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<td><span style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;">PsyPost – Psychology News</span></td>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/sleep-regularity-might-be-protective-of-adolescents-mental-health-study-suggests/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Sleep regularity might be protective of adolescents’ mental health, study suggests</a>
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<p><p>A study of adolescents found that sleep regularity moderates the relationship between sleep difficulties and mental health symptoms. Adolescents who had trouble sleeping on one night tended to show more mental health symptoms the following day. However, the effects of these disturbances on somatic symptoms were somewhat reduced in adolescents with more regular sleep patterns. The paper was published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.14481"><em>Journal of Sleep Research</em></a>.</p>
<p>Sleep is a natural, restorative state in which the body and brain undergo vital processes for physical and mental recovery. It plays a key role in memory consolidation, immune system function, and hormone regulation. Adequate sleep is essential for emotional stability, cognitive performance, and decision-making.</p>
<p>Poor sleep or chronic sleep deprivation is linked to a higher risk of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and irritability. It also increases the risk of physical health problems like heart disease, obesity, and weakened immunity. Quality sleep helps regulate stress responses and supports overall resilience. Both sleep duration and sleep quality are important for maintaining health across the lifespan.</p>
<p>Despite this, adolescent sleep quality is a global health concern. For example, U.S. national surveillance data estimate that between 65% and 80% of adolescents do not get enough sleep or experience other sleep difficulties. Adolescents with poor sleep tend to have poorer mental health and are more likely to display behavioral problems.</p>
<p>Study author Jinjin Yan and colleagues sought to investigate the daily associations between sleep difficulties and adolescents’ internalizing mental health symptoms. They also examined the links between sleep regularity and these symptoms, and whether sleep regularity moderates the impact of daily sleep difficulties on mental health. Internalizing symptoms are emotional and psychological problems directed inward, such as anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal.</p>
<p>The researchers analyzed data from the first wave of a four-year longitudinal study that included 350 adolescents recruited from five high schools in an urban area in the northeastern United States. The average age of participants was 14 years, and 69% were girls. The sample was racially and ethnically diverse.</p>
<p>Participants completed a subjective assessment of sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and also wore actigraphs for 14 consecutive days. Actigraphs are wearable devices that monitor movement and are commonly used to estimate sleep patterns and physical activity levels.</p>
<p>During the same 14-day period, participants also completed daily assessments of anxiety and somatic symptoms. Somatic symptoms are physical symptoms—such as pain, fatigue, or dizziness—that cannot be fully explained by a medical condition and are often linked to psychological distress.</p>
<p>The results showed that adolescents who needed more time to fall asleep (longer sleep latency) tended to report more severe anxiety and somatic symptoms. Similarly, adolescents who experienced more sleep disturbances also reported higher levels of these symptoms. In other words, on days when adolescents had more trouble sleeping, they tended to feel worse the next day.</p>
<p>Adolescents with more regular sleep patterns tended to have slightly fewer symptoms of anxiety and somatic complaints. Sleep regularity also moderated the relationship between sleep disturbances and these symptoms. Specifically, more consistent sleep patterns helped buffer the negative effects of sleep disturbances on adolescents’ somatic symptoms.</p>
<p>“Assessing day-to-day consistency in sleep/wake patterns (i.e. sleep regularity), this study contributes to the literature on adolescent sleep and mental health by unpacking the complex interplay between sleep regularity and daily sleep difficulties on adolescent internalizing symptoms. The results observe the important role of sleep regularity as a modifiable protective indicator that protects against the detrimental impact of sleep difficulties on adolescent internalizing symptoms,” the study authors concluded.</p>
<p>The study sheds light on the links between sleep and mental health. However, it is important to note that the study focuses solely on short-term, immediate mental health outcomes of sleep disturbances and does not examine the long-term consequences of poor sleep.</p>
<p>The paper, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.14481">Sleep difficulties and adolescent internalising symptoms: The moderating role of sleep regularity</a>,” was authored by Jinjin Yan, Mingjun Xie, Zhenqiang Zhao, Jiwoon Bae, Heining Cham, Mona El-Sheikh, and Tiffany Yip.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/different-parts-of-the-same-neuron-learn-in-different-ways-study-finds/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Different parts of the same neuron learn in different ways, study finds</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 16th 2025, 08:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads4706" target="_blank">Science</a></em> has found that neurons in the brain do not follow a single strategy when learning. Instead, different parts of the same neuron—its upper and lower branches—adjust their connections using distinct rules. This finding challenges the traditional idea that each neuron has one learning rule, and it suggests that neurons may have more flexibility in how they process and store information.</p>
<p>Learning often involves modifying the strength of connections between neurons, a process known as synaptic plasticity. But scientists still don’t fully understand how the brain selects which connections to strengthen or weaken. This question, sometimes called the “credit assignment problem,” is important because only the right changes at the right time will lead to effective learning. </p>
