-length RNA isoforms.

“ESPRESSO addresses a long-standing problem of long-read RNA sequencing and could usher in new opportunities of discovery,” Dr. Xing said. “We envision that ESPRESSO will be a useful tool for researchers to explore the RNA repertoire of cells in various biomedical and clinical settings.”

This work was supported in part by the Immuno-Oncology Translational Network (IOTN) of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative (U01CA233074), other National Institutes of Health funding (R01GM088342, R01GM121827, and R56HG012310), along with a National Institutes of Health T32 Training Grant in Computational Genomics (T32HG000046).

Gao et al. “ESPRESSO: Robust discovery and quantification of transcript isoforms from error-prone long-read RNA-seq data,” Science Advances, January 20, 2023, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq5072

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About Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: A non-profit, charitable organization, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation’s first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, the 595-bed hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. The institution has a well-established history of providing advanced pediatric care close to home through its CHOP Care Network, which includes more than 50 primary care practices, specialty care and surgical centers, urgent care centers, and community hospital alliances throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as a new inpatient hospital with a dedicated pediatric emergency department in King of Prussia. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

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January 20, 2023
Indiana father accused of neglect after toddler caught on camera waving a gun has not guilty pleas entered in first court appearance | CNN

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CNN
—

An Indiana court has entered not guilty pleas for the man who prosecutors say is the father of the child captured on video waving a loaded handgun on the landing at an apartment complex, according to court records.

Shane Osborne, 45, was charged this week with two charges of neglect of a dependent and dangerous control of a firearm after the toddler was seen waving a pistol on video aired by the Reelz series “On Patrol: Live,” during the TV show’s live broadcast Saturday.

During a search of the home, police found a 9mm gun with 15 rounds in its magazine, but no rounds in the gun’s chamber.

CNN has learned he will be assigned a public defender and has reached out to that office for comment.

Police in Beech Grove, about 6 miles southeast of Indianapolis, were responding Saturday to the report of an armed person.

Osborne “explained that he had been ill all day and did not know (the toddler had) left the apartment,” an officer said in a probable cause affidavit.

The toddler is identified in the affidavit as “K.O.”

Osborne let the officers perform a “cursory look throughout” the apartment, according to the affidavit, but police did not find a gun, “in plain view.” Officers left the apartment but were met by a concerned neighbor with security video of the toddler with the gun, the affidavit said.

“The video showed K.O. walking around the upstairs landing of the apartment with a silver and black handgun,” the affidavit said. Officers returned to the apartment where Osborne was staying and questioned him again.

Osborne told police he did not have a gun, “but indicated that a relative may have left one somewhere.”

Officer Rainerio Comia asked K.O., “where he put his ‘pew pew,’” after another apartment search seemed to turn up empty, according to the affidavit.

That’s when K.O. led officers to a roll-top desk where officers found a Smith & Wesson SD9VE, the affidavit said.

Osborne told officers the gun was not his and that it belonged to a cousin “who sometimes left the weapon (there) when he felt mentally unstable,” the affidavit said.

“He did not know the weapon was in the apartment at this time, nor that K.O. knew where it was,” the affidavit said. “He believed K.O. was inside the apartment, playing and watching television. However, he stated that he must have been very asleep, because he did not notice K.O. leave the apartment.”

The boy was left in Osborne’s care because his primary caregiver was sicker than he was, the affidavit said.

As of Thursday night, Osborne had not posted bail, which was set at $60,000 (10% to secure his release) and $500 cash, according to the Marion County clerk’s office and court records.

Osborne has at least seven prior convictions in Indiana, including a felony, and was facing another felony charge at the time of Saturday’s incident, according to prosecutors and court records.

Osborne also signed a non-contact order on Thursday, according to public records. A review of the state’s request shows he is not allowed to be in contact with the child and other individuals.

His next hearing is scheduled for March 1, court records show.

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January 19, 2023
Stopping a rare childhood cancer in its tracks

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Newswise — Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered a new drug target for Ewing sarcoma, a rare kind of cancer usually diagnosed in children and young adults. Their experiments show that the cells causing this cancer can essentially be reprogrammed with the flick of a genetic switch.

Shutting down a single protein forces the cancer cells to take on a new identity and behave like normal connective tissue cells, a dramatic change that reins in their growth. This discovery suggests researchers may be able to stop Ewing sarcoma by developing a drug that blocks the protein known as ETV6.

Ewing sarcoma causes tumors to grow in bones or the soft tissues surrounding them. Once a tumor begins to spread to other parts of the body, it can be very difficult to halt the disease’s progression. Even for patients with positive outcomes, treating Ewing sarcoma often causes toxic side effects. New treatments are badly needed, says CSHL Professor Christopher Vakoc, who led the research on ETV6.

Vakoc and his colleagues became excited about ETV6 when their experiments revealed that Ewing sarcoma cells seem uniquely dependent on this protein. “This protein is present in all cells. But when you perturb the protein, most normal cells don’t care,” he says. “The process by which the sarcoma forms turns this ETV6 molecule—this relatively innocuous, harmless protein that isn’t doing very much—into something that’s now controlling a life-death decision of the tumor cell.”

Postdoctoral researcher Yuan Gao works in Vakoc’s lab. When Gao blocked ETV6 in Ewing sarcoma cells grown in the lab, she witnessed a dramatic transformation. “The sarcoma cell reverts back into being a normal cell again,” she says. “The shape of the cell changes. The behavior of the cells changes. A lot of the cells will arrest their growth. It’s really an explosive effect.”

Vakoc and Gao hope other researchers will use what they’ve learned to begin exploring potential therapies for Ewing sarcoma that work by switching off ETV6. They say their biochemical analyses, which identify specific spots in the ETV6 protein that are key to its function in cancer cells, could help guide drug development. Because their experiments have shown that most cells are unaffected by the loss of ETV6 activity, they are optimistic that such a drug might be able to eliminate cancer cells while causing few, if any, side effects.

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January 19, 2023
Geographic access to pediatric cancer care in US

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About The Study: The results of this study showed that most children, adolescents and young adults in the continental United States had adequate access to pediatric cancer care in 2021, although disparities existed among racial and ethnic groups and residents in rural areas, areas with high deprivation levels, and some Southern and Midwestern states. Reducing these disparities may require innovative approaches, such as expanding the capabilities of local facilities and creating partnerships with adult oncology centers and primary care physicians.

Authors: Xiaohui Liu, Ph.D., of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is the corresponding author.

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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JAMA – Journal of the American Medical Association

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January 19, 2023
Millennial Money: 4 expenses for parents to rethink in 2023

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When inflation rises, child care expenses do, too. If you’re a parent, you may be hoping to get a little financial relief during the upcoming tax season through deductions or credits. But since there have been recent reductions to both of the child tax credits, you may not get as much back as you anticipated.

If you’re like me, you could end up paying the IRS instead of getting a refund from Uncle Sam. To help your money go further in 2023, you may want to reevaluate some of your recurring child-related expenses. Here are a few strategies for reducing costs, according to finance professionals.

CHILD CARE

Many of the increased tax credits and deductions parents enjoyed during the height of the pandemic are reverting to their original limits. As a result, parents should be prepared to get less back this year, says Alton Bell II, principal accountant and founder at Bell Tax Accountants & Advisors in Chicago.

