[News release] Are temper, anxiety, homework trouble medical issues? Many parents don’t realize it

From the 18 May 2015 University of Michigan news release

Just half of parents of school-aged children would discuss anxiety or temper tantrums that seemed worse than peers

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Parents often bring their school-aged children to check-ups or sick visits armed with questions. What should he put on that rash? What about her cough that won’t go away?

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But when children’s temper tantrums or mood swings are beyond the norm, or they are overwhelmed by homework organization, do parents speak up?

Today’s University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health finds that many parents of children age 5-17 wouldn’t discuss behavioral or emotional issues that could be signs of potential health problems with their doctors. While more than 60 percent of parents definitely would talk to the doctor if their child was extremely sad for more than a month, only half would discuss temper tantrums that seemed worse than peers or if their child seemed more worried or anxious than normal. Just 37 percent would tell the doctor if their child had trouble organizing homework.

The most common reason for not sharing these details with their children’s doctors? Nearly half of parents believed that these simply were not medical problems. Another 40 percent of parents say they would rather handle it themselves and about 30 percent would rather speak to someone other than a doctor.

“Behavioral health and emotional health are closely tied to a child’s physical health, well-being and development, but our findings suggest that we are often missing the boat in catching issues early,” says Sarah J. Clark, M.P.H., associate director of the National Poll on Children’s Health and associate research scientist in the University of Michigan Department of Pediatrics.

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Bad boys: Research predicts whether boys will grow out of it — or not

From the University of Michigan press release at EurkAlert 

Contact: Diane Swanbrow
swanbrow@umich.edu
734-647-9069
University of Michigan

Bad boys: Research predicts whether boys will grow out of it — or not

ANN ARBOR — Using the hi-tech tools of a new field called neurogenetics and a few simple questions for parents, a University of Michigan researcher is beginning to understand which boys are simply being boys and which may be headed for trouble.

“When young children lie or cheat or steal, parents naturally wonder if they’ll grow out of it,” says Luke Hyde, a U-M psychologist who is studying the development and treatment of antisocial behavior.

Hyde, a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and assistant professor of psychology, is speaking at ISR on November 11 on how genes, experience and the brain work together to heighten or reduce the risks that normal childhood transgressions will develop into full-blown conduct disorders in adolescence and early adulthood. His talk is part of the ISR Research Center for Group Dynamics seminar series on violence and aggression, and is free and open to the public.

“The lifetime prevalence of conduct disorder is around 10 percent, and even higher in males and low-income populations,” says Hyde. “The total cost to society is enormous, since these behaviors are often chronic, lasting through adulthood.”

With colleagues at U-M, Duke University, the University of Pittsburgh, and other institutions, Hyde has been exploring the role of the environment and biology as they interact over time to shape behavior. In particular, he is using the techniques of a new field called neurogenetics, which combines genetics, neuroscience and psychology, to learn how genes and neural processes interact with harsh environments, including dangerous neighborhoods and harsh parents, and with a child’s own levels of empathy and personality traits, to increase the risk of antisocial behavior.

In one recent study, for example, Hyde and colleagues studied subjects with over-reactive amygdala responses . The amygdala is an almond-shaped part of the brain’s primitive limbic system involved in processing fear and other visceral emotions. It has been associated with impulsive, aggressive behavior, as well as anxiety disorders and depression.

“Previous research suggests that the amygdala becomes over-reactive probably as a result of both genetics and experience,” says Hyde. “And once the amygdala is over-reactive, people tend to behave in an anxious, over-reactive way to things they see as a potential threat.

“Our study found that this tendency is moderated by a person’s environment, including the social support they get. If they’re not getting support from family, friends, neighbors, or professionals, then the link between the amygdala and anxious behavior is much stronger.”

In another study, Hyde and colleagues showed that kids who are impulsive are only at higher risk of engaging in antisocial behavior if they live in dangerous neighborhoods.

He also identified specific items within childhood behavior checklists that can be used as early as the age of three to identify kids who will likely have worse trajectories for anti-social behavior compared to other children who have similar behavior problems, such as throwing tantrums.

These items assess observable behaviors that include whether the child is cruel to animals, doesn’t seem to feel guilty after misbehaving, is sneaky, lies, is selfish or won’t share, and won’t change his or her behavior as a result of punishment.

“The results of this test aren’t really meaningful until age three or three-and-a-half,” says Hyde. “Before that, many of these behaviors are fairly common, and don’t predict anything. But after age three, if children are still behaving in these ways, their behavior is more likely to escalate in the following years rather than improve.”

There is good news, though. Kids who scored high on this test benefitted just as much as other kids from interventions, according to Hyde. These interventions, often called parent management training, focus on giving parents better skills to manage child behavior problems, including training parents to spend more positive time with their kids, use time-outs instead of physical punishments, and reward good behavior by giving out stickers.

“Parents need to know that intervention works, especially if it’s done early,” says Hyde. “They need to go for help if they see signs of trouble. Clinical psychologists, among other professionals, have empirically supported treatments that are quite effective for children, especially in this age period.”