<p>“The ability of our brains to adapt and learn from experience is fundamental for us to change our behavior in order to survive and succeed in the ever changing environments we live in. At the same time, some experiences can cause our brains to change in negative ways that then lead to behavioral deficits, such as what happens during addiction, depression, and PTSD. So understanding how our brains are able to adapt is not only critical to understand learning in general, but also has clinical implications,” explained study author William (Jake) Wright, a postdoctoral fellow in Takaki Komiyama’s lab at the University of California San Diego.</p>
<p>“Changes in the synaptic connections between neurons, which is how neurons communicate with each other, is thought to underlie learning by essentially changing how information flows through the brain. For this process of ‘synaptic plasticity’ to actually lead to learning, the right synaptic connections need to undergo the right types of changes at the right time. However it remains unclear how the brain selects which synapses to modify during learning, and this was the goal of our research.”</p>
<p>To investigate how neurons adjust their connections during learning, the researchers trained mice to perform a motor task. In the task, mice learned to press a lever in response to a tone in order to receive a water reward. As the mice practiced over the course of two weeks, they became faster and more consistent, showing that they had learned the task. Previous research had shown that this kind of motor learning leads to changes in the brain’s motor cortex, particularly in a type of neuron called a layer 2/3 pyramidal neuron.</p>
<p>The researchers focused on these neurons and used high-resolution imaging to watch changes in individual synapses—the small structures where one neuron receives input from another. Specifically, they used two advanced sensors: one to detect when glutamate, a chemical signal, was released onto a synapse, and another to measure calcium activity in the receiving neuron. These indicators allowed them to monitor both input to individual synapses and the overall output activity of the neuron.</p>
<p>They imaged two major parts of each neuron: apical dendrites, which extend toward the surface of the brain, and basal dendrites, which branch out closer to the cell body. These two regions have different structures and properties, raising the possibility that they might also follow different learning rules.</p>
<p>The results confirmed this hypothesis. The researchers found that synapses on apical dendrites tended to strengthen when they were active at the same time as nearby synapses. This means that local clusters of active inputs on these branches became stronger together, promoting what the researchers called functional clustering. In contrast, synapses on basal dendrites became stronger if they were active at the same time that the neuron fired an action potential—an electrical signal that represents output. This matches the classic view of learning in the brain, known as Hebbian learning, where connections strengthen when input and output are paired.</p>
<p>To test the importance of neuron output in this process, the researchers suppressed the ability of some neurons to fire action potentials. This manipulation had a strong effect on the basal dendrites: synapses in these branches no longer strengthened in response to training. However, the apical dendrites continued to show signs of learning through clustering, even when output activity was blocked. This showed that the two compartments not only followed different rules, but that only one of them—the basal dendrites—depended on output signals from the neuron to guide learning.</p>
<p>The study also revealed when these changes happened. Most of the strengthening of connections occurred in the early days of training, suggesting that this is a sensitive window during which the brain is most responsive to learning. The strengthening of synapses also tended to happen in neurons that later became more involved in movement control, linking the observed changes to behavioral outcomes.</p>
<p>By measuring how far apart the changing synapses were from one another, the researchers confirmed that apical dendrites tended to strengthen groups of nearby synapses, while basal dendrites showed no such clustering. This suggests that apical dendrites may be organizing information in a spatially grouped way, while basal dendrites may be more focused on aligning inputs with the overall activity of the neuron.</p>
<p>One of the key findings was that neurons can follow more than one learning rule at the same time, but apply those rules in specific parts of their structure. The apical dendrites appeared to operate based on local coactivity—when multiple nearby inputs are active together—while the basal dendrites responded to the coincidence of input and the neuron’s own output. These differences may arise from structural and electrical distinctions between the compartments. For example, signals from the rest of the brain may spread more easily into basal dendrites, while apical dendrites may be more electrically isolated, encouraging localized processing.</p>
<p>The study also raised questions about how these differences support learning. The researchers suggested that apical dendrites may group related inputs together, allowing the neuron to integrate complex information more efficiently. Meanwhile, the basal dendrites may help build associations between specific inputs and the neuron’s overall behavior. This dual strategy could allow neurons to perform more sophisticated computations and respond flexibly to different types of learning.</p>
<p>“We found that individual neurons utilize different synaptic plasticity rules across different sets of synapses depending on where those synapses are located on the neuron,” Wright told PsyPost. “This finding challenges the traditional view of synaptic plasticity, which often assumes plasticity rules are uniform and singular within a neuron.” </p>
