Anthony Biglan's Blog, page 4

Freaky Evonomic Calculations Drive America’s Border Problems

Drugs, violence, and lots scangry (scared+angry) people pretty much summarizes the “bad” in America’s border problems. The “solutions” on the daily shout-casts on TV and the Internet are unlikely to work, because they don’t conform to what I’d call freaky evonomics, which is the bastard child of freakonomics and evolutionary science. Now, before you roll your eyes and scream that I’ve taken leave of all sensibility, read some of the data assembled—even if you think evolution is the invention of the devil.

So why are all the really poor people in the U.S. and Central American making lots of babies and migrating? It’s about the gene calculator in our DNA.

Both Tea Party and extreme leftwing politics cannot really explain why people make babies in poor or dangerous environments. Conservatives want to blame people for poor morals, as if that will cause a change. Liberals blame poverty and violence, but with no real explanation. Freaky evonomics provides an explanation, though probably neither political group will likely to find solace in the data.

So let’s consider the main predator or parasites of humans outside of single cell organisms: It’ not other carnivores; it’s other humans. Since the invention of stone tools, humans became the main predator or parasite of other humans—killing or enslaving them. Even if you don’t like Darwin, you’ve got plenty of support for this in the Old Testament, with the story of Cain and Abel for starters.

On the flip side of the coin, our major safety-net against predatory or parasitic humans are other humans who are prosocial with each other in groups. Thus, much of the evolution of the brain and the underlying genes turned off or on by the environment are related to this paradox: humans are predatory, parasitic and protective of each other, and we survive by developing more friends over foes.

Consciously or not, our genes compute the relative risk of human protectors versus human predators/parasites. That is, our genes compute the probability of whether we are apt to have long or short life, with chances that our genes will replicate.

“Aw, come on,” you object, “How can scientists possibly conclude that?”   The answer is fairly simple, by testing the hypothesis.

So what happens in states or countries with high rates of homicide? Make your hypothesis. Would it be better to have more babies or fewer babies? Would it be better to have puberty and sex earlier or later in violent areas?

Freaky Evonomics answer: Have more babies, and their have them earlier [1]. The same trend is observed in U.S. states with high homicide rates, as well as countries with high homicide rates. So across countries internationally, “adolescent birth rates and general homicide rates [are] closely correlated with each other internationally (r= 0.95).” You might avow that could be true of other countries, but certainly NOT true in the U.S. The data are similar, with a co-efficient of correlation r=0.74 [1]. Buckle your seatbelts, because an r=0.74 with 51 data entries (50 states plus DC) is significant at less than 0.00001. Most scientists would pray for such a level of significance.

Now that is the effect of perceived risk of being killed on early sex and pregnancy. What about the perceived threat of human caused parasitic death? I don’t mean here tapeworms, etc. I mean here that whatever you do productively as a human sucked dry by other humans who exploit your labor or efforts so that you cannot get ahead. This is not a matter of absolute poverty but the perception that nothing about the fruits of one’s actions will yield a sense of safety and security. In other words, you’re doomed never to get ahead because of other humans controlling your life. Surely, Mother Nature would instruct you NOT have sex and babies early, right?

Well, place your bets on the table.

The findings? To state it as one expert says, the discouraged girls among the disadvantaged become young mothers.

It’s not just exposure to homicide that increases earlier pregnancies. Relative poverty, or income disparities—but not absolute poverty within a country—signals the evolutionary antennae for making babies earlier. There are some countries that have both violence and very large relative income disparities, and those are the areas or countries with the largest influx of people coming across the border.

None of this is new under the sun, except for understanding the role what is called epigenetic expression. The Biblical story of Exodus is about a group of people who were exposed to serious violence by their masters and parasitic extraction of their labor and wealth by the ancient Egyptians.

Today, we can even see the dopamine allele variation footprint of migrations around the world, related to earlier sex and risk taking [2-6]. This is not entirely new in science, as I published a paper dealing with some of these issues in a special issue of Brain and Mind in 2002 [7].

My 2002 paper argues that these gene differences caused by the social and physical environment ought not be considered pathological, which is what most people assume. Rather, they are the genius of genes trying to survive, or the game of life if you will. More violence, more relative inequality will not suppress the gene expression. To quote a famous line in Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.”

