Jenny Anderson

Bullying is a big deal. According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, more than one out of every five American students reported being bullied in 2015. Research shows that bullies (pdf) are at a greater risk for academic problems, substance use, and violent behavior later in adolescence and adulthood. Those who are bullied are at greater risk of developing anxiety and depression.

In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, implored women to bring their whole selves to work, not just their public and professional selves. If this was tough advice to take from one of the world’s most successful women, it was just as hard for Sandberg to live up to her own standard.

Right before her summer break in 2016, Sophie got a stomach virus. The pint-sized 11-year-old from London took it in stride. An avid athlete and highly accomplished student, she clamored to get better for a trip her family was taking to Spain. She wanted to try surfing, go hiking, and play with her cousins.

Conventional wisdom has it that only children are smarter and less sociable. Parents, freed from the shackles of constantly settling sibling disputes, devote more time and money to the singleton, exposing them to a greater variety of higher-level activities (there’s a term for what happens when you spread that time and money over more kids: resource dilution). Conversely, since those only children never have to share a toy, a bedroom, or a parent’s attention, it is assumed they miss out on that critical life skill of forever-having-to-get-along.

Policy makers, tech executives, teachers, and parents are forever trying to find new ways to improve kids’ performance at school. Schools design and redesign curricula, teachers embrace and reject new learning technologies, and parents plot ways to get their kids to study more.

Striking up a fruitful conversation with your child about their day can feel like a walk in the dark. But a mountain of evidence suggests that the place where these conversations tend to happen, at the family dinner table, is critical to raising a happy and healthy child. (A recent OECD report found that, around the globe, kids whose parents spend time talking to them and eating family dinners were more satisfied with life and more performed better in science.)

East Asian students are known for trouncing most of the world in math, science, and reading. There are countless measures of the ways in which they top the charts.

According to a 2007 survey, sharing household chores ranks with faithfulness and sex as the top issues people associate with a good marriage. Not surprisingly, it is also one of the things couples fight about the most.

On March 10, 2014, my mother, my sister-in-law, and I walked up the stairs to tell my brother’s four daughters that their father had died. Though he had been sick for two years, the news came as a total shock. We each went for one child, enveloping them completely in the hope that our embrace would shield them from the horror of what we were saying. It did not. Their primal screams remain etched on my brain.

Parents and schools spend a lot of time worrying about how kids measure up academically. Less attention goes to how happy kids are while they’re learning, and what that means for parents and schools.

Most parents know that talking to their kids about all manner of things—from homework to friendship to sex—is good practice.

Last night, a group of Harvard students kicked off a four-week course dedicated to building skills to take action against Donald Trump’s agenda.

For new parents, there are few things more unsettling than an inconsolable infant. There’s an endless stream of books and articles on what the first months will be like, and charts on normal distributions of weight and length and head circumference. But what’s a normal distribution of crying?

Updated April 3, 2017

The benefits of breastfeeding are plentiful. Breast milk builds up an infant’s immune system, and may help to prevent allergies. For mothers, breastfeeding lowers the risk of developing breast cancer later in life. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, if possible.

In 2013, the UK decided to crack down on one errant corner of British society: parents who took their kids out of school to go on vacation.

Every parent has that moment when they realize their kid is having friend issues. Maybe your son was left out of a play date, or your daughter wasn’t invited to a sleepover. It sucks, but you chalk it up to building resilience (and secretly hate the kid who left your child out).

At least four people have died and around 20 others have been injured in an attack near the British Parliament in London today (March 22). The attacker reportedly ran over pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, attacked and killed a police officer with a knife, and was later shot and killed by security services. The incident is being treated as a terror attack.

Kids love to ask big questions. How did the world start? Who or what is God? What does it mean to be “good”? What is religion, and why are so many people fighting wars in the name of it?

On April 10, Sesame Street will introduce Julia, a puppet with autism, to its viewers around the world.

Competing in a Grand Slam tennis event is not for the faint of heart. Tens of thousands of fans pack the stands. Millions of dollars in prize money is at stake, with equal-size prizes for men and women.

Whether or not you have kids, you’ve probably heard of the parenting happiness gap. According to this widely documented phenomenon, having kids makes you significantly less happy than if you didn’t have any, regardless of your location or stage of life.

In the West, mindfulness, the practice of bringing one’s awareness to the present moment, is no longer the stuff of yoga classes and corporate retreats.

Women represent half the world’s population, but remain underrepresented in the work place. In 2016, men’s labor force participation rate was 76% compared to women at 50%.