Trauma-Informed Parenting

By Blanca Torres, USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, October 18, 2022 When Mariana Pimentel thinks about her childhood in a small town in Mexico, she remembers being surrounded by anger and desperation. Her parents worked long hours to support Pimentel and her brothers and sisters, so they were often absent. When they were home, her parents communicated by yelling. “I want my kids to grow up in a different environment from how I grew up and not repeat the same mistakes,” said...

By Roy Boorady, MD, Child Mind Institute, August 18, 2022 All kids worry sometimes. But when worry makes it hard for them to participate in daily life, they may have an anxiety disorder. Because anxiety often affects a child’s thoughts and feelings more than it affects their behavior, it can be hard to spot. It’s also possible for a child to be generally happy but still so anxious that it interferes with some aspect of their life, like school or socializing. Common outward signs that a child...

By American Heart Association Newsroom, October 10, 2022 The American Heart Association releases new survey highlighting mealtime impact on mental well-being and introduces Together Tuesdays™ to help people maximize health benefits of shared meals Survey Highlights: 91% of parents notice their family is less stressed when they share family meals together. 65% of surveyed adults say they are at least somewhat stressed, and more than a quarter (27%) are very or extremely stressed. 84% of...

Canva Your child being diagnosed with a mental health condition is not a parental failure. Author: To read Jacalyn Wetzel's article, please click here. Getting a mental health diagnosis for a child can sometimes knock the wind out of people because as parents the single most important job we have is to get our children to adulthood with as little trauma as possible. We taxi them to different sports, sign ourselves up for field trips and make sure they make it to their well-child visits. We...

By Claire McCarthy, MD, Harvard Health Publishing for Harvard Medical School, September 22, 2022 All of us can lower the odds of unintentional shootings. Guns hurt and kill; it’s a simple fact. And while most gun injuries and deaths are the result of an assault or suicide, unintentional injuries happen all the time, including to children and between them. In the six-year span between January 1, 2015, and December 31, 2020, there were at least 2,070 unintentional shootings by children under...

By Karen Garcia, Image by Kassia Rico / for The Times, The LA Times, September 28, 2022 Norma Fabian Newton had heard of other new mothers experiencing the “baby blues,” short-term sadness and anxiety. But when she had her first child in her early 30s, she described her experience as a “constant barrage of thoughts.” “I was constantly thinking, ‘I’m not equipped to be a parent, I hate myself, or I hate this decision,’” she said. “In so many ways I had everything, and yet I felt so empty and...

By Jeffrey D. Shahidullah, PhD and Rebecca A. Baum, MD, FAAP, Healthychildren.org Children, teens and families are navigating difficult times. Sometimes it can be hard to tell whether day-to-day stress is getting the best of us, or when something more serious may be going on. In either case, talking with your child's pediatrician is a great place to start. Starting the conversation Many pediatricians check for mental health concerns at well-child visits. The doctor may ask your child...

By Callie Holtermann, Photo by Christopher Gregory-Rivera, The New York Times, October 27, 2022 Relief agencies can help single fathers and mothers maintain the delicate balance between wage-generating hours, personal upkeep and family caregiving time. Someday, Ramiro Torres dreams of opening his own restaurant and serving the tortas, tacos and hamburgers that he loves to prepare to the public. At least one qualified critic, his 11-year-old daughter, Yanely, has long been sold on his...

By Diana Divecha, Greater Good Magazine, October 24, 2022 A new book explains how to feel secure in your parenting decisions so you can be firm but loving with your kids. Home is where we initially learn how to be in the world, and even the smallest interactions between parents and children can have an outsized impact, say Sheri Glucoft Wong, Bay Area family therapist, and Olaf Jorgenson, Silicon Valley private school head. Those little everyday moments together are our opportunities to...

ANI, The Statesman, October 22, 2022 As a result of strict parenting, the way the body perceives the children’s DNA might alter. Children who grow up with restrictions may have these modifications “hard-wired” into their DNA, increasing their biological risk of depression in adolescence and later in life. Presenting the work at the ECNP Congress in Vienna, Dr Evelien Van Assche said: “We discovered that perceived harsh parenting, with physical punishment and psychological manipulation, can...

By Audrey-Ann Deneault, Lorraine Reggin, Penny Pexman, Sheri Madigan, and Susan Graham, The Conversation, September 6, 2022 When children develop the ability to understand language, as well as speak and communicate, this helps them interact with others and learn about their world. Research shows that children’s early language skills have a long reach in affecting later life outcomes . Children with better language skills have an easier time regulating their emotions and interacting with...

By McKenna Saady, ParentsTogether, September 19, 2022 More than half of people experience a traumatic event at some point during their childhood — and more than a quarter of children will witness or experience trauma before the age of four. Between school shootings, COVID-19, and families being separated at the US-Mexico border, incidents of childhood trauma have pervaded the news in recent years. What is childhood trauma? Trauma is defined as the experience of an emotionally distressing...