parent child communication

The Link Between LGBT Youth, Bullying, and Suicide

In 1989, when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a public report stating that up to a third of all teen suicides were committed by gay youth, there was a flurry of media attention and speculation surrounding the rising rates of teen suicide committed by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered youth. It… Read more »

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Preventing Gang Violence: Why Kids Become Violent

Read an exclusive interview with Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention group in the country. What Homeboy Industries Does: My name is Greg Boyle, I’m the Executive Director and Founder of Homeboy Industries, located in Los Angeles, the largest gang intervention program in the country. We serve about 12,000 people… Read more »

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Dr. Pat Love on Parenting

Dr. Pat Love on what it is to parent, and the mistaken conceptions of parenting that are endemic to our culture: There’s a lot of talk today about parents who hover, these helicopter parents.  And there’s just one line that I like to say and that is:  When you do something for someone else, let’s… Read more »

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The Over-Parenting Syndrome

Recently several best-selling books as well as a number of child development experts have focused their attention on the growing trend of “helicopter parenting” and have described its negative effects on children and adolescents. These writers point out how parents’ tendencies to hover and overprotect their kids are destroying children’s initiative and making them feel… Read more »

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A Parent’s Shorthand Guide to the College Transition

High school graduation is a culmination of emotions, a push-and-pull of opposing feelings on the human psyche. There’s a mixture of anxiety and excitement, happiness and sadness, regret and expectation, and relief and concern. And this doesn’t just apply to the grad either; parents are equally if not oftentimes more immersed in this emotional tug-of-war…. Read more »

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Taking Advantage of Summertime to Get to Know Your Child

Summer’s finally here, and while that may not mean a lot to the majority of the working population, children everywhere are rejoicing in the newfound (however temporary) freedom of their three-month vacation from school, homework, and all things academic. While you probably aren’t afforded the same release from work, as a parent, summer is the… Read more »

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Remember the Kids: Easing the Adjustment of Divorce for Children

In 1967, in order to study the relationship between stress and physical health, researchers Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe examined medical records of more than 5,000 patients. In order to determine whether stressful life events could cause illness, they developed a stress scale or “social readjustment scale” which assigned numerical scores of 1-100 to stressful… Read more »

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"Tiger Mother" Techniques Have the Right Intention but Wrong Tactics

Amy Chua, a professor of law at Yale University, recently published a book describing her strict child-rearing techniques and experiences titled Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Penguin Press, 2011). Chua, a mother of two daughters, ascribes to a traditional Chinese parenting style that demands nothing short of perfection from her children: allowing nothing below… Read more »

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Our Children’s Integrity

Be careful that your words match your deeds, your children are watching…and listening!  As parents we attempt to teach our children the building blocks for personal integrity; the difference between right and wrong, thoughtful and thoughtless and myriad other nuances of this optimal human value….But we often fail to recognize the utter esteem in which… Read more »

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Your Child and Self-Control: Job or Jail?

Whether your child grows up to lead a productive, satisfying life — or instead grows up to lead a life of crime — a new study shows that self-control is a determining factor.  An added benefit for those who have learned this form of personal power at an early age?  Fewer health problems and fewer… Read more »

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