Parenting and Depression

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

Invasive Species, Wealth of Nations, Stepdads, Hostile Bosses

Episode: Invasive Species, Wealth of Nations, Stepdads, Hostile Bosses

Mar 4, 2015 10:00 pm
15:17 mins

(1:14:47) Guest: Kevin Shafer, Assistant Professor of Social Work at BYU The Brady’s made it look so easy, didn’t they? Blending families, step-parenting, finding harmony. In real-life, stepdads are really stressed out and prone to depression. Researchers at Brigham Young University and Princeton studied just how much stress different members in a blended family experienced and found dads topped the list. “We all have an image of the wicked stepmother… what Dads’ face that’s different than stepmoms, is that they have an awkward middle ground,” says Shafer, “Am I supposed to be like a biological father? Like a cool uncle? It’s quite ambiguous.” Stress and depression relates to how many new roles stepparents take on, says Shafer. “The expectations of moms are usually pretty solid... whereas for Dads there’s a lot more variability in what parenting looks like.” “I think the biggest mistake that blended families make is that they don’t communicate with each other,” says Shafer. “They don’t go in talking about all the baggage they’re bringing into the relationship, not talking about their previous marriage, not going through everything that goes with divorce, and just jumping into new relationships.” “They’re not having the conversations they need to have with their kids. If you have children who are of the age that they can communicate with you, their opinions and impressions should be integrated into what the family will look like,” says Shafer.

Other Segments

Other Segments

Eat 'Em to Beat 'Em

23m

Guest: Matt Barnes, Assistant Professor in Natural Resources Management at Texas Tech University. Co-founder of invasivore.org

G Proteins

28m

Guests: Rebecca Plimpton, PhD. Candidate in Biochemistry at BYU Barry Willardson, Faculty Advisor in the Biochemistry Department at BYU Your ability to react fast – and without having to think “Okay, I need adrenaline” – is a result of a special class of protein that has long mystified scientists. So-called “G” Proteins are like the switchboard operators in your cells, telling various processes when to turn on and off. “We were actually looking for something that happens with G proteins before its attached to the cell membrane. All proteins when they are made start out as a long string of atoms all connected together and in order for the G protein to perform its function that string has to fold into a 3-dimensional, precise shape. Our research looks at how the proteins fold into this shape,” says Plimpton.

Wealth of Nations

23m

Guest: Grant Madsen, Political Science Professor at BYU

Hostile Bosses

13m

Guest: Marie Mitchell, Associate Professor of Management at the University of Georgia The old saying goes that you attract more flies with honey than vinegar. But according to a study published in the journal of Personnel Psychology last month, employees who strike back against their abusive bosses fared better psychologically than those who cowered. “By and large a primary reaction is 3rd party employees get pretty angered by it… abusive supervision is not cool behavior.” Abusive behaviors are “incredibly financially costly to the work environment. These are not productive behaviors for the work environment.”