Relationships

Details: Written by: Jay L. Zagorsky, The Ohio State University

Why Are Fewer People Getting Married? June kicks off the U.S. wedding season. Whether you love nuptials or hate them, an astounding trend is occurring: fewer couples are tying the knot.

Details: Written by: Victoria Indivero-Penn State

When New Moms Are Stressed, Sex Life Takes A Hit After having their first baby, new parents report being only somewhat satisfied with their sex lives. The stress levels of moms—but not dads—may be a reason why.

Details: Written by: Joe O'Shea, Florida State University and Nina Hoe, Temple University

College can increase psychological distress. Jeremy Wilburn, CC BY-NC-ND Malia Obama recently announced that she will take a gap year before attending Harvard University. Historically, American high school graduates have been less likely to take a gap year as compared to their European and Australian counterparts.

Details: Written by: Supriya Singh, RMIT University

Money Plays A Key Role In Family Violence Across Cultures Most women who face economic abuse do not see it as family violence. But the Victorian Royal Commission on Family Violence connected the two.

Details: Written by: Kathleen Bogart, Oregon State University

Kathleen Bogart’s Disability and Social Interaction Lab presenting research about Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day. Author provided Facial expressions are important parts of how we communicate and how we develop impressions of the people around us. In “The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals,” Charles Darwin proposed that facial expressions evolved to quickly communicate emotional states important to social survival.

Details: Written by: Brendan Zietsch, The University of Queensland

What’s inside also counts. kira cronin/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND We know a lot about why people choose different brands of dishwashing detergent, because companies spend billions of dollars investigating who buys what. But when it comes to the processes behind perhaps our most significant life choice – choosing a romantic partner – science knows surprisingly little.

Details: Written by: Zoe Strimpel, University of Sussex

Most Turn Their Nose Up When Love Is Sold To Them Matchmaking and dating services used to advertise in small rectangles on tube carriages, next to the vitamin drinks and food delivery services, and in smaller rectangles still on the classified pages of newspapers and magazines.

Details: Written by: Marcus Harrison Green, YES! Magazine

baby boxes 5 25

Five reasons baby boxes are more than cutesy cardboard containers, from offering a safe place to sleep to giving an equal start in life.

Details: Written by: Penny Bishop, University of Vermont

What Happens When Middle Schoolers Take To Twitter? Fully 92 percent of American teenagers go online daily. More than half of them do so several times a day and a quarter are online “almost constantly.”

Details: Written by: Debra Silverman

The Good News and The Bad News I am writing about you. You; wonderfully flawed, perfectly nutty, beautiful, broken-hearted, powerful you. Would you like to impact the planet and be a part of a positive change? Would you like to feel more at peace with yourself and be a happier human being?

Details: Written by: Joanne Orlando, Western Sydney University

Is Two Hours Of Screen Time Guideline For Kids Obsolete? Official guidelines say kids aged five to 18 years should spend no more than two hours a day using screens, and children under two years should not use a screen at all. But in a world dominated by tablets and mobile phones, these limits are proving to be virtually impossible to uphold.

Details: Written by: Gayle Brewer, University of Central Lancashire

What Does Science Says About Love We’ve all felt it at some time in our lives. Poets write about it, singers sing about it – and a whole industry has grown up around finding it, expressing it and maintaining it. But what is love? Where does it reside? What triggers it? And what’s really going on in our minds and bodies when we fall “head over heels”?

Details: Written by: Viren Swami, Anglia Ruskin University

Do Women Really Go For Bad Boys? “Nice guys finish last” is one of the most widely believed maxims of dating. Fleshed out, the idea goes something like this: heterosexual women might say they want nice characteristics in a partner, but in reality what they want is the challenge that comes with dating a “bad boy”.

Details: Written by: Jeff Sossamon, University of Missouri

Girls Still Avoid Math, Even If Mom Is A Scientist "Analysis revealed that girls' mathematics anxiety was not related to the level of their mothers' engagement in STEM careers, nor was it related to gender equality in the countries we studied," says David Geary.

Details: Written by: Jonathan Todres, Georgia State University

Why Bullying Needs More Efforts To Stop It The tragic consequences of bullying have become a regular part of the news cycle. In April, an eighth grade girl in Missouri and a sixth grade boy in Pennsylvania committed suicide. Bullying was an important factor, according to their families.

Details: Written by: Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, The Ohio State University

Worrying About Being A Perfect Mother Makes It Harder To Be A Good Parent Even armed with a Ph.D. in developmental psychology, I remember the frightening first moments after bringing my newborn daughter home from the hospital. I wasn’t sure what to do – and not at all confident that I was capable of being the parent she needed me to be.

Details: Written by: Denise-Marie Ordway, Journalist Resource

Do Abstinence Pledges Prevent Teen Pregnancy And Sexually Transmitted Diseases? In the United States, the teen pregnancy rate is higher than in any other western industrialized country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the same time, a growing number of American teens and young adults have been diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Details: Written by: David Orenstein, Brown University

I disagree with the hand-waving that people get, being told, ‘Yep, you are the one who wanted to be a mom or a dad. Better get used to it,'” says Katherine Sharkey. (Credit: John Mayer/Flickr) "The biological clock can get thrown off in these women because they are up so much in the middle of the night," says Katherine Sharkey.

Details: Written by: Peggy Albers, Georgia State University

Mother reads with children. Diana Ramsey, CC BY If you are a parent or a teacher, you most probably read stories to young children. Together, you laugh and point at the pictures. You engage them with a few simple questions. And they respond.

Details: Written by: Ana Aznar, University of Surrey; Bart Carlo Rienties, The Open University, and Garron Hillaire, The Open University

child learnin emotions 5 10 Emotions play a critical role in everyday life. The ability to express, regulate, and understand one’s own and others’ emotions – known as emotional competence – is linked to good social skills and to doing better at school.

Details: Written by: A'ndrea Elyse Messer, Penn State

Do Deep Voices Make Guys More Scary Than Sexy? "Masculine traits in humans are not the same as, say, in peacocks where the beautiful tail attracts a mate," says David Puts. "For example, beards make men more dominant looking, scarier, and seemingly more dangerous, but most women prefer clean-shaven men."