Getting help with parenting makes a difference -- at any age

New Oxford University study finds that parenting interventions(育儿干预)for helping children with behavior problems are just as effective in school age, as in younger children.

There is a dominant view among scientists and policy-makers. They believes, for the greatest effect, interventions need to be     1     early in life, when children’s brain function and behavior are thought to be more flexible. However, according to the new research, it’s time to stop focusing on when we intervene with parenting, and just continue helping children in need of all ages.

Just published in Child Development, the study is one of the first to     2     this age assumption. Parenting interventions are a common and effective tool for reducing child behavior problems, but studies of age effects have produced different results until now.

A team led by Professor Frances Fardner     3     data from over 15,000 families from all over the world, and found no evidence that earlier is better.   Older children benefited just as much as younger ones from parenting interventions for reducing behavior problems. There was no evidence that earlier interventions are more powerful. This was based on     4     data from more than 150 different experiments.

What’s more, their economic analysis found that interventions with older children were     5     more likely to be cost-effective.

Professor Gardner commented: “When there is     6     about behavioral difficulties in younger children, our findings should never be used as a reason to delay intervention, otherwise, children and families will suffer for longer.” She continued, “As for     7     parenting interventions for reducing behavior problems in childhood, we should stick to the principle, ‘it’s never too early, never too late’, rather than ‘earlier is better’.”

The study draws the conclusion that it makes sense to invest in parenting interventions for children at all ages with behavioral difficulties, because they are no more likely to be     8     in younger than older children, at least in the pre-adolescents.

Of course, there’s more work to be done. The experiments conducted were     9     to pre-adolescents, to shorter-term effects, and parent-reported assessment of child outcomes. Future studies are needed that focus on adolescents, longer-term outcomes, and using multiple sources for     10     child behavior problems.

Want to figure out if someone is a psychopath (精神变态者)? Ask them what their favourite song is. A New York University study last year found that people who loved Eminem’s Lose Yourself and Justin Bieber’s What Do You Mean? were more likely to     1     highly on the psychopathy scale than people who were into Dire Straits.

Over the past few years, Spotify has been enhancing its data analytic     2     in an attempt to help marketers     3     consumers with adverts tailored to the mood they’re in. They infer this from the sort of music you’re listening to,     4     with where and when you’re listening to it, along with third-party data that might be available.

Now, to be clear, there’s nothing particularly     5     about what Spotify is doing with your data. I certainly don’t think that they are working with shadowy consulting firms to serve you ads promoting a culture war while you’re listening to the songs that     6     you might be in a casually racist mood. Nevertheless, I find it       7     that our personal private moments with music are increasingly being turned into data points and sold to advertisers.

You can see where this could go, can’t you? As ad targeting gets ever more complicated, marketers will have the ability to target our emotions in     8     exploitative ways. According to one study, titled Misery Is Not Miserly, you are more likely to spend more on a     9     if you’re feeling sad. You can imagine some companies might take advantage of that. And on that note, I’m feeling a little down about all this. I’ll     10     off to treat myself to something expensive.