Parenting

�� research shows ongoing costs faced by parents after California’s Eaton Fire

Carrie Spector — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 17:06:12 +0000

�� research shows ongoing costs faced by parents after California’s Eaton Fire

Carrie Spector Wed, 06/11/2025 - 10:06

In a new report, Associate Professor Antero Garcia examines challenges around caregiving for families working to recover from a disaster. (Photo: iStock)

Parenting | Social and Emotional Learning

Associate Professor Antero Garcia interviewed mothers in Pasadena and Altadena about the disaster’s lasting impact on caregiving and decision-making.

June 24, 2025

By Carrie Spector

In January, more than 100,000 California residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to the Eaton Fire, which would become the second most destructive wildfire in California history. Thousands of structures in the Pasadena and Altadena area burned to the ground — and months later, even residents whose homes survived are still displaced, wrangling with insurers and weighing the health risks of the damage their neighborhoods sustained.

Antero Garcia, an associate professor at �� Graduate School of Education whose research frequently centers the voices of people from historically marginalized communities, set out to investigate the Eaton Fire’s toll on parents who were directly affected, particularly mothers from a variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. Through in-depth interviews with mothers of school-age children living in or near Pasadena and Altadena, he explored the ways in which they’ve managed complex decision-making around the fire and its aftermath, as they’ve balanced concerns for their children’s well-being with the ongoing disruption to their lives.

In a new report, Garcia identifies some common themes that emerged, from decision fatigue and survivor’s guilt to a groundswell of community support. The report also provides recommendations for policymakers and strategies for families navigating disaster recovery.

We spoke with Garcia about his motivation for this research, what he learned, and the role caregiving plays in recovery long after a disaster happens.

Associate Professor Antero Garcia (Photo: Caitlin Fisher)

What drew you to embark on this project?

I was noticing on social media the ways that parents, particularly mothers, were discussing air quality and safety issues in the area during and after the fire, and seeing how they were engaging in highly scientific conversations around peer-reviewed journal articles and emerging data. They were basically doing the work of climate scientists, having to make decisions about whether it’s safe for their kids to return to their house, play in the park, or go to school.

That led me to think through the kinds of caregiving challenges and other burdens that parents were experiencing. In addition to dealing with their own displacement and grief and trauma, they were now also thinking about air quality, safety, and risk. They’re also dealing with insurance concerns and their kids’ social and emotional well-being – added layers that were largely invisible and haven't been addressed by the media as closely as other issues like rebuilding and remediation.

Why did you choose to focus on mothers?

Partly it was the nature of who I found in these forums discussing this. But I think we know that the majority of the burden of caregiving and parenting in America right now is usually shouldered by women. I wanted to focus on who's carrying the most of this invisible labor right now.

You found that, even months after the fire, families are dealing with many of what you describe as invisible costs. What are some examples?

For one thing, even though most of the mothers I interviewed did not completely lose their homes, they were still burdened by damage that has not been covered by insurance or FEMA. Several ended up paying out-of-pocket to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars for remediation to their homes — things like debris removal, insulation, air restoration, and soil testing. Others who are working through their insurance companies are still living in rental units and have not been reimbursed.

On top of the financial costs, the moms consistently talked about the emotional stress of moving to temporary housing, and the need to support and console their children. So many of the mothers I spoke with noticed ways in which their kids were acting differently after the fire. One mentioned that any time she lights a candle, her daughter gets anxious about it. Another talked about how her kid is regularly pretending and thinking about evacuation, hyperfixating on it.

Survivor’s guilt was another common experience, even though every family was severely affected with ongoing disruptions to their lives and routines. There was also a lot of decision fatigue, with mothers feeling overwhelmed weighing the potential health risks of their homes and schools and parks against the emotional needs for stability and a sense of regularity.

You also saw generational differences in people’s decision-making. How so?

A number of women talked about how older family members, even on the night of the fire, acted like they were blowing it out of proportion. One woman told me that her mother, who had worked as a housecleaner in the past, said, “I'll just go to your house and do a little bit of cleaning. I'm sure it's fine. It's probably just a little dusty.” And even when she realized that the task of cleaning up the ash inside the house was not something she could manage, she still was surprised that her daughter and her family weren’t going back to live in the house yet.

I saw an ongoing tension with many families whose neighbors might be older and never evacuated or might've only evacuated for one night, how they were really surprised by the severity with which these younger families are taking precautions right now. It's not necessarily along class divides — these are family members in very similar socioeconomic contexts, but with generational differences between what counts as a risk and what’s acceptable.

One bright spot you found was how families and neighbors supported each other in caregiving through this ordeal. What did that look like?

There were immediate networks of care and communication that emerged — everything from parents opening their homes for displaced families to kids giving away their toys to their classmates and friends who’d lost everything. One mom talked about how she’s added extra time every day for school drop-off in the morning because she knows there’s going to be a more holistic check-in with other families. Things that seem like minor social niceties have an increased weight on them because of this shared traumatic experience. A number of community-driven responses that were more scattershot at first are now cohering around particular structures, like listening sessions and town halls.

You write that “we need disaster responses that treat caregiving as central infrastructure.” What do you mean by that?

When we talk about disaster response for something like a fire or an earthquake or a hurricane, we tend to think only about emergency aid, like the Red Cross or FEMA. But we also need to think about the prolonged commitment of caregiving.

These mothers were naming so much of the extra work that needs to be considered in our understanding of disaster recovery. Caregiving is a part of recovery and relief that's going to last long after the event, and it falls heavily on parents and teachers and the broader social structure looking out for young people. That labor is the foundation on which recovery is built.

Research Stories

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Faculty mentioned in this article: Antero Garcia

Youth mental health: Finding support

Olivia Peterkin — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 20:22:19 +0000

Youth mental health: Finding support Olivia Peterkin Fri, 09/20/2024 - 13:22

Parenting | Race and Equity | Students

On this episode of School’s In, �� Dr. Steve Adelsheim discusses destigmatizing mental health needs, how adults can support student success.

September 26, 2024

By Olivia Peterkin

The mental health crisis among youth has led parents, educators, and policymakers to look for solutions that benefit the well-being of children and adolescents. Dr. Steven Adelsheim, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at �� School of Medicine, says early intervention is key.

“The earlier we can link young people to the supports they need, as well as their families, the better outcomes people have,” he says on the latest episode of School’s In, a podcast of �� Graduate School of Education. “Not only short-term, but long term as well.”