The funny thing is that much of America’s modern population shares these genes, which is likely related immigrants leaving the Old World fleeing violence or parasitic inequality. (Note: the peoples from Asia who then settled Beringa—the vast land mass between Asia and North America—during the Last Glacial Maximum and then who migrated down to the tip of South America and much of North America rapidly had a different gene that has a similar function). In both cases of new peoples and ancient peoples to the Americas, the genes in question also relate to risk taking, novelty taking and sensation seeking—traits that the American economy tends to reinforce.

My next Freaky Evonomics post explores how that science of these traits—congruent with our Nurturing Environments papers—might be harnessed to reduce immigration and the problem of the inter-Americas drug trade that drives the violence and exploitation, using prevention science you can easily find in the National Library of Medicine (www.pubmed.gov).

References:

Pickett KE, Mookherjee J, Wilkinson RG: Adolescent birth rates, total homicides, and income inequality in rich countries. American journal of public health 2005, 95(7):1181-1183.
Eisenberg DT, Apicella CL, Campbell BC, Dreber A, Garcia JR, Lum JK: Assortative human pair-bonding for partner ancestry and allelic variation of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 2010, 5(2-3):194-202.
Kegel CAT, Bus AG, van Ijzendoorn MH: Differential Susceptibility in Early Literacy Instruction Through Computer Games: The Role of the Dopamine D4 Receptor Gene (DRD4). Mind, Brain, and Education 2011, 5(2):71-78.
Matthews LJ, Butler PM: Novelty-seeking DRD4 polymorphisms are associated with human migration distance out-of-Africa after controlling for neutral population gene structure. American journal of physical anthropology 2011, 145(3):382-389.
Paz Lagos L, Silva C, Rothhammer P, Carrasco X, Llop E, Aboitiz F, Rothhammer F: [Risk of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in Aymara and Rapa-Nui school children: association with dopaminergic system polymorphisms]. Revista medica de Chile 2011, 139(5):600-605.
Chen C, Burton M, Greenberger E, Dmitrieva J: Population migration and the variation of dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) allele frequencies around the globe. Evolution and Human Behavior 1999, 20(5):309-324.
Embry DD: Nurturing the genius of genes: The new frontier of education, therapy, and understanding of the brain. Brain & Mind 2002, 3(1):101-132.

A Super Tootle to Madison County and Ohio for a Nurturing Environment

Please go read this newspaper story:  http://www.madison-press.com/news/opinion/5245873/A-Tootle-for-the-Madison-County-Fair

 

A “Tootle” (for the uninitiated) is the opposite of a tattle, and Tootles are written. An Ohio newspaper is the first newspaper in the world to publish a Tootle.

The people of Madison County and the state of Ohio may not realize that they are the vanguard of showing it’s possible to mobilize young people, adults and organizations of every stripe to protect generations from the epidemic of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders [1]. The last time this happened for a large public good for our children was during the 1950s Polio Epidemic, when 3,000 people died and 60,000 were infected.

After the Salk vaccine was proven, almost every child was then protected by either the Salk or Sabine vaccine. Service clubs, schools, and all manner of volunteers mobilized to help. By 1963, there were less than 200 cases total in the U.S. If the polio epidemic were happening today, there would be 6,000 deaths, and 120,000 cases adjusting for double the population from 150 million to 300 million.

Today, we have a much larger and more deadly epidemic of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders than polio. Current data suggest that 1 in 2 children will be affected by age 18 from anxiety, depression, substance abuse, or serious behavior problems. In 2009, an independent analysis published by the Wall Street Journal (December 28, 2010) showed that 40.4 million out of 75 million young people at the time had had at least one prescription that year for a psychotropic medication. MEB’s are now the largest single expense for Medicaid for children and youth nationally. The worst case MEB is suicide. Some 38,000 people (including 5,000 young people) committed suicide last year, and 708,000 people showed up at emergency rooms attempting suicide with self-inflicted injuries, excluding drug overdoses and single car crashes. This is not other people’s children being affected. This is our kids, our grandkids, and our neighbor’s kids or grandkids. That’s a portion of the bad news.

