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(https://www.psypost.org/men-in-childcare-are-seen-as-less-warm-moral-and-competent-than-women/) Men in childcare are seen as less warm, moral, and competent than women
Mar 13th 2025, 10:00

Men remain vastly underrepresented in early childhood education and care, but why? A new study published in (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01559-5) Sex Roles explores the stereotypes that shape public perceptions of men working in childcare and how these beliefs influence support for increasing gender diversity in the field.
The underrepresentation of men in women-dominated professions, particularly childcare, is often overlooked. Many assume men simply lack interest in these careers, rather than recognizing the societal barriers that discourage them from pursuing caregiving roles. Research has shown that men and women are perceived and treated differently when they enter gender-atypical careers, with men often facing unique skepticism and bias.
Researchers Serena Haines and colleagues conducted this study to explore three types of stereotypes surrounding men in childcare: 1) descriptive stereotypes—how men in childcare are perceived; 2) prescriptive stereotypes—how men in childcare should be; and 3) proscriptive stereotypes—how men in childcare should not be. Their goal was to understand whether misalignment between these stereotypes influences public support for male childcare workers.
The researchers conducted a study with 280 participants from Czechia, which has one of the lowest percentages of men working in childcare in the European Union, providing a context where societal barriers to men’s participation are particularly pronounced. Participants were recruited through an online panel to ensure a representative sample of Czech adults.
Each participant was randomly assigned to evaluate one of three target groups: men working in childcare, women working in childcare, and childcare workers without specified gender
Participants completed a series of open-ended questions designed to capture their spontaneous thoughts about their assigned group’s characteristics, describing how these individuals were perceived, how they should be, and how they should not be.
This approach allowed researchers to assess descriptive, prescriptive, and proscriptive stereotypes. Afterward, participants rated their assigned group on 16 predefined traits across four categories: warmth, morality, competence, and assertiveness.
The researchers also measured participants’ overall support for men working in childcare and collected information about participants’ personal experiences, such as whether they had ever met a male childcare worker or had children themselves.
The study revealed significant differences in how men in childcare were perceived compared to both female childcare workers and gender-unspecified childcare workers. Men in childcare were rated as significantly less warm, moral, and competent than women in the same profession.
Women were seen as naturally suited to childcare roles, with participants’ descriptions of female workers closely matching their expectations of an ideal childcare worker. When evaluating child care workers with no specified gender, participants’ descriptions largely mirrored those of female childcare workers, suggesting people generally assume childcare professionals are women.
Beyond these general perceptions, men in childcare were uniquely associated with negative stereotypes. In open-ended responses, participants were more likely to describe men as potential threats, including references to physical violence or pedophilia—concerns never mentioned for female childcare workers.
Interestingly, when explicitly rating male childcare workers on predefined trait scales, participants did not rate them as particularly threatening. This discrepancy suggests that while people may not openly express concerns about men working with children in structured rating tasks, such fears can emerge when they describe their thoughts freely.
The study also found that greater alignment between how participants perceived men in childcare and how they expected them to be was linked to higher support for men in the field. However, this effect disappeared when controlling for factors such as political orientation, gender, and personal experience with childcare, suggesting that broader social beliefs play a key role in shaping attitudes toward men in childcare.
A limitation was the study’s focus on stereotype content related only to childcare workers, without comparing general gender stereotypes in broader contexts. Future research could explore how much occupational role expectations influence perceptions compared to gender norms.
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-025-01559-5) Who Cares? Stereotypes of and Support for Men Working in Childcare,” was authored by Serena Haines, Sabine Sczesny, and Sylvie Graf.

(https://www.psypost.org/how-good-and-bad-childhood-experiences-shape-dark-personality-traits/) How good and bad childhood experiences shape dark personality traits
Mar 13th 2025, 08:00

Experiencing difficult events in childhood, such as abuse or neglect, has been linked to a higher likelihood of developing undesirable personality traits later in life, including tendencies toward harming others. However, new research published in the (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656625000157) Journal of Research in Personality suggests that positive childhood experiences, like having supportive caregivers and feeling connected at school, can lessen the impact of these negative experiences on certain harmful traits. Specifically, positive experiences appear to offer some protection against developing psychopathic and sadistic traits, but this protective effect is limited when a person has faced a great deal of adversity in their early years.
The authors behind the new study sought to learn more about the “Dark Tetrad,” a group of four personality traits that often lead to negative social outcomes. These traits include psychopathy, which involves callousness and disregard for others, narcissism, which includes an inflated sense of self-worth, Machiavellianism, which focuses on strategic manipulation and emotional detachment, and sadism, which involves taking pleasure in others’ suffering. Researchers became interested in studying these traits together because they share features such as callousness, exploitation, and a disregard for empathy, even though each trait also has unique characteristics.