Adelsheim joins hosts GSE Dean Dan Schwartz and Senior Lecturer Denise Pope as they discuss destigmatizing the expression of mental health needs, how parents and schools can support students, and models for success in improving well-being.

Adelsheim’s work involves cultivating behavioral health partnerships in the community that value the input of young people. Part of that work has included the creation of Allcove, a model that brings community-based behavioral and mental health resources to places near where youth live, learn and play.

“One of the things that's exciting about these Allcove models is that they really are grounded in the idea that young people have a critical role in creating safe and comfortable places for other young people to come in,” Adelsheim said.

He says the input from young people and peer mentoring relationships available at Allcove centers are possible because newer generations feel less stigma in discussing the topic of mental health. A model he hopes parents and older adults will follow.

“I think there's more of an acknowledgement that all of us as human beings have these issues,” he said.

“For young people from very diverse cultures, there was quite a bit of stigma and taboo in many cultural groups around talking outside of the immediate family about mental health challenges. And I think for many of our young people, there's more of a willingness to acknowledge it.”

“And so we're seeing a lot of peers interested in supporting each other as well.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with their emotional health, the National Institute of Mental Health lists resources on their webpage.

Subscribe to School’s In on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

Steven Adelsheim (00:00):

We do need to acknowledge we have serious challenges in terms of really creating the mental health support that our young people need.

Dan Schwartz (00:11):

Today, we are addressing a critical and timely issue. This is the mental health of our children. Unsurprisingly, the pandemic played a large role in our students' mental health, and it intensified the challenges many young people face. It's made it more important than ever to understand the signs and know how to support them.

Denise Pope (00:30):

I completely agree, Dan. We are seeing rising rates of anxiety, depression, other mental health issues, and it's really crucial for parents and educators and communities to come together to support the young people. This is not just a side issue. This is a really central issue facing our kids today.

Dan Schwartz (00:47):

Fortunately, we have Dr. Steven Adelsheim, and he's going to help to guide us through this conversation about mental health.

Denise Pope (00:56):

Welcome to School's In, your go-to podcast for cutting-edge insights in learning. Each episode, we dive into the latest trends, innovations, and challenges facing learners. I'm Denise Pope, senior lecturer at �� GSC and Co-founder of Challenge Success. And I am with my co-host, Dan Schwartz, who is Dean of the �� Graduate School of Education and Faculty Director of the �� Accelerator for Learning.

Dan Schwartz (01:26):

He's a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist who works to support community behavioral health partnerships locally, regionally, and at the state and national level. He is the Director of the �� Center for Youth Mental Health and Well-being in the Department of Psychiatry. And he's partnered in developing statewide mental health systems, including those focused on school mental health. And so for many years, Steven's been developing and implementing early detection and intervention programs for young people both in school and in primary care. So Steven, I'd sort of like to start indirectly. How did you get into this business?

Steven Adelsheim (02:03):

The truth is Dan, I actually started thinking in high school that I really did want to actually become a child and adolescent psychiatrist. And I was a pre-med psychology major in college. And my first job was on an adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit. And then I worked in a very rural community in Alaska and actually went and worked in schools doing... In villages, in rural Alaska, working with kids in different school settings. And I did that for a year before I started medical school.

Denise Pope (02:40):

So then Steve, I know you did a lot up until this point, but one thing that I'd love to talk about on this show is this new thing, this allcove. Do you want to ease us into that?

Steven Adelsheim (02:53):

Sure. I was a director of school mental health programs actually in the state of New Mexico for about 16 years. And I was in New Mexico for 28 years before coming to work at ��. And during that time, I spent at least a day a week working in school-based health centers. And in that role I worked with all the school health and mental health professionals. I worked side-by-side with primary care providers working in school-based health centers. And at the state level, we were really expanding access to health for adolescents really through school-based health center settings. I found that after doing that for a very long time, it was really great work in terms of early detection and there were young people that didn't want to talk to someone at the school. There were issues about what would happen over the summer. There were concerns about issues related to the confidentiality.

(03:55):

There were principals turning over on a regular basis, some of which said, this is all really nice, but our job is education. It's not about the healthcare of our students. And so there was a point where I started looking for other ways to provide the support in the community side-by-side with school mental health services so we could more broadly build those connections. So we learned about this model called Headspace back in Australia. This was before the meditation app. And Headspace was this clinical program for young people, 12 to 25 to come in on their own or with a friend for early mental health care and primary care, support, education, employment.

(04:42):

We learned it was a model that was very successful in Australia, and I'll share with you now there 170 Headspace centers in Australia, which is half the population of California. And this is a model that every legislator in Australia wants to have in their home community. And it's a model that really has taken off all over the world. And so we started exploring how do we bring this community-based access to the young people of the United States and particularly starting here in California.

Dan Schwartz (05:17):

So you rent space off the school campus or?

Steven Adelsheim (05:21):

Actually no. We really look for physical spaces in the community that are near transportation, that are near community centers, that may be accessible from the school but aren't really by or necessarily next door to a school, but accessible for students. And we continue the initial model. We see young people 12 to 25, and our role as a center has really been to support the implementation of this model. And so we've worked with the state of California's Mental Health Services Commission to create some initial funding. And now through the Department of Healthcare Services, there's more funding. There are three of these centers open right now, one in Palo Alto, one in San Mateo, one down in Redondo Beach, allcove Beach Cities. And we've got eight more actually on the way that are sort of in the process of getting started that are physical spaces in the community for young people.

Denise Pope (06:25):

So Steve, if I am a parent who's worried about my kid or a teacher who's worried about a kid, how does this work? They go to allcove and what do they get? How do you get in?

Steven Adelsheim (06:35):

Great question, Denise. So these allcove centers are run by different agencies and basically young people can walk in for some initial support. And these centers have early mental health care. They do sort of short-term therapy. They have physical healthcare providers as well. They have peer support specialists. They have people who work with you around supported education and employment, early addiction treatment as well. And you can schedule an appointment or you can go in. Most of the centers have evening and other weekend activities so that young people can come in for a group or an activity and just get a feel for the place, see if they're comfortable there. And then they might decide they want to talk to a therapist there. They might want to talk to a peer support specialist about some issues that they may be dealing with or want linkages to other supports and services. So we see these as central hubs for young people to access the supports they need either on site or with linkages into the community.

Denise Pope (07:46):

And I just want to point out that that's super rare, that typically what used to happen, and Steve correct me if I'm wrong, is someone would be worried about a kid. Maybe they'd have to go to an emergency room and get a psych hold placed on the kid and the kid would... Then they'd have to find a place like a hospital to hold the kid. Or you just are on a wait list for months to try and find a therapist for your own kid and to have the ability to walk in and get care almost immediately, right Steve? it's like a miracle for some of these kids and for some of these families.