The Good News is the America has the best science in the world for preventing mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. PAX Good Behavior Game (http://bit.ly/NREPP) is among the best universal prevention strategies, and it can be used during any normal activity at school. PAX never mentions mental illness, behavior problems, diagnoses, etc. It just works on teaching self-regulation in peer contexts powerfully, creates lots of joy and fun at the same time as self-discipline. It also significantly improves academic success, right here in Ohio based on studies that Wright State University is doing. PAX spreads throughout school buildings, homes, and the community because children and their teachers are the heroes of the change, not the objects of change. About 149 schools are using PAX GBG in Ohio, which is more than any other state in the Union. Why Ohio? Well, there are lot’s visionary, caring people in the state. I know, because husband’s family is from Springfield and Wauseon. I’ve been to both London’s, and the one in Ohio is lot cozier and friendlier. Besides, people in London, Ohio give Tootles.

So why do Tootles and PAX matter in Madison County? There are about 525 first graders in the county. If each year, the entering group of first graders get a really good dose of Tootles and PAX, they are changed for the better for at least 20 years, based on my colleagues studies at Johns Hopkins University where I am co-investigator scientist. Here are the predicted outcomes for those Madison County first graders when they turn 21:

45             Fewer young people will need any form of special education services

29             More boys will likely graduate from high school

35             More boys will likely attend college

47             More girls will likely graduate from high school

36             More girls will likely attend college

5                Fewer young people will commit & be convicted of serious violent crimes

50             Fewer young people will develop serious drug addictions

35             Fewer young people will become regular smokers

19             Fewer young people will develop serious alcohol addictions

25             Fewer young women will contemplate suicide

35             Fewer young men will contemplate suicide

And that would save everybody in Madison County about $6.3 million, for each first grade cohort. That’s a lot of greenbacks in county of 43,000 people.

Now Madison, Greene, and Clarke counties are among some early adopters of PAX and Tootles. What if ALL the first graders in Ohio each year – about 148,000 of them –– got great doses of Tootles and PAX.   What would that do for the state when that cohort reached age 21? Here is what:

12,904     Fewer young people will need any form of special education services

8,349        More boys will likely graduate from high school

10,019     More boys will likely attend college

13,314     More girls will likely graduate from high school

10,404     More girls will likely attend college

1,457        Fewer young people will commit & be convicted of serious violent crimes

14,422     Fewer young people will develop serious drug addictions

9,867        Fewer young people will become regular smokers

5,313        Fewer young people will develop serious alcohol addictions

7,275        Fewer young women will contemplate suicide

9,867        Fewer young men will contemplate suicide

And that would save everybody in Ohio about $1.9 billion, for each first grade cohort. I am pretty sure that could be put to good use.

So Madison County and London are going PAX, and so is Ohio. Where goes Ohio, goes the rest of the country. So, a big Tootle for all the children, teachers, families, and community members who are spreading PAX for our futures in Ohio.

References:

O’Connell ME, Boat T, Warner KE (eds.): Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities. Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine; National Research Council; 2009.

Mobilizing America to Protect Young Children from Mental Illnesses

(Note: Tony and I wrote this)

In March 2009, the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the National Academy of Sciences announced that mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders (MEB’s) among young people were preventable because of powerful, replicated science largely funded by various National Institutes of Health [1]. Not every case can be prevented, but enough can to have profound impact on American children, youth, families, communities, plus the nation’s health, wellbeing and economy. Most of the strategies the IOM committee reviewed have been shown by randomized-controlled trials and long term following up to prevent multiple problems for periods as long as 20 years. Most have proven cost-effective, saving far more money than it costs to implement them.

Presently other countries (e.g., Northern European or Lowland European Countries, Canada, Australia, Ireland) and their political sub-divisions are pursuing population-level protection of their future generations using science from the United States. A few U.S. states or counties are beginning to apply this science to scale: Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Washington. The Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has demonstrated that many of these scientific prevention strategies can be used in communities with practical, measurable impact.

The large body of evidence on the impact of prevention is reminiscent of the discovery of the Salk vaccine to prevent polio [2].  An initially favorable test of the vaccine triggered the massive population-level prevention study of 650,000 American children in 15,000 public schools in 44 of the 48 states That study proved that actual cases polio could be averted in the entire population [3, 4]. After that, public and private entities mobilized to assure that virtually every child was protected in the U.S., by either the Salk or Sabin vaccine. Polio cases were virtually non-existent by 1963. And the investment saved three dollars for every dollar spent on the vaccine.

