UK links deprivation and literacy levels

A UK study, commissioned by Booktrust, reveals worrying indications that the UK is divided into two nations - the 'Haves' and the 'Have-nots' of literacy.

The 'page turners,' those who read daily or weekly and reap the benefits that books offer, make up 50 per cent of the population.

Across the cultural divide, the 'button pushers', who prefer more intuitive activities such as watching TV and DVDs, make up 45 per cent.

The study indicates links between deprivation and not reading books, those who never read live in more deprived areas, with a higher proportion of children living in poverty.

Those who read less are also more likely to be male, under 30, and have lower levels of qualifications, happiness, and satisfaction within their lives.

Viv Bird, Chief Executive of Booktrust, said: "This research indicates that frequent readers are more likely to be satisfied with life, happier and more successful in their professional lives. But there is a worrying cultural divide linked to deprivation."

"There will never be a one size fits all solution when it comes to social mobility, but reading plays an important role – more action is needed to support families."

Led by Professor Cathy Nutbrown from the University of Sheffield's School of Education, the research suggests that there are strong indicators of the importance of literacy, reading, and writing, among other factors, in contributing to positive social mobility.

The study also suggests that reading 'rubs off' in the home, with families playing a crucial role in fostering a love of reading.

At the launch of the research findings today (11 March 2014), academics from the Sheffield University attended a conference organised by Booktrust, an organisation which promotes the lifelong benefits of reading and writing, in a bid to kick start a national conversation about improving social mobility by encouraging reading earlier and more often.

Booktrust commissioned the Sheffield University School of Education to investigate the historical relationship between attitudes to reading and writing and social mobility.

The review draws on a range of literature, archive material, family interviews and data gathered using social media to explore this issue.

Your Mind-Wandering Is Robbing You of Happiness

“The main thing is to get what little happiness there is out of life in this wartorn world,” Clare Boothe Luce advised her young daughter, “because ‘these are the good old days’ now.” And yet most of us are conditioned to escape into the past, into the future, into our to-do lists — to wander off away from the present, even as we chronicle the moment in real-time on various lifestreaming platforms.

If you’ve read any of these seven essential books on happiness or taken the sage advice of Jackson Pollock’s dad, the research findings from his Track Your Happiness project Matt Killingsworth shares in his TEDxCambridge talk will be of no surprise.

Still, there’s something grounding about the unequivocal empirical evidence of something most of us intuit on some level, often with great discomfort.

Strikingly enough, that mind-wandering is a cause rather than a consequence of unhappiness is at once jarring and heartening — it suggests that by training our minds to be more fully present, we’d be honing our capacity for happiness, something Eastern philosophy has long maintained.

But perhaps the most surprising and most commanding finding is that even when people’s minds wander off to pleasant things, they’re less happy than when they are fully present in the moment:

Depression: Is This Peptide a Key to Happiness?

What makes us happy? Family? Money? Love? How about a peptide? The neurochemical changes underlying human emotions and social behaviour are largely unknown. 

Now though, for the first time in humans, UCLA scientists have measured the release of a specific peptide, a neurotransmitter called hypocretin (Orexin), that greatly increased when subjects were happy but decreased when they were sad. 

Credit: © lassedesignen / Fotolia

The finding suggests that boosting hypocretin could elevate both mood and alertness in humans, thus laying the foundation for possible future treatments of psychiatric disorders like depression by targeting measureable abnormalities in brain chemistry.

In addition, the study measured for the first time the release of another peptide, this one called melanin concentrating hormone, or MCH.

Researchers found that its release was minimal in waking but greatly increased during sleep, suggesting a key role for this peptide in making humans sleepy.

The study is published in the March 5 online edition of the journal Nature Communications.

"The current findings explain the sleepiness of narcolepsy, as well as the depression that frequently accompanies this disorder," said senior author Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Sleep Research at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

"The findings also suggest that hypocretin deficiency may underlie depression from other causes."

In 2000, Siegel's team published findings showing that people suffering from narcolepsy, a neurological disorder characterized by uncontrollable periods of deep sleep, had 95 percent fewer hypocretin nerve cells in their brains than those without the illness.

The study was the first to show a possible biological cause of the disorder.

Since depression is strongly associated with narcolepsy, Siegel's lab began to explore hypocretin and its possible link to depression.

