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Are we teaching our kids to feel? It’s a question posed by countless education pioneers, many of whom took issue with the rigid conformity of No Child Left Behind (and found at least some subsequent relief through the new Every Student Succeeds Act). And as study after study proves, Americans don’t fare too well in social-emotional competency; the need for early childhood education is becoming increasingly more apparent. For more, Pacific Standard spoke with Joan Cole Duffell, executive...

In 2010, Arkansas psychologist Ana Bridges and colleagues scrutinized 304 scenes that they would deem in a scientific journal to be “popular pornographic videos.” The researchers were looking for aggression. It was not rare; 88 percent of the scenes contained what the experts deemed physical aggression, defined in the academic journal as “principally spanking, gagging, and slapping.” Nearly half contained verbal aggression, usually from men toward women, who “most often showed pleasure or...

By October of his first year teaching, the reality of Amit Reddy’s new job was clear: He would not be getting much sleep, and any he did get would be interrupted by bad dreams and anxiety about his classroom. “The whole night you’re thinking about the game,” Reddy said. “I’ve not had a good sleep since I started this job.” Reddy is an eighth-grade science teacher at Alice Deal Middle School, which serves more than 1,300 students in grades six through eight in a stately building in the...

This city is full of parks that invite exercise and bike lanes that make commuting a workout. It's home to social services that tend the poor, and taxpayers who willingly fund them. Smoking is banned at restaurants and bars — as well as in workplaces, at bus stops, throughout public housing, at charity bingo games and even inside stores that sell tobacco. These factors may help explain why the poor live longer in the San Francisco area than they do in much of the rest of the country.

Here's information from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) about pre-application technical assistance for SAMHSA FOA No. SM-16-012. Below is information about a series of webinars and conference calls for prospective applicants interested in applying for the Resiliency in Communities after Stress and Trauma grant program (ReCAST). Conference calls and webinars will be held on the dates and times listed below. Interested parties may participate by using the...

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Ellen Lockyer will interview Trevor Storrs, Executive Director of Alaska Children's Trust, on "Alaska Edition." The program wii be on broadcast on television (PBS, Channel 7 in Anchorage) and on the radio (91.1 FM) at 7:30pm tomorrow.

The feeling conveyed in your voice makes more impact and is remembered longer than the words actually spoken. That’s why you can’t always recall the exact words spoken, but clearly remember how you felt. The tone (its pitch, volume and clarity) all combine to give a listener clues about the way the message needs to be interpreted, conveying your mood and meaning of your statement. Yelling or raising your voice can be a method used to control the situation and dominate another person. You get...

Research shows that depression and anxiety cost the world economy $1 trillion every year. Steve Inskeep talks to Dr. Shekhar Saxena of the World Health Organization about efforts to improve treatment. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The World Health Organization is expanding its ambition. The U.N. organization is best known for responding to outbreaks of Ebola or the Zika virus. Now it wants to focus on problems that grab fewer headlines but that are much more widespread - depression, anxiety and other...

A Chicago Police accountability task force is releasing a report Wednesday recommending sweeping changes to what it says is a "broken" system. A draft of the report has already been delivered to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who created the task force and fired police Superintendent Garry McCarthy following the release of a video showing a white police officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times. The Chicago Tribune describes the tone of the draft as "scathing" and says it recommends that...

Questions about smoking, seat belts or regular exercise are routine at a doctor's office, thanks to the overwhelming data showing that the lives we lead influence our overall health. But one insidious yet common risk factor is rarely addressed: living with trauma. From childhood abuse to poverty and racism, this threat takes many forms. As studies increasingly show, all have a staggering impact on a person's health. When Edward Machtinger, MD, director of UCSF's Women's HIV Program, analyzed...

On my recent reporting trip to Brazil, I went on a hike and got bitten 40 times by an unknown insect. The welts were larger than mosquito bites and were completely painless until they began itching relentlessly a day later. Worse than the physical irritation, though, was the fact that, as a health writer, I know about all the different diseases South American bugs can carry. At the time, Zika was just starting emerge, but I was most worried about a different threat: Leishmaniasis. There are...

Improving mental health care can have a huge economic payoff, according to a study released Tuesday. The World Health Organization findings suggest every U.S. dollar invested in mental health treatment can quadruple returns in work productivity. However, most countries are investing far below what is needed for those suffering from common mental disorders, the study notes. Researchers, who studied 36 countries of all income levels, forecast that an increased mental health care investment...