There are twenty to forty times more cases of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders (MEBs) now than there were of polio, and now MEBs contribute to as many as twelve to twenty times more deaths. Thus, now is the time for the United States to protect its future generations through a similar mobilization of society to implement tested and effective prevention strategies for mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. We can significantly improve health and academic outcomes, at the same time that we prevent all manner of costly, interrelated problems such as delinquency, drug abuse, risky sexual behavior, depression, suicide, and obesity. Indeed the next generation of Americans can be the best educated, most productive, and most caring that we have ever seen.

Proposed Actions to Mobilize America

Former Surgeon Generals hold National Press Club event featuring this U.S. prevention science, featuring some of the best strategies, respective scientists and the original NIH/CDC programs that can be scaled up for population-level protection. (See example members of the IOM panel on 2nd page).
A social marketing campaign is launched. It targets private and public sector stakeholders who have a lot to gain from rapid prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. It also informs the general public about the ways in which we can prevent most problems.
Like the mobilization to test the Salk vaccine, public and private sector organizations announce a coalition to fund a population level study to, prevent MEB’s in 50 congressional districts in the U.S. The communities would agree to mobilize around and implement a small portfolio of scientifically proven preventive strategies for school, home, and community that have demonstrated ability to be scaled up for population-level prevention or protection and have solid evidence of a favorable return on investment.
A scientific team is assembled to study the short-term and longer-term effects across these 50 sites, using a high-quality design with appropriate statistical controls (e.g., randomized waitlist control, hierarchical linear modeling, etc.).
The 50 District sites (out of 435 Congressional Districts) are selected on the basis of competitive application, with relevant commitments from all stakeholders enunciated in the RFA. Using Congressional Districts provides reasonable population equivalence, and similar nested political structures.

References Cited:

O’Connell ME, Boat T, Warner KE (eds.): Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities. Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine; National Research Council; 2009.

IOM Committee On The Prevention Of Mental Disorders And Substance Abuse Among Children, Youth, And Young Adults: Research Advances And Promising Interventions

Kenneth E. Warner (Chair), School Of Public Health, University Of Michigan
Thomas F. Boat (Vice Chair), Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
William R. Beardslee, Department Of Psychiatry, Children’s Hospital, Boston
Carl C. Bell, University Of Illinois At Chicago And Community Mental Health Council
Anthony Biglan, Center On Early Adolescence, Oregon Research Institute
C. Hendricks Brown, College Of Public Health, University Of South Florida
E. Jane Costello, Department Of Psychiatry And Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center
Teresa D. Lafromboise, School Of Education, Stanford University Ricardo F. Muñoz, Department Of Psychiatry, University Of California, San Francisco
Peter J. Pecora, Casey Family Programs And School Of Social Work, University Of Washington
Bradley S. Peterson, Pediatric Neuropsychiatry, Columbia University
Linda A. Randolph, Developing Families Center, Washington, Dc
Irwin Sandler, Prevention Research Center, Arizona State University


Salk JE, Bazeley PL, Bennett BL, Krech U, Lewis LJ, Ward EN, Youngner JS: Studies in human subjects on active immunization against poliomyelitis. II. A practical means for inducing and maintaining antibody formation. American journal of public health and the nation’s health 1954, 44(8):994-1009.

Francis T, Jr., Korns RF, Voight RB, Boisen M, Hemphill FM, Napier JA, Tolchinsky E: An evaluation of the 1954 poliomyelitis vaccine trials. American journal of public health and the nation’s health 1955, 45(5 Pt 2):1-63.

Monto AS: Francis Field Trial of Inactivated Poliomyelitis Vaccine: Background and Lessons for Today. Epidemiologic Reviews 1999, 21(1):7-23.