<p>“Using multiple learning rules in tandem this way may allow neurons to perform distinct computations in parallel and grant them much greater computational capacity than typically thought. This finding may also have implications for the development of better and more efficient Artificial Intelligence, where most current neural networks use a single learning rule throughout.”</p>
<p>Although the findings provide new insight into how learning works in the brain, the authors noted some important limitations. The study was conducted in mice, and it focused on one type of neuron in one region of the brain. It is still unknown whether other neurons in different brain regions follow the same rules. More research is needed to determine how generalizable these findings are across species and brain systems.</p>
<p>The researchers plan to explore why neurons use multiple learning rules at once and how this flexibility benefits brain function. Understanding these processes may help scientists develop better treatments for neurological and psychiatric conditions where learning mechanisms go awry.</p>
<p>“One big remaining question is why do neurons utilized multiple learning rules at the same time,” Wright explained. “What functions and computations does this allow the neural circuits in our brains to perform?”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads4706" target="_blank">Distinct synaptic plasticity rules operate across dendritic compartments in vivo during learning</a>,” was authored by William J. Wright, Nathan G. Hedrick, and Takaki Komiyama.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/conspiracy-believers-tend-to-overrate-their-cognitive-abilities-and-think-most-others-agree-with-them/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Conspiracy believers tend to overrate their cognitive abilities and think most others agree with them</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 16th 2025, 06:00</div>
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<p><p>A series of eight studies has uncovered a consistent pattern among people who believe in conspiracy theories: they tend to be overconfident in their cognitive abilities and significantly overestimate how much others agree with them. The findings, published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251338358" target="_blank">Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin</a></em>, suggest that conspiracy belief may be fueled less by active motivations and more by a mistaken sense of certainty.</p>
<p>This research was conducted in response to a growing need to understand why people come to believe in conspiracy theories, especially those that are widely rejected by experts and the broader public. Prior work has emphasized motivations like the desire to feel unique, or to explain social and political events in a way that aligns with personal identity. But the researchers behind this new work proposed a different explanation. They hypothesized that people who consistently overestimate their own intellectual performance might be more likely to hold onto fringe beliefs and to falsely assume that others share their views.</p>
<p>“One of the thing that seems to distinguish (at least some) conspiracy theorists is not just that their beliefs seem to be based on poor evidence, but also that they appear so confident in their beliefs,” explained study author <a href="https://gordonpennycook.com/" target="_blank">Gordon Pennycook</a>, an associate professor at Cornell University</p>
<p>“The question we ask here is whether this tendency to be overconfident is more general than that. It’s obvious that people are overconfident in their beliefs; the question we ask here is whether people who tend to be overconfident in general (across domains) are more likely to believe conspiracies.”</p>
<p>The researchers carried out eight separate studies with a combined sample of 4,181 participants from the United States. Across the studies, participants completed various cognitive tasks designed to measure things like numerical reasoning, risk understanding, and perceptual accuracy. Crucially, after each task, participants were asked to estimate how well they thought they had performed.</p>
<p>This approach allowed the researchers to compare people’s actual test scores to their self-assessments, creating a measure of overconfidence. A person who scored poorly but believed they did well would be considered overconfident. The researchers then compared these overconfidence scores to how strongly participants endorsed conspiracy theories, including well-known but widely debunked claims like the moon landing being faked or vaccines being part of a government control plot.</p>
<p>The results showed a strong and consistent relationship between overconfidence and belief in false conspiracy theories. People who thought they had done well on tasks, even when they had not, were more likely to endorse conspiracies. Importantly, this relationship held even after accounting for other known predictors of conspiracy belief, such as low analytical thinking ability, narcissistic personality traits, and a desire to feel unique.</p>
<p>To ensure this wasn’t just a reflection of performance on specific types of tasks, the researchers included a perception-based test in which participants were shown difficult-to-identify images and asked to guess what they saw. Since the task was extremely hard and essentially relied on guessing, actual performance was unrelated to skill. Yet, participants who thought they had done well on this task were also more likely to believe in conspiracy theories. This made the perception test a particularly useful way of measuring dispositional overconfidence—that is, a general tendency to overrate one’s own abilities.</p>
<p>Another striking finding emerged when participants were asked to estimate how many other people agreed with them about the conspiracies they endorsed. Although most conspiracy theories were believed by only a small minority of participants—just 12% on average—those who did believe in them thought they were in the majority 93% of the time. This “false consensus effect” was strongest among the most overconfident individuals. They not only believed incorrect things, but also wrongly assumed that most others shared their views.</p>
