The birds and the bees. Say no to drugs. Advice from parents is an expected, if cringeworthy, part of growing up. 

But for some children, the odds of receiving one piece of parental wisdom known as “The Talk” – strategies for safely handling a police encounter – is heavily influenced by a child’s race and gender. 

A study from Rutgers University-New Brunswick quantifies just how much influence these factors play.

“The advice parents give their kids about interacting with police – hands on the wheel, no quick or furtive movements – is shaped by lived experiences,” said Ashley Jackson, an assistant professor in the Rutgers School of Social Work and the lead author of the study published in Youth & Society. “It also changes by gender and race.”

An Osaka Metropolitan University researcher examined the political determinants of parenting leave policy across 21 OECD countries from 1970 to 2021, revealing that socio-cultural rather than socio-economic positions drive parenting leave expansion. 

Even with highly extensive training, the human brain is not really capable of performing two tasks simultaneously. Moreover, even the smallest deviations from trained routines can have a significant impact on how quickly and successfully people complete tasks simultaneously. This is shown by a new study conducted by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), the FernUniversität in Hagen and the Medical School Hamburg. It was recently published in the “Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology”.