“I would prepare for a tax refund reduction shock because the credit around the dependent care has significantly changed,” he says.

In 2021, the child and dependent care credit increased to make child care more affordable for working parents. It was raised to a maximum of $4,000 for one qualifying person and $8,000 for two or more qualifying persons, and potentially refundable. For 2022, the amount has gone back down to a maximum of $1,050 for one qualifying person and $2,100 for two or more. Additionally, the child tax credit is reverting to $2,000 for children of all ages for the 2022 tax year. For 2021, it increased to $3,600 for children under six and $3,000 for kids ages 6 to 17.

With these cuts in mind, I thought it might be a good idea to ditch aftercare for my 5-year-old son this year. My living room may look like the scene of a volcanic eruption more often, but I’ll save $200 a month. If you work remotely and can handle having your child home a few extra hours during the day, consider giving this a test run.

Additionally, you could contribute to a dependent care flexible savings account, which allows you to use pre-tax dollars to pay for child care. Bell suggests maxing out that account for the year and also utilizing an employer FSA match if your company offers one.

You can contribute $ 5,000 per household to a dependent care FSA in 2023, or $2,500 if you’re married filing separately.

GROCERIES

If your snack cupboard is empty within three to five business days because your kids have bottomless bellies, then you may be looking for ways to reduce your grocery bill. This may especially be the case if you’re feeling the effects of higher food costs due to inflation.

One cost-saving strategy is to plan your shopping ahead of time to avoid buying items you don’t need. Dominique Broadway, a personal finance expert and founder of Finances Demystified in Miami, Florida, switched from going to the store to using grocery delivery services so she knows exactly how much she’ll spend.

Broadway also recommends putting the same groceries in different delivery service provider carts so you can do a side-by-side comparison of the price difference.

“You’ll be surprised, the difference can be pretty large — sometimes 40, 50 bucks difference just because of delivery fees and the inflated prices. Over time that actually does add up,” she says.

HEALTH CARE

Premiums can become a noticeable expense when you pay them monthly. Adding copays every time you visit the doctor increases your out-of-pocket costs even more.

If you have a relatively healthy child and can say the same for yourself, think about whether a health savings account could save you money. HSAs can be used to pay health care expenses. The limit for HSAs in 2023 is $3,850 for individuals and $7,750 for families. The contributions are made with pre-tax dollars and are also tax-deductible. You must have a high-deductible health insurance plan to contribute to an HSA. High-deductible health plans sometimes have lower premiums, which leads to some people saving money. Keep in mind that with these plans, you may end up paying a higher deductible before your insurance starts sharing health care costs with you.

I decided to give it a test run in 2022. Since my son and I went to the doctor a handful of times that year, my out-of-pocket costs came to just about $700. The cherry on top is I had $1,500 left over thanks to my employer’s contributions to my HSA account. I can now roll that money over into the new year.

ENTERTAINMENT

There were so many toys in my house by the end of 2022 that my son and I gave half away. This year, I’m cutting costs by making better use of free activities.

Oftentimes, parents buy children items, only to realize what they really value is experiences, Broadway says.

“I’ve purchased a $3 activity kit from Target and gotten hours of fun and play with my children out of something like that versus just buying them a bunch of toys,” she says. “I think that alone is a great way to cut costs and build a better relationship with your children and make more memories with them, as well.”

Speaking of experiences, there is a trampoline park near our house that offers a $20 monthly subscription for endless play. It seems more cost-effective to take my son there than to buy more trucks and excavators I’ll end up tripping over.

If any of these strategies lead to savings this year, Broadway suggests investing the money in a custodial account for child-related future expenses and to help your kids build wealth.

“Take that money and invest it for your children — have it working for you and for them.

________________________

This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. The content is for educational and informational purposes and does not constitute investment advice. Elizabeth Ayoola is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: eayoola@nerdwallet.com.

RELATED LINK:

NerdWallet: What is an FSA? https://bit.ly/nerdwallet-what-is-flexible-spending-account

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January 17, 2023
Before Your Parents Retire, Make Sure You Ask About These 6 Things

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Retirement is one of the biggest career and life transitions that people ever go through, and 71% of baby boomers say they feel behind on saving for it, according to a 2022 survey. If you’re an adult child of someone nearing retirement, you may also be wondering and worried about how they are going to manage it.

Time is of the essence. “These conversations need to happen sooner rather than later. It gives you and your parents more time to plan,” said Cameron Huddleston, the author of “Mom and Dad, We Need To Talk: How To Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances” and the director of education at Carefull, a financial service for aging adults. “It gives them more options when it comes to saving for retirement, planning for long-term care. You don’t want to wait for emergencies, because then you have fewer options — sometimes no options at all.”

But it’s also a sensitive topic that should be handled without judgment or blame.

These talks can only work if adult children are collaborators with their parents instead of bossy, said Nancy K. Schlossberg, a retired professor of counseling psychology and the author of “Retire Smart, Retire Happy: Finding Your True Path in Life.”

“Older people don’t want their sovereignty taken away,” Schlossberg said. “You have to be able to not take such a strong position — that ‘this is the way to do it, this isn’t.’ What you want as an adult child is to be helpful and find out what would be helpful.”

Here are the best conversation starters you can ask and the most important resources to share with your parents:

1. Ask about their plans and dreams for retirement without judgment.

When you ask your parents whether they have thought about retiring, you want to listen more than speak. Schlossberg suggested questions like “Do you want to talk about your expectations as you retire?” and “As you look ahead, what are you thinking about?”

The role of a collaborator is to help your parents uncover options. That means withholding judgment about what your parents decide to share with you.

Instead of making a negative accusation like “You are not going to be able to take care of this house. This house is too big for you,” Huddleston said to focus on highlighting the benefits within different options.“Make it all about your parents and looking out for their best interest,” she said, suggesting questions like “Oh, you want to get care at home? Is your home set up for you to age in place?”

If your parents are at a loss over how they want to spend their time, ask if there is a field that interested them but that they never had a chance to explore, Schlossberg said. If they state “I’ve always wanted to be X, but there are no possibilities,” then you can respond with “Well, let’s look at some options. Let’s see if we can uncover some together,” she said.

This is also a time to exchange realistic expectations for how involved your parents want to be in your day-to-day life. For example, you might be expecting your parents to help out with caregiving for your children, and they may have totally different plans.

Schlossberg recalled one woman guiltily telling her: “My daughter who lives in another state expects me to come up and babysit as much as I can. I’m not retiring to be a babysitter.”

2. Ask if they have been saving for retirement, and share expert-backed options for improvement.

If your parents tell you that they have not been saving at all, it can be helpful for you to note that they still can.

“It’s never too late,” said David John, a senior strategic policy adviser who works on retirement savings issues at the AARP Public Policy Institute. “But leaving it to the last moment can cost you in ways both financially and emotionally to discover that you had expected something and that you found that you really don’t have the resources to meet that goal.”

The right amount of how much to save varies from person to person. “The important level is, are you saving somewhere in the neighborhood of, say, 8-10% of your income into a retirement plan?” John said. If that’s a huge adjustment, he suggested that people ease their way into it by starting with 3% to 4% and increasing that figure — for example, as a contribution to an employer-sponsored plan like a 401(k) or to an individual retirement account — by a percentage point each year. The IRS also offers catch-up contribution incentives that allow people ages 50 and up to contribute more to 401(k)s and IRAs.

