Posts by Neil Petersen

From new relationships to new jobs, young adulthood is a time of transitions. And, as it turns out, that may mean young adulthood is also a time when people are uniquely at risk for developing mental health conditions. To learn more about what the life transitions of emerging adulthood mean for mental health, researchers from…

There doesn’t seem to be one kind of meditation that’s uniquely suited to improving mental health. Rather, it appears that different meditation practices can have similarly positive psychological effects. That’s what researchers in Poland discovered by studying people who regularly engaged in two different kinds of meditation: Zazen and Tai Chi. The researchers chose these…

Whether you’re a morning person or whether you prefer to burn the midnight oil may have a lot to do with your age and sex. That’s according to a comprehensive study in which researchers compiled twelve years’ worth of sleep diary entries from more than fifty thousand people – enough to fill a (very sleepy)…

And there you were thinking “beauty sleep” was just a turn of phrase. As it turns out, though, how much sleep you get influences how others perceive you in several different ways, including how attractive they find you. That’s according to a new study from researchers at Stockholm University and at the Karolinska Institutet in…

We all know that exercise and happiness go hand-in-hand. But what happens when people cut back on daily exercise – whether because they’re busy, they develop health conditions that prevent exercise, or they just lapse in their habits? You might guess that what happens is nothing good, and you’d be right. A group of researchers…

There’s nothing wrong with a little daydreaming. In fact, as I wrote about last year, certain kinds of daydreaming are associated with having a greater sense of purpose in life.

Those first teetering steps are one of the most exciting milestones of early life. Learning to walk for the first time is no easy feat (or should I say “feet”?). But it turns out that as babies figure out how to navigate the world on two legs, they have a secret weapon to help them…

When I was looking through recently published research and came across a study titled Parent-Toddler Behavior and Language Differ When Reading Electronic and Print Picture Books, I clicked on it expecting to find another study warning of the possible drawbacks of ebooks compared to good old-fashioned print. So I was surprised to find that the…

Personality traits that predispose children to risky behaviors in high school may already be apparent in elementary school, even if the actual smoking and drinking don’t come until later. Although there are a range of factors that contribute to high school smoking and drinking, researchers tend to agree that some teens have personality traits that…

Some relationships are good for your mental health, and some aren’t. It depends on the specifics. And it might be that your relationship with God is no exception. At least, that’s what a recent study from researchers at Baylor University suggests. The researchers surveyed a group of older adults, looking at how these adults’ religious…