<p>This sense of being in the majority held even when participants were asked to estimate agreement among people who likely disagree with them, such as members of the opposing political party. While their expectations of agreement were somewhat lower in those cases, conspiracy believers still significantly overestimated how much others—regardless of group—agreed with their beliefs.</p>
<p>The studies also explored how this overconfidence and belief pattern compares to other potential drivers of conspiratorial thinking. Grandiose narcissism and the need for uniqueness were both related to conspiracy beliefs, but they were not as consistent or strong as overconfidence. When all variables were included in the same analysis, overconfidence—especially as measured by the perception task—remained a significant predictor, while the need for uniqueness did not.</p>
<p>In one of the later studies, the researchers tested the robustness of the false consensus effect by assigning participants to rate how much they thought their political allies and opponents agreed with them about various conspiracy theories. Even under these more targeted conditions, conspiracy believers still dramatically overestimated the level of agreement. This suggests that their sense of consensus is not just a rhetorical posture, but a genuine misperception about the social reality of their beliefs.</p>
<p>Across all eight studies, the researchers found that overconfidence consistently predicted belief in conspiracies that are not supported by evidence. Interestingly, this was not the case for conspiracy theories that have been verified by history, such as government surveillance of civil rights leaders or unethical medical experiments. Belief in those conspiracies was not linked to overconfidence, suggesting that the pattern is specific to conspiracies that are actually false or unverified.</p>
<p>“The tendency to be overconfident in general may increase the chances that someone falls down the rabbit hole (so to speak) and believe conspiracies,” Pennycook told PsyPost. “In fact, our results counteract a prevailing narrative about conspiracy theorists: that they know that they hold fringe beliefs and revel in that fact.” </p>
<p>“Even people who believed very fringe conspiracies, such as that scientists are conspiring to hide the truth about the Earth being flat, thought that their views were in the majority. Conspiracy believers – particularly overconfident ones – really seem to be miscalibrated in a major way. Not only are their beliefs on the fringe, but they are very much unaware of how far on the fringe they are.”</p>
<p>There are some limitations to the study. All participants were drawn from online platforms, such as MTurk and Prolific, which may not capture the most extreme or isolated conspiracy believers. People who are highly distrustful of institutions may not be inclined to participate in university-run research studies, meaning the results could underestimate the strength of the patterns among the most committed conspiracy theorists.</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672251338358" target="_blank">Overconfidently Conspiratorial: Conspiracy Believers are Dispositionally Overconfident and Massively Overestimate How Much Others Agree With Them</a>,” was authored by Gordon Pennycook, Jabin Binnendyk, and David G. Rand.</p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/memes-can-serve-as-strong-indicators-of-coming-mass-violence/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">Memes can serve as strong indicators of coming mass violence</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 15th 2025, 14:00</div>
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<p><p>Imagine a country with deep political divisions, where different groups don’t trust each other and violence seems likely. Now, imagine a flood of political images, hateful memes and mocking videos from domestic and foreign sources taking over social media. What is likely to happen next?</p>
<p>The widespread use of social media during times of political trouble and violence has made it harder to prevent conflict and build peace. Social media is changing, with new technologies and strategies available to influence what people think during political crises. These include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2021.1912093">new ways to promote beliefs and goals</a>, <a href="https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/09/19/the-power-of-social-media-to-influence-political-views-and-geopolitical-issues-tiktok-x-and-instagram/">gain support</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120913983">dehumanize opponents</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/jan-6-was-an-example-of-networked-incitement-a-media-and-disinformation-expert-explains-the-danger-of-political-violence-orchestrated-over-social-media-220501">justify violence</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08934215.2024.2432316">create doubt</a> or dismiss inconvenient facts.</p>
<p>At the same time, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18097">technologies themselves are becoming more sophisticated</a>. More and more, social media campaigns use images such as memes, videos and photos – whether edited or not – that have a bigger impact on people than just text.</p>
<p>It’s harder for AI systems to understand images compared with text. For example, it’s easier to track posts that say “Ukrainians are Nazis” than it is to find and understand fake images <a href="https://sofiaglobe.com/2023/12/04/digitally-altered-photo-portrays-ukrainian-soldiers-as-nazis/">showing Ukrainian soldiers with Nazi symbols</a>. But these kinds of images are becoming more common. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, a meme is worth a thousand tweets.</p>
<p>Our team of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=V1js0MUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">computer</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ZQlzr_QAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">social scientists</a> has tackled the challenge of interpreting image content by combining artificial intelligence methods with human subject matter experts to study how visual social media posts change in high-risk situations. Our research shows that these changes in social media posts, especially those with images, serve as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2492577">strong indicators of coming mass violence</a>.</p>
