Skip to content

Topics: Children, Youth

Self-help app "Min sorg" (my grief)

App helps alleviate mental health symptoms in bereaved parents

New study: An app can help parents who are mourning the loss of a child. Parents who used the app for three months reported reduced symptoms of prolonged grief and post-traumatic stress, and also had fewer negative thoughts. Some parents thought that in future, the app should be offered early in the process of mourning. The study is published in the scholarly journal Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

The results show that the prevalence of overweight or obesity has now fallen to the same levels as before the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e. 11.4%. During the pandemic, the prevalence was 13.3 per cent.

Childhood overweight is associated with socio-economic vulnerability

More children have overweight in regions with high rates of single parenthood, low education levels, low income and high child poverty. The pandemic may also have reinforced this trend. This is shown by a study conducted by researchers at Uppsala University and Region Sörmland in collaboration with Region Skåne.

From the book "Blå ugglan" by Lotta Geffenblad (2023) with permission. Image: Lotta Geffenblad

Death and grief in Swedish children’s books

Death is blue, or a flying animal. This is how death is most commonly illustrated in Swedish children’s literature, according to a new study from Uppsala University based on analyses of 62 books. Just six out of ten books use the word ‘dead’, which may be a problem.

An eye tracker underneath the screen recorded where on the screen the infant looked at a moment-to-moment basis while they watched several images containing faces together with several other objects. Credit: Nature Human Behaviour

Genes influence whether infants prefer to look at faces or non-social objects

Whether infants at five months of age look mostly at faces or non-social objects such as cars or mobile phones is largely determined by genes. This has now been demonstrated by researchers at Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet. The findings suggest that there is a biological basis for how infants create their unique visual experiences and which things they learn most about.

"Corona. Two children fighting Corona". Child aged 5, about COVID-19 pandemic. © Swedish Archive of Children’s Art.

“You throw up, then you cough, then you feel better or die”

Detailed images of illness, death and cancelled activities; these were some of the common themes of children’s drawings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study from Uppsala University, in which researchers studied 91 drawings made by children aged between 4 and 6, shows that the pandemic affected the children significantly and that they had extensive knowledge about the disease.

Early tastings shorten breastfeeding

The earlier infants begin to taste small samples of solid food, the earlier they eat more food and stop breastfeeding. This is shown in a new study from Uppsala University and Sophiahemmet University, in which the mothers of 1,251 infants from all over Sweden participated. Almost half of the infants received tastings at the age of four months.

Göran Nygren, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University. Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt.

​Parental support crucial for better school performance

“The school system is not fulfilling its compensatory mission. Instead, it is entrenching the inequalities of life opportunities among children and youth, and social reproduction and segregation,” says Göran Nygren, researcher at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University, who recently defended his thesis.

Children’s unique urban health challenges timely topic at Uppsala Health Summit 2019

Densification of cities causes less space for spontaneous play leading to negative effects on children’s health. Even though the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by most countries, the child perspective is often missing in the planning process. The high-level international meeting Uppsala Health Summit is focusing on urban planning from a child health perspective.

Children’s Health in Cities in Focus at Uppsala Health Summit

​By 2050, around 70 per cent of the world’s children will live in cities. During the high-level meeting Uppsala Health Summit this autumn, international experts from different sectors will gather to discuss how to plan cities and strengthen public health strategies to better care for children’s health and wellbeing in all parts of the world.

​Group interventions reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms among unaccompanied refugee minors

Participation in a post-traumatic stress group can be an effective help for unaccompanied refugee minors. In a new study, one in five young people completely recovered from their symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and many reported improved symptoms after having participated in a group. The study from Uppsala University is the first in Scandinavia using the Teaching Recovery Techniques.

Fifty–fifty split best for children of divorce

Preschool children in joint physical custody have less psychological symptoms than those who live mostly or only with one parent after a separation. That shows a new Swedish study of 3,656 children, done by researchers from Uppsala University, Karolinska Institutet and the research institute CHESS, which is now published in Acta Pædiatrica.

New study shows children at Swedish “gender-neutral” preschools are less likely to gender-stereotype

A new study from Uppsala University in Sweden has indicated that the norm-conscious practices used by teachers at preschools termed “gender-neutral” are associated with reductions in children’s tendencies to make gender-stereotypical assumption. The practices are also associated with children’s increased interest in playing with unfamiliar peers of the opposite sex.

Childhood obesity in focus at 2016 Uppsala Health Summit

In just a few decades, the number of overweight and obese adults and children in the world has reached alarming levels, not least in low-income countries. This year, Uppsala Health Summit is taking place in conjunction with World Obesity Day: 11-12 October 2016. International experts on child obesity will gather to discuss countermeasures with industry, policy makers and society.

Uppsala University - quality, knowledge, and creativity since 1477

Founded in 1477, Uppsala University is the oldest university in Sweden. With more than 50,000 students and 7,500 employees in Uppsala and Visby, we are a broad university with research in social sciences, humanities, technology, natural sciences, medicine and pharmacology. Our mission is to conduct education and research of the highest quality and relevance to society on a long-term basis. Uppsala University is regularly ranked among the world’s top universities.

Uppsala University

Dag Hammarskjölds väg 7
BOX 256, 751 05 Uppsala
Sweden

Visit our other newsrooms