Depression is the leading cause of psychiatric disability in the U.S, Siegel noted. More than 6 percent of the population is affected each year, with lifetime prevalence exceeding 15 percent.

Yet the use of antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), has not been based on evidence of a deficiency, or excess, of any neurotransmitter. Several recent studies have questioned whether SSRIs, as well as other depression-fighting drugs, are any more effective than placebos.

In the current study, the researchers obtained their data on both hypocretin and MCH directly from the brains of eight patients who were being treated for intractable epilepsy.

The patients had been implanted with intra-cranial depth electrodes by Dr. Itzhak Fried, a UCLA professor of neurosurgery and psychiatry and a co-author of the study, to identify seizure foci for potential surgical treatment. The location of electrodes was based solely on clinical criteria.

The researchers, with the patients' consent, used these same electrodes to "piggyback" their research. A membrane similar to that used for kidney dialysis and a very sensitive radio-immunoassay procedure were used to measure the release of hypocretin and MCH.

The patients were recorded while they watched television; engaged in social interactions such as talking to physicians, nursing staff or family; ate; underwent various clinical manipulations; and experienced sleep-wake transitions.

Notes of activities were made throughout the study every 15 minutes in synchrony with a 15-minute microdialysis sample collection by a researcher in the patients' rooms.

The subjects rated their moods and attitudes on a questionnaire, which was administered every hour during waking.

The researchers found that hypocretin levels were not linked to arousal in general but were maximized during positive emotions, anger, social interactions and awakening.

In contrast, MCH levels were maximal during sleep onset and minimal during social interactions.

"These results suggest a previously unappreciated emotional specificity in the activation of arousal and sleep in humans," Siegel said.

"The findings suggest that abnormalities in the pattern of activation of these systems may contribute to a number of psychiatric disorders."

Siegel noted that hypocretin antagonists are now being developed by several drug companies for use as sleeping pills. The current work suggests that these drugs will alter mood as well sleep tendency.

The Siegel lab has also previously reported that hypocretin is required for the "pursuit of pleasure" in rodents but plays no role in avoidance behavior.

"These results, in conjunction with the current findings, suggest that hypocretin administration will elevate both mood and alertness in humans," Siegel said.

5 Things Parents can do to Help Children Enjoy Life

There is clear evidence that how parents interact with their children has a lasting effect on the kind of person the child grows into, how happy they will become and how much they will enjoy life.

Whilst at Chicago University, Kevin Rathunde conducted a number of family behaviour studies and observed that teenagers who had a certain type of relation ship with their parents were significantly happier, more satisfied and stronger in most life situations than their peers who did not have this relationship.

The optimal family relationship can be described as having 5 characteristics;

1. Clarity - Clarity of family goals should be unambiguous.
2. Centering - Providing Feedback on the moment or time they are in. Not pre-occupied with future careers or potential outcomes. 
3. Choice - Provide a Feeling of Control over choices but this also includes Consequences.
4. Commitment - Concentration on the task in hand. Becoming unselfconsciously involved.
5. Challenge - Provide increasingly complex opportunities for action or development

The presence of these 5 conditions make possible what is described as the "Autotelic Family Context," because they provide an ideal training for the enjoyment of life.

Consequences

It is essential that parents provide realistic encouragement, support and motivation to their children in all their activities, leaving room for them to succeed or fail on their own terms and to experience the consequences.

It is equally essential that parents refrain from sugar-coating and soft-padding the reality of life's ups and downs. 

Consequences are a part of life's rich tapestry and the sooner children understand that they are responsible for their own actions the better for them.

The parent is there to provide reassurance that their children are loved and belong as part of a 'family' who support and encourage each other. It is part of the responsibility and consequence of being a parent.

Let Go of Unachievablle Goals and be Happier

Reaching for the Moon? People who let go of unachievable old goals have a better quality of life, McGill University researchers have discovered. The discovery was made when they were studying data of breast cancer patients.

Researchers had studied 176 breast cancer survivors between the ages of 28 and 79. Self-reports of the individual's capacity to adjust their goals were measured at the start of the study. At the same time, researchers measured self-report of physical activity, sedentary activity, emotional well-being, and daily physical symptoms such as nausea and pain.

Three months later, they took a look at another round of self-reports. The study found that goal reengagement (being able to set new goals) was associated with more physical activity, increased emotional well-being and fewer physical symptoms. In addition, breast cancer survivors who were able to let go of old goals and to find new ones were less sedentary, which contributed to improved well-being. These findings support earlier research showing that goal adjustment can influence better well-being and health.