The motivation for this study came from observations that adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, neglect, or family dysfunction, often predict the development of problematic personality features. At the same time, relatively little was known about how positive childhood experiences might lessen the impact of these stressful events.
“There is a large body of evidence showing that experiencing adversity (things like a lack of food, unstable housing, not enough/too much parental love/investment, physical/emotional abuse, and neglect) can result in a host of negative outcomes in adulthood,” said study author Jacob Dye, senior research fellow at the George Institute for Global Health.
“One well documented impact of childhood adversity is an increase in the prevalence of personality deviance such as psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism. However, recent research suggests that positive childhood experiences may ameliorate these and other negative adult outcomes of childhood adversity, acting as a sort of protective factor. Given the well-established relationship between childhood adversity and personality deviance we were interested to see what role positive childhood experiences play in moderating that relationship.”
To carry out their study, the researchers collected data from 931 adults of various ages and genders who lived in several different countries, including Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Participants were asked to complete several questionnaires online. One questionnaire measured experiences of childhood adversity, including forms of abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction. Another asked participants about good experiences in childhood, such as being supported by a stable family or having at least one close friend.
Additional questionnaires measured psychopathy, sadism, narcissism, and Machiavellianism in adulthood. The researchers used statistical techniques that allowed them to examine the link between early life adversity and these traits, while also considering the role of positive childhood experiences and controlling for demographic factors like age and gender.
The findings showed that when participants reported more adversity in childhood, they tended to have higher scores on measures of psychopathy, sadism, and narcissism. Negative events like family violence or severe neglect may fuel the development of harmful or callous behaviors later on. Meanwhile, a larger number of positive experiences in early life was connected to lower levels of psychopathy, sadism, and Machiavellianism, but was associated with higher levels of narcissism. This detail may reflect a part of narcissism that includes strong self-esteem and a sense of specialness, which can sometimes be encouraged by a supportive environment.
“Childhood adversity was predictive of developing grandiose narcissistic traits in adulthood,” Dye told PsyPost. “However, similar to some previous studies we also found that experiencing a high level of positive experiences in childhood was predictive of having higher narcissistic traits. Children who experience too much adversity or too much positive attention have an increased risk of developing adult personality styles that are associated with narcissism. Interestingly, adverse and positive childhood experiences did not interact to change levels of adult narcissistic traits, appearing to act as independent predictors.”
But the key discovery was that positive early experiences appeared to reduce the impact of childhood adversity on psychopathy and sadism only when the adversity was moderate or low. In other words, a supportive upbringing did act as a buffer for individuals who did not suffer extremely high adversity, lowering the chance they would develop traits linked to being callous or destructive. But for those who had severe and frequent adversity, positive experiences did not lessen these traits. That means that in very harsh childhood conditions, the beneficial effect of support or warmth might not be enough to offset the intensity of the negative events.
“Although childhood adversity is an important predictor of undesirable adult personality outcomes, in some cases, having many positive experiences can reduce the impact of that adversity,” Dye explained. “In the case of psychopathic traits and sadistic traits (traits associated with being more likely to harm others) when people experienced multiple and/or frequent childhood adversity they were higher in these traits regardless of their positive childhood experiences.
“However, when people experienced less adversity, a greater amount of positive childhood experience resulted in a lower level of psychopathic and sadistic traits. This suggests that positive childhood experiences can have a protective influence reducing the likelihood of developing traits that make people more callous, harmful, and antisocial.”
One limitation of this study is that it relied on self-reported childhood events, and memories may be shaped by an individual’s current mental state. Since people high in psychopathy or other dark traits may recall their early years differently than others, it could influence the strength of the connections found.
Future research could follow individuals over time to investigate whether negative or positive childhood events predict these dark personality traits more directly. It might also be beneficial to include outside reports or standardized clinical assessments, since that could confirm how severe or supportive a person’s childhood really was.
“As with most research in this area, we need to be careful to remember that we are asking adults to recount their childhood experiences,” Dye noted. “We know that memories are biased in a number of ways and that people’s individual differences in psychology will impact the memories they form and recall. We also need to be careful interpreting the self-reported personality traits of individuals who have grown-up in societies where these traits (narcissism for example) are socially stigmatised. Put simply, there is a real social pressure to hide these traits from those around you.”
The overarching aim of this research is to build a clearer picture of how childhood shapes adult well-being, particularly in the context of traits that can lead to negative behaviors or relationships. This line of work can inform programs that promote early support, strengthen family bonds, and reduce childhood adversity wherever possible.
“It is important to understand how people’s childhood experiences, both good and bad, impact their ability to become healthy, functional adults,” Dye said. “These childhood experiences appear to have lifelong impacts and so it is in all of our best interests to improve the childhoods of everyone and in turn improve their health and wellbeing throughout life.”
