Depressed mothers are more likely to needlessly wake up their infants at night than mothers who are not depressed, according to Penn State researchers. "We found that mothers with high depressive symptom levels are more likely to excessively worry about their infants at night than mothers with low symptom levels," said Douglas M. Teti, associate director of the Social Science Research Institute and professor of human development, psychology and pediatrics. (more)
Attitude may play an important role in how exercise affects menopausal women, according to Penn State researchers, who identified two types of women -- one experiences more hot flashes after physical activity, while the other experiences fewer.
"The most consistent factor that seemed to differentiate the two groups was perceived control over hot flashes," said Steriani Elavsky, assistant professor of kinesiology. (more)
Some people quit smoking on the first try while others have to try to quit repeatedly. Using such mobile technology as hand-held computers and smartphones, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh is trying to find out why.
"One thing that really stood out among the relapsers is how their urge to smoke just never dropped, in contrast to those who were successful in quitting for a month -- their urge dropped quickly and systematically -- almost immediately upon quitting," said Stephanie Lanza. (more)
People who are excluded by others online, such as on Facebook, may feel just as bad as if they had been excluded in person, according to researchers at Penn State and Misericordia University. (more)
A new book by Barbara Rolls, professor of nutritional sciences and Helen A. Guthrie Chair in Nutrition at Penn State, aims to help people control their hunger while also losing weight. "The Ultimate Volumetrics Diet" will be available in stores and online on April 10. "There is no magic way to get around the fact that to lose weight you must reduce the calories you consume to below the number you burn," Rolls said. "However, cutting calories doesn't have to leave you feeling hungry. You can carefully choose the foods you eat so that you feel full and satisfied on fewer calories." (more)
Whether you call it "pink slime" or lean, finely textured beef, you can call it a much-maligned product at the heart of an emotional controversy fueled by misinformation, according to a meat expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. The stuff made headlines recently when it was reported that the federal government plans to buy ground beef that contains the product, also known as LFTB, in the coming year for use in the national school lunch program's beef products. After a newspaper broke the story, a national furor erupted, and "pink slime" became the most searched topic on the Internet. (more)
Less than 10 percent of people with heart failure receive supportive or palliative care beyond basic medical services, but a new research project, funded by a $1.7 million grant from the National Institute for Nursing Research to Penn State's School of Nursing, aims to change the situation. (more)
Mothers who financially struggle to provide food for their families tend to put themselves at risk for obesity while trying to feed their children, according to Penn State sociologists. Mothers who do not have enough money to provide adequate food for their families are more likely to be obese or overweight than fathers who face food shortages, as well as food-insecure, childless women and men, said Molly Martin, assistant professor of sociology and demography. Over time, these food-insecure mothers also gain more weight compared to all food-insecure men and food-insecure women not caring for children.
"We often forget that food insecurity is happening in a country as rich as ours," said Martin. "Trying to protect children from food insecurity is not as rare as it once was, and it's been on the rise for the last two years, if not the last five years." (more)
Beliefs about nature and nurture can affect how patients and their families respond to news about their diagnosis, according to Penn State health communication researchers. Understanding how people might respond to a health problem, especially when the recommendations for adapting to the condition may seem contradictory to their beliefs, is crucial to planning communication strategies, said Roxanne Parrott. (more)
Couples who are married or living together will probably have more trouble parenting as a team if they have been violent toward one another during pregnancy, according to a team of psychologists. "This finding is helpful because working as a parenting team, in what we call the co-parenting relationship, is a key influence on everything from mothers' postpartum depression to sensitive parenting to the children's emotional and social adjustment," said Mark E. Feinberg, research professor, Prevention Research Center for the Promotion of Human Development at Penn State. (more)
