Monitor - JulyAugust 2014

Brief IN

n Children often misbehave again within 10 minutes of spanking, finds a study led by scientists at Southern Methodist University. The research relied on real-time audio recordings that captured parent and child interactions in 33 families over four to six evenings.

The recordings captured 41 instances of corporal punishment, mainly during everyday activities such as fixing supper and bathing children. In 90 percent of the incidents, the spanking was triggered by noncompliance with parents’ rules, such as eating improperly, getting out of a chair or going outside without permission. On average, less than 30 seconds elapsed from the time parents initiated nonviolent discipline to when they used corporal punishment. In 30 of the 41 incidents, the children misbehaved again within 10 minutes of being hit (Journal of Family Psychology, online April 14).

n Being depressed and angry as a
teen may undermine future romantic
relationships, according to a study
conducted by scientists at the University
of Alberta in Canada. The researchers
followed 341 people for 25 years,
surveying them about their transitions
to adulthood from age 18 to 25, their
perceived stress levels at age 32 and the
quality of their intimate relationships
at age 43. The researchers found that
negative emotions that the participants
experienced as young adults appeared
to have adversely affected their intimate
relationships well into middle age. They
also found that higher perceived life
stress at age 32 was associated with less
adaptive interactions and increased
relationship problems at age 43 (Journal
of Family Psychology, April).
n Word choice appears to influence
how much preschoolers help with
household tasks, finds research led by
a University of California, San Diego,
psychologist. In the study, scientists
broke 150 3- to 6-year-olds into two
groups: one in which the researchers
used the verb “help” when talking about
doing chores with adults, and the other
in which they used the noun “helper”
when describing the same tasks. The
children were then allowed to play with
toys and given four opportunities to
help the experimenter pick up a mess or
put away toys. Children who heard the
noun “helper” pitched in significantly
more than children who heard the
verb “help” (Child Development, online
April 29).
n SSRI use during pregnancy is linked
to autism and developmental delays in
boys, according to research conducted at
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health. Scientists analyzed data
from nearly 1,000 mother-child pairs
and found that prenatal exposure to
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
(SSRIs) was nearly three times as likely
in boys with autism spectrum disorder,
with the greatest risk when exposure
took place during the mother’s first
Using SSRIs during pregnancy is linked to developmental delays in boys.
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