In a Perspective, Mark Hanson and Peter Gluckman explore how maternal stress, caregiving quality, and early environmental conditions can shape the development of executive functions and emotional regulation in children, and how these factors contribute to the emergence of anxiety disorders in young people. Mounting evidence reveals a significant rise in anxiety disorders among adolescents ages 12 to 19, especially in developing countries like the United States, which cannot be fully explained by contemporary stressful events like the COVID-19 pandemic. This pattern suggests that broader longer-term societal or developmental factors are driving the growing prevalence of adolescent anxiety. Here, Hanson and Gluckman highlight how environmental conditions in the earliest stages of life – beginning even before birth – can significantly shape a child’s developing brain, particularly the systems responsible for emotional regulation and executive functioning. According to the authors, these early cues may "prepare" children for adversity, but if the anticipated threats never fully materialize as they grow, such heightened emotional responses may lead to anxiety disorders, especially in adolescence. This mismatch is further compounded by the rapid and dynamic social and technological changes young people now face. “Societies face an emerging burden of mental health issues, especially in young people. Although appropriate interventions are needed to help those already affected, preventative approaches are also critical,” write Hanson and Gluckman. “Solutions will need to adopt a lifecourse perspective, involving more cohesive thinking about parental and caregiver support and the early childhood years by policymakers across health, education, and social welfare."

Many policy discussions on AI safety regulation have focused on the need to establish regulatory “guardrails” to protect the public from the risks of AI technology. In a new paper published in the journal Risk Analysis, two experts argue that, instead of imposing guardrails, policymakers should demand “leashes.”

A new study offers the first large-scale, data-driven examination of tech workers’ values across Europe. The findings reveal that while developers tend to be highly individualistic, open to change, and driven by universalist ideals, non-developers often align more closely with other occupational elites like managers and professionals. This challenges the notion of a unified “tech elite” and highlights the importance of internal diversity in shaping the ethics and impact of the tech industry.

A new study from Abhinav Gupta, professor of management in the University of Washington Foster School of Business, examines how public universities decided whether to offer same-sex domestic partner benefits in the early 1990s and 2000s. The research offers timely lessons on how universities can navigate politically charged issues without abandoning their core commitments.

Involving communities in nature-based solutions to tackle urban climate and environmental challenges leads to innovation and multiple benefits, a study shows.

Many home healthcare agencies adopted telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the absence of federal reimbursements for these services has led to an increasing number of providers discontinuing these options, a national survey conducted by the University of California, Irvine, and other institutions reveals. Results are published in Health Services Research.