For ages, policy makers have been pushing earlier education for children. In many previous studies, these have been found to be very helpful for families that are disadvantaged, but yet the research on them has been short-lived since states of taken on the role of overseeing these programs. Of course, if a program can help a family or child, it should be available, but what if it doesn't? Joining me today is Dr. Kelley Durkin whose career focuses on children's education and how we can help children's learning. Working in the State of Tennessee, she is able to assess their state-wide pre-K program to see how these children fare in the long-term, and most recently published the findings of her most recent analysis. With a focus on what is happening, but also what might be done in the future, her insights are much-needed for all who care about the education of children.

Dr. Kelley Durkin: https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/bio/kelley-durkin

Articles of Interest:

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-18712-001

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885200618300279

https://my.vanderbilt.edu/tnprekevaluation/files/2021/09/SREE-TVPK-presentation-2021.pdf

Orchid or dandelion? Highly sensitive or relatively robust? These are some of the ways that we have conceptualized the concept of how sensitive a child is to the environment in which they are raised. Through a combination of nature and nurture, some of our kids are just that much more sensitive. But are they sensitive their whole lives? What genetics make this happen? What environments are good or bad? None of it is quite as simple as it may sound which is why I'm so excited to have one of the pioneers in this field joining me to talk about his decades of work on this sensitivity to the environment, or differential susceptibility as he has called it. Dr. Jay Belsky is one of the first to have identified this differential susceptibility and has helped lead all of us - parents, educators, and researchers alike - towards a better understanding of how nuanced this issue is. And why so much more is still left to be done.

Dr. Jay Belsky: https://humandevelopment.ucdavis.edu/people/jay-belsky

Articles of Interest:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/beyond-orchids-and-dandelions-susceptibility-to-environmental-influences-is-not-bimodal/4ADAF88C7F63FF2C2CDE99880943C3B7

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-29903-001

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-022-01574-9

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/differential-susceptibility-20-are-the-same-children-affected-by-different-experiences-and-exposures/277792E67173ED12678A0180A5FD6892

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/development-and-psychopathology/article/abs/distinguishing-differential-susceptibility-diathesisstress-and-vantage-sensitivity-beyond-the-single-gene-and-environment-model/C2CFEBE39AFEA4C2FC29BA3F37895A41

'The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life': https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674983458

I'll be honest that I don't know of a single pregnancy that didn't involve some level of stress. I think the entire act of carrying a baby and everything that goes along with it is stressful in its own right. But sometimes there are stressors that are even greater. Sometimes it's chronic stress from work or life events, or sometimes it's greater stress from natural disasters or even war. Many of us have heard about how bad prenatal stress is for babies, but how much is too much? What are these effects and how are we able to quantify what is happening for babies in the womb? Joining me this week is Dr. Jerold Meyer who has revolutionized the way in which we assess and think about prenatal stress and the effects on our children. He brings the nuance that is needed to this discussion and can help us see where we may need to be looking in the future.

Dr. Jerold Meyer: https://www.umass.edu/cns/directory/jerrold-s-meyer

Relevant Articles:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dev.22021

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306453011001727

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306453017315469

https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/153/9/4120/2423884?login=true

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1115&context=rudd_conf

Postpartum depression is associated with a host of negative outcomes for mothers and babies alike, yet we still have very little understanding of the etiology behind it and what may exacerbate or mitigate it. Research on postpartum depression is difficult, however, because we can't randomly assign people and try to weed out the various components that may affect mental health outcomes. It's a difficult task. But what if a standard way of looking at parenting and outcomes using animal models might be able to inadvertently inform on postpartum depression? Joining me this week is Dr. Annakarina Mundorf who has postulated that a common paradigm - maternal separation - may be able to help us better understand postpartum depression and provide insights into how we can help families. By looking at behavioural, neurological, and hormonal changes associated with maternal separation, Dr. Mundorf highlights what this can say about what mothers and babies need at this critical time.

Dr. Annakarina Mundorf: https://www.medicalschool-hamburg.de/hochschule/unser-team/team-fakultaet-medizin-universitaet/wissenschaftliche-mitarbeiter/annakarina-mundorf/

Paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/dev.22219

Other papers of interest:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-80087-6

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-14792-1_9

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022395618300037

One of the more difficult topics for many families these days has to do with media use. We are a tech-heavy society and that extends downwards to our kids. It's not uncommon to go out and see parents handing over screens to their kids to get through a dinner, a car ride, a boring appointment, and so on. At home kids spend hours in front of screens for school, to be social, to play games, and more. When parents try to understand the effects of this screen time, they are often met with tons of different information. Some makes it out that we are damaging our children for life. Others say it's just the way of the future. So which is it? Joining me this week is Dr. Meghan Owenz, researcher and founder of Screen-Free Parenting. She sifts through the research so you can get a better idea of the nuances in the findings, but also helps highlight ways families can move away from the dependence so many of us - myself included - have on our technology. As is so often the case, the reality is far more interesting that what we have been fed in the mainstream.