"By engaging in new goals a person can reduce the distress that arises from the desire to attain the unattainable, while continuing to derive a sense of purpose in life by finding other pursuits of value," said Carsten Wrosch, researchers at Concordia University's Department of Psychology and Centre for Research in Human Development. "Abandoning old goals allows someone to invest sufficient time and energy in effectively addressing their new realities."

Researchers have also suggested that breast cancer survivors should engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity physical activity every week to gain health benefits.

"It is safe, feasible and effective for enhancing well-being and health among breast cancer survivors," said Catherine Sabiston, researcher at the McGill University. "Unfortunately, few survivors are engaging in the recommended levels of activity."

"Our research reveals that the capacity to adjust goals plays a pivotal role in facilitating not only high physical activity but also low sedentary activity and thereby contributing to overall improved well-being," said Wrosch. "Given that it is possible to influence adjustment to specific goals; it may be beneficial to integrate goal adjustment processes into clinical practice."

Do You Have a Happy Child?

According to a Web site called the Baby Center (US) and Baby Centre (UK), a child's happiness in life can be shaped by a parent.

One may think that it's easy to make a child happy; just give him candy, just give her a toy and everything will be better, right? But that isn't necessarily the case.

One needs to give one's child the proper tools early on for creating a happy life but how can a parent teach that to a 5-year old?

A parent should be able to give a child enough space for free play. That is unstructured, unencumbered time to do what s/he wants without being told as to what s/he needs to do.

Your children are being told every day what to do; don't cross the street, finish your milk, take a nap, etc.

By allowing enough time each day for them to discover what makes them happiest, you are not only raising a happy child, you are giving him/her the skills to think him/herself.

This is linked to another tip from Baby Center, in which a child has to be able to solve his/her own problems without help.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't care as a parent; just let them figure out the little things: how to turn on a light, how to wash their hands in the sink, etc.

These small decisions will lead to bigger things such as how to verbalise feelings without throwing a tantrum, how to say what they want to say with kindness, etc.

The premise is; when kids are given enough freedom to understand concepts on their own terms they learn to be good adults.

Where does this leave you as a parent? You are still responsible for the connection between mind and body which means you still need to form boundaries through the food they eat, the time they sleep, etc.

Nurture the child, don't stifle them and you'll have an exceptionally happy child on your hands.

How to be happy: a psychotherapist's view

Philippa Perry is not a scientist or a psychologist, which always makes me cautious in examining any claims regarding potential results coming from the proposed therapy.

She is a psycho-therapist who writes for the Guardian in the UK and here is an extract from her article on 'How to be Happy'. Judge for yourself if this will be effective and help you in your life.

"I cannot pretend that there is a simple set of instructions that guarantees happiness. We all come from a distinctive combination of genes, and have had a unique set of relationships and experiences that formed us to the shape we are in now; one size does not fit all. But there are underlying principles that can help us.

When it comes to our brains, all humans are born prematurely, as many of the neural pathways in our brains are formed after we are born, and in relationship with our earliest caregivers. If they do a good job, manage to soothe us regularly when we are upset, we eventually internalise this process.

We also need our parents to validate our various moods and mental states in a safe way as we grow up; acknowledging when we are hurt, in pain, or joyful. This allows us to develop all parts of our personalities. If some of our moods are punished or ignored, trouble can arise later on in life.

As you learn together with your earliest caregivers how to regulate your emotions, your brain will be making lots of new pathways that are necessary for you to learn to become comfortable with your emotions and manage them for yourself. 

Your earliest bonds also serve as a model for all subsequent relationships, teaching you to form nourishing, enriching, and mutually beneficial relationships throughout your life. 

The bulk of these neural connections happen before you are two years old. In other words, much of the wiring up that determines how you respond emotionally and conduct relationships, happened pre-verbally. 

The logic, reason and language part of your brain develops so slowly that most of the patterns for how you feel are formed before you can reason with yourself and others.

If your relationship with your early caregivers was less than ideal, or you experienced trauma so shocking it undid the security established in your infancy, it is possible that later on in life you may find yourself in emotional difficulties. 