Some near-retirees may not want to talk about their finances at all, Huddleston said, but others “might be incredibly receptive and have wanted to have these conversations with you, [but] they just didn’t know how to start the conversations themselves.”

And if your parents say they have it all figured out and do not need any insight, you can see for yourself by asking them for retirement-saving strategies, suggested Huddleston. “It avoids that role reversal, and parents like to offer advice,” she said. “Then you come back later [and say] ‘Oh hey, thanks for sharing that advice with me. I did a little bit more research and I found this article that said you need to have this much in savings.’”

Education in money management can make a big difference in a person’s retirement. Swarn Chatterjee, a University of Georgia professor who studies retirement planning behavior, found in his research that individuals with higher financial literacy were more likely to plan for retirement, even when they lived in “financial advice deserts” with few advisers.

If your parents are open to your collaboration on a budget, “help [them] map out what resources they have, from their current wealth to their savings and their debt,” Chatterjee said. “Make an estimation of how much they will be able to spend down from that savings and for how long in retirement,” he said, as well as what their current expenditures are and what those will be when they retire.

The bottom line is that financial education makes a big difference for how people retire. And if you can be a helpful resource for your parents, they could be better prepared for the road ahead.

3. Ask if they’ve thought about using a financial planner, and share alternatives if an adviser is not affordable.

Hiring a financial adviser is one way for your parents to get professional help on preparing for retirement. But even if an adviser is not an option for them, there are other ways to get assistance. Some financial advisers charge by the hour, Huddleston noted, so your parents could potentially get a meeting or two to come up with a plan and create a budget. The national Garrett Planning Network can help you search for financial advisers in your area who charge by the hour.

You can also contact a local office of the Financial Planning Association, which has chapters in different states, Huddleston said. “Ask if they have any members who will do pro bono work or provide really discounted services to low-income families,” she suggested.

The lack of financial advisers in underserved communities is a societal challenge, Chatterjee said. But you can still help your parents by getting them connected to online services instead, he added.

4. Ask if they need you to provide financial assistance, and determine what help you can offer.

Questions about the economics of retirement are not idle queries born of simple curiosity. Almost half of midlife adults expect to provide financial support to their parents in the future and are concerned about their ability to do so, according to a 2020 AARP survey. Getting clarity now on the assistance your parents need can help prevent headaches later on.

They might need help paying for utilities, medical costs or housing, Chatterjee said. “Maybe they do not help with all of it. But with some of it, it will help defray their financial stress,” he noted, recommending that adult children determine what assistance they can realistically provide.

Huddleston said that adult children could pool money for a general emergency fund or instead choose to address one expense, like monthly premium payments on a long-term care insurance policy.

If your parents need financial assistance that you cannot give them, it’s OK to say: “This is the help I can provide. I can point you to these resources, but I’m not going to help chip in for medical costs or stop working if you need hands-on care,” according to Huddleston. “By doing this in advance, when those emergencies arise … you are not going to be responding emotionally.“

5. Ask if they are familiar with the Social Security benefit they expect to get.

“Most people don’t really have a good idea about what kind of Social Security benefit they might qualify for and what else they are going to need,” John said.

In a 2022 survey of nearly 1,900 adults across generations, almost half incorrectly thought that if they filed early for Social Security, their benefit would automatically increase upon reaching full retirement age.

To give parents a better idea of what to expect, encourage them to create an online Social Security account. They can then compare the monthly retirement benefits they would receive by applying at different times between the ages of 62 and 70.

“You can say: ‘Hey, Social Security has this great resource. If you set up a ‘My Social Security’ account, it’s going to show you what your projected monthly benefits are,’” Huddleston said.

6. Ask if they’ve thought about long-term care, and find out if they qualify for any options now.

Nearly 7 in 10 adults who are 50-plus believe that they will need assistance with daily activities as they get older, yet fewer than 3 in 10 have thought “a lot” about how they will then continue to live on their own, according to a 2022 AARP survey of 1,000 people.

Many adults incorrectly believe that Medicare covers all the costs of nursing homes or in-home care, Huddleston said. It does not — and long-term care can be pricey. In 2021, the national median monthly cost for a private nursing home room was $9,034.

Medicaid, however, does cover long-term care for those who meet state eligibility requirements. Going to an elder care lawyer who specializes in Medicaid can help your parents navigate the system, Huddleston said.

Veterans, meanwhile, may qualify for long-term care services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. And life insurance policies can have riders that let people use some of their monetary death benefits to cover care expenses while they are still alive.

When talking to your parents, mention articles about the subject or use examples from people you know who got involved with caring for aging parents, Huddleston suggested.

Ultimately, topics like these should serve as conversation starters to an ongoing discussion, so your goal should be to serve as a consistent resource of information on your parents’ journey.

”One of the best things a kid can do for their parents is to help them see options,” Schlossberg said. “The more options you see, the more you feel in control.”

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January 17, 2023
China records 1st population fall in decades as births drop

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BEIJING — China has announced its first population decline in decades as what has been the world’s most populous nation ages and its birthrate plunges.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported Tuesday that the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of 2022 than the previous year. The tally includes only the population of mainland China, excluding Hong Kong and Macao as well as foreign residents.

That left a total of 1.41 billion people, with 9.56 million births against 10.41 million deaths, the bureau said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Men outnumbered women by 722.06 million to 689.69 million, a result of the strict one-child policy that only officially ended in 2016 and a traditional preference for male offspring to carry on the family name.

Since abandoning the policy, China has sought to encourage families to have second or even third children, with little success, reflecting attitudes in much of east Asia where birth rates have fallen precipitously. In China, the expense of raising children in cities is often cited as a cause.

China has long been the world’s most populous nation, but is expected to soon be overtaken by India, if it has not already. Estimates put India’s population at more than 1.4 billion and continuing to grow.

The last time China is believed to have recorded a population decline was during the Great Leap Forward at the end of the 1950s, under then-leader Mao Zedong’s disastrous drive for collective farming and industrialization that produced a massive famine killing tens of millions of people.

Yi Fuxian, an expert on Chinese population trends at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tweeted that the data reflected how China’s population began to decline nine to 10 years earlier than projections by Chinese officials and the United Nations.

That means that China’s “real demographic crisis is beyond imagination and that all of China’s past … policies were based on faulty demographic data,” Yi wrote.

“China’s demographic and economic outlook is much bleaker than expected,” he added, predicting that China would have to take a less combative tone internationally and improve is relations with the West.

China’s statistics bureau said the working-age population between 16 and 59 years old totaled 875.56 million, accounting for 62.0% of the national population, while those aged 65 and older totaled 209.78 million, accounting for 14.9% of the total.

The statistics also showed increasing urbanization in a country that traditionally had been largely rural. Over 2022, the permanent urban population increased by 6.46 million to reach 920.71 million, or 65.22%, while the rural population fell by 7.31 million.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the population figures have been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading around the world. China has been accused by some specialists of underreporting deaths from the virus by blaming them on underlying conditions, but no estimates of the actual number have been published.

The United Nations estimated last year that the world’s population reached 8 billion on Nov. 15 and that India will replace China as the world’s most populous nation in 2023.