Dan Schwartz (08:21):

So, well, I've heard from teachers and principals that mental health issues on adolescents are becoming more pressing concern. And I know you do lots of important surveys. Do you collect information on this?

Denise Pope (08:40):

Yeah, so challenge success, we don't collect specific information like a modified depression index or something like that. But one of the main questions that we ask early on in our survey to adolescents is what are some of your major sources of stress? And we have about 30% of our students are saying that mental health is a major source of stress. So most of them are choosing workload or homework or grades, but mental health comes up quite frequently, and particularly if they are LGBTQ or from historically marginalized communities, we see that even higher.

Dan Schwartz (09:24):

Does the item say mental health?

Denise Pope (09:26):

It says mental health. Yeah. So it's a pull down menu, right?

Dan Schwartz (09:29):

How do you think people interpret that?

Denise Pope (09:31):

That's a great question, Dan, because sometimes they'll say it's just overwhelming stress. Sometimes they will name things as depression or anxiety, which may not be officially diagnosed depression or anxiety, but they will say things like, I can't fall asleep because I'm always so stressed, or I'm freaking out about this, or I get so nervous that it prevents me from doing things. Or I'm afraid to do some of the things that I'm normally doing. I can't get out of bed in the morning, right? So we hear all sorts of things in our focus groups. But we also just know from statistics around the country, even the U.S. surgeon General has written about this, that particularly since COVID, the mental health of adolescents has really been getting worse. And there's a very high percentage of parents who said 35% of teens according to parents experience mental health issues. And it's definitely become a more prominent thing that people are worried about, always worried before the pandemic, but now even more so.

Dan Schwartz (10:38):

Some of it is I don't do the things I normally do.

Denise Pope (10:43):

Or I can't, my brain is not allowing me to, right? I'm perseverating or I'm catastrophizing, or I just can't fall asleep because I'm spinning, right? We have some of that, but we also have literally, I'm too anxious. I can't get out of bed, I won't go to school.

Dan Schwartz (10:59):

That's a complicated set of feelings.

Denise Pope (11:07):

We know that the challenges facing youth's mental health today are really, really significant, but the good news is, so are the opportunities to make a difference. So Steven, can we go a little bit deeper into how these community-based approaches like the allcove model are really empowering young people to take control of their health and also to support each other?

Steven Adelsheim (11:27):

One of the things that's exciting about these allcove models is that they really are grounded in the idea that young people really have a critical role in creating safe and comfortable places for other young people to come in. So the allcove centers all have very active youth advisory groups that are made up of the diversity of the communities where they're developed. And those young people make a lot of the decisions about hiring, about the look and feel of the place, about the groups and different activities that happen at allcove centers.

(12:01):

And they are the voice of outreach also that will tell their friends, this is a comfortable place to come into and you should feel free and comfortable coming here. Whether to be hanging out with other youth or be able to get access to some type of service as well. So that peer voice is really important when young people come in. A peer specialist is often the person that greets you at the door and helps you decide what kind of services you might want or gives you a tour of an allcove center so you can get a sense of what's going on there and what's available as well.

Denise Pope (12:39):

So a peer specialist is like a 15-year-old, like a kid?

Steven Adelsheim (12:44):

No, no. The peer specialists that are there, generally people with lived experience who are employed and work there. But at the same time, one of the things that's interesting Denise, as you say, is that we're finding that actually many of our youth advisors, as they're progressing through their maybe year or two of leadership training and development of the youth advisors, a number of them are actually taking jobs as peer support specialists in these different allcove settings. And we're seeing it become almost beginning of a behavioral health workforce in terms of seeing those roles happen.

Denise Pope (13:21):

Well, that's good because I know we are desperado for more people to go into this, right? We don't have the adults employed to cover the need of all the kids who need clinicians and therapists, right?

Steven Adelsheim (13:34):

Absolutely. And one of the things that also has been happening is we see young people, and I would say the generation of youth, we have now quite a bit more comfortable talking about mental health issues. The stigma issues are much less for them than for many of us in our generations. And so we're seeing a lot of peers interested in supporting each other as well. So we're seeing frankly at many of the high schools in California and in programs across the country, the development of peer-to-peer opportunities. And this is for that 15, 16, 17-year-old student you were talking about, to get skills to learn how to support themselves and support their friends and have those conversations. So we've also been working with a group of young people as well to develop a peer-to-peer curriculum so that youth can start then supporting other youth directly, allcove centers as potential places where then that training and support can also happen down the road.

Dan Schwartz (14:38):

Can I ask a slightly tangential question?

Steven Adelsheim (14:41):

Sure.

Dan Schwartz (14:42):

So a couple years ago, I'm at a dinner and a very senior famous psychologist professor asked me about my feelings and I say, "I don't really like to talk about my feelings." Is this a generational shift? This sort of willingness to talk about one's mental contents?

Steven Adelsheim (15:02):

I think there's more of an acknowledgement that all of us as human beings have these issues. I think culturally, we see a real difference. I think for young people from very diverse cultures, there was quite a bit of stigma and taboo in many cultural groups around talking outside of the immediate family about mental health challenges. And I think for many of our young people, there's more of a willingness to acknowledge it. We see it in our famous American athletes now breaking down that stigma. And for many others, it's becoming more comfortable just to acknowledge that this is part of our lives.

(15:43):

Just like any other medical condition, we have mental health conditions as well. And so I do think at least there's some more honesty about it. We will encourage parents to be more honest with their own kids about their own challenges, their own failures, their own struggles. So their parents don't often come across as sort of perfect beings that never had a problem in their lives. And then their kids thinking, well, what am I doing with all these issues? My parents are so perfect. So we're trying to build that intergenerational conversation, but it's the young people who were more comfortable with it, frankly right now.

Denise Pope (16:23):

Okay, a cynic... And I'm not a cynic, but a cynic might say, is this too much? Because now you've got kids who are sort of self diagnosing as depressed when they're not. Everything is now elevated. I'm having a mental health crisis. We see some reports saying maybe we're doing too much. I am not this person. I'm just asking you as a potential cynic might say. How would you react, Steve?

Steven Adelsheim (16:49):

I still feel like we have a long way to go to be doing enough, to be quite honest with you. I think it's great that young people are getting more sensitized to these issues. I am grateful that we're creating opportunities to develop resiliency skills potentially in some school settings. We had a youth mental health crisis before the COVID epidemic, and it's only been accentuated over time. And so even if you look nationally at the rates of young people with serious depression, anxiety, higher rates of not only suicide attempts, but at times suicide rates going up in our young people, we do need to acknowledge we have serious challenges in terms of really creating the mental health support that our young people need.

