Parenting

          // Editor's note: Brain Basics from Scientific American Mind is a series of short video primers on the brain and how we feel, think and act.

Interviews with parents and siblings of several juvenile shooters reveals that the families never come to terms with who their child really was and what he did

Bossy, know-it-all older sisters everywhere now have something else to lord over their younger siblings: Researchers have found that firstborn girls are the most ambitious and successful children in their families.

Should we worry about arachnids crawling into our mouths while we’re in dreamland?

In the 1994 film Junior, a male scientist becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. It's a rather ridiculous tale, but if any man could be given the superpower of giving birth, my dad should have been the one.

New techniques help kids develop healthy behaviors and lasting resilience

The essential guide to improving kid behavior and resilience

Contrary to cultural assumptions that boys are stronger and sturdier, basic biological weaknesses are built into the male of our species. These frailties leave them more vulnerable than girls to life’s hazards, including environmental pollutants such as insecticides, lead and plasticizers

Tasks that seem mundane, or even difficult, can bring a sense of meaning over time

In 1970, 150,000 U.S. children were taking stimulant medications. By 2007, that number had risen to 2.7 million, according to pediatrician Sanford Newmark of the University of California, San Francisco.

Most moms and dads are not taught how to parent. We are supposed to just know what to do, I suppose. But even if you have a relatively calm and obedient child, moments inevitably arise when you could really use an owners manual.

The Synapse Project “encourages young women to enter the field of neuroscience through information and mentorship,” according to its website.