In a report released on World Population Day, the U.N. also said global population growth fell below 1% in 2020 for the first time since 1950.

Also Tuesday, the bureau released data showing China’s economic growth fell to its second-lowest level in at least four decades last year under pressure from anti-virus controls and a real estate slump.

The world’s No. 2 economy grew by 3% in 2022, less than half of the previous year’s 8.1%, the data showed.

That was the second-lowest annual rate since at least the 1970s, after the drop to 2.4% in 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, although activity is reviving after restrictions that kept millions of people at home and sparked protests were lifted.

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January 16, 2023
Indiana man arrested after toddler shown on live TV with handgun | CNN

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CNN
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A man was arrested in Beech Grove, Indiana, after video was shown on live TV of a toddler, reportedly the man’s son, waving and pulling the trigger of a handgun.

The video was aired by Reelz series “On Patrol: Live,” during the TV show’s live broadcast on Saturday, January 14, according to a news release.

A police incident report obtained by CNN affiliate WTHR said Shane Osborne, faces a neglect charge. The report also lists “ring camera footage” that was obtained and uploaded to a police server. A 9mm gun found at the scene had 15 rounds in the magazine, but no rounds in the gun’s chamber, the report said.

Osborne is expected to appear in court Tuesday afternoon, according to WTHR. The show identified Osborne as the boy’s father.

Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley released a statement to WTHR saying he was “mortified” about the incident.

“As with all of you, I’m mortified and what took place and I’m so thankful that no one was hurt, especially the young child. I appreciate the quick action taken by the Beech Grove Police Department to secure the small child and the gun in question.”

Video from a neighbor’s security camera that aired on “On Patrol: Live,” shows a little boy in the entryway of an apartment complex waving a handgun back and forth and pulling the trigger.

According to a release from the show, Beech Grove police officers responded after a neighbor called 911, “stating she and her son had witnessed the child alone in the hallway outside their unit, and that he had been holding a gun and pointing it at them.”

When officers arrived, the purported father of the child said he did not have a gun. “I don’t have a gun,” the man said, as police entered his apartment, “I have never brought a gun into this house, if there is, it’s my cousin’s.”

Police proceeded to search the apartment looking for a gun and eventually found a firearm under a television in the living room.

It’s unclear if it’s the same gun seen in the neighbor’s security footage, but one of the officers on the scene says it’s a “Smith & Wesson SD9mm.”

Police are later seen taking the man, handcuffed, out of the apartment complex.

An officer said after speaking with on-call prosecutors, there was enough for an arrest “for child neglect, that’s a felony,” since there was a loaded firearm in the apartment.

CNN has reached out to the Beech Grove police department, the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office and the mayor’s office for comment and more information.

It is unclear if Osborne has an attorney at this time. CNN has reached out to the public defender’s office for more information.

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January 16, 2023
Arizona dad seeking answers after son dies in state care

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Richard Blodgett, a single father, was jailed on a drug charge when a worker from Arizona’s child welfare agency delivered the news: His son was brain dead and on life support — just days after being taken into state custody.

Blodgett screamed, cried and screamed some more. Jakob was his only son, a “darn cute,” curious 9-year-old who loved remote control cars and video games.

Blodgett is now struggling to understand how it happened.

A medical examiner listed Jakob’s death in late December as natural with complications from diabetes, a condition he was diagnosed with as a toddler. Specifically, Type 1 diabetes, which means his body was unable to produce enough insulin to survive.

Blodgett said he suspects the Arizona Department of Child Safety failed in its duty to protect his son, either by not monitoring his blood sugar levels or not ensuring that Jakob had enough insulin to prevent a serious, life-threatening complication known as ketoacidosis.

“They couldn’t keep him alive for two weeks, two weeks,” the father told The Associated Press while on a recent furlough from jail. “That’s absolutely insane. That was my pride and joy. I’m lost. I’m completely lost. My family is completely lost.”

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Jakob’s death. The office declined a request for an interview with Sheriff Paul Penzone, citing the ongoing investigation.

The Department of Child Safety also declined to comment specifically on the case, citing confidentiality laws. But spokesperson Darren DaRonco said, in general, that foster parents are required to receive training from a medical provider before taking in a child with any medical condition.

DaRonco did not respond to further inquiries, including whether Jakob’s insulin pump was removed and if the boy’s regular doctor was consulted about his care — questions raised by Blodgett and his mother, Cheryl Doenges. They said Jakob could not manage the insulin on his own.

In the fiscal year that ended last June, about 26 children died while in the agency’s custody, including from overdoses, medical conditions, natural and still undetermined causes. In the previous fiscal year, that number was 14. The figures amount to a fatality rate of about 97 per 100,000 children during that period, the most recent for which data is available.

That rate is higher than overall deaths of children in Arizona. Nationally, about 55 children died per 100,000 children in the general population of all causes in 2020 — similar to Arizona’s number.

Karin Kline, director of child welfare initiatives at the Family Involvement Center in Phoenix, said the death of a child is a concern, especially if it happens under the custody of the state.

“Rest assured, somebody is going to look into it if there’s an inkling that the death was a result of negligence or abuse,” she said.

Jakob and his father had been living at a motel when Blodgett was arrested in December. Blodgett, who already had a drug case pending and has spent time in prison, said was operating a backhoe much of the day and pulled over at a gas station to take a nap. The report from the Show Low Police Department corroborated as much, but officers wrote that they suspected Blodgett nodded off as a result of drug use.

Authorities ultimately found more than 4,000 fentanyl pills in Blodgett’s possession, according to the report. Blodgett was booked into jail in Holbrook and charged with one count of drug possession, Navajo County Superior Court documents show.

Blodgett told the AP he had been using fentanyl for pain management after he dropped 300 pounds with weight loss surgery.

“I wasn’t getting high. I wasn’t abusing them. I was using them to be able to work and provide for my son,” Blodgett said. “Unfortunately, they are illegal. I can’t get around that. But they were stronger than my meds, and they were working.”

Jakob was alone in the motel room when an officer picked him up and alerted the Department of Child Safety, according to the police report. Blodgett said someone at the motel always checked on his son, whom he called as police confronted him.

He told Jakob he got into trouble, and the boy asked if his father was going to be OK, Blodgett said. The two often traveled together in vast expanses of Arizona — taking selfies, stopping at gas stations to get snacks and playing with Nerf guns.

“The last time I got to see my son, he was already dead,” Blodgett said.

Doenges couldn’t make the trip to see Jakob at the hospital from Washington state where she lives because of bad weather. But she asked a friend in Arizona to sit with Jakob, pray with him and play music for him so he wasn’t alone — even if he didn’t know she was there.

Furloughed from jail, Blodgett arranged for a ride to Phoenix, more than three hours away, to see his son unresponsive in a hospital bed. Hospital staff had placed a teddy bear next to the boy and a heart-shaped pendant — Blodgett kept one half and the other half will be cremated with Jakob, Doenges said.

Blodgett took pictures, hugged and kissed his son and talked to him. The hospital had a memorial for Jakob on Dec. 26 — the day some of his organs were harvested and later donated with Blodgett’s blessing, along with a moment of silence.

Before the year ended, Blodgett was back in jail.

Doenges said her son will have to find a way to piece his life back together.

“My suggestion to him is to live a really good life in memory of Jakob and do something positive,” she said. “He probably didn’t even hear me, he’s so full of grief.”

