-
Moms’ Middle-School Blues
The Wall Street Journal: Mothers feel more anxious, dissatisfied and doubtful about their own parenting skills when their children are in middle school than at any other stage, new research shows. The turbulence that hits sixth- through eighth-graders often begins with the onset of puberty, bringing physical changes and mood swings. Also, many students transfer from close-knit elementary schools to larger middle schools. Childhood friends may be separated, classes are often tracked by ability and teachers are more demanding. Mothers often lose touch with other elementary-school parents who became friends. School officials often press them to back off and give students a longer leash.
-
Higher-Earning Households Tend To Spend More Time Alone
NPR: A new study finds that wealthier people spend less time socializing. NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks with Emily Bianchi of Emory University about how income levels affect how people spend their time. ... WERTHEIMER: So what is the answer? How does income affect how people spend their time? BIANCHI: Well, what we found is that people who live in wealthier households tend to spend more time alone. And they tend to spend less time socializing with other people. WERTHEIMER: Any other people or particular other people? BIANCHI: Well, what we found was that people who are in households with higher income tend to spend less time with family, less time with neighbors.
-
Worried? You’re Not Alone
The New York Times: I’m a worrier. Deadlines, my children, all the time they spend online — you name it, it’s on my list of worries. I even worry when I’m not worried. What am I forgetting to worry about? Turns out I’m not alone. Two out of five Americans say they worry every day, according to a new white paper released by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Among the findings in the “Worry Less Report”: Millennials worry about money. Single people worry about housing (and money). Women generally worry more than men do and often about interpersonal relationships. The good news: Everyone worries less as they get older. ...
-
Complain All You Want, But Your Busy Schedule May Help Your Brain
NPR: Single mothers, untenured professors, young reporters and on-call doctors might have a thin silver lining for their hurried days and response for the people who insist on slowing down: All that hustling may translate into superior brain power as you get older, as a study finds that the busiest people perform best on cognitive tests. Sara Festini, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas, Dallas, and her adviser, Denise Park, published the study in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience on Tuesday. They tested over 300 people between the ages of 50 and 89 on cognitive functions including memory, reasoning and mental quickness. ...
-
The empty brain
aeon: No matter how hard they try, brain scientists and cognitive psychologists will never find a copy of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony in the brain – or copies of words, pictures, grammatical rules or any other kinds of environmental stimuli. The human brain isn’t really empty, of course. But it does not contain most of the things people think it does – not even simple things such as ‘memories’. Our shoddy thinking about the brain has deep historical roots, but the invention of computers in the 1940s got us especially confused.
-
Baby Boomers Are Isolating Themselves as They Age
TIME: A large body of research shows that emotional experience improves with age. People are slower to show anger and more prone to see silver linings. They solve emotionally charged conflicts more effectively and are more likely to forgive and forget. So the prospect of millions of baby boomers entering a stage in life that brings wisdom and emotional balance has many researchers excited about the possibility that they will, as they enter their final years, build a better world.
