Psychology Today

Research shows that young people prefer to remain in their rural communities if they have access to education and employment opportunities. It will take governments and the private sector to build resilient rural spaces that stop out-migration.

When Todd Sampson demonstrated that neuroplasticity could make his ordinary brain extraordinary, he forgot to mention that he had an amazing arsenal of supports helping him achieve his goals. Mindfulness practices may help us focus and regulate our emotions, but their ability to change our lives is vastly over-rated.

Though parents are moving in and out of romantic relationships more often, there are things they can do to make these transitions easier for their children.

A recent report on risky outdoor play tells us that our children are actually healthier when they are less supervised and outdoors in unstructured play than indoors and supervised by their parents. Overprotective parenting may actually be doing children more harm than good.

Though we spend more time with our kids these days than decades ago, it may not be improving their developmental outcomes. A study of family time diaries shows that family income is a better predictor of children's academic and psychological outcomes than the amount of individual attention they receive from their parents between the ages of 3 and 11.

When parents ignore the advice of scientists, children are needlessly exposed to mental, physical and spiritual dangers. Anxiety disorders are rising dramatically, measles have infected hundreds of children, and a lack of critical thinking among children are all problems caused by the same thing: misguided parenting practices.

We all love parenting books that offer simple solutions to the big problems that troubled kids experience. Sadly, most of the advice will never work with kids whose problems are complex. Complex problems need complex solutions.

We all have some personal challenge, even if it’s invisible to others. The people who inspire me are those willing to talk about the challenges they’ve faced, and what makes them resilient.

A new app that forces kids to answer phone calls from their parents may increase their risk for distracted driving and threaten healthy parent-child relationships. Here’s some low-tech solutions to this problem that work far better for children and their parents.

A child’s participation in religious activity can make a child more resilient, but only if that experience helps the child access seven resources he or she needs to succeed.

The supports we offer children to grow up safe and healthy can often look rather unusual. While we tend to think of social capital as informal supports, many community programs offer creative ways of engaging community members who can help children thrive.

Male university students who self-report higher resilience do not, as a group, do as well academically as their resilient female counterparts. A deeper understanding of resilience can help us understand why more male children are orchids and female children dandelions. Only the dandelions have proven themselves capable of dealing with stress.

I wish I could help Justin see that the best way to feel happy is to make a genuine contribution to someone else’s happiness. I wonder what he'd say if he got my offer?

A single mom turns Christmas with her daughters into an opportunity to change their selfish behavior and make them more aware of their responsibilities for others.