Although it is too late to have a happier childhood, that doesn't mean you can't be happier in the future. Your brain is fairly plastic and you can make new neural connections to change that chemistry so that you can improve your self-soothing, self-regulation and how you behave in relationships.

How do you do that? There isn't a foolproof prescription – if you are in a downward spiral you need to interrupt that spiral with medication, or a different set of behaviours, or something else. I'm being vague on purpose; what works for me might not work for you. But there are four underlying structures for positive change:

1. A safe, trusting, reliable relationship that is for your sake. Not necessarily a romantic relationship, but a nurturing one (it could be with a therapist, or a teacher). We are formed in relationship – so the easiest way to re-form is in a relationship.

2. Positive stimulation – good stress. Enough to push you to learn new things, but not so much it tips you over into panic. Good stress enables new brain connections to be made and a plastic brain is what you need for personal development and growth. Examples could be learning to play a musical instrument, or a new language.

3. Develop your self-observational side. This is an accepting and non- judgmental part. It acknowledges emotions but gives you space to decide how to act on them. This part listens to and brings together your emotions and your logic. To help, try keeping a diary, or practise meditation, get used to noticing your feelings and thoughts without judgment.

4. A fresh perspective on your personal narrative. Because so much of our self is formed pre-verbally, the beliefs we live by can be covert. It is important to view your life from fresh angles and to let go of fixed ways of defining yourself. You may have beliefs that start with, "I'm the sort of person who . . ." or "I always . . ." these might benefit from a rethink and possibly rewrite with a trusted person or group. 

For example, change a message such as, "I must meet my soulmate before my life can really start" to, "What happens when I notice the negative thoughts I have about other people, but don't act on them – what changes in how I then relate to them and how people relate to me?"

These four processes are a framework for change. The content will always be different for each individual Finding out about that content and how to change it is down to yourself."

Philippa Perry is the author of Couch Fiction, published by Palgrave Macmillan

10 Things to Consider: Parenting and Nurturing Skills for Parents

Consider the use of eight expert-approved strategies to further nurture an engaging, resourceful, creative, curious, and considerate child.

Boost Your Childs' Brains and Physical Health
Most doctors recommend no TV or screen time for kids under 2 years old, and no more than two hours a day for everyone older.

This includes computers, video games, and DVDs but beware you do not inadvertently undermine this recommendation by putting TVs in the children's bedrooms. "The best place for a TV and a computer is in a space shared by the whole family," says Susan Linn, EdD, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School.

Kids between 1 and 14 years whose bedrooms are TV-free have lower rates of obesity. They score higher on standardised testing. They go to sleep at least half an hour earlier each night, fall asleep easier and establish a good sleep pattern.

Build up an Immunity to Consumer Culture
Science has demonstrated a link between increased exposure to ads and increased rates of children consuming high-calorie foods, abusing alcohol, and smoking. "You can work with your child from the age of 4 or 5 to build up resilstance to the consumer culture," says Tim Kasser, PhD, a psychology professor at Knox College in Illinois and a father of two boys, ages 9 and 11.

When his family watches TV, Kasser mutes the commercials while his sons make up their own dialogue. "Now if you ask my children what an ad is, they will reply, 'They want your money!' " he says.

Inspire Your Kids to Be More Active
Making a contract with your 8 to 12-year-old child to watch less television will make him or her more active, according to a study at the University at Buffalo. "Give your kids points for spending time outside," says Leslie Sim, PhD, a child and adolescent psychologist at the Mayo Clinic. "Then let them exchange those points for special activities with Mom or Dad.

Do not buy them 'stuff' as a reward. Make the reward something that is inexpensive but is going to be truly meaningful to the child. Most kids want a chance to spend time with their parents and to 'do' things with them, that's a big reward for them and it gives everyone great memories to look back on.

Be a Player, get involved
Brain development research shows that infants learn best through human interaction, manipulation of their physical environment, and open-ended, creative play, says Michael Rich, MD, PhD, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital in Boston.

Yet a host of commercially produced "educational" video products have been created for parents with babies and toddlers. "Any time spent in front of a screen takes away from more developmentally optimal activities (quality time)," says Dr. Rich.

Make Play Fun
Sim offers these simple tips to enhance play: Don't instruct, don't question, do praise, do imitate, and be enthusiastic and verbal in how you describe the child's play. In fact, fathers have a greater effect than mothers on their children's language development in families with two working parents, according to a study in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

It doesn't say whether it was a good effect or not but I would definitely discourage the use of 'adult' language around the child. It is clearly detrimental to the development of good vocabulary and social interaction. It's not funny and it's not clever. Buy a parrot if you want to teach something to swear!