Note: essays at www.nurturingenvironments.org and other scientific papers expand on the 2009 IOM report, regarding the practicality and organizational issues of conducting a national campaign to implement the findings of that report. Specific papers include: Polio KANSAS 1957-04-04_Kansas_512kb

Wilson, D. S., Hayes, S. C., Biglan, A., & Embry, D. D. (2014). Evolving the Future: Toward a Science of Intentional Change. Brain and Behavioral Sciences, in press.
Biglan, A., Flay, B. R., Embry, D. D., & Sandler, I. N. (2012). The critical role of nurturing environments for promoting human well-being. American Psychologist, 67(4), 257-271. doi: 10.1037/a0026796
Embry, D. D., Lipsey, M., Moore, K. A., & McCallum, D. F. (2013). Best Intentions are Not Enough: Techniques for Using Research and Data to Develop New Evidence-Informed Prevention Programs. Emphasizing Evidence-Based Programs for Children and Youth: An Examination of Policy Issues and Practice Dilemmas Across Federal Initiatives., 26. Retrieved from Research Brief website: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/13/KeyIssuesforChildrenYouth/BestIntentions/rb_bestintentions.cfm
Biglan, A., & Embry, D. D. (2013). A Framework for Intentional Cultural Change. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 2(3-4).
See entire issue of Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Prevention In Mental Health: Lifespan Perspective. Number 34 (March), 2012.

Nurturing Babies Brain Development by Eating Fish: Promoted Now by the FDA and EPA

Yep, on June 11, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration endorsed pregnant women eating fish. You can read the announcements online at:

The announcement and links to attached documents can be found here:

http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/Metals/ucm393070.htm#QAs

This announcement of release can also can be found here on the Federal registry.

https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/06/11/2014-13584/advice-about-eating-fish-draft-update

The story behind this was years in the breaking, significantly attributable to one incredibly brilliant and passionate scientist and good friend: Dr. Joseph Hibbeln.

Dr. Joe Hibbeln, in his lab at the National Institutes of Health showing analysis of too much omega-6 and too little omega-3 in modern diet, compared to a hundred years ago in America

In 2000, I met with Dr. Joe Hibbeln, for a whole a day at the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA). His lab was then, and is now, epicenter of research of the effects of the omega-3 fatty acid (what most of us call, “fish oil”) on brain development and behavior. It was a magical day, topped of by a wonderful evening meal of fresh fish and good wine.

About a year before that meeting, when I first started hearing about omega-3 or fish oil, I thought it was rock crystals, alien abductions, and vortexes. That was my thought, until I read the results of a first randomized trial with people around 1999. As is my intellectual habit, I closely read the references and the abstracts cited by pioneering treatment study testing omega-3. I noticed an unusual last name in many of the references, Hibbeln as a major author of many of the studies. I looked him up and discovered he was the head of the molecular membrane laboratory at NIAAA. I read his papers.

I called Joe, and loved his ebullient personality and intellectual playfulness that had a razor-sharp attention to good science. I made an appointment to meet him when next in Baltimore, when doing my research work with Johns Hopkins on the PAX Good Behavior Game. The meeting was profound for me. Joe’s presentations that day tickled every part of my brain, because of the breadth of data and consilience across historical trends, biology, behavior development, and evolutionary theory. Joe’s presentation gave me flashes of beautiful parsimony, often the root of great scientific discoveries.

Flash number one involved realizing what the brain is composed of. Most people think water. Try again. Well, it’s largely fat. And what fat mostly? Long-chain, 3-carbon ring polyunsaturated fats. That fat creates neuron walls, and holds in the all the water-soluble molecules inside the cell, yet also allows for channels through the cell walls for neuro-transmitters of many kinds. So where does that unique fat come from to build the human brain? In our earliest history, our brains grew rapidly from easy-to-catch fish that children and adults of both genders could gather in the birthplace of modern humans, the Rift Valley of Africa. Land animals—even big ones, by contrast while meaty, simply did not contain enough omega-3 to build human brains.

Another flash happened. This omega-3 polyunsaturated fat caused positive behavior changes in humans. Our brains work faster, making us more prosocial and cooperative, rapidly interacting with the development of symbolic langauge. That, in turn, enables us to become smarter individually and collectively to make tools, adapt to new environments, and invent new ways of living better (or make instruments of war).

A giant flash happened when Joe showed graphs of the consumption of a different polyunsaturated fat, omega-6 (six carbon rings). Around the end of World War II, human diets radically changed, because huge surpluses of corn and soybeans that had been used to make nitrates of gunpowder. What to do with all those leftover seeds? Somebody figured out that you could make edible oils by using petroleum distillates.