<h2>Surge of memes</h2>
<p>Our recent analysis found that in the two weeks leading up to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine there was a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2492577">nearly 9,000% increase in the number of posts</a> and a more than 5,000% increase in manipulated images from <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240927035150/https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/08/how-russias-military-bloggers-shape-course-putins-war">Russian milbloggers</a>. Milbloggers are bloggers who focus on current military conflicts.</p>
<p>These huge increases show how intense Russia’s online propaganda campaign was and how it used social media to influence people’s opinions and justify the invasion.</p>
<p>This also shows the need to better monitor and analyze visual content on social media. To conduct our analysis, we collected the entire history of posts and images from the accounts of 989 Russian milbloggers on the messaging app Telegram. This includes nearly 6 million posts and over 3 million images. Each post and image was time-stamped and categorized to facilitate detailed analysis.</p>
<h2>Media forensics</h2>
<p>We had previously developed a suite of <a href="https://github.com/EldritchJS/pyIFD">AI tools</a> capable of detecting image alterations and manipulations. For instance, one detected image shows a <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/undead-russian-journalist">pro-Russian meme</a> mocking anti-Putin journalist and former Russian soldier Arkady Babchenko, whose death was faked by Ukrainian security services to expose an assassination plot against him.</p>
<p>The meme features the language “gamers don’t die, they respawn,” alluding to video game characters who return to life after dying. This makes light of Babchenko’s predicament and illustrates the use of manipulated images to convey political messages and influence public opinion.</p>
<p>This is just one example out of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqac051">millions of images</a> that were strategically manipulated to promote various narratives. Our statistical analysis revealed a massive increase in both the number of images and the extent of their manipulations prior to the invasion.</p>
<h2>Political context is critical</h2>
<p>Although these AI systems are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/WACV56688.2023.00137">very good at finding fakes</a>, they are incapable of understanding the images’ political contexts. It is therefore critical that AI scientists work closely with social scientists in order to properly interpret these findings.</p>
<p>Our AI systems also categorized images by similarity, which then allowed subject experts to further analyze image clusters based on their narrative content and culturally and politically specific meanings. This is impossible to do at a large scale without AI support.</p>
<p>For example, a fake image of French president Emmanuel Macron with Ukrainian governor Vitalii Kim may be meaningless to an AI scientist. But to political scientists the image appears to laud Ukrainians’ outsize courage in contrast to foreign leaders who have appeared to be afraid of Russian nuclear threats. The goal was to reinforce Ukrainian doubts about their European allies.</p>
<h2>Meme warfare</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mathonan/why-facebook-and-mark-zuckerberg-went-all-in-on-live-video">shift to visual media</a> in recent years brings a new type of data that researchers haven’t yet studied much in detail.</p>
<p>Looking at images can help researchers understand how adversaries frame each other and how this can lead to political conflict. By studying visual content, researchers can see how stories and ideas are spread, which helps us understand the psychological and social factors involved.</p>
<p>This is especially important for finding more advanced and subtle ways people are influenced. Projects like this also can contribute to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2020.1728976">improving early warning efforts</a> and reduce the risks of violence and instability.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/233055/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
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<p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/memes-and-conflict-study-shows-surge-of-imagery-and-fakes-can-precede-international-and-political-violence-233055">original article</a>.</em></p></p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/9-psychology-studies-that-reveal-the-powerful-role-of-fathers-in-shaping-lives/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">9 psychology studies that reveal the powerful role of fathers in shaping lives</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 15th 2025, 13:30</div>
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<p><p>Fathers play a vital and sometimes underestimated role in children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. A growing body of research highlights how fathers influence everything from kids’ math anxiety and prosocial behavior to adult romantic relationships and even men’s mental health. Here are nine insightful studies that shed light on the many ways fathers matter.</p>
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<h3><strong>1. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/low-quality-father-involvement-leads-sons-to-invest-less-in-romantic-relationships-study-finds/">Fathers Shape Sons’ Relationship Beliefs and Commitment Patterns</a></strong></h3>
<p>A study in <em>Evolutionary Psychological Science</em> found that the quality—not just the presence—of paternal involvement during childhood has a lasting impact on how sons view romantic relationships. Men who rated their fathers as emotionally warm and supportive during their upbringing were more likely to believe that men generally invest in their partners and that women expect commitment from men. These beliefs were tied to a greater willingness to invest in their own romantic relationships as adults.</p>
