Experiencing harassment through the point of view of someone very close to you can lead to more profound changes than merely observing it from outside or hearing about it. This is the main hypothesis behind REVISE, a new research project carried out by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) to explore how immersive virtual reality can help prevent harassment and foster empathy, changes in attitudes and prosocial behaviour.

Over 1,800 schoolchildren took part in a study by the Laboratory for Studies on Coexistence and Violence Prevention (LAECOVI), focused on specific risk factors for bullying and cyberbullying.

The study used AI to compare health records from 10,000 veterans and found that those who had served in roles with higher risk of blast exposure were more likely to have raised concerns related to anger to their doctor.

Early childhood adversity is connected to poorer physical and mental health across a person’s lifespan, and the biological mechanisms that translate the lived effects of poverty and trauma into physical functions are starting to come to light. A growing body of research has shown that psychosocial stress influences mitochondrial function, and mitochondria play a pivotal role in stress-related diseases and aging. UCLA psychologists have now connected early childhood adversity to changes in how mitochondria produce energy, which may affect cellular function with adverse effects on mental and physical health.

Fathers who take several months of parental leave have a lower risk of developing depressive symptoms during the early years of their child’s life than fathers who take only a short period of leave. This is shown by a new Swedish study involving researchers from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal American Journal of Public Health.