Denise Pope (17:37):

So if you are a parent or an educator, what are some things to look for? Because I think we miss a lot, right? What are some things to look for?

Steven Adelsheim (17:46):

I think some of the key things really to be looking for are a change in a young person. And that can often be whether or not they're struggling to get out of bed to go to school, but also less interest in social activities, more time spent at home alone in their room not interacting or socializing with friends. Often tearfulness, for many young people there are also increasing somatic complaints. So what I mean by that is sometimes kids will have more stomach aches or more headaches or more physical complaints or saying, I don't feel well. I can't go do whatever my regular activity might be as well. So all of those things can be signs of the potential of an early mental health challenge, which at least it's important to check in well with our kids and see how they're doing.

Denise Pope (18:47):

And we usually tell people, if you're at all worried, you go talk to a pediatrician, talk to the school counselor, but don't just ignore it. Parents are like, oh, teenagers will be teenagers. They're moody, they're sulky, they have outbursts, right? But it's better to catch this early. Is that right, Steve?

Steven Adelsheim (19:04):

Well, like any other medical condition, early intervention has really shown for all mental health issues to be really beneficial as it is for anything else. And so the earlier we can link young people to the supports they need as well as their families, the better outcomes people have. Not only short-term, but long term as well.

Dan Schwartz (19:26):

What's an example of an early intervention to help?

Steven Adelsheim (19:30):

In a school setting, it would frankly be a young person telling their friend that maybe they're feeling like they don't want to go out with their friends anymore, they're feeling sad, or they're feeling like they don't have the motivation anymore to do their work. And they tell their friend and their friend actually convinces them to go with them to talk to the counselor at school in very simple terms. Or if they refuse to go to that friend, maybe even telling their parent, I'm worried about my friend here and I just want you to know that this is going on. And then having that family member taking it seriously. And then really, like Denise said, maybe calling up the pediatrician and asking for that early guidance.

Dan Schwartz (20:18):

So the kid goes to the counselor and then what happens?

Steven Adelsheim (20:22):

The truth is, I think it really varies in terms of our school settings and our counselors. Right now in California, as we're seeing the broader potential for school mental health professionals to be more involved directly in therapy, I think there are more opportunities for young people to get that supported school, often, as I mentioned, working in school-based health centers. We have community providers also in school where even that school counselor can say, let's go talk to that person from the neighborhood mental health organization who's at our wellness center. And let's have an initial conversation with them and see what kind of support you need.

(21:06):

And then it might be some kind of talking through with that young person what's been going on, helping them maybe in a few sessions sorted out. Or maybe that young person says, "I don't want to talk to someone at school."

(21:18):

And then the counselor can help make that call or connection to the allcove center down the street to be able to help that young person get over there for a first visit as well. Or maybe talk to the family with that young person and get them to the allcove center for early support.

Denise Pope (21:35):

This has been so helpful. I have one question that I know people will probably have on their mind, which is early prevention. What can I do as a mom to really support mental health? I mean, should we take the phones away? Should we prevent them from ever going to parties? People are just grabbing at things because they're so nervous about this suicide rate going up and the levels of depression and anxiety. What do you think?

Steven Adelsheim (22:06):

Yeah, I think we're seeing a lot of things about the dangers of social media, but I have to say that from the work that I and our center teams have been doing, I think we feel like there's some real benefits for young people around social media. And what's important is they get support to think about how to use it safely. Our young group of advisors through a good for media program, our young people that are mentoring other youth and how to use social media in ways that support their mental health, they put out a guide for parents on how to talk to your kids about using social media.

(22:43):

They provide support for young people and how to think about what to turn on and what to turn off for it to be safe. I think for parents, what's really important I think, is to find those ways to check in and to listen to young person and to be able to do that in informal ways, to do it in a non-judgmental way. And I think our young people are getting pretty good at sort of having a sense of what they need. And I think being able to trust that without us really sort of telling them necessarily all the time what they need in terms of some of those issues.

Dan Schwartz (23:17):

We hear you Stephen. We definitely want to equip everyone with the right tools to succeed. So thank you so much for sharing your insights today. The work you're doing to support youth mental health is crucial. It's innovative, it's making a difference, and it's going to help us face these ongoing challenges.

Denise Pope (23:35):

I completely agree. I completely agree, Dan. And now it's time to talk takeaways and I will kick us off this time. I think the biggest one for me is really the importance of early intervention. Catching mental health issues early seems to make all the difference. And I think having community-based resources like the allcove centers also really helps make support more accessible for our kids. It gets them in there and we know that they're getting the help that they need.

Dan Schwartz (24:00):

And for the parents and educators, the thing that stood out to me is remember to stay engaged and watch for changes in behavior that might signal something more serious. And of course, just continue to encourage conversation as much as we can.

Denise Pope (24:14):

That's right. We've got to show up for the kids. So keep your eyes and ears peeled for those opportunities. So Steven, thank you so, so much. We learned so much today. Thank you for this really important discussion and thank all of you for joining us on this episode of School's In. Remember to subscribe to our show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you tune in. I'm Denise Pope.

Dan Schwartz (24:40):

And I continue to be Dan Schwartz.

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Faculty mentioned in this article: Dan Schwartz , Denise Pope

Author Bonnie Garmus shares her recipe for more gender equity in the sciences, at �� GSE event

Brooke Donald Gorlick — Mon, 06 May 2024 01:31:08 +0000

Author Bonnie Garmus shares her recipe for more gender equity in the sciences, at �� GSE event

Brooke Donald … Sun, 05/05/2024 - 18:31

Author Bonnie Garmus was the featured speaker at the 2024 �� Graduate School of Education Cubberley Lecture. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

Events | Parenting | Science and Math Education

Novelist says passion, education, teamwork, and even anger are necessary to create more inclusive spaces.

May 4, 2024

By Olivia Peterkin

Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry, says she wrote the first chapter of her novel on the heels of a presentation meeting gone awry because a man in the room claimed credit for her work and no one said anything in her defense.

As she stewed, Garmus — who was a copywriter in tech at the time — thought about the many other women who felt invisible or ignored. For her, writing the book was a way to use her talents to give voice to women experiencing inequity in male-dominated occupations and spur change by connecting people to a shared message.