 

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Funding for this research was provided by The National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is the world’s largest academic social science survey and research organization, and a world leader in developing and applying social science methodology, and educating researchers and students from around the world. For more information, visit the ISR Web site at http://home.isr.umich.edu

 

Related articles

• Early Violent Behavior Increases Chance of Post-Diagnosis Violence (namisouthbay.com)
• Bad boys: Research predicts whether boys will grow out of it – or not (ns.umich.edu)
• Bad boys: Research predicts whether boys will grow out of it — or not (eurekalert.org)
• Callous-Unemotional Traits in Children (psychologicalscience.org)
• Testosterone can promote prosocial behavior in the absence of competition (medicalnewstoday.com)
• Testosterone Promotes Reciprocity in the Absence of Competition (psychologicalscience.org)
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[Press release] Richer countries have safer roads

This brought back memories of a road accident in Liberia back in 1980. It was late at night in a rural area.  Three of us (all sober!) were returning home after a Christmas get-together.  The main highway (a dirt road, barely two lanes) was unlit, as all rural roads are, even if they are main highways.  The driver swerved to avoid an accident, an oncoming car was straddling the middle of the road (not uncommon).  Our Chevy truck rolled over at least twice down a steep embankment. I was nearest to the door on the passenger side. My leg went out the open window. The truck landed on its side, and my leg was pinned underneath the truck.

A bus stopped. Several passengers came down the embankment. By that time Ann (a fellow Peace Corps volunteer) who was in the middle, and the driver (a Malaysian ex-pat who was managing a nearby farm) had got out the truck.  They raised the truck, and I pulled my numb leg out out. Miraculously my leg was not broken. (Could it be the gravel absorbed the shock?)
I did have some nasty gashes on the inside of my right thigh, and it was bleeding some.  The window had only been partially rolled down.  So the glass had shattered and ripped some of my flesh.

Somehow I got up the embankment with help.  We went into the bus, which did a U-turn and took us to the hospital, about 10 miles away.  Found out later, this was the second time the bus had stopped to pick up an accident victim and transfer them to a hospital. No ambulances in the country that I know of.  [Just realized, we never gave the bus driver any money to cover his expenses, or properly thanked anyone, some of the passengers probably had two hours tacked on to their travel time.]

Anyways, I got stitched up (about 34 in the leg, another 8 or so around my right elbow). Thankfully no complications. Although when I do go hiking, I have to use a walking stick when going downhill.  Word traveled fast about the accident in the Peace Corps community. Several weeks later I got a letter from the Peace Corps nurse (at HQ- 120 miles away) to get down to her office.  Didn’t want to go, I was healing fine,  and it meant a 5 hour taxi ride over bumpy dirt roads, but went anyway where I got chewed out royally.  Well, I got X-rayed. Confirmed nothing was broken, and the other tests also confirmed what I knew – that I was OK.  The nice thing- Peace Corps paid for my travel and medical expenses when I went down to HQ.

From the 29 October 2013 Michigan News press release

ANN ARBOR—Wealthier nations, whose residents own a majority of the world’s vehicles, have the lowest roadway fatality rates, say University of Michigan researchers.

In a new study on road safety in 170 countries, Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle of the U-M Transportation Research Institute found that the average fatality rate per million vehicles is 313 in high-income countries, 2,165 in middle-income countries and 6,040 in low-income countries.

Further, the average percentage of pedestrian deaths out of all roadway fatalities is lower in high-income nations (21 percent) compared with middle-income (31 percent) and low-income (35 percent) countries.

Using data from the World Health Organization on countries with populations of at least 100,000, Sivak and Schoettle examined differences in road safety based on gross national income per person: high (more than $12,275), middle ($1,006 to $12,275) and low (less than $1,006).

“The goal was to identify relevant commonalities that may assist in the creation of road-safety policies common to countries at a similar level of development,” Sivak said.

The researchers also found income-level effects for 31 aspects related to institutional framework, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users and post-crash care.

According to the results, low-income countries are less likely to have national road-safety strategies; standard vehicle regulations; laws on the installation of safety belts, airbags and electronic stability controls; laws on the use of safety belts, child restraints, motorcycle helmets and mobile phones; strict driver penalty systems; effective drunk driving enforcement measures; universal emergency access phone numbers; and policies to promote walking, cycling and public transport.

Interestingly, maximum speed limits on rural roads and near schools tend to be lower in low-income countries, but the effectiveness of speed-limit enforcement is higher in high-income countries.

Related Links:

• Michael Sivak: www.umtri.umich.edu/who-we-are/staff-directory/michael-sivak
• Brandon Schoettle: www.umtri.umich.edu/who-we-are/staff-directory/brandon-schoettle
• Study: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/100256

Related articles

• UK’s riskiest roads: A537 revealed as most dangerous (metro.co.uk)
• How National Income Predicts Traffic Safety (theatlanticcities.com)
• Road deaths fall to historic low (theage.com.au)
• Global Burden of Injuries (globalemergencyhealth.wordpress.com)
• Walk this way: pedestrian road safety must be stepped up worldwide (theguardian.com)
• Cost of not wearing seat belts – Georgia (slideshare.net)