Dr. Meghan Owenz: https://berks.psu.edu/person/owenz-meghan

Screen-Free Parenting: https://www.screenfreeparenting.com/

Spoiled Right: https://stores.praeclaruspress.com/spoiled-right-delaying-screens-and-giving-children-what-they-really-need-by-meghan-owenz-1/

When you think about your child's sleep, what are the words that often come to mind? I know in Western cultures, we often hear "independence", "self-soothing", "needy", "manipulative" and so on. The way in which we speak about something has a profound impact on how we conceptualize and approach it. In the realm of sleep, the language of independence and manipulation has led to the flourishing of sleep training and perceived sleep problems for many families. But what if we had culturally-approved and accepted language that focused on supporting our children during sleep? What difference could that make? The word Uspavani embraces just that. Unlike in our Western world, in the Czech Republic, they do have language that focuses on embracing the support our kids need. Joining me today is Mrs. Lenka Tinkova, a Czech sleep expert and graduate student who is exploring the very issue of how language and concepts like Uspavani support families in helping their children. If you've ever felt alone in your sleep journey or like you're doing something wrong by helping your child, it may be time to learn about and embrace Uspavani in your family.

Mrs. Lenka Tinkova: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/lenka-m-tinkova/

Prosim Spinkej (Czech sleep site): https://ProsimSpinkej.cz

Mrs. Tinkova's books: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/18740980.Lenka_Medvecov_Tinkov_

Article on Language and Sleep: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352721821002254

In the realm of parenting - especially attachment parenting - the focus has been on mothers. In fact, if you go to any attachment parenting group - online or not - you are far more likely to come across a group of moms talking about their beliefs, experiences, struggles, and so forth. But it's not just mothers who experience and parent with an attachment-related set of beliefs. Fathers and partners also experience attachment parenting and can have a profound impact on their child's development and their own relationship with their child, but we know incredibly little about this. Today I am thrilled to have Dr. Levita D'Souza join me to discuss her research looking at the experiences of fathers who are attachment parents themselves. How do they experience it? What are their struggles in an unsupportive society? What led them to this way of parenting? These are the kinds of questions she is exploring in this new and much-needed research. For all the dads out there and those who are hoping their partners might get on board, this research is for you.

Dr. Levita D'Souza: https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/levita-dsouza

Interesting Personal Story from an Attachment Father: https://attachmentparenting.co.uk/manifesto-its-different-for-dads/

As we kick off Season 2 of the podcast, we're going to dive into the research on an area that often brings fear to new parents - rightfully - that of SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Most people will be aware of best sleep practices promoted by professionals - put your baby to sleep on their back, no extra items in the sleeping area, and no matter what you do, never sleep with your baby. But how well do these recommendations stand up to the actual research? What do we really know versus what we're being told? Joining me (again) is one of my favourite people and one who is out there changing the way we think about our advice for SIDS through research and advocacy - Dr. Helen Ball. Through her work at Durham University's Parent-Infant Sleep Centre, she has been helping professionals and families better understand the risks around SIDS and how we can best support families with evidence-based information. If you think you know the evidence behind sleep recommendations, you may need to think again.

Dr. Helen Ball: https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/h-l-ball/

Parent-Infant Sleep Centre: https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/durham-infancy-sleep-centre/

BASIS: https://www.basisonline.org.uk/

SIDS and Infant Sleep Webinars for Professionals (or Parents): https://www.basisonline.org.uk/hcp-infant-sleep-webinars/

**March 28 is a virtual (or in-person) conference through the Parent-Infant Sleep Centre. Speakers include Dr. James McKenna and Kristin Tully!!!

Get more information and register (I have!) here: https://www.dur.ac.uk/conference.booking/details/?id=1736

I would first like to welcome you to the final episode of this season. I am thankful to all of you who listen and give me hope that there are still those people out there who respect and love science as much as I do and who find the work of researchers who rarely get to be in the spotlight as fascinating as I do. This final episode – also the last in the fathering series, but I promise there will be more focus on fathers going forward – tackles the issues of co-parenting, the role of biological paternity, dads as “babysitters”, and more through research on a very unique population - Mountain Gorillas. I am joined by Dr. Stacy Rosenbaum, whose name you may remember if you listened to my interview with Dr. Lee Gettler, as she discusses her work and how we can think about this work as we tackle the human questions and issues surrounding fathering and parenting in general. Plus, there’s a whole story on sharks too! Thank you all again for listening and enjoy your final episode of the season.

Dr. Stacy Rosenbaum: https://lsa.umich.edu/anthro/people/faculty/biological-faculty/rosenbas.html

Shark Story: https://people.com/celebrity/video-great-white-shark-rescue-cape-cod/

Relevant articles:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513821000465

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-33380-4

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102218-011216

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=4497059527531484752&hl=en&oi=scholarr

When we look at research, especially in the realm of development, we tend to focus on things like resilience, struggles families face, and so on. This is particularly true when we look at the research on parenting in families of colour - the focus starts with what's wrong and how we can fix it. It was under this guise that I approached Dr. Erika Bocknek as she had done research on resilience in Black Fathers that was - I thought - interesting. What we talked about ended up being quite different with a much larger focus on the inherent racism that exists in the research questions and assumptions themselves, especially when we look at Black Fathers. I hope that you will all find this as eye-opening and important a conversation as I did because we need to recognize these problems before we can start to fix them.

Dr. Erika Bocknek: https://wayne.edu/people/an5012

Research:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/imhj.21950

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dev.22168

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-51027-5_7

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dev.21836