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Mental-health issues such as anxiety and depression can have many causes. Newly published research identifies one that we don’t usually think about: government policy. According to a new study , American Latinos living in states with more exclusionary immigration policies report higher rates of psychological distress than their counterparts in states with more liberal laws. Obviously, “not all immigrants are Latinos, nor are all Latinos immigrants,” a research team led by Mark Hatzenbuehler...

It is a core tenet of the American Dream: the idea that if you work hard, America awards you the freedom and opportunity to live a more prosperous life than the one you were born into. That’s how it used to work, at least. Of kids born in the 1940s, 90 percent did better than their parents. But this scenario has become increasingly rare in recent decades. “Absolute income mobility,” as economists call it, fell to a mere 50 percent for kids born in the 1980s, regardless of where their parents...

The biggest argument against raising the minimum wage is that it’s going to end up cutting jobs. By having to pay each worker extra, the cost of producing goods or services will increase. So , the argument goes , employers will either pass that cost off to customers (by raising prices) or try to find savings elsewhere (by investing in equipment rather than workers, or reducing the hours their employees work). Either way, the total demand for labor will drop. But this explanation is based on...

The Greater Good Science Center has collected many resilience practices on our website Greater Good in Action , alongside other research-based exercises for fostering kindness, connection, and happiness. Here are 12 of those resilience practices (squeezed into five categories), which can help you confront emotional pain more skillfully. 1. Change the narrative 2. Face your fears 3. Practice self-compassion 4. Meditate 5. Cultivate Forgiveness To read more of Kira M. Newman's article, please...

Watch the new UPLIFT film ‘The Science behind Yoga’ (26 minutes) Featuring Bruce Lipton Ph.D, Sat Bir Khalsa Ph.D, Dr. Mithu Storoni, and many other experts on the scientific research behind the benefits of Yoga. UPLIFT media channel is dedicated to telling the new story of inspired co-creation. Working together, we can create a better world for all. http://upliftconnect.com/watch-science-behind-yoga/

As practitioners and researchers, our emphases on evidence-based practices often focus our attentions on services and systems. But it is often the people we hire — more than the curriculum and services we develop — that participants say have the greatest positive impact on their lives. Last summer, I wrapped up a yearlong benchmarking study of highly effective reentry programs that had received funding from the U.S. Department of Labor to provide employment-focused reentry services to youth...

Thanks to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services for allowing us to share this list of links that they categorize every couple of weeks. Most of the links are from posts on ACEsConnection. ACEs, Adversity's Impact Congressional Briefing Addresses Public Policy to Improve Response to ACEs Business leaders in the ACE and resilience movement: A different kind of bottom line Effects of Childhood Trauma on Depression and Suicidality in Adulthood Brain and Biology Nascent Neurons Journey...

My aunt shared the article below with me this morning. I love that people in my life now know what ACEs are. I'm happy I'm learning more from them! This is a great overview article with nice video and a clear explanation of the original ACEs study. In addition, it talks about how childhood sexual abuse can be particularly damaging, to men and women. It's not that the ACE, itself, is any worse but that the secrecy and shame and difficulty in sharing it can be consequential. That's my take,...

The missing piece in the response to climate disruption—preparing humans to cope with the trauma and toxic stress it causes—was the focus of a recent Conference on Building Human Resilience for Climate Change sponsored by the International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC) . About a hundred mental health professionals, emergency response and disaster management officials, and others from education and faith communities gathered in Washington, DC, for the two-day event. Bob...

Last week, Lady Gaga disclosed she has been living with PTSD for years. The trauma that caused it is rape. She wrote about the diagnosis, how it impacts her and why she has disclosed now. It's not easy to own this diagnosis or the symptoms that come along with it for a lot of reasons. There's still a lot of shame, stigma and confusion about struggling with pain, especially emotional or physiological pain, and a lot of denial about the causes of traumatic stress. In adults as well as in...

The white prefab housing blocks dropped in a field next to a highway bypass here don’t look like much. But the project known as Startblok Riekerhaven is an innovative housing experiment—and social experiment—worth watching. Since July, more than 550 young adults under the age of 28 have been living here. Half of them are Dutch, including students and others without the means to afford Amsterdam’s high rents. The other half are refugees, recently arrived from the Middle East, Africa and...

America’s surging economic inequality has been blamed for everything from crony capitalism to the displacement of once good-paying jobs by globalization and new technology. But according to a major recent study, the real culprit in both the growing gap between the rich and poor can be traced to the neighborhoods in which we are born and raised. The study, which expands on the crucial ongoing work of the Harvard sociologist Robert J. Sampson and included in a larger economic mobility report...