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2025.104583) Adverse and positive childhood experiences and their associations with dark personality traits,” was authored by George Van Doorn, Jacob Dye, and Robert Teese.

(https://www.psypost.org/new-study-flips-the-script-on-conspiracy-beliefs-and-economic-insecurity/) New study flips the script on conspiracy beliefs and economic insecurity
Mar 13th 2025, 06:00

A new study published in the journal Political Psychology sheds light on how conspiracy beliefs about the coronavirus disease pandemic might shape people’s sense of financial security. The researchers first analyzed large-scale data gathered in 17 European nations and found that, overall, individuals who endorsed conspiracy beliefs were more likely to feel uneasy about their financial well-being. Next, a second investigation in Slovakia revealed that believing in conspiracy theories could predict increased economic anxiety over time, indicating that conspiracy beliefs do not simply go hand-in-hand with financial stress but may actually drive it.
The researchers were motivated by a long-standing assumption in previous scholarship. It has often been proposed that people’s financial worries or unfavorable socioeconomic status encourage them to latch onto conspiratorial explanations for unsettling events. However, much of the evidence came from studies in which all measurements were taken at once. This made it challenging to untangle whether people’s financial situation came first or whether their tendency to embrace conspiracy beliefs might have led them to perceive their economic future more grimly. 
The research team wanted to address this gap by tracking individuals over an extended period, as well as by looking across diverse national contexts. This allowed them to see if conspiracy beliefs could make people more anxious about their finances over time, even when accounting for their actual economic circumstances and educational background.
“We began investigating conspiracy beliefs during the COVID-19 pandemic because people in the country where some of us are based (Slovakia) were among the most prone to endorsing them,” said study author (https://sites.google.com/view/lenaadamus) Magdalena Adamus, an assistant professor at the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
“Some data suggested that (https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3798) up to 40% of the population believed in at least one conspiracy theory about the origins of the virus at that time. When we developed a new project aimed at investigating the psychological factors associated with the endorsement of unfounded beliefs (including conspiracy beliefs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided that one of our aims should be to focus on appraisals of financial situations.”
“This decision was motivated (https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12725) by research showing that individuals’ socioeconomic status is one of the most consistent predictors of their adherence to conspiracy beliefs. However, it is important to remember that people may react and adapt differently to long-term financial strain. As a result, objective material deprivation (poverty) may not be the primary driver of their beliefs or behaviors. Instead, the subjective appraisal of economic insecurity and uncertainty (precarity) may take precedence and play a key role in understanding the current spread and persistence of conspiracy beliefs.”
The researchers began by examining a large survey from the European Social Survey, which included more than 21,000 adults from 17 countries across Europe. This survey took place between 2020 and 2022 and asked participants about their level of agreement with various statements about the origins of the coronavirus, its global spread, and the intentions of institutions involved in managing it. It also asked people how they felt about their own financial situation and their country’s economic prospects, along with several other questions about politics, health, and education. 
Adamus and her colleagues looked at whether conspiracy beliefs about the coronavirus corresponded to stronger feelings of economic worry or difficulty making ends meet. They found that, in every setting they examined, people who scored higher on these conspiracy views also reported more pessimism about the economy. This pattern held even after accounting for education, income, life satisfaction, and physical health.
In the second part of the investigation, the research team analyzed data from a group of 925 adults in Slovakia, who completed three surveys about eight months apart. These surveys asked about the degree to which participants believed in unproven claims regarding the coronavirus, including ideas of hidden groups plotting to produce or spread the illness. 
Participants were also asked how anxious they felt about their own finances in the context of the pandemic and whether they believed they would be able to remain employed, keep up with debt, or have enough savings in the near future. The key aim was to track how conspiracy beliefs and economic worries changed over time. Using statistical modeling, the team looked at whether earlier measurements of conspiracy beliefs predicted greater anxiety later on, and whether earlier measurements of economic anxiety predicted stronger conspiracy beliefs in future surveys.
The researchers found that conspiracy beliefs about the coronavirus led to stronger economic worries over time, even when people’s actual incomes or educational levels were taken into account. In contrast, economic anxiety at one point did not increase people’s conspiracy beliefs later on. This reversal of expectations was surprising to the researchers, who initially assumed that financial problems would prompt individuals to embrace conspiracy ideas. 
“I remember when we sat together with some of the other authors and discussed the findings,” Adamus recalled. “We were optimistic, because the model seemed to yield significant results. And then I felt, something is wrong, the relationships should run in the opposite direction. We double-checked for any mistakes in coding but no, we coded the variables correctly. So we re-run the analyses – but with the same results. 
“Of course, our study is not the only one that shows that conspiracy beliefs brings misery or distress. It was speculated for some time that although people adhere to conspiracy beliefs to find sense or structure in the world or some awkward sense of consolation, they have the potential to bring more distress. But in the financial or economic domain, we all believed that income, poverty, deprivation and their subjective appraisals are causes not consequences of conspiracy beliefs. So this came a considerable surprise. Immediately we realized that the potential contribution of the results is great and practical, real-life consequences could be tremendous.”
