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Benedict Carey, NY Times, May 31, 2019. The debate over screen time is typically accompanied by a good deal of finger-wagging: The digital experience is a ruinous habit, akin to binge-eating curly fries, gambling on cock fights or drinking whiskey with breakfast. Meanwhile, social scientists who are trying to study the actual psychological effects of screen time are left in a bind. For one thing, good luck finding a “control group” of people living the nondigital life or anything close to...

Beth Connolly, Pew Trusts, June 3, 2019. June marks National Men’s Health Month, an opportunity to examine the prevalence of drug misuse and substance use disorders (SUDs) in men. Compared to women, men are more likely to engage in illicit drug use and to begin using alcohol or drugs at a younger age. These risk factors contribute to a rate of substance dependence in men that is twice that of women; men are also more likely to experience an opioid overdose . In fact, of the 47,600...

Sophie Kasakove, Pacific Standard, June 3, 2019. Louisiana's coastline is disappearing at a rapid rate: Every hour-and-a-half, the state sheds another football field's worth of land, the oft-repeated statistic goes. But it's not just land that coastal areas of the state are losing. Between 2000 and 2010, parishes that were hit hardest by storms saw massive decreases in population—St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans, for one, lost 46 percent of its residents—leaving those who stay to...

Hansi Lo Wang, NPR, June 4, 2019. Challenges threatening the upcoming 2020 census could risk more than 4 million people to be missing from next year's national head count, according to new projections by the Urban Institute . The nonpartisan think tank found that the danger of an inaccurate census could hit some of the country's most difficult-to-count populations the hardest. Based on the Urban Institute's analysis, the 2020 census could lead to the worst undercount of black and Latinx...

Students start each day with meditation During her first year as principal of Suisun Elementary in Suisun City, Calif., in 2014 Ann Marie Neubert suspended 102 students — out of a student population of 550 —for disrupting their classes. It was a serious problem, but the school’s teachers didn’t know what to do. “[Teachers] felt like they were using all the tools in their toolbox and it wasn’t changing behavior,” she recalls. Ann Marie Neubert Too many students were spending too much time out...

Finding the Missing ACEs : The ACEs research by Drs. Felitti, Anda and colleagues has spawned a growing and influential social movement on behalf of trauma-informed practices and institutions. However, the ACEs research misses entirely the social contexts of households such as extreme poverty and racism that can themselves create toxic stress. Broader measures of adversity can provide a more accurate picture of the varying likelihood of toxic stress among children in differ by race, class...

Good News! First 5 of Contra Costa County and Tehama County Department of Education are considering purchasing sets of our parenting norms bumper stickers. Visit advancingparenting.org.

I remain forever grateful that my long felt and seeming innate knowledge ( actually garnered from personal experience, work with traumatised animals and people ) has been evidenced and validated by the amazing work of Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda. They created the peg I, we, can hang our experience and expertise on and work to best apply our skills to assist others. With ACEs I am now able to communicate my knowledge with clients, colleagues and communities with the additional confidence...

There has been a lot of hand-wringing in the local press about the state of the Madison Metropolitan School District, particularly around behavior. In particular, the behavior education plan implemented over the last several years — intended to reduce exclusionary practices and use a more progressive approach to discipline — has come under fire for essentially allowing a permissive, low-consequence environment that affects learning as well as staff morale. I read these with interest — my two...

Between 55 and 99 percent of women who attend addiction treatment and between 85 and 95 percent of women with a history of mental illness have a history of trauma. Among this trauma , the vast majority happened during childhood. Whether the trauma involves neglect, sexual assault, or dysfunction within the family, the need for trauma-informed care in both addiction treatment and in the mental health field is of great importance. When I found myself at a detox facility 1,300 miles away from...

Since becoming mayor of Ithaca, New York, eight years ago, Svante Myrick has been become known for many things, most obviously being a young, black elected public official in upstate New York. By his own admission, some of his policy ideas are gimmicks, like turning the mayor’s designated parking spot into a pocket park. (Take that, greenhouse gases!) Myrick also takes pride in knocking on 30,000 Ithaca doors and interacting with residents on social media, both tactics that go over well in a...

They are expressions of light. They are a doer, a dreamer, a lover, a fighter, and a fiercely independent sprite – compassionate, philosophical, playful, focused, and determined...