___

Associated Press data journalist Camille Fassett in Seattle contributed to this report.

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January 16, 2023
Parents are not OK after three years of Covid and a brutal winter of children’s respiratory illness | CNN
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CNN
—

With children back in school and daycare after the holidays, weary parents fear what illness awaits them next during this brutal respiratory virus season.

Since October, RSV, a respiratory virus which often is most severe in young children and older adults, hit early and cases started rising quickly. Cases of influenza started rising soon after, all while Covid-19 continued to spread, with new variants surfacing.

The CDC estimates:
At least 24 million illnesses and 16,000 deaths have occurred due to the flu this season;

About 15% of the US population lives in a county with a “high” community level of Covid-19;

There were about 14 RSV hospitalizations for every 100,000 children under 5 in the latest week of complete data – about eight times higher than the overall hospitalization rate.
CNN spoke to parents across the country about the challenges this flu season. They described canceling Christmas, missing trips home to see family and pulling their children out of daycare to keep them safe from illness.

Here are some of their stories, as told in their own words. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Michaela Riley from Issaquah, Washington

I am a single mom living in the suburbs of Seattle. I work for one of the major corporations here. On the outside, I look successful. I have senior in my title, I consistently get promotions and recognition. On the inside, I am breaking from stress related to illness, never getting a real vacation and now the inability to pay for my basic needs.

I had to work through the holidays, and I had my kids. My parents were going to watch them. Then they got norovirus, which also canceled Christmas. Then my daughter’s father got some horrible flu, so my backup plan for Christmas got canceled. We still hadn’t celebrated Christmas until January 7 because everyone was healing.

I have 4-year-old and 11-year-old daughters. Basically, all November one of us was sick. My kids got RSV and were so sick for 14 days. After that, I got it. I had no vacation time, so I had to work from home with them. It was a very long, trying time.

As a single parent, I’ve always been focused on keeping all the balls in the air. But now it is so much harder that what I’m actually doing is making decisions on which ball to drop, just to keep myself going.

I have used every single vacation day on either my children being sick, me being sick or me having to take one mental health day because I was totally overwhelmed since the beginning of quarantine. I was supposed to go camping last year with the family. I got Covid for the fourth time and had to cancel. I’m going a little bonkers.

The group I work with has been so supportive of me and understanding of my situation. They honestly helped me during the worst times.

I have this hashtag for 2023: #BeFree23. Instead of focusing on the struggle, I focus on what’s working in my life. I feel better about 2023. I don’t think anything’s going to change, but changing my mindset is the one thing I have control over.

Jason Hecht from Ann Arbor, Michigan

I am a doctor who works in critical care with a wife who works in primary care. Not only are we struggling on the health care worker side with the massive demands of this season but also struggling far more at home.

The last month or two have probably been the most mentally and emotionally taxing I’ve ever had in my life. We have a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. It was our youngest who was sick about a month ago and ended up in the ICU on the ventilator with RSV.

At the time, we had a healthy, thriving 2-month-old without an issue in the world. To see him so quickly knocked down and be to the point of almost dying in the intensive care unit was very sobering for my wife and I. Seeing your baby that sick – that part alone has been very emotionally draining.

I was all too aware of how severe his illness was. It was difficult to play the role of father, husband and caretaker because the pull was so strong to go into health care provider mode.

We had to completely upend our life, pull both kids out of daycare. We’re still struggling to find a reliable source of child care that’s going to be safe for both of them, including our now vulnerable son. We’re still paying for both kids’ daycare spots, even though they aren’t going, because daycare waitlists are so long. As parents and health care workers, we are not coping well.

We’ve used six or seven weeks of PTO total so far since this happened in November. This was difficult, too, with my wife coming off maternity leave. Her maternity leave has been mostly unpaid, so that was already three months we were going without her paycheck. I don’t have any paternity leave.

I am very passionate about what I do, and I love being able to help people when they’re at their worst in the ICU. It’s been difficult to have to put all that aside to prioritize only being a parent right now.

Adriana from Warwick, Rhode Island (She asked that her last name not be used)

The only reason I waited only two hours in the ER is because my son stopped breathing. Everyone rushed to take care of him. His oxygen levels were at 73. My youngest caught RSV at 7 weeks old.

My soul left my body when I was in the hospital. I saw there was a respiratory therapist, a pediatrician and two nurses, that they lay down my baby and they started suctioning all the mucus because he was so stuffy, he couldn’t breathe. They put him on oxygen.

I couldn’t believe how lucky we were that he responded to the treatment as fast as he did.

Now, I always carry a little oximeter with me. If he gets stuffy or anything like that, I put that on his finger. That’s part of my diaper bag.

Between my son being hospitalized for one night and the two kids’ deductibles and co-payments, we are $3,000 in debt, just from September until today. He was given just two doses of Tylenol at the hospital and that was almost $300.

Every time I call the pediatrician’s office, they pretty much triage us over the phone to see if the child is sick enough to grant a visit because of how slammed they are. I have been constantly redialing for several minutes just to get through. When you go into the office, you can see they’re all very tired.

I think that anything that has to do with kids lately in the country is being overlooked. There’s still the formula shortage. A lot of parents like me, we’re still struggling to find the right formula. I drive all around Rhode Island to find it, and I’m lucky if I can get two cans. My baby is allergic to cow milk protein, so it’s not like I can just get him any formula.

We usually fly back home for the holidays – I’m from Puerto Rico. But this year we just stayed home. It was a bummer for my oldest because he’s used to spending the holidays with the grandparents.

Mahbubur Rahman from Bonney Lake, Washington

In the last three months, we got five colds, four ear infections, visited urgent care 10 times and the emergency room four times, once while my kid was sick with RSV. In the last two years, my child had a cold only once.

This is our first child. He’s a Covid child – he’s not exposed to anywhere because we stayed at home for the last two years. When we started sending him to preschool then this started happening, all things are coming together: face the fear of Covid, viruses like the flu and then, RSV.

My child had a febrile seizure. His temperature cannot go past 102 and we need to continuously use Tylenol and ibuprofen just to control it. This is happening like every other week. We prepared our car with emergency things for if we need to stay at the hospital. We always pack our bag and put it in our car – like it still is there.

I am working from home and my wife is not working. Still, we feel like we are exhausted. In the last two months, I think I did like 50% of the work that I usually do. When my son and wife had RSV, my manager actually just told me to manage time whenever I can work, and it does not need to be 9 to 5.

For the holidays, we had a plan to go back our country, Bangladesh, but we had to cancel the trip. We did not visit our home the last three years. I did in 2019 before Covid and never went back because my wife was pregnant and then my child was born.

I hope that this will go away, and everything will be better this year. But the fear and the emotions, I think will not go away pretty soon.

Stephanie Archinas-Murphin from Lakewood, California

My 3-year-old daughter started preschool in September and sure enough she got three viruses – RSV, rhinovirus and pneumonia – all at the same time. She spent four days at the hospital, and it was hell watching her going through it.

It’s very heartbreaking to just have her come out and experience the world. And now all these things are happening with her getting sick. We want to have a different experience for her.

We pretty much got everything. My older daughter got the flu, so did my husband and myself. We’ve been on this never-ending journey since October.