For example, when large numbers of citizens become convinced that hidden agendas are behind major events, they might lose faith in social and political institutions, including those responsible for economic policies. This sense of disillusionment could lead to a more negative perception of the country’s financial outlook. In turn, this negativity can influence voting behavior.
“From a broader perspective, our study highlights the extent to which modern societies are vulnerable to the spread of conspiracy beliefs and their potentially harmful consequences,” Adamus epxlained. “The emergence or reinforcement of these beliefs could contribute to more pessimistic evaluations of economic conditions, while (https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v5i2.745) economic disappointment remains one of the most significant drivers of voting behavior.”
“When people grow increasingly skeptical about social, political, and economic circumstances, they may become more susceptible to manipulation by populists or foreign agents seeking to exploit their discontent. By leveraging conspiracy beliefs—and the resulting sense of economic insecurity—opportunistic actors could attempt to garner political support, expecting that widespread dissatisfaction will translate into voting preferences. We will explore this aspect of our findings further in our upcoming research.”
The research also highlights the importance of conducting longitudinal research, which collects data over time to examine patterns of change.
“In past studies—including the one we published in 2024—researchers consistently assumed that financial situation, whether objective or subjective, was a precursor to conspiracy beliefs,” Adamus told PsyPost. “However, most of the available data were cross-sectional, meaning that all we could determine was that conspiracy beliefs and financial situation were correlated. We could not confidently establish the direction of this relationship. Nonetheless, the prevailing assumption was that financial difficulties led people to adopt conspiracy beliefs.
“By employing longitudinal data in this study, we were able to take a closer look at changes over time. To our surprise, the results showed the opposite pattern: conspiracy beliefs came first, followed by increased economic anxiety. Even when controlling for objective financial circumstances, we still observed that adherence to conspiracy beliefs made people more pessimistic about their own financial situation and the economic trajectory of their country. This finding shifts our perspective on conspiracy beliefs and suggests that longitudinal studies are essential for fully understanding their causes and consequences.”
As with all research, there are caveats to consider. First, the findings are drawn from data in European countries, so it is unclear whether people in other parts of the world, with different histories or cultural norms, would show the same pattern. Another limitation is that the conspiracy content was specific to the pandemic. Other conspiracy theories may produce different effects, and some are likely to overlap with varying themes, such as politics, technology, or environmental disasters.
In the future, the researchers would like to see experimental and additional longitudinal work that tracks people’s movements through difficult times and explores how conspiracy beliefs might steer them toward harmful financial habits. They intend to investigate the social and political impacts in more depth in their upcoming projects.
“I think we will focus on the findings that suggest conspiracy beliefs could be used as tools in hybrid and/or hot wars,” Adamus said. “In a shorter time frame, we will also re-analyze the data to replicate our findings from 2024 longitudinally. We have already run the analysis for this replication and saw a similar pattern – the sense of precarity is an outcome while conspiracy beliefs and institutional trust are intertwined in a bidirectional relationship. You can access a preprint of this work in progress here: (https://osf.io/preprints/osf/sj6k7_v1) https://osf.io/preprints/osf/sj6k7_v1”
The study, “All you’ll feel is doom and gloom: Multiple perspectives on the associations between economic anxiety and conspiracy beliefs,” was authored by Magdalena Adamus, Maria Chayinska, Jakub Šrol, Jais Adam-Troian, Eva Ballová Mikušková, and Peter Teličak.

(https://www.psypost.org/tired-all-the-time-it-might-be-a-vitamin-deficiency-according-to-this-neuroscientist/) Tired all the time? It might be a vitamin deficiency, according to this neuroscientist
Mar 12th 2025, 16:00

Feeling drained and lethargic is common: A 2022 national survey found that 13.5% of U.S. adults said they (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7245a7.htm) felt “very tired” or “exhausted” most days or every day over a three-month period.
Women ages 18 to 44 had the highest rate of fatigue – just over 20%.
Being tired is linked to something deeper than just overwork or a sign of the times. I’m a (https://www.binghamton.edu/transdisciplinary-areas-of-excellence/sustainable-communities/about/profile.html?id=lina) registered dietitian and nutritional neuroscientist. My research, along with the work of others in the field, shows that your diet and lifestyle choices may contribute to your struggles. These two factors are closely interconnected and could be the key to understanding what’s holding you back.
In particular, not getting enough of three essential nutrients – (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/) vitamin D, (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-HealthProfessional/) vitamin B12 and (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-HealthProfessional/) omega-3 fatty acids – is linked to low energy levels.
