The Self-Driven Child

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The Self-Driven Child Page 34

by William Stixrud


  14. Ellen Galinsky, Ask the Children: What America’s Children Really Think About Working Parents (New York: William Morrow, 1999). Galinsky asked a representative national sample of American children, third grade through twelfth grade, whose parents worked what they wished for their parents. Although parents expected that their children would wish for more time with parents, the children’s top wish was actually for their parents to be happier and less stressed.

  15. Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids.com, “Crime Statistics,” www.freerangekids.com/crime-statistics/.

  16. Hanna Rosin, “The Overprotected Kid,” Atlantic, April 2014.

  17. Gary Emery and James Campbell, Rapid Relief from Emotional Distress (New York: Ballantine Books, 1987).

  18. Byron Katie, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (New York: Crown Archetype, 2002).

  CHAPTER FIVE: Inner Drive: How to Help Your Kids Develop Internal Motivation

  1. Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999). See also Edward L Deci et al., “Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation in Education: Reconsidered Once Again,” Review of Educational Research 71, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 1–27. Interestingly, a study conducted in 2010 tracked brain activation when subjects were offered financial incentives. The scientists found that activity in the anterior striatum and the prefrontal cortex correlated with diminished motivation: Kou Murayama et al., “Neural Basis of the Undermining Effect of Monetary Reward on Intrinsic Motivation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 49 (2010): 20911–16, doi:10.1073/pnas.1013305107.

  2. Joseph Powers et al., “The Far-Reaching Effects of Believing People Can Change: Implicit Theories of Personality Shape Stress, Health, and Achievement During Adolescence,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2014), doi:10.1037/a0036335. Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (New York: Random House, 2006).

  3. Carol Dweck, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids,” Scientific American, January 1, 2015. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids1/.

  4. Christopher Niemiec and Richard M. Ryan, “Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness in the Classroom: Applying Self-Determination Theory to Educational Practice,” Theory and Research in Education 7, no. 2 (2009): 133–44, doi:10.1177/1477878509104318. We interviewed Edward Deci by telephone for this book.

  5. The fact that the brain changes in response to experience was discovered, in part, by Marian Diamond, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley. Diamond describes the effects of experience on the brain—and the implications for child-rearing—in her book with Janet Hopson, Magic Trees of the Mind (New York: Dutton, 1998). The brain’s changing response to experience is also discussed in a number of popular books, including Norman Doidge, MD’s The Brain That Changes Itself (New York: Viking, 2007).

  6. Steven Kotler, “Flow States and Creativity,” PsychologyToday.com, February 25, 2014.

  7. Reed W. Larson and Natalie Rusk, “Intrinsic Motivation and Positive Development,” Advances in Child Development and Behavior 41, Positive Youth Development (2011). Richard M. Learner et al. (eds), Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Vol. 1, Burlington: Academic Press (2011): 89–130.

  8. Diamond and Hopson, Magic Trees of the Mind.

  9. Reed W. Larson and Natalie Rusk, “Intrinsic Motivation and Positive Development.”

  10. Although the differences in the performance of males and females on almost any metric are greater within gender than between genders, there are generalities that hold up. See Leonard Sax’s book, Why Gender Matters (New York: Doubleday, 2005). Also, Simon Baron-Cohen, one of the world’s experts on autism, theorizes that what characterizes the female brain primarily is a capacity for empathy, whereas what characterizes the typical male brain is a capacity for creating logical systems. See his book The Essential Difference: The Truth About the Male and Female Brain (New York: Basic Books, 2003). The eminent neuroscientist Adele Diamond has also told Bill that boys, on average, perform best under mild stress, whereas girls, on average, perform best under no stress at all. Personal communication, October 2010.

  11. Studies by Nora Volkow and her colleagues have identified deficits in dopamine processing in adults with ADHD. Volkow refers to ADHD as a motivational deficit disorder, which she links to dysfunction in the dopamine reward pathway. It has also been discovered recently that stimulant medications such as Ritalin improve children’s attention and self-control in large part by increasing the availability and uptake of dopamine. Nora D. Volkow et al., “Evaluating Dopamine Reward Pathway in ADHD: Clinical Implications,” Journal of the American Medical Association 302, no. 10 (September 9, 2009): 1084–91, doi:10.1001/jama.2009.1308. Nora D. Volkow et al., “Motivation Deficit in ADHD Is Associated with Dysfunction of the Dopamine Reward Pathway,” Molecular Psychiatry 6, no. 11 (November 2011): 1147–54.