Then, for the first time in human evolutionary history, we started eating mountains of another fatty acid, omega-6 that is found in all the vegetable oils from soybeans, cottonseed, corn, etc. now in virtually every prepared food, convenience food that we eat like manic snack piranhas. Today, about 20% of the calories we consume in America come from soybean oil, which is ubiquitous and hidden in our daily diet.

Then, Joe showed a graph of consumption by birth cohort. Almost immediately I exclaimed: “That looks almost exactly like the graph of the increase in depression by birth cohort.” I earned a gold star and kudos from Joe for being the first person to spontaneously notice this. As it turns out, his and others’ research shows that increasing omega-6 in our diets is causative of diverse mental illnesses: depression, bipolar disorder, suicide and homicide.

From that day forward, I began earnestly to follow the research on omega-3 as a protective mechanism against mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. I have no financial interest in omega-3, but I do have a passion for good science that shows we can have more and more children group up to healthy in body, mind and spirit.

One day, I had another meeting with Joe at his lab. He gave me an envelop with a major study in it that was to be published in the Lancet, showing that mothers who consumed two-servings or more of oily fish during pregnancy had much better outcomes for their children by age 8. For mothers who followed the then recommendation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Food and Drug Agency (FDA) NOT to eat oily fish during pregnancy had 32% of their children development mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders by age 8, compared to 15% of the children of moms who ate oily fish during pregnancy [1].

Joe suggested that a good friend of mine from Tucson might like to read this paper before it was published because of the enormous health consequences of this study of 13,000 mother child pairs funded by the United States and United Kingdom. That good friend was the Surgeon General. At the time, the political people in the Bush White House did not want the Surgeon General Richard Carmona to know about the findings for a variety of reasons too surreal to describe here. I got to give that paper to my friend, who did use that information for good.

You see it is not the fish that are responsible for mercury in their flesh. Rather, it’s largely coal powered electric plants that are responsible for the contamination. Blaming the fish kept people from paying attention to the source of the mercury—the people who mined coal, the people who made the coal powered plants, and the greedy people who refused to make those sources of power safer.* The truth is, however, that our unborn children will suffer lifetime risk if they don’t get frequent servings of oily fish from their mother’s diets and too much omega-6 [2].

The evidence was always there that mother’s eating fish was a pretty good idea for fetal brain development. Good heavens, if eating fish caused babies to be born mentally defective, then Japanese children should have the worst developmental, educational, and mental outcomes. They don’t[2]. For Heaven’s sake, their mom’s eat fish all the time, and so do those Scandinavian countries. The last time I looked, the Japanese children and other countries with high fish consumption all have better developmental and mental health outcomes. Gosh, if you remember, people used to take cod liver oil for their health, for good reason though it tasted awful.

Yes, it’s true that some fish are not a good idea to eat, but that is not the fault of the fish. It’s the fault of greedy humans causing deep harm to the circle of life—causing the fish to harmed by very high levels chemicals such as mercury. One of the hyperlinks lists some fish that should be avoided. That said, this is a reminder of what Rachel Carson wrote about when I was in college in the book, “Silent Spring.” The notion that raw, naked capitalism will work to reduce pollution that kills or maims people is plainly self-serving by those who have the most to gain by the pollution.

The announcement by the EPA and FDA rights a wrong. And, Joe Hibbeln made that happen. There are heroes of protecting children’s futures, and Joe is one of them. Anyone with Internet access can read the actual publications by Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, at the National Institutes of Health, by navigating to www.pubmed.gov, the famed National Library of Medicine. Just type in the search engine, Joseph Hibbeln or “Hibbeln and omega-3”.

–––––––––––––––––––

*Personally, we invested in solar cells for home and two electric cars. We now put power back into the grid for our neighbors at a cheaper than coal, gas or nuclear. And, we basically pay just the connect fee per month. Our breakeven on that investment is about 4.5-to 5 years, which we just passed.

References

1. Hibbeln, J., et al., Maternal seafood consumption in pregnancy and neurodevelopmental outcomes in childhood (ALSPAC study): an observational cohort study. The Lancet, 2007. 369(9561): p. 578-585.

2. Hibbeln, J.R., et al., Healthy intakes of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids: estimations considering worldwide diversity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2006. 83(6 Suppl): p. 1483S-1493S.

