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"Social-emotional learning programs teach the skills that children need to succeed and thrive in life," said Eva Oberle, an assistant professor at UBC's Human Early Learning Partnership in the school of population and public health. "We know these programs have an immediate positive effect so this study wanted to assess whether the skills stuck with students over time, making social-emotional learning programs a worthwhile investment of time and financial resources in schools."...

People who suffer childhood trauma are more than twice as likely to use basic health services, a study has found. Bangor University interviewed 5,400 people in England and about 2,000 people in Wales. It found people with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are more than twice as likely to use A&Es and to be frequent GP surgery users. Prof Mark Bellis said it was "essential" the problems triggered by childhood trauma are recognised. The findings broadly tally with those of a 2016 Public...

Savoring and gratitude are both forms of directed attention. But in contrast to that type of on-task focus, free-form attention is what the brain defaults to when it’s off-task, allowed to move in any direction it wants. It happens when the brain is in what scientists call the resting state. In the 1990s, neuropsychologists began to delve into free-form attention and found that it has many benefits, including for children’s learning and their brain development. To shift instantly into...

On July 11, the “4CA” Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity organized approximately 100 people into small teams of 3-6 people to visit the offices of 80 legislators. Organized by the 4CA steering group led by Center for Youth Wellness, Children Now, and ACEs Connection Network, the day was a decided success.

More than 100 American cities host online open data portals brimming with information on crime, housing, transit, traffic, and neighborhood boundaries. Such initiatives have promised to make government more transparent, accountable, and accessible, at a time when the public’s trust is scraping bottom . But so far, open data has largely fallen short of those lofty ambitions. Part of the problem seems to lie in design: Many online portals are hard for non-expert citizens to use. They keep...

In the June issue of the journal Health Affairs, my colleagues and I published research showing that in 2012, just prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the United States had among the widest income-based disparities in people’s perceptions of their own health and health care among a global sample of 32 countries. Compared to people in the top third, those in the bottom third of household income in the U.S. tended to rate their health worse, forgo care they felt they needed...

More evidence of stress's harmful effects comes from a pregnancy study. California researchers found that stress increases the risk that exposure to toxic chemicals in pregnancy will lead to a low birth weight baby. "It appears that stress may amplify the health effects of toxic chemical exposure, which means that for some people, toxic chemicals become more toxic," said senior author Tracey Woodruff, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of...

Recently, a Department of Education administrator (in charge of Civil Rights within the Department at present) stated that 90% of campus rapes were alcohol related. There are NO data, I repeat no data, supporting this position. Here's the citation: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Ed-Dept-Official-Apologizes/240634?cid=trend_right_a, lest you think I am making this up. Who could even make this stuff up -- even if you tried? For me, this kind of misstatement requires more than an apology. It...

A quiet, unsmiling little girl with big brown eyes crawls inside a carpeted cubicle, hugs a stuffed teddy bear tight, and turns her head away from the noisy classroom. The safe spaces, quiet times and breathing exercises for her and the other preschoolers at the Verner Center for Early Learning are designed to help kids cope with intense stress so they can learn. But experts hope there's an even bigger benefit - protecting young bodies and brains from stress so persistent that it becomes...

Are human beings inherently altruistic ? At a time when Ayn Rand's selfishness-justifying philosophy is dominating congressional debate, the question is far from academic. A just-published study —one in which participants both administered and endured painful electric shocks—provides a nuanced answer: While human beings have the capacity for genuine altruism, this impulse appears to have clearly defined limits. Researchers from the University of California–Santa Barbara report we will forgo...

As a White parent of White kids, ignoring the police slayings of Black people and other people of color could be easy. However, as a halfway decent person who wants to raise kids who are not monsters, I believe that as White people, talking to kids about White privilege and what is happening in this country to people of color is essential. I know it can be difficult to know what to say to kids and how to talk to them about these events, but we must. Here are some tips that have worked with...

After three defendants fatally overdosed in a single week last year, it became clear that Buffalo's ordinary drug treatment court was no match for the heroin and painkiller crisis. Now the city is experimenting with the nation's first opioid crisis intervention court, which can get users into treatment within hours of their arrest instead of days, requires them to check in with a judge every day for a month instead of once a week, and puts them on strict curfews. Administering justice takes...