Research Library

Parental stress, which is heightened during natural disasters, can produce negative physiological responses in the developing brains of their infants and young children. This irreversibly alters the child’s brain structure, impacting their long-term prospects for good health and academic and economic success. Now is the time to institute policies and practices that mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the next generation, write the authors,

President López Obrador was skeptical of the coronavirus threat and ignored the recommendations of his own health experts. He downplayed the crisis and relied on his intuition instead of science, with disastrous results. He will be even more distracted in the coming months as he campaigns for re-election.

When states report an increase in Covid-19 cases, Google searches for mental health-related issues also increase, often significantly, the authors find. Their analysis of Google trends data, which is posted in Advance Social Science and Humanities, recommends that policymakers prepare for greater mental health needs in the event a predicted resurgence of Covid-19 becomes a reality.

The death of George Floyd has accelerated calls for police reform. Although decriminalizing drugs and the people who use them will not end police violence, it is part of the structural change needed to fix the problem, writes fellow Katharine Neill Harris.

Political partisanship is strongly influencing the United States’ response to Covid-19, potentially leading to a suboptimal balance between reopening the economy and protecting public health. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

The collective trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic may provide a clearer understanding of why people use drugs — to help us see it not as a moral failing or a brain malfunction, but as a fundamentally human response to negative life events. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

Understanding how to interpret the signs of a child's distress as they adjust to a new way of life during Covid-19 — and how to respond appropriately — is important for a child's mental health and development.

Public health and economic measures enacted to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and mitigate the financial impact on families have unintended consequences for low-income women and their children. The authors explain why.

The authors explain why $100 billion allocated by the CARES act to compensate health care providers for unreimbursed expenses and lost revenue from may be woefully inadequate.

The authors examine recent trends in vaping, research on its effectiveness for smoking cessation, the role of industry marketing and policy responses to increased use.