  12. Many psychologists and motivational specialists have written about different “motivational styles” that are demonstrated by children, adolescents, and adults. See, for example, Richard Lavoie’s The Motivation Breakthrough (New York: Touchstone, 2007). For understanding older adolescents and young adults, consider investigating TriMetrix, which holds that people tend to be primarily motivated by six different factors: knowledge, utility, surroundings, others, power, and methodologies.

  13. Dustin Wax, “Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write,” Lifehack.com, www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/writing-and-remembering-why-we-remember-what-we-write.html.

  14. For a review of the benefits of peer tutoring, see Page Kalkowski, “Peer and Cross-Age Tutoring,” Northwest Regional Educational Labortory School Improvement Research Series (March 1995), educationnorthwest.org/sites/default/files/peer-and-cross-age-tutoring.pdf. For dopamine spike, see Ian Clark and Guillaume Dumas, “Toward a Neural Basis for Peer-Interaction: What Makes Peer-Learning Tick?,” Frontiers in Psychology 10 (February 2015), doi:org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00028.

  15. Andrew P. Allen and Andrew P. Smith, “Chewing Gum: Cognitive Performance, Mood, Well-Being, and Associated Physiology,” Biomed Research International (May 17, 2015), doi:10.1155/2015/654806.

  16. Ken Robinson with Lou Aronica, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (New York: Penguin, 2009), 2–6.

  17. Julie Lythcott-Haims, How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success (New York: Henry Holt, 2015).

  18. Stacy Berg Dale and Alan B. Krueger, “Estimating the Return to College Selectivity over the Career Using Administrative Earnings Data,” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. w17159 (June 2011), https://ssrn.com/abstract=1871566.

  19. Julie Ray and Stephanie Kafka, “Life in College Matters for Life After College,” Gallup.com, May 6, 2014, www.gallup.com/poll/168848/life-college-matters-life-college.aspx.

  20. Anna Brown, “Public and Private College Grads Rank About Equally in Life Satisfaction,” Pew Research Center Fact Tank, May 19, 2014, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/19/public-and-private-college-grads-rank-about-equally-in-life-satisfaction/.

  21. The big-fish-little-pond theory, developed by Herbert Marsh, has been replicated by studies in over thirty countries. See the article Herbert W. Marsh et al., “The Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect Stands Up to Critical Scrutiny: Implications for Theory, Methodology, and Future Research,” Educational Psychology Review 20, no. 3 (September 2008), 319–50.

  22. Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath (New York: Little, Brown, 2013), 68.

  CHAPTER SIX: Radical Downtime

  1. Timothy D. Wilson et al., “Just Think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind,” Science 345, no. 6192 (July 4, 2014): 75–77 doi:10.1126/science.1250830.

  2. Marcus E. Raichle et a
l., “A default mode of brain function,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98, no. 2 (2001): 676–682, doi:10.1073/pnas.98.2.676. Also see Mary Helen Immordino-Yang et al., “Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education,” Perspectives on Pyschological Science 7, no. 4 (2012), doi: 10.1177/1745691612447308, http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691612447308.

  3. Marcus E. Raichle, “The Brain’s Dark Energy,” Scientific American, March 2010, 44–49. Virginia Hughes, “The Brain’s Dark Energy,” TheLastWordonNothing.com, October 6, 2010, www.lastwordonnothing.com/2010/10/06/brain-default-mode/.

  4. Interestingly, recent research has found that substantial activity in the DMN is observed during sleep, although there’s a disconnect during sleep between the DMN systems in the front of the brain and the back of the brain. Silvina G. Horovitz et al., “Decoupling of the Brain’s Default Mode Network During Deep Sleep,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, no. 7 (2009): 11376–381, doi:10.1073/pnas.0901435106.

  5. Jerome L. Singer, Daydreaming: An Introduction to the Experimental Study of Innerexperience (New York: Random House, 1966). An article by Rebecca McMillan, Scott Barry Kaufman, and Jerome Singer called “Ode to Positive and Constructive Daydreaming” provides a detailed summary of research on the benefits of letting the mind wander; Frontiers in Psychology 4 (September 2013): 626, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00626.

