Parenting and Depression

Parenting and Depression

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Season 1, Episode 18 , Segment 4

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

G Proteins

Mar 4, 2015
27 m

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.

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.