Article: Have American Parents Got It All Backwards?

Gross-Loh, D. (2013).Huffington Post.

Article: Please Don't Help My Kids

Bassford Baker, K. (2013). Alameda Patch.

Dear Other Parents At The Park:

Please do not lift my daughters to the top of the ladder, especially after you've just heard me tell them I wasn't going to do it for them and encourage them to try it themselves.

I am not sitting here, 15 whole feet away from my kids, because I am too lazy to get up. I am sitting here because I didn't bring them to the park so they could learn how to manipulate others into doing the hard work for them. I brought them here so they could learn to do it themselves.

It is not my job — and it is certainly not yours — to prevent my children from feeling frustration, fear, or discomfort. If I do, I have robbed them of the opportunity to learn that those things are not the end of the world, and can be overcome or used to their advantage.

I don't want my daughters to learn that they can't overcome obstacles without help. I don't want them to learn that they can reach great heights without effort. I don't want them to learn that they are entitled to the reward without having to push through whatever it is that's holding them back and *earn* it.

Article: Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD

French children don't need medications to control their behavior.

Wedge, M. (2012). Psychology Today.

In the United States, at least 9% of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and are taking pharmaceutical medications. In France, the percentage of kids diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than .5%. How come the epidemic of ADHD—which has become firmly established in the United States—has almost completely passed over children in France?

Is ADHD a biological-neurological disorder? Surprisingly, the answer to this question depends on whether you live in France or in the United States. In the United States, child psychiatrists consider ADHD to be a biological disorder with biological causes. The preferred treatment is also biological--psycho stimulant medications such as Ritalin and Adderall.

French child psychiatrists, on the other hand, view ADHD as a medical condition that has psycho-social and situational causes. Instead of treating children's focusing and behavioral problems withdrugs, French doctors prefer to look for the underlying issue that is causing the child distress—not in the child's brain but in the child's social context. They then choose to treat the underlying social context problem with psychotherapy or family counseling. This is a very different way of seeing things from the American tendency to attribute all symptoms to a biological dysfunction such as a chemical imbalance in the child's brain.

Article: Society Tells Men That Friendship Is Girly. Men Respond by Not Having Friends

Waldman, K. (2013). Slate.

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Video: 'Intimate partner violence' not getting enough doctors' attention, new study reveals

CTV News, (2013).

A new study suggests more of the women who go to hospital with broken bones have been the victims of domestic violence than previously thought, yet few are being asked whether they’re being abused.

The study comes from researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., who looked at close to 3,000 women who went to 12 fracture clinics in five countries: Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Denmark, and India.

All the women involved in the study agreed to anonymously answer questionnaires about abuse.

One in three of the women revealed they had experienced physical abuse at the hands of their partners at some point during their lives. One in 6 admitted they had been assaulted within the past 12 months.

What’s more, one in 50 disclosed they had arrived at the clinic as a direct result of domestic abuse.

The researchers also found that of those with the worst broken bones and dislocated joints, two-thirds were linked to domestic violence.

“What surprised us the most is the severity of the physical violence was much higher than we expected,” says Dr. Mohit Bhandari, an orthopaedic surgeon at Hamilton Health Sciences Centre and one of the study’s researchers.

The researchers were also struck by the fact that only a handful of the women said a health-care professional had ever asked them whether they were being abused.

Violence against women worldwide is 'epidemic'

BBC News (2013).

More than one in three women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence, a report by the World Health Organization and other groups says.

It says 38% of all women murdered were killed by their partners, and such violence is a major contributor to depression and other health problems.

WHO head Margaret Chan said violence against women was "a global health problem of epidemic proportions".

The study also calls for toleration of such attacks worldwide to be halted.

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