What makes a “good dad?” How has the pandemic impacted fatherhood? And what pandemic-driven changes should we strive to keep moving forward?

In this episode, our hosts, Dr. Amanda Zelechoski and Dr. Lindsay Malloy, are joined by Dr. Michael Lamb, emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, renowned developmental psychologist, and one of the world’s leading experts in fatherhood. 

They discuss the trust and reliability children need from their parents, what we can learn from other cultures about fatherhood, and why your child needs you to keep being your authentic self.

In this episode about fatherhood and attachment:

- What does “attachment” refer to in child psychology?

- What do we now know about fathers in regards to attachment?

- What makes a “good” dad? Are there universal qualities or characteristics?

- What about LGBTQ+ families where perhaps neither partner identifies as male or both partners identify as male?

- How has the pandemic changed the lives of fathers? Will any of these changes be long lasting?

- What sorts of policy changes would help families specifically in terms of fathers and fatherhood coming out of the pandemic?

About Our Guest Expert

Michael E Lamb is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He has long focused on the importance of child-parent relationships in diverse family and childcare contexts and on factors that enhance or diminish children’s capacities as witnesses, especially of abuse. That work has helped shape the law and practice in relation to post-divorce relationships between children and parents; fostering, adoption, and parenting by LGBTQ+ adults; developmentally appropriate forensic interview techniques; and cross-examination of young victims and witnesses. His research has earned multiple awards, including from the American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Research in Child Development, as well as honorary degrees from the Universities of Goteborg, East Anglia, Abertay, and Montreal. He currently edits the APA journal Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.

When parenting a teenager with mental illness, you’re not only supporting your child through the heightened emotions and social pressures of adolescents. You’re also faced with the challenge of helping your teenager identify the resources and support they need to manage their mental health.

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Witvoet has spent much of her life struggling with mental illness and now as a writer and mental health advocate, she is committed to sharing her coping skills and story with other young adults.

In this bonus episode, she shares three reminders to parents of teenagers who may be facing similar mental health challenges. Plus she performs an original spoken word poem.

So many of us have seen increased fear and anxiety in our children during this pandemic, and we’re worried about how our own fear and anxiety might impact our kids.

Clinical psychologists and experts in child and adolescent anxiety, Dr. Jill Ehrenreich-May and Dr. Donna Pincus, join us to discuss how we can help our children through fear and anxiety as relates to the pandemic and beyond. They share advice on identifying the signs of anxiety in children and when to seek professional help in treating anxiety in children.

In this episode about fear and anxiety in children:

- What does anxiety look like in kids, and how does it look different at different ages?

- What are some signs that your child has reached concerning levels of fear or anxiety?

- In many places, especially in the U.S., things are beginning to open up again. How do we go about talking to our kids about this in ways that will minimize their fear or anxiety?

- What do we know about the potential long-term impact of the pandemic on children’s development and mental health?

- How as a parent, can I know when my child needs additional help?

Parenting, mental health, and how to handle “jalapeño moments.”

Dr. Christina Grange returns to discuss the unique challenges parents are facing in the pandemic that impact their mental health. As a researcher and a clinician, Dr. Grange shares preliminary insights from her studies of mental health in non-traditional families, as well as advice on identifying and requesting the support you need from your village or a mental health professional.

In this episode about parental mental health:

- What is unique about the situation that parents are in during the pandemic and why is it important to focus on their mental health?

- What are the factors that are protective and maybe help buffer parents against the stress of this pandemic and what are the factors that may make it worse?

- How do we know when we need to find additional help with a mental health professional?

About Our Guest: Christina M. Grange, Ph.D.

Dr. Christina M. Grange is a clinical psychologist and owner of The Fern Center for Life (Atlanta, Georgia). She is also an associate professor of Psychology at Clayton State University.  Her clinical training focused on the well-being and optimal development of young people in the context of their families. Recent research and clinical work have evolved to focus on how to best support African American unmarried parents working to successfully co-parent their child or children. A recent writing related to that work is featured by the National Institute for Diversity. 