  6. Daniel J. Levitin, The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload (New York: Dutton (2014). See also: Daniel J. Levitin, “Hit the Reset Button in Your Brain,” New York Times, August 10, 2014.

  7. Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (New York: Riverhead Books, 2016), 3–4.

  8. Immordino-Yang et al., “Rest Is Not Idleness.”

  9. Sherry Turkle, “Reclaiming Conversation” (talk given at Google, Cambridge, MA, October 30, 2105), video, produced by Talks at Google, www.youtube.com/watch?v=awFQtX7tPoI&t=1966s.

  10. Adam J. Cox, “The Case for Boredom,” New Atlantis 27 (Spring 2010): 122–25.

  11. Olivia Goldhill, “Psychologists Recommend Children Be Bored in the Summer,” Quartz Media ( June 11, 2016), qz.com/704723/to-be-more-self-reliant-children-need-boring-summers/.

  12. Sarah Zoogman et al., “Mindfulness Interventions with Youth: A Meta-Analysis,” Springer Science and Business Media (Spring 2014), doi:10.1007/s12671-013-0260-4. This meta-analysis reviewed the results of twenty studies of mindfulness practices with children and teenagers. The authors concluded that mindfulness interventions can be helpful but generally have small to moderate effects. The largest treatment effect size was found in the reduction of psychological symptoms (more than improvement in other areas). A stronger treatment effect was found in clinical samples (e.g., children with anxiety disorders) than nonclinical samples. See also Katherine Weare, “Evidence for the Impact of Mindfulness on Children and Young People,” The Mindfulness in Schools Project, University of Exeter Mood Disorders Centre (April 2012), mindfulnessinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/MiSP-Research-Summary-2012.pdf.

  13. Alberto Chiesa and Alessandro Serretti, “A Systematic Review of Neurobiological and Clinical Features of Mindfulness Meditations,” Psychological Medicine 40, no 8 (November 2009), 1239–52, doi:10.1017/s0033291709991747. Matthieu Ricard, “Mind of the Meditator,” Scientific American (November 2014), 38–45.

  14. Michael Dillbeck and David Orme-Johnson, “Physiological Differences Between Transcendental Meditation and Rest,” American Psychologist 42, no. 9 (September 1987): 879–81, doi:10.1037/0003-066x.42.9.879.

  15. Michael Dillbeck and Edward Bronson, “Short-Term Longitudinal Efects on EEG Power and Coherence,” International Journal of Neuroscience 14, no. 3–4 (1981): 147–51.

  There have been over 340 peer-reviewed articles describing the effects of TM. Many of the most important of these are discussed in the best general introduction to TM, a book written by the psychiatrist and scientist Norman Rosenthal, MD, who discovered seasonal affective disorder. Dr. Rosenthal’s book, Transcendence, offers an excellent discussion of the research and practical benefits of TM from the standpoint of a clinician and scientist. His second book on TM, Super Mind, discusses the ways in which meditation changes the mind over time. Norman E. Rosenthal, Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2012). Rosenthal, Super Mind: How to Boost Performance and Live a Richer and Happier Life Through Transcendental Meditation (New York: Tarcher/Perigee, 2016).

  16. A comprehensive discussion of the documented benefits of TM for children and adolescents appears in a chapter written by Bill. William Stixrud and Sarina Grosswald, “The TM Program and the Treatment of Childhood Disorders,” in Prescribing Health: Transcendental Meditation in Contemporary Medical Care, ed. David O’Connell and Deborah Bevvino (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).

  17. Both of Dr. Rosenthal’s books include extensive discussion of the use of Transcendental Meditation in schools. Chapter 8 of Transcendence, called “An Island of Safety in a Sea of Trouble,” discusses the remarkable effects of the Quiet Time Program, which has been implemented in a number of low-income schools across the country. In Super Mind, he discusses recent studies conducted with college-age students at universities and military academies. For another interesting account of the effects of the Quiet Time Program see Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, “Mantras Before Math Class,” Atlantic, November 10, 2015, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/11/mantras-before-math-class/412618/.