<p>Importantly, the researchers found that the emotional quality of a father’s involvement had more influence than whether the father was physically present. Maternal involvement did influence sons’ willingness to commit, but it did not shape their broader beliefs about male investment or women’s expectations. This suggests that fathers transmit specific relational templates to their sons, potentially perpetuating patterns of either healthy involvement or emotional withdrawal across generations.</p>
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<h3><strong>2. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/childhood-co-residence-plays-pivotal-role-in-father-child-bonding-regardless-of-biological-ties/">Living Together Matters: How Stepfathers and Birth Fathers Invest</a></strong></h3>
<p>Research published in <em>Human Nature</em> examined how both birth fathers and stepfathers invest in children over time. While biological fathers generally offered the most support, the study revealed that the length of time a father figure lived with a child strongly influenced emotional closeness and practical support—regardless of biological ties.</p>
<p>Stepfathers who co-resided with children during formative years were more likely to offer emotional and financial support later in life. Surprisingly, even divorced biological fathers were more supportive if they had spent more time living with the child. These findings suggest that emotional bonds grow through shared everyday life, and not solely through biological connection, supporting the idea that nurture can matter just as much as nature in father-child dynamics.</p>
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<h3><strong>3. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/men-who-wish-to-become-fathers-tend-to-be-perceived-as-more-desirable-by-women-study-finds/">Wanting to Be a Dad Makes Men More Attractive</a></strong></h3>
<p>In <em>Evolutionary Psychological Science</em>, researchers found that heterosexual women rated men who expressed a desire to become fathers as more desirable long-term partners than those who did not. Similarly, men with prior relationship experience were also seen as more attractive. These findings support the theory that signals of paternal investment—whether through intentions or past behavior—can make men more appealing to potential mates.</p>
<p>Interestingly, men who lacked relationship experience or expressed no interest in fatherhood were rated lower in desirability, unless positive statements about them from former partners were included. The study highlights how signals of potential fatherhood may operate as important cues in women’s mate selection, linking evolutionary motives to modern dating preferences.</p>
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<h3><strong>4. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/poor-relationship-with-ones-father-associated-with-heightened-muscle-dysmorphia-symptoms-via-vulnerable-narcissism/">Poor Father-Son Bonds May Fuel Body Image Struggles</a></strong></h3>
<p>A study in <em>Personality and Individual Differences</em> found that a poor relationship with one’s father may contribute to muscle dysmorphia in men—an excessive preoccupation with muscularity. This link was mediated through a psychological trait known as vulnerable narcissism, which involves low self-esteem and a heightened need for external validation.</p>
<p>Men who felt emotionally disconnected from their fathers were more likely to report feelings of inadequacy and dependence on compliments from others, which in turn predicted unhealthy attitudes toward body image. These findings underscore the importance of father-son relationships in shaping male self-concept, suggesting that emotional neglect may contribute to distorted body perceptions and compulsive fitness behaviors.</p>
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<h3><strong>5. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/fathers-support-to-the-mother-is-linked-to-positive-developmental-outcomes-for-children/">Father Involvement Supports Child Development in Low-Income Settings</a></strong></h3>
<p>In a study conducted in rural Kenya and published in <em>Social Science and Medicine</em>, researchers found that when fathers were more involved in household decision-making and provided emotional support to mothers, children showed improved developmental outcomes. Interestingly, much of the positive effect stemmed from how this support benefited the mothers, who are often the primary caregivers.</p>
<p>While direct father-child engagement was harder to measure due to low participation in parenting interventions, the study still highlighted how fathers’ presence and support play a critical role in creating a stable and nurturing home environment. In regions where traditional gender roles prevail, even small shifts in paternal involvement can have meaningful impacts on family well-being.</p>
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<h3><strong>6. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/a-poorer-father-child-relationship-predicts-increased-math-anxiety-in-children-one-year-later/">Father-Child Bonds Influence Math Anxiety in Kids</a></strong></h3>
<p>A longitudinal study in <em>Learning and Individual Differences</em> found that a strong emotional bond between fathers and children predicted lower math anxiety one year later. Interestingly, the mother-child relationship did not show the same effect. The researchers suggest that fathers may influence how children perceive the importance and attainability of success in math, especially because men often report higher confidence in the subject.</p>
<p>Children who felt emotionally supported by their fathers may have experienced greater autonomy and confidence when facing academic challenges, which helped buffer against anxiety. The findings point to a unique role for fathers in shaping children’s emotional responses to learning, particularly in areas where self-doubt can easily take root.</p>
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<h3><strong>7. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/fathers-who-are-more-involved-in-early-infant-parenting-show-reduced-depressive-symptoms/">Early Involvement Protects Fathers’ Mental Health</a></strong></h3>