Vitamin D
More than 40% of adult Americans (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nutres.2010.12.001) are deficient in vitamin D. Low levels are linked to (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15050-vitamin-d-vitamin-d-deficiency) fatigue, bone pain, muscle weakness, mood disorders and cognitive decline.
(https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/resources/2020-2025-dietary-guidelines-online-materials/food-sources-select-nutrients/food-sources-vitamin-d) Foods high in vitamin D include fatty fish like salmon, sardines, freshwater rainbow trout, fortified dairy products and egg yolks. Among the (https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13114144) sources for vegetarians and vegans are fortified plant-based milks and cereals and some kinds of mushrooms.
The U.S. government’s (https://ods.od.nih.gov/pdf/factsheets/vitamind-consumer.pdf) recommended daily amount of vitamin D is 400 international units, or IU, for infants up to 12 months, 600 IU for people ages 1 to 70 and 800 IU for people over 70. Just over 5 ounces (150 grams) of sockeye salmon fillet has about 800 IU of vitamin D. If you are low in a vitamin, your doctor may prescribe you a higher dose than the recommended daily amount to elevate your blood levels to normal.
Vitamin B12
About 20% of Americans have (https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2008.26947A) inadequate vitamin B12 levels, which can impair energy production and lead to anemia, resulting in fatigue.
Low levels of B12 are notably higher (https://doi.org/10.1002/jppr.1897) in older people, (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-022-03025-4) pregnant and lactating women, people with gastrointestinal disorders like (https://www.ibdrelief.com/learn/complications-of-ibd/vitamin-and-mineral-deficiencies-in-ibd/vitamin-b12-and-ibd#) inflammatory bowel disease, those who (https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-vitamin-b12/art-20363663) take certain medications like proton-pump inhibitors, and people with (https://ranimd.com/articles/does-drinking-alcohol-affect-vitamin-b12-levels#) alcohol use disorder.
Because vitamin B12 is primarily found in meat, fish, dairy and eggs, vegetarians and vegans should consider taking a (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-022-03025-4) vitamin B12 supplement. The recommended daily amount for anyone ages 4 and older is 2.4 micrograms, about what’s found in 3 ounces of tuna or Atlantic salmon. Pregnant and breastfeeding women (https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/vitamin-b12-cobalamin) require slightly more.
Taking B12 supplements can be as effective as getting the vitamin from food – and taking the supplement with food (https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/are-you-getting-enough-b12#:~) may enhance its absorption.
That said, here’s a note on supplements in general: While they can be beneficial, they shouldn’t replace whole foods.
Not only are supplements (https://www.fda.gov/food/dietary-supplements) less strictly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration compared to prescription and over-the-counter drugs, making their potency uncertain, but real food also provides a complex array of nutrients (https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2023.1279925) that work in a synergistic way. Many supplements on the market boast multiple servings of vegetables, but nothing beats the actual food.
Omega-3 fatty acids
About 87% of adults ages 40 to 59, and about 80% of those 60 and older, (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db399-H.pdf) don’t get enough omega-3 fatty acids to meet dietary recommendations. Neither do (https://theconversation.com/prenatal-supplements-largely-lack-the-recommended-amount-of-omega-3-fatty-acids-to-help-prevent-preterm-birth-new-research-244231) many pregnant women.
Omega-3 fatty acids are crucial for brain health, and a deficiency can lead to higher (https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10060663) anxiety and depression levels and (https://doi.org/10.1097/MOL.0000000000000862) impaired cognitive function. Taken together, these deficiencies can add to fatigue.
The best sources of omega-3 fatty acids (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-HealthProfessional/#) are fatty fish, but if you’re strictly vegan, flaxseeds, chia seeds and walnuts can be great alternatives. However, it’s worth noting the omega-3s in fish are absorbed better in the body (https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2011.596292) than plant sources – and that determines how efficiently the body can use the omega-3.
Also, whole flaxseed has a tough outer shell, which makes it more difficult to digest and absorb its nutrients. But ground flaxseed has been broken down, making the omega-3s and other nutrients (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/flaxseed/faq-20058354#) more available for absorption.
The role of alcohol
Although alcohol may provide a sense of relaxation in the moment, it actually (https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/alcohol-and-fatigue) contributes to fatigue after the buzz wears off. Alcohol (https://www.mdanderson.org/cancerwise/what-does-drinking-alcohol-do-to-your-body.h00-159696756.html) is a toxin; it forces your body to prioritize its metabolism over that of nutrients, which means the body reduces the use of carbohydrates and fat for energy.
Alcohol also (https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602002) reduces the absorption of B vitamins, which consequently affects energy production. The bottom line: If you drink alcohol, ultimately you will feel tired.