Dr. Grange received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), prior to receiving her PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University. She completed pre-doctoral training at the University of Illinois – Chicago and post-doctoral training at the University of Georgia’s Center for Family Research. These experiences combine to provide a unique perspective for how to use research and adapt related resources to better serve diverse family structures and promote the psychological wellness of communities.  

Content Warning: suicide, suicidal ideation. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - USA: 800-273-TALK (8255); The Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 1 833-456-4566

We’re returning to a live webinar we hosted on January 28, 2021 with guest experts Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman, Dr. Christopher Drapeau, and Laura Sanders Morris. The webinar was moderated by Charlotte Witvoet, a high school student from Indiana. With May being Mental Health Awareness month in the United States, it felt like a good time to revisit this conversation.

We appreciated hearing these experts distinguish between normal teen mood changes and more concerning signs of depression, including when it’s time to get help for your teen. Plus our teen moderator gave us a reality check about what teens actually think about the strategies discussed.

In this episode about teen mental health:

- How can parents know when their teen might have crossed a line from being depressed to potentially being suicidal? What should parents do if their child expresses suicidal ideation?

- What signs of depression or suicide should we be looking for in our teens? How do we know when to take their comments about suicide seriously?

- How do you engage with a teen daily when they’re avoiding you or spending all their time in their room?

- What do I do if my teen says they’re not hungry and won’t sit down with us for family meals?

- How do parents know when it’s pandemic boredom that their teen is experiencing versus something more serious like depression? What are some key signs that parents - or teachers - should be looking out for?

Additional resources can be found at https://www.pandemic-parent.org/resources/supporting-teen-mental-health-covid-19#resources

How we talk with children about past events matters. Whether the event was negative, emotional, or even mundane, how we approach these conversations influences the way children process and remember the event. 

Dr. Angela Evans and Dr. Zoe Klemfuss joined Dr. Lindsay Malloy to dig into the “why” and the “how.” Why is it important to talk with kids about the past? And how do we have these conversations? 

Together they share research and tips to help you have more engaging and productive conversations with the children in your life.

In this episode about “Talking with Kids”:

- Why is it important to talk to children about past events, including difficult events? What benefits are there to doing so?

- Should parents be worried that bringing up difficult events with children could traumatize them?

- “Boston Bomb Attack Triggered PTSD in Local Kids, Study Finds” interview with Dr. Jonathan Comer (NBC News)

- The preliminary findings from studies of parents talking with kids about COVID-19.

- Is there a right way to bring up a negative or traumatic event in conversation with kids?

- How can we encourage children and teens to talk about their emotions?

- How much is too much? To what extent should we share our own emotions with our child(ren)?

About Our Guests:

Angela D. Evans, Ph.D. is a developmental psychologist with a focus on social and cognitive development across the lifespan. Dr. Evans' program of research focuses on how to obtain the most honest, accurate, and detailed reports from children about their experiences and is the Co-Founder of the Canadian Child Interviewing Research Team. Dr. Evans has experience conducting forensic interviews with children in cases of suspected maltreatment and provides training to professionals on how to interview child witnesses.

J. Zoe Klemfuss, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine with appointments in the Center for Psychology and Law and in the Department of Language Science. She is a developmental psychologist with expertise in questioning children in legal contexts, parent-child conversations about children's experiences, as well as children's narratives and memory for past events more broadly. Much of her work has focused on best practices for talking to children about emotional and stressful experiences.

How do I help my children feel more secure when I don’t have the answers? In this second part of a two-part series on trauma-informed parenting, Dr. Amanda Zelechoski speaks with Dr. Julian Ford about why the pandemic has been so hard for parents, especially parents who are essential workers or work in healthcare, and what it means to be a trauma-informed parent.