When my youngest was ill, she had to be out for three weeks. My husband was out for two weeks just to be able to take care of her. But when we got hit by the flu after Thanksgiving, my husband didn’t have any time off left. I have a private practice and don’t get PTO, but I had to take the brunt and cancel my clients. That was a dent in our income because I didn’t have any pay. Thankfully, I have some savings, so that helped a lot.

When I was low on Motrin and my daughter Morgan had the flu, I happened to post it on Instagram. My relative asked if I want some and even dropped off Motrin for me and drove from almost 40 miles away. It was so heartwarming to know that there are people out there who are looking out for me.

I’m all about taking it one day at a time. I don’t want to overwhelm myself. I’m not going to stop planning or going out, but I’m being mindful that things may change.
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January 15, 2023
Chester Zoo announces birth of critically endangered Western chimpanzee | CNN

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CNN
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Extremely rare – and extremely adorable.

The Chester Zoo in Cheshire, England, has welcomed the birth of a Western chimpanzee, the most endangered subspecies of chimpanzees.

The zoo announced the baby boy’s birth in a Thursday news release. The little one, born to mother ZeeZee, will join a troop of 22 Western chimpanzees at the British zoo.

“We’re incredibly proud to see a precious new baby in the chimpanzee troop,” said Andrew Lenihan, team manager at the zoo’s primate section, in the release. “Mum ZeeZee and her new arrival instantly bonded and she’s been doing a great job of cradling him closely and caring for him.”

Lenihan said that the baby is already quickly becoming accepted by his extended family.

“A birth always creates a lot of excitement in the group and raising a youngster soon becomes a real extended family affair,” Lenihan went on. “You’ll often see the new baby being passed between other females who want to lend a helping hand and give ZeeZee some well-deserved rest, and that’s exactly what her daughter, Stevie, is doing with her new brother. It looks as though she’s taken a real shine to him, which is great to see.”

Additionally, the tiny baby is an essential asset to the critically endangered population.

“He may not know it, but ZeeZee’s new baby is a small but vital boost to the global population of Western chimpanzees, at a time when it’s most needed for this critically endangered species,” Lenihan added.

Following a decades-old tradition, Chester Zoo’s newborn will be named after a famous rock star, according to the news release.

The Western chimpanzee is the only chimpanzee subspecies categorized as “critically endangered” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which indicates they are facing “an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.” The species has gone extinct in Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo, but still lives in some parts of West Africa, with the largest population remaining in Guinea.

The subspecies has faced an 80% population decline over the last 25 years, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The ape’s numbers have plummeted due to habitat destruction, poaching, and disease.

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January 14, 2023
Having “Young Kids…Just Ruins the Relationship”: Gwyneth Paltrow Jokes About the Challenge of Having Babies

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Gwyneth Paltrow and Katy Perry, two women-about-town, got together to chat, and we can all eavesdrop on their conversation right here on The Goop Podcast.

What were those two old so-and-sos talking about? Kids, mostly! They both have them. Perry is raising her toddler, Daisy, with her partner, Orlando Bloom. Bloom also has a son, Flynn, with Miranda Kerr. Paltrow has Apple, 18, and Moses, 16, with her ex-husband, Chris Martin, plus two teenage children from her husband Brad Falchuk’s previous marriage. Martin and Paltrow’s divorce was finalized in 2016, two years after she wrote her famous “conscious uncoupling” treatise.

“It’s hard on a relationship,” Paltrow said. “Like, I’ve looked back now on, like, the data set of parents with young kids, [and] it just ruins the relationship…It’s really hard!”

Perry, who is in the middle of it, was quick to say that it’s not impossible to have both a healthy relationship and a baby. “I think if both of the people in the relationship are willing to do the work, then it’s going to be so much easier,” Perry said. “If one person thinks that they don’t have any work to do, then it’s going to be really challenging.”

Paltrow added a lovely and oddly sad sentiment: “I never felt lonely again after I had [Apple], and I had felt profoundly lonely in my life.”

Listen, is this revelatory material? No. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that raising a helpless, weeping puddle of bones is hard, and having a partner who can coparent in a big—even equitable—way is only more helpful for all involved.

What’s so great about Paltrow’s sound bite is that it’s such a perfectly Gwyneth Paltrow thing to say: funny, straightforward, a little provocative, potentially revealing a reality that her partner in conversation is not ready to acknowledge yet, and about a problem that one would think could be solved with the right bank account. That is, you’d think nannies, night nurses, and all the best relationship-saving baby widgets would have been at her and Martin’s disposal all those years ago.

Here, too, the stars are just like us. They have children! They struggle! They get divorced! They occasionally ironically unironically bemoan their children on their podcasts!

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Kenzie Bryant

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January 13, 2023
Caring for Children’s Mental Health

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Newswise — According to a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, pediatric emergency department visits and revisits related to mental health are “increasing rapidly” in the United States, with visits climbing by 8% annually from 2015 to 2020.

Dr. Aisha Shariq, one of our child and adolescent psychiatry experts at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso is available to speak on this topic and offer tips on how to care for children’s’ mental health.

“The need for mental health resources and services is at an all-time high,” Dr. Shariq said. “We are seeing children struggle as they return to school following COVID-19, and parents are trying to manage the family.”

Dr. Shariq is available on Wednesday, January 18.

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Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso

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January 13, 2023
Wayne State to collaborate with MDHHS on program to expand specialty courts for infants and toddlers in the child welfare system

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Newswise — DETROIT – The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently announced receipt of a $3.1 million, five-year grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration to provide support in three counties for coordination of Infant-Toddler Court Programs, also known as Baby Court. The program aims to expand highly successful local programs that keeps families with young children together and work to ensure that children under age 4 in the child welfare system grow up in permanent, nurturing homes to support their development.

A team of researchers at Wayne State University will collaborate with MDHHS’s Children’s Services Agency and Bureau of Children’s Coordinated Health Policy, the State Court Administrative Office, and local courts to support data-driven continuous quality improvement, evaluate the effort and serve on the state leadership team responsible for developing a statewide and local infrastructure to implement and expand the Safe Babies Court Team approach – a program that aims to reduce the time a child spends in foster care before going to a permanent, safe home. The team will also work to advance partnerships across systems and programs that will support the well-being and health of children.

Ann Stacks, Ph.D., director of the Infant Mental Health Program at the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute at Wayne State, and Bryan Victor, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Wayne State, will lead the university’s research team. Stacks’ research focuses on dimensions of caregiving that support social and emotional development in early childhood, particularly in the context of family risk, including poverty and maltreatment. Stacks has served as the university partner for the Wayne County Baby Court since 2009 and has provided numerous trainings to child welfare workers, attorneys and jurists about the model. In 2011, she was awarded funding from the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation to evaluate the pilot phase of Baby Court, which established evidence for its effectiveness, and in 2020 was awarded funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to establish an online training to support the sustainability of Baby Court. Victor’s research centers on the child welfare system in the United States, with a particular focus on system responses to children’s exposure to domestic violence, reducing harm and social injustice associated with child welfare involvement, and enhancing maltreatment prevention capacity through cross-systems collaboration.

“Together, Dr. Stacks and Dr. Victor have great expertise that will help support and expand the provision of services to better address the complex needs of parents and their young children, with the ultimate goal of building resilient families that remain intact,” said Alissa Huth-Bocks, Ph.D., director of the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute. “There is an urgent need to connect families with infants and toddlers in the child welfare system with high-quality, evidence-driven and coordinated care to promote safe and nurturing homes for children.”