Bond at the Dinner Table
Eating in front of the TV is bad and clearly associated with a) a severe dependency or need to spend more time watching TV or b) an inability to break with the habit, or c) a complete breakdown in inter-family communications, according to a study carried out by the University of Washington.

On the other hand, family meals that are taken away from the TV lounge, are associated with smarter, healthier kids, says William Doherty, PhD, a professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota.

To make family meals work, make it an enjoyable experience:

• Both parents must be commited to doing this,
• Switch the TV off! - Don't just have it on in another room. That will not do!
• Involve the children in the preparation and cleanup of meals. Assign them tasks to do,
• Be prepared for them making a mess in th ekitchen, i.e. spilling milk, breaking the odd cup, covering the cat in flour, etc. Don't make a fuss about it! They're learning,
• Start and finish meals at the same time. The meal is not over until everything is washed up and cleared away.
• Use the knives, forks and spoons supplied. Do not eat with your fingers.
• Don't make food an issue. Don't badger the kids about finishing all their greens,
• Have a round-the-table discussion or talk. Talk about what happened today and any other topics that the kids enjoy. (This could be one of the father's new roles)
• Give each child a chance to speak and encourage them to say something.
• Praise their efforts and value their comments
• Discourage insults and counter any attacks on each other's self esteem

Show the Love
It may be easier to give your children another hour of Nickelodeon or to buy them the latest Transformers model, than to struggle against it but it is more valuable to both you and them, to give them your time and attention instead.

This can be particularly difficult for single parents but do try. If it is proving too difficult, please contact me directly for more information and support on raising a balanced and well rounded child, as a single parent .

Your children want to spend time with you. They want to have a share in, and be a part of, you and your life. Sadly, if you don't spend time with them now, when they are young, they will not feel the need to spend time with you later in life.

Father's Role
Father's think that this can be a particular problem for fathers, because they are told that their primary role is as a defender and provider. Unfortunately, they have a very narrow definition of what 'providing' means and connect with providing money and stuff.

This thinking is stuck in the medieval age and no longer applies today. It hasn't done for centuries. The truth is, fathers have never been clearly informed or have not truly accepted their new role as a father in the modern world.

Two Parent families
In two parent families, fatherhood involves the provision of guidance, teaching and nurturing in a collaborative and cooperative partnership. Equally sharing and taking half the load, in caring, nurturing and being an active player, in developing the best outcome possible in raising a child.

Follow your children's lead and show them that you are part of their world. Let them know you care. You do this by being involved in everything they do. You show active interest in what they think, in what they are doing or in what they want to do.

Studies show that kids who receive more one-on-one attention from their father as well as their mother, grow up more secure, confident and very socially active.

Free Your Child's Creativity
At age 5, kids prefer timeless toys such as generic dolls, stuffed animals, and cars, yet only two years later, these preferences are replaced with brands such as Dora and SpongeBob, imposed on them by targetting the child in TV marketing and other advertising.

Licensed and branded characters come with a pre-constructed set of parameters and abilities. They stifle the creativity, imagination and encourages a shallow sense of materialism. Child development experts recommend buying only unlicensed, unbranded products and encourage parents to discourage the over-exposure of children to marketing vehicles, such as TV, film, cartoons, etc.

Inundating children with branded stuff fills their heads with inappropriate, unachievable expectations and deprives them of opportunities to look inside themselves and imagine, to create their own imaginary worlds and personalised storylines.

A Strong Sense of Self
Children's Creativity, should be positively re-enforced and encouraged to produce an outward expression in the form of art, music, play acting, etc. Being part of the whole process of imagining, creating and producing, the child develops a really strong sense of purpose and self.

A self that can work with and stimulate the child's own imagination. A self that can not only create something unique, but also direct it, or control it entirely by themself, via their own thought processes.

Question?
Would you rather have a child with an active animated personality or a personality whose activities are driven by animations?

Just as your child has entered your world, you now must be prepared to join the child in their world, however they imagine it. Always remember to enjoy your time together and you will be laying down happy memories for the future.

Should you have any questions or comments to make on this article, please send me a message and I will respond as immediate as possible.