“When I was writing this book, I was writing my own role model,” Garmus said to a crowd of about 500 on May 2, at the 86th annual Cubberley Lecture, a series hosted by �� Graduate School of Education (GSE) that tackles important topics in education. “We really have to change this idea that women are less.”

“I think over and over again, it starts with education,” Garmus said. ”My book, I'm very pleased to say, has been adopted into a lot of schools – high schools and colleges – and it's been adopted in London into a whole bunch of boys' schools.” She says she regularly hears from children and others about its impact.

The fireside chat was moderated by GSE Associate Professor Christine Min Wotipka, AM ’99, PhD ’01, and touched on writing, parenting, and issues pertaining to gender, science and education, among other topics.

“Tonight's program is about exploring ways in which we can change the world to make it more inclusive and respectful for our teaching and learning environments,” GSE Dean Dan Schwartz said at the beginning of the event. Noting that authors are frequent guests at GSE events, he added, “We know books are means of scaling experiences and stories that help create change.”

This year’s lecture was co-sponsored by the �� Storytelling Project, the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, and the Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at ��’s School of Humanities and Sciences.

It starts with a spark

The main character in Garmus’s novel, Elizabeth Zott, is a 1960s chemist turned cooking show host who, much like the author, channeled the anger she feels into a positive platform for solutions.

“If I could give one piece of advice to an aspiring writer or agent for change, it would be to use your bad mood,” Garmus said. “If you’re being discriminated against, anger is something that’s necessary to fight a good fight.… I wanted Elizabeth Zott to be credited for being mad and doing something about it.”

Covalent bonds

Garmus went on to share that passion and conflict aren’t only good for introducing characters in a story, it’s what galvanizes people around a shared goal.

Integral to any sort of societal change, whether small or systemic, is cooperation from people on all sides and of all different backgrounds, Garmus suggested. Cooperation is something she believes women can bring into any room, and something that’s needed in order for societal norms around STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Medicine) to move forward.

“It's important that we listen to everybody's voice, because we have a myriad of problems to solve and we need the best minds on all these problems,” Garmus said.

In the book Zott, like Garmus, rows for exercise. The sport, she says, highlights what can be done by a group of very different people moving toward a collective goal.

“Rowers know you may not like a single person in your boat, you might hate everybody's guts in your boat, but the minute you get in and you're in a race, you work together,” she said. “If you're a rower, you want to win, and winning requires cooperation.”

Testing a new hypothesis

Guests in the audience, which included �� students, local residents, parents, and educators, were invited to ask their own questions during a public Q&A. An eighth grader from Marin asked about the inspiration for a character’s name. A postdoc from �� wanted to know Garmus’ ideas for increasing the pipeline of women and girls going into STEM.

In response to a question about how educators and parents can support students in becoming anything they want to be, she said simply getting out of the way will do a lot to remove limits on what they can accomplish.

“I know that there is a huge amount of pressure to make sure your kid gets a job,” said Garmus, who has two daughters. “And I know the job market right now is not fun for kids, but I'm kind of living proof that if you just keep at your passion, it will bear fruit.”

Garmus also shared the story of a young woman in Harlem, who wrote to her after reading Lessons in Chemistry.

“Her mother was a crack addict, she didn't have a father, and she never graduated from high school,” Garmus said. “She wrote to me saying that she always wanted to be a lawyer, and asked what Elizabeth Zott would tell her to do.

“I said, I want you to go down to community college and I want you to enroll,” Garmus said. “Long story short, this young woman went to the community college and she so impressed the faculty that within a year they got her a full ride at a four-year college, studying pre-law.

“This book has given me this huge gift of hearing from people all over the world, every single day, but her story is special because it shows that in the end, the only one who's not letting you achieve your dreams is you.”

Attendees take pictures of their books before the 2024 Cubberley Lecture with author Bonnie Garmus. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

GSE Dean Dan Schwartz welcomes guests to the 2024 �� Graduate School of Education Cubberley Lecture. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

Bonnie Garmus (left) sits with Professor Jo Boaler (center) and Associate Professor Christine Min Wotipka (right) at the 2024 Cubberley Lecture at ��. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

About 500 community members inside and outside of �� attended the conversation between Associate Professor Christine Min Wotipka and author Bonnie Garmus. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

Associate Professor Christine Min Wotipka and author Bonnie Garmus take questions from the audience at the 2024 Cubberley Lecture at ��. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

Women clap following the discussion between Associate Professor Christine Min Wotipka and author Bonnie Garmus. The annual �� Graduate School of Education Cubberley Lecture is a public forum for important topics in education. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

Author Bonnie Garmus signs her book at the 2024 �� Graduate School of Education Cubberley Lecture. (Photo: Ryan Zhang)

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Faculty mentioned in this article: Christine Min Wotipka , Jo Boaler , Dan Schwartz

Supporting kids from cradle to career in Central Harlem

Carrie Spector — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 21:34:58 +0000

Supporting kids from cradle to career in Central Harlem

Carrie Spector Fri, 06/24/2022 - 14:34

Image: GuVi Design / Shutterstock

Early Childhood | Parenting | Poverty and Inequality

Child advocate and researcher Geoffrey Canada talks about a model program he founded to help break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

June 24, 2022

In the 1990s, Geoffrey Canada set out to improve one disinvested block of a Harlem neighborhood as part of a mission to help children and families get out of poverty. The initiative he founded, the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), has been so successful that it’s now expanded to a 97-block zone of interconnected neighborhood services, and serves as a model for similar programs in other cities.

In this episode of School’s In, Canada, named one of TIME magazine’s Most Influential People in 2011, joins �� Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and Senior Lecturer Denise Pope to discuss how wraparound services, including education, wellness, playgroups, and home support, have ensured the continued success of the HCZ and the families it serves.

Getting parents on board is the first step, says Canada. He credits his own mother and her purchase of an encyclopedia set for starting him on his path. “That kind of parental intervention absolutely changed our lives,” he says. “We're sitting in this urban slum; the plaster is falling from the ceilings, nothing is working, and we're reading about Afghanistan.”

To develop one of HCZ’s signature parent-support programs, Baby College, Canada partnered with the famed pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, operating under the principle that parents need more than pamphlets during the crucial first years. Canada was struck that while new research on early childhood development was generating high-profile media coverage around the world, the science had not reached Harlem.

His team posted flyers encouraging parents to attend the first meetings of Baby College, but turnout was slim – until they came up with the idea of giving away free diapers at the sessions. Then, the line went around the block.

Canada recalls his staff members griping that the content of the program wasn’t enough to get parents to attend. “Get over it,” he said. “If they don't show up, we can't help them. Let's just get them there and save your moralizing for another time. Our job is to make sure these parents know what they need to do to protect their children.”