Ohio Counties Pass Levy to Support PAX Good Behavior Game

The citizens of Allen, Auglaze and Hardin counties in Ohio pass a levy to support mental health prevention, intervention and treatment. The 1 mill, five-year levy for Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Allen, Auglaize and Hardin counties passed 55 percent to 45 percent overall and passed in all three counties. The vote was 13,070 to 10,489, according to unofficial results from county election boards.



In years past, the levy failed. One of the likely reasons the levy passed is because of the mobilization of teachers, parents and others who have witnessed first-hand the benefit of PAX GBG in in the schools. The benefits have been profound enough that teachers and others mobilized to support the levy, since one of the purposes is to expand the benefits of PAX GBG to every school in the three counties over time, http://limaohio.com/news/news/456305/Mental-health-board-seeking-new-levy. You can see the TV add run in the area on YouTube,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fKp731cCZQ&noredirect=1

This is appears to be the first time counties have passed a levy to fund an evidence-based practice to be used universally to prevent mental emotional and behavioral disorders.

— in Lima, OH.

“Why should I praise, compliment kids or students for things they should be doing anyway?”

My experience is that when someone says that or asks that, they—themselves—are feeling terribly un-praised and under appreciated for what they do in life.   The comment really means, “I am unappreciated, so why should I appreciate others?”

I don’t attack people for this blinded comment about themselves, nor do I try to argue back from the mountains of evidence showing that all living humans need this. The comment arises from a wound, and the wound needs a healing. How can one do that? Here are two examples:

I’ve modeled for PAX Partner Coaches (people who help implement the PAX Good Behavior Game (www.GoodBehaviorGame.org), Principals, and others to go into a classroom and ask the teacher or staff member to sit on a chair in the center of the room. Then, I ask the students if they like tattles. “Nooooooooo,” is shouted answer from the students. I ask the teacher by name, “Do you like tattles, Ms/Mr __?” The answer is obviously, “No.”

Then, I turn to the class and ask: “Who knows what the opposite is of a tattle?” Unless the kids have already taught, they answer typically: “Not tattling.”

So I explain, “That is not the opposite of tattling; it is the absence of tattling. The real opposite is tootling. To tootle is to see, hear, feel and notice the good that someone else does and tell them in spoken words and, even better in writing, on a Tootle Note.”

So then, I have the students practice tootling with the teacher. I ask them to put on their PAX Thinking Caps, and to think about something PAX or good that Ms/Mr ____ did today, yesterday or last week. Then, raise their hand for permission to tootle their teacher with this sentence stem: “Ms/Mr ________ I want to tootle you for _________.”

The students will be eager to respond. After a few minutes, most adults start to choke up, often with tears streaming. The students are very good at noticing the good, yet they have never been given a chance or ritual to do so.

The same is true of as modern adults. We have no ritual in the modern world for this, which is why we introduced Tootle Notes™ in schools and other settings. The unique word really helps. When students start to write Tootle Notes to each other, all sorts of magic starts to happen. Indeed, in our published randomized trials, this practice of written praise notes for doing good had large effects on positive health, increased prosocial behavior and school engagement, reduction in aggression, and reduction of fighting injuries [1-3].

Now after the little visit to the classroom, suddenly teachers want students to start writing Tootle Notes to each other, adults at home, staff at school and the teacher, too!

Another way is to simply ask the person what they would like to be appreciated for in their life, perhaps has not be notice by others at home, at work, at school, etc. After hearing the response, find a way to tootle (praise) the person for that spiritual hole to be filled.

And you might consider downloading, sharing and showing this wonderful six-minute TED video: http://bit.ly/evokingthanks

References Utilized and Cited

Embry DD, Flannery DJ, Vazsonyi AT, Powell KE, Atha H: PeaceBuilders: A theoretically driven, school-based model for early violence prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1996, 12(5, Suppl):91.
Krug EG, Brener ND, Dahlberg LL, Ryan GW, Powell KE: The impact of an elementary school-based violence prevention program on visits to the school nurse. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1997, 13(6):459-463.
Flannery DJ, Vazsonyi AT, Liau AK, Guo S, Powell KE, Atha H, Vesterdal W, Embry DD: Initial behavior outcomes for the PeaceBuilders universal school-based violence prevention program. Developmental Psychology 2003, 39(2):292-308.