This week in parenting: 22/5/16

Health
Among children with behavioral problems, a nutritional supplementation program was found to be effective in reducing problem behavior particularly if combined with a therapy approach.

Youth who are overweight were found to be more likely to be verbally victimised and feel less supported by the peers than their normal weight peers and girls who were overweight were more likely to be physically victimised.

Parents
A percieved inability to meet expectations as a new parent was found to increase postpartum depression symptoms for mothers and fathers. While this effect disappaited for new mums, it did not for dads.

A study has found a discrepency between father's and mother's reports of father's involvement with this effect being influenced by parent's relationship quality.

Parenting
High temperamental fearfulness and low joy expression was found to interact with low parental warmth and high parenting stress to increase anxiety/depression symptoms in Turkish preschoolers.

School mobility (moving schools more often) was identified as a predictor of psychotic symptoms in early adolescence, however the direction of this relationship is unclear.

Mother mind-mindfulness (ability to see child as an independent agent with their own thoughts and feelings) was found to predict less disruptive behavior at the age of 12.

Girls aged between 5 and 8 were found to be more concerned about their appearance and more likely to engage in teen culture if their mother was more materialistic and engaged in more 'self-objectification.

Teenagers
Increased technology use and being woken by the cell phone was found to be associated with daytime sleepiness in teenagers while technology use before bed was associated with self-reported inadequate sleep.

Harsh parenting in combination with food insecurity during adolescence was found to increase the likelihood of being overweight or obese as a young adult.

A dip in self control was found in early adolescence, particularly for those who were going through puberty early. Parental warmth was found to be influencing on self-control during this period.

More parental monitoring and a higher quality parent-adolescent relationship was found to contribute to better sleep quality and less sleepiness in teenagers.