<p>A study in <em>Frontiers in Psychology</em> followed nearly 900 low-income fathers during the first year of their child’s life. Fathers who reported higher levels of parenting self-efficacy, spent more time with their baby, and provided material support had fewer depressive symptoms. This relationship held even when accounting for factors like age, marital status, and education.</p>
<p>The findings suggest that being actively involved in caregiving can support not only the child’s development but also the father’s mental health. Feeling capable and present as a parent may help new fathers feel more fulfilled and emotionally grounded, reducing the risk of depression during a vulnerable life transition.</p>
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<h3><strong>8. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/fathers-emotional-awareness-and-testosterone-linked-to-childrens-prosocial-behavior/">Emotional Awareness and Testosterone Reactivity Predict Parenting Quality</a></strong></h3>
<p>In a study published in <em>Hormones and Behavior</em>, researchers found that fathers with difficulty identifying and expressing emotions (a trait called alexithymia) were less likely to engage in quality coparenting, especially if they had strong hormonal stress responses to parenting challenges. Two years later, their children showed fewer prosocial behaviors like helping and sharing.</p>
<p>The results suggest a complex interaction between emotional traits and biology in predicting parenting effectiveness. Fathers with high alexithymia who also showed strong testosterone increases during a stressful parenting task were more likely to struggle with cooperation and emotional support in coparenting. These parenting struggles, in turn, predicted lower social-emotional development in their toddlers.</p>
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<h3><strong>9. <a href="https://www.psypost.org/college-students-absent-father-one-night-stands/">Father Absence Linked to More Casual Sex in Adulthood</a></strong></h3>
<p>A study in <em>Evolutionary Psychological Science</em> found that college students who had experienced early father absence were more likely to engage in casual sex, particularly one-night stands. This pattern held for both men and women, and was not explained by differences in the total number of sexual partners.</p>
<p>Drawing from life history theory, the researchers suggest that early paternal absence may signal to children that relationships are unreliable and the future is uncertain. This may push individuals toward short-term mating strategies that prioritize immediate rewards over long-term stability. The study adds to evidence that early father-child dynamics shape adult behaviors and attitudes toward intimacy.</p>
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<td><a href="https://www.psypost.org/this-self-talk-exercise-may-help-reduce-emotional-dysregulation-in-autistic-children/" style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing:-1px;margin:0;padding:0 0 2px;font-weight: bold;font-size: 19px;line-height: 20px;color:#222;">This self-talk exercise may help reduce emotional dysregulation in autistic children</a>
<div style="font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align:left;color:#999;font-size:11px;font-weight:bold;line-height:15px;">Jun 15th 2025, 12:00</div>
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<p><p>A new study published in <em><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70053" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Autism Research</a></em> suggests that helping autistic children strengthen their inner speech may improve their ability to regulate emotions. The pilot trial tested a novel therapy called Thinking in Speech and found promising early evidence that it may help reduce emotional distress in some autistic children.</p>
<p>Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental condition that can affect how people communicate, interact socially, and manage their emotions. Many autistic children experience emotional dysregulation, which means they may have trouble recognizing their feelings, calming themselves down, or expressing emotions in socially accepted ways. These challenges can lead to frustration, anxiety, and difficulty coping with everyday stress.</p>
<p>The researchers behind this study wanted to test whether a therapy focused on building inner speech—the ability to talk silently to oneself—could help autistic children better manage their emotions. Inner speech plays an important role in self-regulation and problem-solving. In non-autistic individuals, it often supports thinking through difficult tasks, calming down in stressful situations, and planning actions. However, prior research has found that inner speech may be less developed in some autistic children, which could make it harder for them to use language as a tool for emotional regulation.</p>
<p>To explore this possibility, the researchers tested an intervention called <a href="http://www.thinkinginspeech.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thinking in Speech (TiS)</a>, which was developed by an autistic speech-language pathologist. Rather than instructing children on what to think or feel, TiS helps children become more self-aware by modeling how to reflect on feelings and use words to handle challenges.</p>
<p>For example, if a child appears frustrated, the therapist might say something like, “This is what hard feels like,” and then help the child find and say a strategy like, “I need help.” Over time, the goal is for the child to internalize this kind of self-talk and apply it independently.</p>
<p>“My wife, Janice Nathan, is a speech-language pathologist who specializes in autism and related neurological disorders,” explained corresponding author Barry R. Nathan. “She had a successful private practice from about 2003 to 2020, when she retired. The mom’s of her autistic clients said they had never seen a therapy like hers, and said we should do a study of it and <a href="https://amzn.to/440dmSN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">write a book</a>, and we did both. (It turns out Janice, my wife, is autistic; she received her diagnosis in 2020 during the pandemic. Her brother and mother were autistic as well.)”</p>