“Keeping families strong and intact is the primary goal of social work practice in child welfare,” said Sheryl Kubiak, Ph.D., M.S.W., dean of the School of Social Work and director of the Center for Behavioral Health and Justice at Wayne State. “The model for this program provides technical assistance to courts and the child welfare system on best practices for supporting families and keeping children healthy and safe. I’m proud that the School of Social Work is supporting that effort.”

According to the team, Michigan’s rate of infant and toddler maltreatment is twice the national rate, and 27% of those in the child welfare system who are age 3 and under are victims of child abuse or neglect.

“This is an alarming percentage of children facing maltreatment, as only 14% of Micihgan’s population is made up of children in this age group,” said Stacks. “I’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that Baby Court has on children. The evaluation of our Baby Court in Wayne County mirrored the positive outcomes seen in the national evaluations. Children in Baby Court spend less time in care, are more likely to be reunified with their parent and are less likely to come back into the child welfare system. I feel fortunate to have worked with our Baby Court jurist, attorneys, child welfare professionals and infant mental health clinicians who are compassionate and dedicated to families. I’m looking forward to being a part of the state team to expand the program to other counties. Dr. Victor and I will work closely together to evaluate the effectiveness of the expanded initiative in Michigan to aid in informing quality improvement and determining the effect of Baby Courts.”

“I’m thrilled for the opportunity to support MDHHS and build on the important work done to date with Baby Courts in Michigan,” added Victor. “Aligning these speciality courts with national best practices will go a long way toward promoting the stable reunification of young children with their parents and caregivers.”

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.

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January 13, 2023
Mattel launches new Barbie doll for preschoolers | CNN Business

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CNN
—

Mattel is giving preschoolers a new age-appropriate Barbie doll that it says is better suited for their needs.

The doll, called “My First Barbie,” is specifically created for kids three years old and older, said Lisa McKnight, executive vice president and global head of Barbie and dolls for Mattel. The age range for the original Barbie fashion dolls is for kids 3 and up.

“We talk to parents and kids almost every day. Interestingly, what came up more and more from parents who grew up with Barbie themselves was that they wanted a Barbie doll that was easier to play with for little hands with less dexterity,” said McKnight.

Although the toymaker has introduced My First Barbie-branded dolls over the years, this is the first version of the iconic doll for preschool children.

McKnight said the brand took this insight and began the process of developing My First Barbie a year ago.

The $20 doll, which is available for purchase beginning this month at Walmart,

(WMT) Target,

(TGT) Amazon

(AMZN) and other retailers, is noticeably different from the original Barbie.

My First Barbie is larger, 13.5 inches tall versus 11.5 inches for the standard Barbie fashion doll. It also has a softer body and more articulated arms and legs.

McKnight said the doll’s hands feature a distinctive design change. “The hand is closed, so the thumb is not detached. We did this to make it easier for little hands to dress and undress the doll,” she said.

Mattel is launching the doll in four skin tones and with accessories like shoes and purses, a summer beach look complete with a sun hat and swimsuit, other fashion clothing with Velcro fasteners so little kids can easier change her clothes and bedroom and tea time play sets.

“This is a first for us, to create a bespoke Barbie for preschool children,” said McKnight.

First introduced as Barbie Millicent Roberts in 1959, Mattel sold 300,000 Barbie dolls in the first year of her launch. To date, it has sold more than a billion dolls worldwide. One gauge of the Barbie’s enduring popularity: the company says more than 100 Barbie dolls are sold every minute.

Barbie continues to be the dominant doll brand and the No. 1 fashion doll brand globally. It was among the top 5 best-selling toy properties in the first nine months of 2022, according to market research firm NPD. It named Barbie as the top-selling global toy property of the year in 2021.

Mattel’s attempt with My First Barbie makes sense, said Jim Silver, a toy industry expert and CEO of Toys, Tots, Pets & More, an industry review website.

“Mattel is successfully filling a void for this age group. They’ve found a way to bring the Barbie fashion doll to an even younger consumer,” said Silver.

“There’s very little out there in the toy market for preschoolers in dolls that isn’t a baby doll. But kids younger and younger are asking for a Barbie, which is for ages 3 and up,” he said. “So this is a great opportunity for Mattel to introduce Barbie even earlier to kids.”

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January 12, 2023
Biden Administration Not Going to Seize Your Gas Stove, But Environmental Health Concerns May Lead to Regulations

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On January 9th, 2023, the conservative outlet National Review published an article that stated the Biden administration is considering stricter regulation of gas stoves over health and environmental concerns. The article’s headline reads, “Capital Matters Warned You about Gas-Stove Hysteria.” Not long after the article was published, social media users claimed that U.S. President Biden’s administration was considering banning gas stoves over climate change concerns. For example, Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson tweeted on January 10th, “I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands.” As of today, January 11th, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a federal agency, is not currently considering a ban on gas stoves. Therefore the claim that the government is banning gas stoves or that they plan on seizing people’s stoves is false.

Although they have yet to be nationally regulated, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have linked gas stoves to a wide range of health concerns, including cardiovascular problems and cancer. In a study published last year in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, gas stoves were found to be the cause of around 12% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S.

Gas stoves also rely on natural gas, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Several local governments have implemented laws to curb the reliance on appliances that require the combustion of fossil fuels. In 2021, a New York City law went into place that bans the use of fossil fuels in new buildings, accelerating the construction of all-electric buildings in the city.

In an interview with Bloomberg, CPSC agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. suggested that the banning of these stoves could be a possible solution. “This is a hidden hazard,” he said. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

Miranda Leppla, the director of the Environmental Law Clinic at Case Western Reserve University School of Law has this to say on what this could mean.

If they can’t make a product safe, then they will ban it, but if they can make a product safe, they’ll try to do that first, typically because that’s easier and makes more sense for the public. What I think will probably happen is that they’ll look at trying to put some limitations on what types of emissions and how much natural gas stoves are permitted to release, and if for some reason they can’t make it safe after they try these different parameters, then I think a ban could be the next step.

Chris Cappa, Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis weighs in…

The natural gas on which stoves run is mostly methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Given the large number of gas stoves nationwide, leaks from gas stoves directly along with leaks from the infrastructure that brings the gas to our homes and businesses add up to be a major source of methane to the atmosphere. Separately, the combustion of natural gas in stoves and other appliances, such as water heaters, produces harmful byproducts such as nitrogen oxides (called NOx) and carbon monoxide and toxic compounds such as formaldehyde. In confined spaces with poor ventilation, such as many of our homes, this can lead to these compounds building up to high levels and can exacerbate things like asthma. Moreover, uncombusted natural gas includes some toxic impurities, such as benzene, which can leak into homes and businesses.

The new generation of induction stovetops can provide a cooking experience that is almost indistinguishable from cooking over a flame and without these same health concerns.