Lifestyle factors
Diet isn’t everything. (https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.116-a160) Sunlight, (https://theconversation.com/light-exercise-can-yield-significant-cognitive-benefits-new-research-shows-243559) exercise, (https://theconversation.com/sleep-can-give-athletes-an-edge-over-competitors-but-few-recognize-how-fundamental-sleep-is-to-performance-221403) better sleep and (https://theconversation.com/what-is-resilience-a-psychologist-explains-the-main-ingredients-that-help-people-manage-stress-218323) stress management are all critical factors for reducing fatigue.
Your body (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/) can make vitamin D from sunlight, and you don’t need a lot. A few minutes up to a half hour of sun exposure can help most people get what they need. The amount of time can vary depending on where you live, how much clothing you wear and what time of year you get the exposure. You’ll reach your vitamin D daily quota much faster on a sunny day during the summer than a cloudy day in winter.
And it may sound counterintuitive, but the more you exercise, (https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389) the more energy you will produce; working out doesn’t drain you. Instead, it boosts energy, along with mood, by improving blood flow and helping to release endorphins, which are hormones produced by the body to relieve pain or stress.
Without exercise, the human body becomes less efficient at producing energy, which leads to lethargy. Coupled with erratic blood sugar levels – often caused by (https://theconversation.com/worried-about-the-health-effects-of-the-sugar-in-your-breakfast-cereal-little-has-changed-since-the-days-of-unfrosted-the-pop-tarts-movie-233633) diets high in refined sugars and low in nutrients – these energy dips and spikes can leave you feeling irritable and drained.
Aim for at least (https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/guidelines/adults.html#:~) 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week through activities like brisk walking, cycling, swimming and strength training.
Poor sleep (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.slsci.2014.11.001) makes things even worse. Not getting enough rest (https://theconversation.com/sleep-can-give-athletes-an-edge-over-competitors-but-few-recognize-how-fundamental-sleep-is-to-performance-221403) disrupts the body’s natural recovery processes and will leave you with diminished energy and focus.
So you should try to get (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2015.10.004) seven to nine hours of quality sleep each night. For some people (https://theconversation.com/better-sleep-for-kids-starts-with-better-sleep-for-parents-especially-after-holiday-disruptions-to-routines-196110) this is not easy; creating a calming bedtime routine helps, and limiting screen time is key.
Avoid phones, computers and other screens for at least 30 to 60 minutes before bed. The blue light emitted from screens can interfere with (https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side) your body’s production of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate sleep. Conversely, activities like reading, meditation or gentle stretching help signal to your body that it’s time to sleep.
In short, there are things you can do about your fatigue. Smart choices help optimize mood, energy levels and overall health, and reduce the surges of sluggishness you feel throughout the day.
Make no mistake: Your diet and lifestyle can make all the difference between being alert or wiped out.
 
This article is republished from (https://theconversation.com) The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the (https://theconversation.com/vitamin-deficiency-may-be-why-youre-so-tired-a-nutritional-neuroscientist-explains-how-to-kickstart-your-energy-by-getting-essential-nutrients-in-a-well-rounded-diet-along-with-more-sleep-and-exercise-241745) original article.

(https://www.psypost.org/new-habsburg-research-reveals-reproductive-consequences-of-royal-inbreeding/) New Habsburg research reveals reproductive consequences of royal inbreeding
Mar 12th 2025, 14:00

A new study published in the (https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24166) American Journal of Human Biology has uncovered a significant relationship between family intermarriage and later-life outcomes in one of Europe’s most influential royal houses. Researchers focused on the House of Habsburg, a family famous for multiple generations of marrying close relatives. They found that individuals with higher levels of inbreeding were more likely to die at a younger age, and that inbreeding was linked to an unexpectedly high risk of mothers dying shortly after giving birth. These results suggest that marrying close relatives can have an impact beyond childhood, affecting both how long someone lives and, in some cases, whether a mother survives after having a baby.
The investigators decided to look at the House of Habsburg because it provided a rare opportunity to see the effects of inbreeding in a consistent social environment. Members of a royal family typically enjoyed the same high standard of living, advanced medical attention for their time, and abundant resources. This uniformity helps reduce the chance that differences in wealth, diet, or health care would muddle the results, making it easier to detect any genetic factors related to marrying relatives.
The Habsburg family tree also features a wide range of inbreeding levels. Some individuals had very little shared family background, while others were as closely related as an uncle and niece. This range allowed the researchers to compare people across a broad spectrum of inbreeding, giving them a fuller view of how inbred ancestry might influence health and survival.
To carry out the study, the authors reconstructed a detailed genealogy of the Habsburg dynasty from approximately 1450 to 1800. They gathered birth, death, and marriage data from multiple historical sources, entering more than 8,000 individuals spanning over 20 generations into a database. This approach enabled them to calculate a specific “inbreeding coefficient” for each person and a “kinship” value for each marriage. These calculations quantify the chance that a child inherits two copies of the same gene from a common ancestor. Some marriages were as close as first-cousin unions, while others fell somewhere between second cousins and unrelated pairs.