And HCZ provides comprehensive services and education that go far beyond babyhood – from cradle to career, Canada says. “The way you're going to ensure those kids have even a modicum of a chance to be successful is you’ve got to stay with them throughout their whole childhood.”

You can listen to School's In on SiriusXM, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Soundcloud.

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An optimistic look at Generation Z

Carrie Spector — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 18:15:00 +0000

An optimistic look at Generation Z

Carrie Spector Wed, 04/06/2022 - 11:15

j.ennifer / Shutterstock

Parenting | Social and Emotional Learning | Technology

�� cultural anthropologist Roberta Katz shares some good news about the generation that grew up alongside the internet.

April 8, 2022

Gen Z, generally defined as the generation born between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s, is the first generation to grow up with all of the power of the internet at its fingertips. It's a generation that has been raised, to no small degree, by the internet itself.

There’s a lot of bad-mouthing of young people who seem to have their eyes glued to their phones. But in interviews for her new book, Generation Z, Explained: The Art of Living in a Digital Age, �� cultural anthropologist Roberta Katz found that these are people who want to make a positive difference in the world. The internet has given them a front-row seat to so many problems around the globe — and, Katz said, “they want to be part of the solution.”

On this episode of School’s In, Katz, a senior research scholar at the �� Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and vice-chair of its board, joins Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and Senior Lecturer Denise Pope to discuss how the internet has shaped the cultural norms and values of those born after 1995.

For her book, Katz and her co-authors conducted 120 interviews, backed up with survey data from some 1,000 Gen Z-ers in the United States and another 1,000 in Britain. “Their life has been one of constant change,” Katz said. Without the relevant expertise of their teachers, parents or other adults, “they’ve had to figure out new ways of growing up. And they are learning about how to contend with this unprecedented amount of information.”

When Katz asked the survey respondents for their favorite mode of communication, she expected to hear texting or email — but almost everyone said face to face. “These young people who have grown up in the midst of all of this digital technology are adamant about preserving our humanity, our messy, emotive humanity,” said Katz.

With fundamental technological change comes fundamental social change, Katz said. Gen Z is very aware of the risks to humanity today — “climate change, gun violence, you name it,” she said. “And they care about each other. It’s all about keeping us from being machines.”

You can listen to School's In on SiriusXM, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Soundcloud.

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COVID-19 and children: What will 2022 bring?

Carrie Spector — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 18:31:17 +0000

COVID-19 and children: What will 2022 bring?

Carrie Spector Mon, 01/31/2022 - 10:31

Aratta_Artbox / Shutterstock

Early Childhood | Parenting

On this episode of School’s In, Yvonne Maldonado, MD, shares the latest science on the impact of the coronavirus on kids.

February 3, 2022

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, it may feel like we're still dealing with many of the same struggles and uncertainties we were facing two years ago. But plenty has changed — including our understanding of the impact of the virus on kids.

On this episode of School’s In, Yvonne Maldonado, MD, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases and of health research and policy at �� Medicine, joins �� Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and Senior Lecturer Denise Pope to talk about the latest on COVID-19 and children.

Misconceptions abound, in part because of early beliefs about how the virus spread, Maldonado says. Even at the federal level, “people [were] saying that (a) children don't get infected, (b) children don't get sick if they get infected, and finally, that children don't transmit it to others,” she says. “Those are all things that do happen. Somehow in this country and in the western world, people just discounted the pediatric component. Even today, I still hear from people who don't think kids get infected or sick.”

Children also appear to be susceptible to long-term symptoms after an infection, the phenomenon known as long COVID. “What we don't know is what that looks like, how many kids get it and how long it's going to last, because obviously we're only two years in here — we don't know,” she says. “But we do think that kids can have symptoms even three, six, eight months after their primary infection that primarily seem to be neurologic or developmental.”

Vaccination rates for children ages 5–11 have fallen short of expectations, Maldonado says. “The vaccine was approved under emergency use for 5- to 11-year-olds the first week of November, and we saw 10 percent or 2.8 million kids come in to get vaccinated that first week or two,” she said. But after that, “the numbers just kind of flattened out.”

For parents fearful of sending young ones to school during the pandemic, Maldonado points to large-scale studies of school districts showing fewer outbreaks where mask and distancing measures are in place. “We’re hearing, unfortunately, from some people who claim to be infectious disease experts and epidemiologists that masks have not been proven to work, and that’s absolutely false,” she says. “We know that masks work, and we have the data to prove it.”

You can listen to School's In on SiriusXM, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Soundcloud.

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How to calm a stressed kid? A one-minute video can help, according to �� researchers

Carrie Spector — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 02:21:55 +0000

How to calm a stressed kid? A one-minute video can help, according to �� researchers

Carrie Spector Fri, 11/26/2021 - 18:21

Mindfulness practices have found their way into the classroom at many schools, but a new �� study is the first to show that a few slow-paced breaths can significantly alter a young child’s physiological stress response in everyday settings. (Photo: GOLFX / Shutterstock)

Early Childhood | Parenting | Social and Emotional Learning

A �� study shows that taking a few slow, deep breaths significantly reduces children’s physiological arousal in everyday settings.

November 29, 2021

By Carrie Spector

It’s one of the first things parents and teachers tell a child who gets upset: “Take a deep breath.” But research into the effect of deep breathing on the body’s stress response has overwhelmingly ignored young children – and studies done with adults typically take place in a university lab, making them even less applicable to children’s actual lives.

A new study by �� researchers is the first to show that taking just a few slow, deep breaths significantly reduces young children’s physiological arousal. By measuring the effects in naturalistic settings such as day camps and playgrounds, the study is also groundbreaking for its design, which more closely reflects a child’s experience than a study in a lab would.

What’s more, the short, animated video developed for the study is now freely available online, providing a proven tool that can be used in the classroom to introduce children to deep breathing as a way to self-regulate. It can also help parents prepare kids for a potentially stressful situation – a vaccine appointment, say, or a holiday gathering.

“This study is the first to show that taking a few slow, deep breaths in an everyday setting can have a significant effect on a child’s stress physiology,” said the study's lead author, Jelena Obradović, an associate professor at �� Graduate School of Education (GSE) and director of the �� Project on Adaptation and Resilience in Kids (SPARK Lab). “But just telling children to take a deep breath may not be enough – children need scaffolding. So we’re excited that we can also offer an easy-to-use tool to help kids learn this technique.”

