Nurturing Resilience

Raising children to be competent and caring.

Michael Ungar Ph.D.

A Resilient Pregnancy

There are plenty of things that cause trauma during pregnancy and childbirth, but good relationships, better health care, and psychological treatment can prevent a new mom's PTSD.

Ice Cream Shops Can Fight Youth Suicide, Too

We need ways to talk about suicide year round if prevention campaigns are going to work. Corporate partners can help.

Teens and Dangerous Levels of Cell Phone Use

If we’re going to prevent children putting themselves at risk for mental disorders, parents and communities are going to have to impose some rules and take a lesson from Iceland.

Santa Must Be a Woman

If we look at the science of gift-giving and expectations for who does what over the holidays, then Santa has to be a woman. Men just aren't up for the task.

Mass Shootings, Compassion Fatigue (or Why I Stopped Caring)

How do we not feel helpless, or worse, blame the victims of mass shootings for the violence that killed them? Emotional numbness grows when we lack control. There are solutions.

Lawyers Shouldn’t Tell Us How to Raise Our Kids

Lawyers look only at immediate risk of harm, not the secondary harm that results from not letting children do what they need to do to grow up healthy.

Does Your Child Have Enough Friends?

Some children are shy and happy to be alone. Many others struggle to make friends and are at risk for depression. Parents can teach children what they need to be more social.

Coal Miners and Resilience

Making families and communities resilient when industries are in decline is possible but we have to give people the resources they need to build new lives.

Kids Need to Eat Dirt and Get Dirty

There is good science showing that when children get outdoors and encounter more microbes, their ability to cope with stress is improved for a lifetime.

Pathological Resistance to Change Does Not Make Us Great

Looking backwards won't make us great. We need innovation to tackle big problems like energy outages and their impact on the elderly. Our collective resilience depends on it.

Free Health Insurance Makes Kids Resilient

In the debate over health insurance, we’re forgetting that research proves that children with access to health care out-perform children with none.

What the World Needs Now Is… Beer?

At a time when there is cause to be pessimistic, beer commercials suggest most of us want peaceful co-existence.

Refugees Make Great Neighbors

Over time, refugees outperform native-born citizens academically, use health services less, and are less likely to commit crime. Inviting them into our communities is a win-win.

Just Wear it? Tech Won’t Improve Your Fitness On Its Own

Using wearable tech is unlikely to solve the obesity crisis, but it might prevent obesity among those who have less risky lifestyles.

Ending Sexual Abuse of Our Children

While we still don’t know much about how to prevent child sexual abuse, there are things families and communities are doing to keep our kids safe and avoid a lifetime of problems.

Keeping New Year's Resolutions Is Rarely Under Our Control

This year, try changing the world a little if you want to change yourself a lot.

Our Oh So Violent Holidays at Home

Child abuse, assaults with guns and knives, and other types of domestic violence are much more likely to occur during the holidays when families spend more time together.

For Christmas, I Gave My Child An Empty Box

This Black Friday, avoid the mall. Instead, give your child gifts this Christmas that build real creativity and are good for them, physically and intellectually.

Stop Blaming the Kids, Start Blaming Bad Social Policies

Resilience is political. Good social policies may be the most important factor for raising mentally and physically healthy children.

Why Are Kids So Anxious These Days?

New research shows that more and more adolescents are at risk of mental illness. The solution may not be more treatment but changing children’s environments to be less stressful.

Frosh Week Worries: Overprotected Kids Are the Most at Risk

There is good research to suggest that children who experience the right amount of stress will do better at college than children of parents who snowplow away problems.

Olympics May Increase Child Prostitution in Rio

With the Olympics has come more child sexual exploitation. A new film, in development, is focusing attention on what happens to Brazil's child victims when they grow up.

Mom With Metastatic Cancer Talks About Resilience

From time to time I receive inspiring letters from people who have encountered my work and are kind enough to share their lives. Here is one such letter that brought me to tears.

4 Ways to Build Resilience (All Kids Are Not the Same)

We’re told resilience can be built in all children with the same tools: Mindfulness, self-esteem, a positive caring relationship. Research tells us something different.

5 Ways to Help Kids After a Disaster

As natural disasters like the wildfires in Fort McMurray increase in frequency, there are 5 simple things we can do to help children avoid the trauma of being forcibly displaced.

If You Want To Fix Kids' Problems, Let the Kids Lead

Here are five lessons I've learned for tackling serious problems that young people experience.

Horrible but True: Early Abuse Can Create Strength

Patterns of resilience depend on the quality of a child's environment. Sadly, abused children teach themselves ways to cope; kids from good homes can become delinquent.

Worried About Zika Virus? Mother’s Stress Also Harms Child

The zika virus reminds us that when a child’s health is at risk, we are quick to act. Why, then, have we still not taken action against the problems that stress mothers?

How Can We Help Syrian Children Resettle in the West?

Child refugees have a tremendous potential to integrate, but their resilience depends on the schools and communities we offer them.

Is the Kid Next Door a Terrorist? 12 Questions to Consider

It’s impossible to predict who will become a terrorist, though there are patterns to young people’s experiences that make acts of violence more likely.

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