“Taking Care of Other People's Children”
In our zeal to protect children from trauma, we risk creating more anxiety by protecting them too much. Recent studies, for example, show that children of over-protective parents have increased anxiety, “higher levels of narcissism and more ineffective coping skills,” and higher levels of depression. While chronic stress is debilitating, research is showing that short…
Two recently-published studies claim that mindfulness training can help children cope with stress in school. The first study was small, with only 99 middle-school children participating. Half of them received 8 weeks of mindfulness-based interventions, while the other half received active-control interventions. The mindfulness group self-reported lower stress, anger, and sadness. The other group reported…
An interesting study from the Yale Child Study Center that works with parents instead of their children is being hailed as “an innovative way to address an epidemic of anxiety disorders” in children. While the findings certainly challenge conventional wisdom, they are not all that new. My grandmother and her mother before her would have…