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Why do we remain in romantic relationships that leave us unhappy and unfulfilled? The answer in two new studies co-authored by a University of Toronto researcher might surprise you. Research published in the November issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people are less likely to initiate a breakup when they believe that their romantic partners are dependent on the relationship . Participants in the studies, even people who had been close to breaking up, were...

Democrats return to the California Capitol on Monday with their strongest political advantage in decades poised to fulfill a huge item on their list of pent-up demands: Vastly expanded access to preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. Their plan comes with a big price tag, a problem that has doomed past proposals, most recently with outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown. But with huge legislative majorities and Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, who called for more spending on early education in his campaign, they see...

TORNILLO, Texas – About 40 miles southeast of El Paso, past the billboards for fast food joints and rugged desert hills, residents of this small community sometimes can see the lights of the nearby detention camp glowing in the night. Some of them have brought gifts for the roughly 2,300 children inside, only to be turned away by guards. Months after the government erected a tent city in the desert, most of what happens inside the encampment remains hidden, even from curious neighbors in the...

Experts voiced approval of a new agreement between the United States and China that aims to control fentanyl smuggling into the U.S. black market, but they warned against expecting a quick impact on the drug’s skyrocketing death toll. President Trump said Sunday evening that Beijing has agreed to treat the powerful opioid and its many analogues as controlled substances, a decision the White House said would subject the country’s illegal fentanyl dealers “to China’s maximum penalty under the...

After years of steady decline, the number of U.S. children without health insurance rose by 276,000 in 2017, according to a Georgetown University report released Thursday. While not a big jump statistically — the share of uninsured kids rose to 5 percent in 2017 from 4.7 percent a year earlier — it is still striking. The uninsured rate typically remains stable or drops during times of economic growth. In September, the U.S. unemployment rate hit its lowest level since 1969. "The nation is...

Lori Lynn Adams was a mother of four living in poverty when Hurricane Floyd struck eastern North Carolina in 1999, flooding her trailer home and destroying her children’s pageant trophies and baby pictures. No stranger to money-making scams, Adams was convicted of filing a fraudulent disaster-relief claim with FEMA for a property she did not own. She also passed dozens of worthless checks to get by. Adams served two year-long prison stints for these “blue-collar white-collar crimes,” as she...

I am pleased to announce that a NEW, 8-week version of the study, "Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks," is now available. This 2nd edition includes input I received from the ACEsConnection community and others which resulted in two additional weeks of material. You still get the movie, "Paper Tigers," and the licensing to show it to up to 250 in an educational or religious setting, but there is much more... And, while a number of edits have gone into this second edition of the curriculum, my...

https://youtu.be/8wxnzVib2p4

For over a year, about 12 people from Hampshire County met to plan a Roads to Resilience conference . The long-term plan was to create a trauma-responsive Hampshire County (MA) by working collaboratively with and in the community. The kick-off conference was attended by hundreds and led by Laura Porter, co-founder of ACE Interface . Porter informed attendees about the neuroscience of ACEs and how others use it to become trauma-informed, trauma-responsive and to create self-healing...

I was honored to have my review article, “Childhood Adversity and Lifelong Health: from research to action”, chosen as the November 2018 cover story of the Journal of Family Practice . Here is a link to the article. Access is free after registration with the journal and retrievable directly by anyone who has Medline PubMed access. https://www.mdedge.com/jfponline/article/178388/pediatrics/childhood-adversity-lifelong-health-research-action Highlights from the article include: - recognition...

Over the last few years, the Laconia School District has been actively working to understand what childhood trauma is, how it impacts our students, and what we, as an educational institution can do to mitigate the effects of this. We have also learned about secondary, or vicarious, trauma. This type of trauma is experienced by our staff as a result of supporting our students who are living with ongoing and pervasive trauma. Our teachers and support staff are serving in pseudo social worker...

One of the most useful bits of life advice is given out almost every minute of every day on airplanes, as pilots prepare to take off: in the unlikely event of an emergency, always remember to put on your oxygen mask first before trying to help someone else with theirs. Of course, I never pay much attention to the safety announcements when I am strapped into a metal tube waiting to be launched into the sky, being of the opinion that, in the likely event of an emergency at 35,000ft, there is...