March 16, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
Time spent outside and nature-based activities could counteract some of the negative mental health impacts of COVID-19 on adolescents.
Researchers from North Carolina State University found that outdoor based activities helped teens cope with major stressors, and restricting such opportunities could have negative mental health implications.
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February 28, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
Mindfulness, laughter and even robotic dogs may be some of the methods to help people cope with isolation and loneliness due to social distancing during COVID-19.
Researchers from Cambridge’s School of Medicine undertook a review examining existing evidence on the different approach to curbing loneliness and isolation, and found there are options to suit everyone.
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February 26, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
Teenagers who bully may be using aggression as a technique to climb the social ladder.
Research from UC Davis published recently in the American Journal of Sociology found that teens who harass, bully or victimize their peers don’t always do this due to an unhealthy home environment or due to psychological problems, but out of a desire to strategically move up in a school’s social hierarchy.
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February 25, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
Psychologists in the UK have developed the first ever mind reading questionnaire designed to assess how well people understand what others are truly thinking.
The researchers from the University of Bath, Cardiff and London developed the new questionnaire and in doing so determined that women are much better at understanding what others may be thinking.
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February 18, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
Life in a pandemic for married couples can lead to feelings of sadness and anger.
Many couples across the country are co-existing at home for extended periods due to COVID-19.
Now, researchers have found the more a person feels their spouse disrupts their daily lives, the more they view their relationship as turbulent.
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January 31, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
Those who are religious use the same coping strategies when facing a crisis as those recommended by psychologists.
A study in The Journal of Religion and Health found that religious people use emotion-regulation strategies (like looking at hardships in a positive way). Psychologists refer to this as cognitive reappraisal.
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January 18, 2021
by Elizabeth Pratt
A year ago, trying to get patients at Michigan Medicine to agree to telehealth for their mental health appointments was a challenge.
The academic medical centre associated with the University of Michigan had only 26 video appointments in a six month period compared with 30 thousand in person visits.
COVID-19 changed all that.
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December 27, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
Teenagers who are unhappy with how they look have a significantly heightened risk of depression by adulthood.
In a study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, researchers found the increased risk of depression ranged from 50 per cent to 285 per cent, with boys being more likely to experience severe depression than their female peers.
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December 22, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
What it means to be happy varies depending on where you live.
Researchers from the University of California Riverside found that different questions need to be asked to gauge happiness in Asian and Western countries.
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December 19, 2020
by Elizabeth Pratt
Having access to nature during COVID-19 lockdowns is important for mental health.
Researchers in Europe found that those living in European countries with strict COVID-19 lockdown policies were more likely to have symptoms of anxiety and depression.
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