Insights for Raising Emotionally Healthy Kids

Explore practical, research-based guidance on child development, emotions, and parenting. Whether you’re a parent, educator, or clinician, these articles and resources support the development of empathy, self-awareness, and healthy growth from infancy through adolescence.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLE

Parental violent discipline and adolescent health: Is there a different effect when one or both parents are involved?

A new study followed over 4,600 Portuguese children from birth to age 13 to look at how parental discipline affects adolescent health. The main takeaway: when both parents use harsh discipline — whether that’s yelling and humiliating, spanking, or more severe physical punishment — the damage to kids isn’t just doubled. It can be significantly worse than that. The study also points out that most previous research only asked mothers about discipline, which means we’ve likely been underestimating how much kids are actually exposed to.

RECOMMENDED ARTICLE

Two-month-old babies are already making sense of the world

Babies aren’t just cute—they’re cognitive categorization champs! New research shows that, at just 2 months old, infants’ brains already organize what they see into meaningful categories such as animals, toys, and everyday objects. That’s way earlier than scientists thought!

RECOMMENDED VIDEO

Obsolete Brutality

Lives in the Balance, a nonprofit organization focused on helping children through compassionate, effective, non-punitive supports rather than punitive discipline, has produced a 13-minute video on the impact of school corporal punishment.