The study, which was coauthored by GSE research associate Michael J. Sulik and doctoral student Emma Armstrong-Carter, was published on Nov. 16 in the journal Developmental Psychobiology.

“Just telling children to take a deep breath may not be enough – children need scaffolding. So we’re excited that we can also offer an easy-to-use tool to help kids learn this technique.”

Jelena Obradović

Associate Professor, �� Graduate School of Education

Designing a realistic field experiment

Mindfulness practices that incorporate deep breathing, such as yoga and meditation, have found their way into the classroom at many schools. But prior to this study, research had not clearly shown whether slow-paced breathing itself could significantly alter a young child’s physiological stress response, the researchers said.

They set out to isolate the activity of breathing and investigate its impact – taking practical considerations into account, including the likelihood that young children might not have the capacity for even a couple of minutes of deep breathing, and that they would need help learning how to do it.

“When you ask young children to take a deep breath, many don’t really know how to slowly pace their inhale and exhale, if they haven’t had any training,” Obradović said. “It’s not intuitive for young kids. They are more successful in taking several deep breaths if they have a visual guide.”

To help elementary schoolers learn the technique, the researchers worked with a team of artists at RogueMark Studios, based in Berkeley, Calif., to produce a one-minute video. The animated video shows young children how to slowly inhale by pretending to smell a flower and to exhale by pretending to blow out a candle.

“From a pragmatic point of view,” Obradović said, “we thought a very short sequence, four breaths, seemed doable for this age group.”

For their randomized field experiment, the �� researchers recruited 342 young children – 7 years old, on average – with their parents’ permission, at a children’s museum, a public playground and three full-day summer camps in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Roughly half of the children were assigned to a group to watch the animated video with the deep breathing guidance. The rest watched an informational video that featured similar animated images but did not involve the breathing exercise.

All of the children were shown their assigned video in small groups, at tables set up adjacent to the site from where they were recruited, to maintain a natural setting for the study. Also in keeping with the real-life approach to the study design, the researchers did not monitor children or provide extra encouragement to implement the deep breathing instruction.

This “intention-to-treat” approach – analyzing all subjects, whether or not they engaged with the intervention – is widely considered to provide more insight into the potential effectiveness of the intervention once it is applied in everyday group settings, like classrooms, where not everyone is likely to take part, Obradović said.

Measuring the body’s response to everyday challenges

Researchers measured two biomarkers in all of their recruits: heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), which refers to the changing pace of the heartbeat when a person inhales and exhales.

RSA plays an important role in influencing heart rate, Obradović said, and it has been linked to children’s ability to regulate their emotions, focus their attention and engage in tasks.

“When it comes to measuring the effects of deep breathing on stress physiology, RSA seems to be the most appropriate biomarker,” said Obradović. “RSA is the only pure measure of the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, the system we’ve evolved to help us deal with everyday challenges – the kinds of challenges that don’t require a flight-or-flight response.”

The change in the measures was profound: RSA increased and heart rate decreased only in response to the deep-breathing video, and the effects were greater during the second half of the video, which included most of the deep breathing practice. The children in the control group showed no change in either measure.

“Our findings showed that guiding a group of children through one minute of a slow-paced breathing exercise in an everyday setting can, in the moment, significantly lower the average level of physiological arousal,” Obradović said.

Further research should examine the effect of deep breathing in this age group after a stressful or challenging experience, she said. “But the fact that children of this age can downregulate their stress physiology even when they’re relatively calm offers promise that the technique will be even more effective when they’re frustrated or upset.”

Access the full version of the video, with an introduction to deep breathing, or a shorter video with the deep breathing practice only.

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Faculty mentioned in this article: Jelena Obradović

Everybody chill now

Carrie Spector — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 18:10:20 +0000

Everybody chill now

Carrie Spector Fri, 08/06/2021 - 11:10

JB Design / Shutterstock

Parenting | Social and Emotional Learning

�� mindfulness expert Emma Seppälä explains how young people and adults alike can benefit from learning restorative practices like meditation.

August 6, 2021

Maybe your family is a little stressed right now? Don’t beat yourself up.

“Nobody really knows how to regulate their emotions,” said Emma Seppälä, science director at ��’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. “We learn critical thinking, we learn coding, we learn all sorts of things, but who’s ever taught us how to regulate our emotions, even as children?”

Instead we “suck it up,” which hurts our bodies and damages our relationships. Even exercising when you’re highly stressed can strain your heart. But we can always learn better ways.

On this episode of School’s In, Seppälä, author of The Happiness Track, shared some mindfulness and emotional relaxation strategies with �� Graduate School of Education Dean Dan Schwartz and Senior Lecturer Denise Pope.

Mental health problems are up due to the loneliness and lack of social connections brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, said Seppälä, “we complain about stress but we also worship at the temple of stress … because we believe that’s how we get stuff done.”

In reality, calmer people are more creative and productive, Seppälä said. She walked the hosts through an abbreviated version of a research-tested breath exercise, which trains the calming response that counters fight-or-flight.

Such strategies should be taught in school, Seppälä said. If you don’t meditate, “you could be walking past sort of a gold mine in bringing out the best in yourself as well as really strengthening your well-being.”

You can listen to School's In on SiriusXM, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Soundcloud.

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Student stress during the pandemic

Carrie Spector — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 23:35:10 +0000

Student stress during the pandemic

Carrie Spector Fri, 03/26/2021 - 16:35

Image: mmstudiodesign / Shutterstock

K-12 | Parenting | Social and Emotional Learning

Denise Pope talks about COVID-19’s impact on students’ mental health and engagement with school.

March 22, 2021

High school students are experiencing rising stress levels and lower engagement with learning since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study by NBC News and Challenge Success, a nonprofit affiliated with �� Graduate School of Education (GSE).

Kids feel that “they are more stressed than they were before the pandemic, they have more work, they are less engaged in school, and their relationships with teachers and [other] kids are strained,” says Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at �� GSE and co-founder of Challenge Success.

On this episode of School’s In, Pope talks with show co-host and GSE Dean Dan Schwartz about the study – one of the largest national research projects to shed light on the pandemic’s impact on student connection, engagement and mental health. She also shares what parents and educators might take from its findings in the days and years ahead.

In addition to grades, workload and time management, the study found that one of the top sources of stress for students was lack of sleep. This surprised Pope, who thought remote learning would give students more flexibility and time to sleep. But 43 percent of the students reported sleeping less, and about 5 percent said they were getting less than four hours a night.

Other sources of stress included college and the future, finances and a lack of time to play and relax. Females and students of color in particular experienced high levels of stress and pressure.

