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Much has been written about what happens to mothers hormonally during pregnancy and after, but what about fathers? In a first-of-its-kind study, University of Notre Dame Assistant Professor of Anthropology Lee Gettler and lead author Patty Kuo, visiting assistant professor of psychology, focused on how dads' biology around the birth of their children relates to their parenting down the road. They partnered with Notre Dame psychologists and Memorial Hospital of South Bend to analyze...

SEATTLE — The part of this city east of Northgate Mall looks like many of the neighborhoods that surround it, with its modest midcentury homes beneath dogwood and Douglas fir trees. Whatever distinguishes this place is invisible from the street. But it appears that poor children who grow up here — to a greater degree than children living even a mile away — have good odds of escaping poverty over the course of their lives. Believing this, officials in the Seattle Housing Authority are...

Before he went to prison, Mark Loughney used watercolors and acrylics to create bright, playful portraits of his favorite musicians. His early work features Trey Anastasio and Grace Potter and Snoop Dogg, all smiling and content, deep into their guitars and joints. But then Loughney himself took a dark turn, committing a crime that even now, years later, he can barely explain. Before he went to prison, Mark Loughney used watercolors and acrylics to create bright, playful portraits of his...

When public-health researchers look at people—for studies, at least; not sure what they're like at dinner parties—they think in terms of "exposures." Exposures are factors in the environment that have the potential to affect people's health. Exposures can include everything from air pollution in people's neighborhoods, to how much radiation folks encounter at home and work, to the racism people face (which has been shown to hurt their health ). One "exposure" that's gotten a lot of attention...

After 2,000 years of practice, Buddhist monks know that one secret to happiness is to put your mind to it. What is happiness, and how can we achieve it? Happiness can’t be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world—a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks. [For more on this story by Matthieu Ricard, go to...

The wrenching testimony of Christine Blasey Ford, who is accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a sexual assault years ago, raises questions about the long-term emotional and physical toll this kind of trauma takes on survivors and how our society responds to those who come forward long after the assault. Emily R. Dworkin , a senior fellow at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, studies how the social interactions of trauma survivors can affect their...

A new California survey of pregnant and new mothers paints a bleak picture of what it’s like to be a black mother. In Listening to Mothers in California, black mothers reported not being heard by their health providers and said they experienced discrimination during childbirth. They also experienced higher rates of anxiety and depression during and after pregnancy than white women. The findings add fuel to a growing sense of urgency on maternal health. On Wednesday, California Gov. Brown...

Avis and her brother, Bruce, have seen some hard knocks in their lives. At 60, she's his sole caretaker. She's taught school, worked as a receptionist, always worked, or wanted to work. Since she started caring for her brother, full-time work has seemed hard to find. He was born with autism 51 years ago. They share her little house in Pamlico County, North Carolina, where she now hopes to be called in to substitute teach, and he looks forward to her home cooked meals. Their lives revolve...

In early August, after a full day of cutting lentils in eastern Montana, Tracy and Jim Zeorian, the married team that make up Zeorian Harvesting, completed the 45-minute drive back to their camper in Jordan, Montana, population 343. They had finished early that day, so the fact that some light still hung in the sky was unusual. But Tracy’s day was far from over. In addition to running the combine that is the centerpiece of their operation and preparing meals for her and Jim, Tracy has become...

A STUDENT ARRIVES LATE to school each morning, downtrodden and listless. A girl can't concentrate in class. Teachers deal with a boy's daily emotional outbursts. A pediatrician is puzzled by a young patient's dwindling appetite. Another child is tormented by anxiety and nightmares. The common denominator for all these kids could be trauma. Poverty, violence, natural disasters or insecure housing may affect a child's mental health. Growing evidence highlights the effects of toxic stress and...

State leaders in education, criminal justice and health came together Tuesday to begin to confront an alarming, new statistic: Oklahoma’s youngest, most vulnerable children suffer more trauma than those in any other state in the nation. A summit titled, “It Starts Here: Trauma-Informed Instruction,” brought thousands of educators from across the state to hear from national experts on childhood trauma and what brain science reveals about what teachers can do to help students both learn more...

Oct 3, 2018, 11:00 AM, Posted by Martha Davis Collaborative approaches can help ensure kids grow up with a solid foundation of safety and with a support system for those who are affected by violence. As the executive director of Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility in the late 1990s, I worked closely with the local police department, the Women’s Law Project , and the district attorney. At the time, these forward-thinking professionals were frustrated. They were arresting the...