News by Subject Social & Behavior

In the largest study to date documenting the significant risks to children's health associated with prescription antipsychotics, researchers found results suggest that initiating antipsychotics may elevate a child's risk not only for significant weight gain, but also for type 2 diabetes by nearly 50 percent.

A study comparing the IQs of male siblings in which one member was reared by biological parents and the other by adoptive parents found later that the children adopted by parents with more education had higher IQs.

An infant's mother tongue creates neural patterns that the unconscious brain retains years later even if the child totally stops using the language, as can happen in cases of international adoption, according to a new joint study by scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital -- The Neuro and McGill University's Department of Psychology. The study offers the first neural evidence that traces of the "lost" language remain in the brain.

Florida State University criminology professor Kevin Beaver examined a nationally representative sample of youth alongside a sample of adopted children from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and found evidence to support the argument that IQ is not the result of parental socialization.

One in three children who have been reunified with their families after being placed in foster care will be maltreated again, according to a study into Quebec's youth protection system by Marie-Andrée Poirier and Sonia Hélie of the University of Montreal's School of Social Services. The study, the first of its kind in the world, was undertaken in the wake of a new law to improve the family stability of youth receiving child protection services.

Psychological studies of children who began life in Romanian orphanages shows that institutionalization is linked to physical changes in brain structure in areas related to working memory and attention.

The removal of institutions or group homes will not lead to better child well-being and could even worsen outcomes for some orphaned and separated children, according to new findings from a three-year study across five low- and middle-income countries. Children in institutions are as healthy and, in some ways, healthier than those in family-based care, according to the Duke University study.

Children living with a step-parent or a lone parent are as happy as those living with two biological parents.

Research on children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in South Africa may provide insight on how to identify and help children with emotional behavior issues in other areas of the world, which may have limited access to healthcare and further research that could lead to successful interventions.

The most comprehensive study ever to be carried out into adoption in England has confirmed that the rate of breakdown is lower than anticipated, but it also reveals a stark picture of the problems faced by families. The report, entitled 'Beyond the Adoption Order: challenges, intervention, disruption,' was funded by the Department for Education.