  CHAPTER SEVEN: Sleep: The Most Radical Downtime

  1. K. M. Keyes et al., “The Great Sleep Recession: Changes in Sleep Duration Among U.S. Adolescents, 1991–2012,” Pediatrics 135, no. 3 (March 2015): 460–68, doi:10.1542/peds.2014-2707.

  2. Brown University, “Early School Start Times Pit Teens in a Conflict Between Society, Biology,” Brown.edu, News from Brown, April 12, 2017, news.brown.edu/articles/2017/04/teens.

  3. Valerie Strauss, “Teens Waking Up to Unique Sleep Needs,” Washington Post, January 10, 2006.

  4. Craig Lambert, “Deep into Sleep: While Researchers Probe Sleep’s Functions, Sleep Itself Is Becoming a Lost Art,” Harvard Magazine, July–August 2005, 25–33.

  5. Bruce McEwen with Elizabeth Norton Lasley, The End of Stress As We Know It (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2012).

  6. A. N. Goldstein and M. P. Walker, “The Role of Sleep in Emotional Brain Function,” Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 10 (2014): 679–708. See also two articles by Yasmin Anwar about Walker’s research: “Sleep Loss Linked to Psychiatric Disorders,” Berkeley.edu, UC Berkeley News, October 22, 2007 and “Tired and Edgy? Sleep Deprivation Boosts Anticipatory Anxiety,” News.Berkeley. edu, Berkeley News, June 25, 2013. Additionally, see the report of an interview with Matthew Walker in Jill Suttie, “Why You Should Sleep Your Way to the Top,” Greater Good, University of California, Berkeley, December 14, 2013.

  7. Juliann Garey, “Teens and Sleep: What Happens When Teenagers Don’t Get Enough Sleep,” Child Mind Institute, childmind.org/article/happens-teenagers-dont-get-enough-sleep/.

  8. Robert Stickgold, “Beyond Memory: The Benefits of Sleep,” Scientific American, September 15, 2015.

  9. Seung-Schik Yoo et al., “The Human Emotional Brain Without Sleep—A Prefrontal Amygdala Disconnect,” Current Biology 17, no. 20 (October 23, 2007): 877–78.

  10. Goldstein and Walker, “The Role of Sleep in Emotional Brain Function.”

  11. Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children (New York: Twelve Books, 2009), 41.

  12. N. K. Gupta et al., “Is Obesity Associated with Poor Sleep Quality in Adolescents?,” American Journal of Human Biology 14, no. 6 (November–December 2002), 762–68, doi:10.1002/ajhb.10093.

  13. N. F. Watson et al., “Transcriptional Signat
ures of Sleep Duration Discordance in Monozygotic Twins,” Sleep 40, no. 1 (January 2017), doi:10.1093/sleep/zsw019.

  14. American Cancer Society, “Known and Probable Human Carcinogens,” Cancer.org (November 3, 2016), www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/general-info/known-and-probable-human-carcinogens.html.

  15. Avi Sadeh et al., “The Effects of Sleep Restriction and Extension on School-Aged Children: What a Difference an Hour Makes,” Child Development 74, no. 2 (March/April 2003): 444–55.

  16. Indre Viskontas, “9 Reasons You Really Need to Go to Sleep,” Mother Jones (January 16, 2015), www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/inquiring-minds-matt-walker/.

  17. Matthew Walker et al., “Practice with Sleep Makes Perfect: Sleep-Dependent Motor Skill Learning,” Neuron 35, no. 1 (July 3, 2002): 205–11, walkerlab.berkeley.edu/reprints/Walker%20et%20al._Neuron_2002.pdf.

  18. Amy R. Wolfson et al., “Understanding Adolescents’ Sleep Patterns and School Performance: A Critical Appraisal,” Sleep Medicine Reviews 7, no. 6 (2003): 491–506, doi:10.1053/smrv.2002.0258.

  19. Mark Fischetti, “Sleepy Teens: High School Should Start Later in the Morning,” August 26, 2014, blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/sleepy-teens-high-school-should-start-later-in-the-morning/. Kyla Wahlstrom, “Changing Times: Findings from the First Longitudinal Study of High School Start Times,” NASSP Bulletin 86, no. 633 (December 1, 2002): 3–21.

 

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