Some good news: “People are now much more aware of these problems,” says Pope. “I think more teachers recognize the importance of checking in on mental health and how it’s connected to academics, and how it’s part of their job.”

You can listen to School's In on SiriusXM, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Soundcloud.

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Faculty mentioned in this article: Denise Pope

��-led study highlights the importance of letting kids take the lead

Carrie Spector — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 23:38:13 +0000

��-led study highlights the importance of letting kids take the lead

Carrie Spector Thu, 03/11/2021 - 15:38

(Photo: Damircudic / Getty Images)

Early Childhood | Parenting | Social and Emotional Learning

Research led by Jelena Obradović finds that too much parental involvement when children are focused on an activity can undermine development.

March 11, 2021

By Krysten Crawford

Parents today often look for teachable moments – and opportunities abound. When reading a book with a child, for example, it might mean discussing story plots with him. If she isn’t allowed to play a videogame, it means explaining why.

There’s good reason for this: Research has shown that engaged parenting helps children build cognitive and emotional skills.

Too much parental direction, however, can sometimes be counterproductive, according to a new study led by Jelena Obradović, an associate professor at �� Graduate School of Education, published March 11 in the Journal of Family Psychology.

In the study, the researchers observed parents’ behavior when kindergarten-age children were actively engaged in playing, cleaning up toys, learning a new game and discussing a problem. The children of parents who more often stepped in to provide instructions, corrections or suggestions or to ask questions – despite the children being appropriately on task – displayed more difficulty regulating their behavior and emotions at other times. These children also performed worse on tasks that measured delayed gratification and other executive functions, skills associated with impulse control and the ability to shift between competing demands for their attention.

Obradović and her co-authors found that the phenomenon occurs across the socioeconomic spectrum.

“Parents have been conditioned to find ways to involve themselves, even when kids are on task and actively playing or doing what they’ve been asked to do,” said Obradović, who also directs the �� Project on Adaptation and Resilience in Kids (SPARK). “But too much direct engagement can come at a cost to kids’ abilities to control their own attention, behavior and emotions. When parents let kids take the lead in their interactions, children practice self-regulation skills and build independence.”

Obradović’s research, which introduces a far more granular measure of parental engagement than traditional methods, shines new light on how parents help and hinder their children’s development during the pivotal transition to elementary school.

It also comes as today’s parents, increasingly derided as “helicopter” and “snowplow” caregivers, are spending more time with their kids than their own mothers and fathers did – even before the COVID-19 pandemic turned many parents into primary playmates and homeschoolers.

A deeper dive into parent-child interactions

Associate Professor Jelena Obradović

Finding the right balance when engaging with children is especially important around kindergarten, said Obradović, whose research examines how caregiving environments contribute to child health, learning and well-being over time. The onset of elementary school is an especially challenging time when kids are expected to manage their attention, emotions and behaviors without parents’ direct help.

“This is a really important shift, when parents have to learn to pull back,” she said.

For their research, Obradović and her co-authors – Michael Sulik, a research scientist at SPARK, and Anne Shaffer, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Georgia – brought together a diverse group of 102 children ages 4 to 6 and their primary caregivers in a �� lab.

For two and a half hours, the kids worked on a series of tasks that have been used by child development specialists for decades to measure self-regulation, as well as executive functions deemed either “cool” (when emotions don’t matter) or “hot” (when emotions are high). The children also participated with their parents in structured activities requiring different degrees of adult interaction.

In a novel approach, the scholars had each parent and child observed separately. Using video recordings, the interactions were broken down second by second and evaluated independently. This allowed Obradović and her team to identify subtle shifts in how parents engage with their children. During a 25-minute activity, for example, a mother might follow her son’s lead for 13 seconds, then withdraw for 5 seconds, then direct him for 35 seconds.

Typically, when researchers study a given aspect of parenting, they assign a single rating for the entire interaction. But that approach can be biased by the researcher’s overall impression of the parent-child relationship.

Most caregivers seem supportive and caring, said Obradović. “On average, you don’t see a lot of parents yelling at their kids or being intrusive or checking their phones,” she said. “But there is a lot of variability within those averages, and our goal was to discover more subtle differences among parents who are generally doing fine.”

These moment-by-moment shifts in parental engagement matter. “These are subtle things, but the message that children are getting may not be so subtle,” Obradović said.

Measuring over-engagement

For their analysis, Obradović and her collaborators created a measure of what they call “parental over-engagement.” They noted the moments when a child was working independently or leading an activity, and they calculated the ratio between times when parents intervened in ways that were meant to be helpful (not harsh or manipulative) and times when parents followed the child’s lead.

The researchers found a correlation between high levels of parent involvement when a child is focused on a task and children’s difficulties with self-regulation and other behaviors. This was most apparent for children’s “hot” executive functions.

When a child was passively engaged, the researchers didn’t find any link between parental over-engagement and children’s self-regulation. According to Obradović, this suggests that there is no harm in parents stepping in when children are not actively on task.

Obradović said the point of the study is not to criticize parents. “When we talk about parental over-engagement, we’re not saying it’s bad or obviously intrusive engagement,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with suggesting ideas or giving tips to children.”

But it’s important for parents to be aware that teachable moments have their place, she said. Helping a preschooler to complete a puzzle, for example, has been shown to support cognitive development and build independence. And guidance is important when children are not paying attention, violating rules or only half-heartedly engaging in an activity.

Sometimes, however, kids just need to be left alone or allowed to be in charge. This message may be especially relevant during the pandemic, Obradović noted, when parents may wonder how much direct involvement their children need, especially with everybody balancing new obligations.

“Have that honest conversation with yourself, especially if your kid is doing OK,” she said. “As stressful as this time is, try to find opportunities to let them take the lead.”

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Parenting

������������ research shows ongoing costs faced by parents after California’s Eaton Fire

Youth mental health: Finding support

Author Bonnie Garmus shares her recipe for more gender equity in the sciences, at ������������ GSE event

Supporting kids from cradle to career in Central Harlem

An optimistic look at Generation Z

COVID-19 and children: What will 2022 bring?

How to calm a stressed kid? A one-minute video can help, according to ������������ researchers

Everybody chill now

Student stress during the pandemic

������������-led study highlights the importance of letting kids take the lead

�� research shows ongoing costs faced by parents after California’s Eaton Fire

Author Bonnie Garmus shares her recipe for more gender equity in the sciences, at �� GSE event

How to calm a stressed kid? A one-minute video can help, according to �� researchers

��-led study highlights the importance of letting kids take the lead