The researchers then looked at how these numbers related to longevity, maternal mortality (death shortly after giving birth), and fertility outcomes such as the number of children and the spacing of births. By applying statistical models that included time-to-event (survival) analyses and special methods for count data, they made sure they could account for zero-child outcomes and deaths at different ages.
Their findings shine new light on the broader impact of inbreeding. In particular, the study showed that women with higher inbreeding coefficients tended to die younger, but this was only obvious among those who had at least one child. This link hinted that problems during pregnancy or labor might be more frequent or more severe for women with close-relative ancestry.
When the authors investigated how many women died during the four-week period after giving birth, they made a striking discovery: the more inbred a mother was, the higher her chance of dying in that first month postpartum. About one out of five mothers in the sample did not survive that early period if they fell into the more inbred categories, a proportion far above typical modern rates.
Historically, giving birth was far riskier than it is today, but these results suggest that women with closer-kin ancestry may have faced even greater hazards. Although the exact medical causes of death remain unknown, it is plausible that heightened vulnerability to infections or complications during labor could have contributed to these outcomes. Previous research has shown that inbreeding may raise the odds of having harmful recessive genes, which can increase susceptibility to serious illnesses.
The study also looked at fertility, focusing on how many children a woman had and how far apart those births occurred. The most inbred women did not necessarily have fewer total children, in part because royal women faced significant social pressure to ensure at least one surviving heir. They may have tried repeatedly to become pregnant if a child was lost in infancy. This pattern could be a form of “reproductive compensation,” where more inbred women kept attempting to have a child in order to secure the future of the dynasty.
However, the researchers did detect a link between higher inbreeding levels in women and longer intervals between births. One possible explanation is that such mothers were less physically fit after childbirth, making it more challenging for them to conceive again right away. In that sense, inbreeding might have lowered overall female fertility potential, but strong social expectations to produce heirs could mask that effect by encouraging repeated attempts at pregnancy.
Every study of this kind has its limitations, and the authors acknowledge several important considerations. Many of the family records they relied on were hundreds of years old, and details about the exact causes of death might be incomplete or inaccurate. Historical records also do not fully capture the everyday conditions individuals faced, including the quality of any medical interventions or the possible presence of hidden illnesses. The broader environment also changed over the three and a half centuries covered in the analysis, so certain differences in survival could reflect shifts in nutrition or medical practices.
Future researchers may want to compare these findings with other royal families that practiced cousin marriage or investigate modern populations where inbreeding remains common. It would also be interesting to see whether contemporary medical care lowers the impact of close-relative ancestry on maternal risk.
The study, “(https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.24166) Inbreeding Effect on Maternal Mortality and Fertility in the Habsburg Dynasty,” was authored by Francisco C. Ceballos, Román Vilas, and Gonzalo Álvarez.

(https://www.psypost.org/large-scale-analysis-confirms-black-students-disproportionately-punished-in-schools/) Large-scale analysis confirms Black students disproportionately punished in schools
Mar 12th 2025, 12:00

A new investigation published in the journal (https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584241293411) AERA Open indicates that Black students continue to face higher rates of school discipline and punishment compared to their peers across the United States. The research team analyzed the most recent federal data on discipline for millions of students in public schools. They examined many forms of punishment, compared Black students to various groups, and applied different ways of measuring overrepresentation. The study’s main conclusion is that these disparities in punishment remain widespread and long-lasting, which may affect students’ academic engagement, sense of fairness, and life outcomes.
A previous major report from the Government Accountability Office, which looked at data from the 2013-2014 school year, highlighted significant racial disparities in school discipline. However, since that report, several important changes have occurred. Schools have implemented new policies aimed at reducing racial inequalities, and researchers have developed more sophisticated ways to measure these disparities. Given these changes and the availability of newer data, researchers felt it was important to re-examine the issue. They wanted to determine if Black students continue to experience disproportionate levels of punishment and exclusion in schools, and if so, in what specific forms and situations. 
“I feel we are at an unanticipated and ironic inflection point. In 2014, the federal government, a few states, and many districts invested heavily in relationship-oriented practices to reduce racial disparities in exclusion and discipline. Since, we’ve learned that while these practices are hard to implement, they are well worth the investment,” explained study author (https://publichealth.berkeley.edu/people/sean-darling-hammond) Sean Darling-Hammond, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
“In my research, I’ve seen educational leaders deftly implement these practices and create inclusive and enriching educational experiences for students of all backgrounds; but I’ve also seen evidence that other schools that tried to implement these practices stumbled, faced backlash, and ultimately abandoned them. At the same time, new scholarship has surfaced just how deeply harmful exclusionary and punitive practices are for students’ developing brains and identities, and has demonstrated that schools that rely on these practices see student behavior worsen and school climates decline.”