Dr. Andrea De Vizcaya Ruiz, associate professor of environmental and occupational health with the UC Irvine Program in Public Health, has this to say…

Amidst the discussion upon reducing natural gas stove use and replacing them with electrical stoves, there are fundamental factors that need to be considered. Burning of natural gas generates indoor air pollution of nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter, which are known to affect the respiratory tract and are associated with asthma prevalence. And electrical stoves would reduce or annul the presence of these agents. However, this isolated action does not reduce indoor air pollution completely, and there needs to be a parallel action to provide enough energy for the increase in its demand. Improve indoor ventilation, avoid smoking and vaping, and use cooking hoods (which should be clean and regularly checked). Also, the use of electrical stoves imposes a higher monthly bill which will immediately affect underserved or low-income communities, making monthly rent or even buying a home more difficult. This will be an issue in a state like California where living expenses are already high and there is a high demand of energy during the hot months due to cooling appliances (AC and ventilators). Holistic efforts are fundamental and need to be well thought and accompanied by public policies and economic support for the affected communities.

On the topic of gas stoves, below is a comment from Steve Allison, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine. Allison is a climate activist who is a strong proponent of residential appliance electrification as a climate mitigation tool. He was part of an initiative driving this recently with US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

Studies show that burning natural gas indoors may cause health problems. A recent scientific paper attributed 13% of US childhood asthma cases to gas stove use in the home. The percentage was even higher—over 20%—in states like California where a larger fraction of houses have gas appliances. Burning gas releases pollutants into the air, especially NOx. Unless the stove is adequately vented—and most are not—those pollutants build up in the home, sometimes reaching levels that surpass air quality standards. In fact, cooking on a gas stove can make indoor air quality worse than a smoggy day in Los Angeles or Beijing. Even when turned off, stoves may leak natural gas and release pollutants into the air. The worst culprits are chemicals like benzene—a potent carcinogen—and methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Because of the risks to my children’s health and the climate, I switched out the gas stove in my California home for a magnetic induction model in 2021. That same year, I also replaced all other remaining gas-powered appliances so my home runs only on electricity. I’m now enjoying an improved, affordable cooking experience without the risk of asthma, cancer, or fires from having natural gas in my house.

Note to Journalists/Editors: The expert quotes are free to use in your relevant articles on this topic. Please attribute them to their proper sources.

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January 12, 2023
Top Psychological Science Research Includes Flavor-Sensitive Fetuses and Less-Lonely Older Adults

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Newswise — From a cranky-faced fetus scowling at her mother’s healthy lunch choice to an octogenarian still benefiting from long-ago musical lessons, the most impactful psychological science research published in 2022 reveals that new understandings of human behavior—studied across the lifespan and from within a remarkable diversity of topics and scientific subdisciplines—continue to resonate with wide audiences.

Here are the 10 most impactful articles published in the six peer-reviewed research journals of the Association for Psychological Science in 2022. The ratings are based on a combination of the articles’ readership views and their Altmetric Attention Scores, a weighted approximation of all the attention a research output gathers online, including social media shares and mentions as well as citations. In all, the APS journals published 421 articles in 2022.

Listen to a conversation about these findings on the APS podcast, Under the Cortex.

By Beyza Ustun, Nadja Reissland, Judith Covey, Benoist Schaal, and Jacqueline Blissett 

Psychological Science  

An acquired taste? It seems fetuses don’t find kale particularly delicious either. Examining 4D ultrasound scans of women who were between 32 and 36 weeks pregnant, the researchers saw that fetuses created more of a “laughter face” response when exposed to the flavor of carrots their parents consumed and more of a “cry face” response when exposed to the flavor of kale.

By Judith A. Okely, Katie Overy, and Ian J. Deary 

Psychological Science  

In a win for music educators, researchers found that an instrument’s effect might last well beyond the period of training. Individuals born in 1936 in Scotland were tested for general cognitive ability at age 11 and then again at age 70. The more their musical experience, the greater their cognitive gains, even adjusting for factors such as such as socioeconomic status, years of education, and disease history.

By Thomas Dudek, Anne Ardila Brenøe, Jan Feld, and Julia M. Rohrer 

Psychological Science  

No, your brother (or sister) didn’t shape your personality. Using data from more than 85,000 people in 12 large representative surveys covering nine countries, the researchers investigated major personality traits including risk tolerance, trust, and agreeableness. The results suggested that the next younger or older siblings’ gender had no effect on personality.

By Samia C. Akhter-Khan, Matthew Prina, Gloria Hoi-Yan Wong, Rosie Mayston, and Leon Li 

Perspectives on Psychological Science

Giving to and being valued within a community can go a long way toward preventing loneliness in older adults. The authors characterize loneliness as a perceived discrepancy between expected and actual social relationships. Their framework outlines six social relationship expectations of older adults, including generativity and contribution, and being respected and valued. The other four (e.g., having contacts, feeling cared for) are universal across age.

By Anastasia Kozyreva, Sam Wineburg, Stephan Lewandowsky, and Ralph Hertwig 

Current Directions in Psychological Science  

Please don’t feed the trolls. Choosing what to ignore and where to invest one’s limited attention can empower online users to avoid the excesses, traps, and information disorders of today’s digital world, the authors suggest. Cognitive strategies to develop this competence include self-nudging (removing temptations from one’s digital environment); lateral reading (verifying a claim’s credibility elsewhere online); and the do-not-feed-the-trolls heuristic (not rewarding malicious actors with attention).

By Kaitlin Woolley and Ayelet Fishbach  

Psychological Science  

Embrace the squirm. Proposing that seeking discomfort as a signal of growth can increase motivation, the authors tested their theories in areas of personal growth including taking comedic risks in improvisation classes. A simple instruction to participants—to interpret immediate discomfort as a signal of self-growth—did more to motivate them than standard instructions.

By Maria Theobald, Jasmin Breitwieser, and Garvin Brod 

Psychological Science  

Test-anxious students won’t flub what they already know, but they might miss out on learning gains during test prep. According to an analysis of mock exams that medical students completed shortly before their actual high-stakes exams, test anxiety did not affect their performance beyond their level of knowledge, but high trait test anxiety did limit their further learning during the exam-preparation phase. This points to interventions focused on knowledge acquisition instead of anxiety reduction.

By Anna Seewald and Winfried Rief 

Clinical Psychological Science  

First impressions are so powerful in therapy that even the most skeptical patient is likely to expect—and experience—better results if they feel the therapist is warm and competent. In an online experiment, the researchers presented different videos of therapist-patient interactions. The more the therapist appeared to be caring and engaged, the more positive the subjects were about outcomes.

By Olga Stavrova, Tila Pronk, and Jaap Denissen 

Psychological Science   

Cheating is rarely the first sign that a relationship is in trouble. Analyzing data from German couples, the researchers found that infidelities were usually preceded by a gradual decrease in relationship functioning and both partners’ well-being. This well-being usually did not recover in the years following the infidelity, except when women were the unfaithful partners and/or the partners were less committed to the relationship to begin with.

By Craig J. R. Sewall, Tina R. Goldstein, Aidan G. C. Wright, and Daniel Rosen  

Clinical Psychological Science  

Digital technology isn’t making our kids unhappy. In their contribution to this popular area of study, the researchers examined the associations between three aspects of digital-technology use (duration and frequency of smartphone use, duration of social-media use) and three aspects of psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and social isolation) among a sample of young adults. Most of these relationships were statistically nonsignificant.

Read about the top psychological science 10 articles of 2021.

Listen to a conversation about these findings on the APS podcast, Under the Cortex.

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January 12, 2023