<p>The study included 22 verbal children with a formal autism diagnosis, all between the ages of 7 and 11. They were randomly assigned to either begin therapy immediately or to wait ten weeks before starting. This design allowed the researchers to compare emotional changes between those receiving the therapy and those not yet treated. All children eventually received the full course of therapy, which consisted of sixteen 30-minute sessions delivered remotely over 8 to 10 weeks by trained speech-language pathologists.</p>
<p>The participating therapists—nine in total—were certified professionals who underwent an 11-hour training program. The training included presentations, practice sessions, role-playing, and feedback. This training was conducted remotely over a five-week period and totaled approximately 11 hours. It was led by Janice Nathan and followed a structured format that combined theoretical instruction with practical application.</p>
<p>To be approved to work with study participants, therapists had to demonstrate mastery of the material, the ability to apply TiS techniques with flexibility and sensitivity, and a strong commitment to preserving the child’s self-worth throughout the intervention. During therapy, a caregiver was present, and each session began by letting the child choose from various activities, helping ensure the sessions were child-centered and collaborative.</p>
<p>To measure changes in emotional dysregulation, the researchers relied on caregiver-completed questionnaires at three points: before therapy, after 10 weeks, and again at 20 weeks. The main measure was the Emotion Dysregulation Inventory, which includes two scales. One tracks dysphoria—feelings of unease or low mood—while the other measures reactivity, or how quickly and intensely a child becomes emotionally upset. A third scale, from a separate inventory, measured how well children were able to control their emotional responses in daily life.</p>
<p>The results showed that children who received TiS therapy experienced a reduction in dysphoria compared to those who were still waiting for treatment. This was seen in both groups once they had completed therapy, suggesting that the timing of the intervention mattered less than receiving it at all.</p>
<p>Reductions in emotional reactivity were also observed, though these changes were marginally significant in the full sample and more robust in the group that received therapy later. Notably, younger children seemed to benefit less from the therapy in terms of emotional reactivity, highlighting the possible role of developmental stage in how children respond to inner speech interventions.</p>
<p>While TiS did not significantly improve children’s ability to control emotions in the broader behavioral sense measured by the executive functioning scale, it did appear to reduce the emotional distress children felt. These findings suggest that the therapy may help children feel better even if it doesn’t immediately change all aspects of emotional behavior.</p>
<p>Nathan highlighted three main takeaways: 1.) Autism is neurological, not ‘behavioral’ and there’s a lot of research that backs this up. 2.) Janice’s therapy reduces emotional dysregulation because it focuses on problem-solving, not problematic behaviors. 3.) Her therapy can be taught remotely and delivered remotely.”</p>
<p>Importantly, no adverse events were reported during the study, and families generally completed all sessions. Therapist fidelity to the TiS method was also high, with most completing over 75% of the key tasks across sessions. However, one unanticipated finding was that therapists often did not consistently communicate the therapy strategies to caregivers.</p>
<p>“The one thing that we did not expect is that trained speech-language pathologist did not communicate about the strategies they were using with caregivers as we had expected,” Nathan said. “We will revise the training to emphasize this more, and provide some role-playing exercises. Janice also believes that maintaining the child’s self-esteem is a critical part of her therapy, but we did not measure this.”</p>
<p>There are some other limitations to keep in mind. The sample was small, consisting of only 22 children and nine therapists, all of whom were non-Hispanic white females. Because all participants were verbal and had internet access, the findings may not apply to nonverbal autistic children or to families without access to telehealth services. Also, the study did not directly measure inner speech, so it’s unclear how much the children internalized the modeled strategies. Future studies should include measures of inner speech development to better understand how these changes relate to improvements in emotional regulation.</p>
<p>The researchers acknowledge that these findings are preliminary and that a larger, more definitive trial is needed to confirm the therapy’s effectiveness and they hope to expand the work. “We’d like to continue this research with more therapist, more children, and more sessions with the autistic children,” Nathan explained. “We also would like to add self-esteem measures.”</p>
<p>“Doing research outside academia is <em>extremely</em> difficult,” he added. “We were only able to do this because we found academics who believed in what we were doing, and made this a part of their research program. But this opportunity is also drying up with the new Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services. Hopefully, under a new administration we can continue our research. But Janice and I are both old, and we’re not sure if there still time.”</p>
<p>The study, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.70053" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Developing Inner Speech to Help Autistic Individuals Improve Their Self-Regulation Ability: A Pilot Randomized-Controlled Trial</a>,” was authored by Barbara L. Baumann, Janice Nathan, Barry R. Nathan, Miriam Sheynblyum, Valire Carr Copeland, Carla A. Mazefsky, and Shaun M. Eack.</p></p>
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<p><strong>Forwarded by:<br />
Michael Reeder LCPC<br />
Baltimore, MD</strong></p>
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