“So we are at a point where we are increasingly aware that exclusion and punishment not only don’t work, but are harmful; and yet we are disinvesting in efforts to avoid related racial disparities,” Darling-Hammond said. “My goal with this research was to contextualize this disinvestment and ascertain if disparities endure and, if so, determine where they are most severe. And my hope was that doing so might help us invest in policies that can help steer us back towards equity.”
The researchers gathered and analyzed data from the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Schools submit information that includes the number of students who receive in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, corporal punishment, referrals to law enforcement, and school-related arrests. The research team focused on data from the 2017–2018 school year, but they also checked information from the 2020–2021 school year to see if pandemic-driven changes might have shifted patterns. 
Their method involved calculating how often each type of punishment happened to Black students and comparing those figures to the rates for other students. They looked at multiple ways of defining overrepresentation, including differences in risk and ratios of risk, and also broke the data down by student characteristics such as gender, school level (elementary, middle, high), and school poverty level. This approach yielded over one thousand different comparisons of Black students to their peers.
The study’s findings revealed a consistent pattern: Black students are overrepresented in school discipline across nearly all measures and categories examined. Out of the 1,581 estimates generated, 99% indicated that Black students experience disproportionately high rates of punishment. The only exception was in the specific instance of corporal punishment for preschool children, where Black preschoolers experienced slightly less corporal punishment than their comparison groups. However, even for preschoolers, Black children were overrepresented in other forms of punishment like out-of-school suspensions and expulsions.
Across all types of punishment, comparison groups, and student groups, the researchers found clear evidence of Black student overrepresentation. When comparing Black students to White students specifically, the analysis showed that Black students were significantly more likely to experience each type of punishment. For example, Black students were approximately 3.6 times more likely to be suspended out of school, 2.5 times more likely to be suspended in school, and 3.4 times more likely to be expelled compared to White students. These disparities were evident even at the preschool level and continued throughout all grade levels.
“Exclusion and punishment in school is incredibly harmful, and Black students are far more likely than their peers to experience every form of exclusion and punishment,” Darling-Hammond told PsyPost. “This is true across basically every school context–even in preschools and especially in alternative schools. And it’s true for virtually every student population–for girls, for boys, for special education students, for wealthy students. No matter how you slice it, Black students are being punished and excluded more.”
Interestingly, the study found that some of the most pronounced disparities occurred in wealthier schools and in alternative schools. In wealthier schools, Black students were significantly more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions, in-school suspensions, and expulsions. In alternative schools, the disparity was particularly stark for corporal punishment, with Black students being over 15 times more likely to experience physical punishment compared to White students in the same setting.
“I was quite surprised by the scope of racial disparities in expulsions in wealthier schools,” Darling-Hammond said. “The earned wisdom is Black students facing intersecting axes of poverty and racism will have the worst outcomes. However, Black students in wealthier scholastic contexts are actually more likely to face the most permanent exclusion — expulsion — which may indicate that some wealthy schools have adopted practices of pushing out Black students. 
“The lifelong risks that attend an expulsion are extreme, so this suggests the need to provide guidance to wealthy schools to ensure they have policies and practices that avoid this stark outcome and, more importantly, that they have policies and practices that allow teachers to form the kinds of positive relationships with Black students that make an extreme outcome like expulsion unthinkable.”
Like all studies, this one has some limitations. The investigators relied on federal data that only track whether a student received a specific punishment at least once during the school year, rather than how many times it happened or whether students experienced multiple forms of punishment in combination. 
There are also unanswered questions about individual student backgrounds and how much local policies might differ across regions. The authors recommend that future research try to unpack how and why the largest gaps appear in certain environments, like wealthy schools or alternative schools. They also suggest that additional studies could follow students across multiple school years to see whether repeated or combined punishments create even bigger challenges for Black youth.
“This research precisely documents racial disparities in exposure to exclusionary and punitive practices in a variety of contexts,” Darling-Hammond explained. “It opens up avenues to explore why such extreme disparities emerge in certain contexts (for example, in alternative schools, and in wealthier schools) and what we can do to combat the most extreme disparities. And it opens up avenues to explore what the impacts of these disparities might be over the life course.”
“Recent research has demonstrated that exposure to suspensions is related to the development of mental health issues later on. Given this, we can imagine how the mental health landscape of Black adults might shift if there had been parity in rates of exclusion and punishment. Or we can imagine how the mental health landscape of the next generation might shift if we achieve parity now. I believe these kinds of possibilistic questions can engender potent aspirations.”
The study, “(https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23328584241293411) No Matter How You Slice It, Black Students Are Punished More: The Persistence and Pervasiveness of Discipline Disparities,” was authored by Sean Darling-Hammond and Eric Ho.

Forwarded by:
Michael Reeder LCPC
Baltimore, MD

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