Julian D. Ford, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. is a board certified clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Law at the University of Connecticut where he directs two Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network: the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice and the Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders. Dr. Ford is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters and is the author or editor of 10 books, including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, 2nd Edition; Treating Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach, 2nd Edition; Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Scientific Foundations and Therapeutic Models; and Critical Moments: Transforming Crises into Turning Points in Psychotherapy. Dr. Ford is the Principal Investigator for the national Developmental Trauma Disorder Field trial research study, and developed and has conducted randomized clinical trial and effectiveness studies with the Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET©) model for youths and adults with developmental trauma histories and complex PTSD.

What is trauma? How do I know if my child is traumatized by the pandemic? Dr. Amanda Zelechoski sits down with Dr. Jen Serico to discuss the concept of trauma, what it looks like when a child is traumatized, how that is different from general stress, and when your child might need additional support.

Jennifer M. Serico, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist specializing in child and adolescent trauma. Dr. Serico conducts independent research and provides evidence-based treatment, trauma-informed evaluations, and supervision at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Her research interests include evaluating the effectiveness of evidence-based practices in community settings to reduce trauma symptoms and identifying and addressing mediating factors such chronic stress and parent mental health.

Learn more about topics and resources mentioned in this episode:

Kennedy Krieger Institute - Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress

The Importance of Play for Kids During COVID-19 by Amanda Zelechoski (Zulily)

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

Do You Suffer From 'Revenge Bedtime Procrastination'? Here's How To Tell. by Stephanie Barnes (HuffPost)

Self-Care for Parents – A Complete COVID 19 Parenting Guide by Dr. Lindsay Malloy (Zulily)

Co-founders of Pandemic Parenting, Dr. Amanda Zelechoski and Dr. Lindsay Malloy, share some of the best research and advice they’ve held onto during the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss how their mindsets have changed to embrace “good enough” parenting and how we can acknowledge the loss of the past year and the growth that comes hand-in-hand with it.

Learn more about topics and resources mentioned in this episode:

Building Resilience: Webinar Recording & Resources with Dr. Bruce Perry (Pandemic Parenting)

What do our children need right now? with Dr. Bruce Perry (Pandemic Parenting)

Oprah and Dr. Bruce Perry at SXSW Edu

The Positives & Negatives of Screen Time During a Pandemic with Dr. Jonathan S. Comer, Dr. Sheri Madigan, and Dr. Brae Ann McArthur

How the Pandemic is Impacting Working Moms with Dr. Amy Knopf and Dr. Jessica Calarco (Pandemic Parenting)

What parents are saying about us: Jesus from California (Pandemic Parenting)

Supporting Teen Mental Health During COVID-19 with Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman, Dr. Christopher Drapeau, and Laura Sanders Morris (Pandemic Parenting)

“A Manifesto Against Parenting” by Alison Gopnik (The Wall Street Journal)

The Pandemic Parenting Dance: Why Parents Are So Exhausted by Dr. Amanda Zelechoski (Zulily)

To School or Not to School: Making Decisions in the Time of COVID-19 with Dr. Amanda Zelechoski and Dr. Lindsay Malloy (Pandemic Parenting)

Decision Fatigue: Neurosequential Network Stress and Trauma Series by Dr. Bruce Perry

5 Brain-Informed Tips for Pandemic Decision Making by Dr. Jennifer A. King (Medium)

Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue? by John Tierney (The New York Times)

Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Reimagining the Holidays: Making Memories During a Pandemic with Dr. Robyn Fivush (Pandemic Parenting)

Visit www.pandemic-parent.org to learn more about Pandemic Parenting.

Co-founders of Pandemic Parenting, Dr. Lindsay Malloy and Dr. Amanda Zelechoski, are two psychologists, scholars, and moms who share science-based resources and insights to help all who care for children navigate this pandemic, together.

After hosting a series of live webinars since Summer 2020, Lindsay and Amanda are excited to launch The Pandemic Parenting Podcast. In the spirit of our previous webinars, you can expect the same level of engaging conversations with experts in the field of psychology, child development, mental health, and trauma speaking to the pressing parenting questions we all have—but now with the added convenience of listening while you’re on the go.

Follow "The Pandemic Parenting Podcast" wherever you listen to podcasts.