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These often create strong, supportive, and resilient individuals:
Respect – For elders, for others’ boundaries, for different perspectives.
Kindness & Empathy – Teaching the importance of caring for others.
Hard Work & Perseverance – Instilling a solid work ethic and resilience.
Honesty – Encouraging truthfulness even when it’s difficult.
Loyalty – Strong sense of connection to family or community.
Responsibility – Owning up to actions and taking care of one’s duties.
Gratitude – Appreciation for what one has, even if it’s not much.
Faith or Spirituality – Providing a sense of meaning or guidance.
Hospitality – Being generous and welcoming to others.
These are often normalized within families but can perpetuate cycles of harm:
Toxic Masculinity or Gender Roles – Limiting expression, emotion, or opportunity based on gender.
Suppressing Emotions – Teaching that vulnerability is weakness.
Racism, Sexism, or Prejudice – Subtle or overt biases that get passed down as “just the way things are.”
Fear of Failure or Change – Instilling anxiety about risk or personal growth.
Workaholism or Burnout Culture – Valuing achievement at the expense of health or relationships.
Control or Authoritarianism – Belief that obedience is more important than understanding or dialogue.
Shame-Based Morality – Using guilt and shame instead of compassion or guidance.
Keeping Family Secrets – Hiding abuse, addiction, or trauma “for the family’s image.”
“We Don’t Talk About That” Culture – Discouraging open conversations about mental health, sexuality, or conflict.
Megan O'Bryan 1, Harold D Fishbein, P Neal RitcheyAffiliations ExpandPMID: 15673220AbstractThe attitudes of 111 ninth and eleventh graders and both of their biological parents were independently assessed for prejudice against people with HIV/ AIDS, homosexuals, Blacks, and fat people, as well as for male and female sex role stereotyping. This study corrected for two shortcomings in previous research: neglecting to assess both parents and assessing only a single domain of prejudice. We addressed the intergenerational transmission of prejudice and stereotyping using three competing models: same-sex, parent equivalent, and differential effects. Using multiple regressions in which parents' scores were entered separately, along with control variables, different maternal and paternal influences were detected. Mothers were the primary influence for prejudice regarding HIV/AIDS, fatness, and race, and fathers were the primary influence for male and female stereotyping and prejudice against homosexuals, supporting the differential effects model. We also established that prejudice and stereotyping in specific domains reflected a more general proclivity to be intolerant. In contrast to prejudice and stereotyping in specific domains, fathers and mothers about equally shaped the adolescents' intolerance, supporting the parent equivalent model.
Chagai M Weiss 1, Shira Ran 2, Eran Halperin 2 3Affiliations ExpandPMID: 37040414 PMCID: PMC10119994 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2218621120AbstractIntergroup prejudice is pervasive in many contexts worldwide, leading to discrimination and conflict. Existing research suggests that prejudice is acquired at an early age and that durably improving intergroup relations is extremely challenging, often requiring intense interventions. Building on existing research in social psychology and inspired by the Israeli TV series "You Can't Ask That," which depicts charismatic children from minority groups broaching sensitive topics at the core of intergroup relations, we develop a month-long diversity education program. Our program exposed students to the TV series and facilitated follow-up classroom discussions in which students constructively addressed various sensitive topics at the core of intergroup relations and learned about intergroup similarities, intragroup heterogeneity, and the value of taking others' perspectives. Through two field experiments implemented in Israeli schools, we show that integrating our intervention into school curricula improved Jewish students' attitudes toward minorities and increased some pro-diversity behavior up to 13 wk posttreatment. We further provide suggestive evidence that the intervention was effective by encouraging students to take their outgroups' perspectives and address an element of scalability by delegating implementation responsibilities to classroom teachers in our second study. Our findings suggest that theoretically informed intensive education programs are a promising route to reducing prejudice at a young age.
By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ,AP NewsAug 19, 2025Ziva Mann remembers how joyful and smiley her daughter was as a child — the family even gave her the nickname “Giggles.”“She was just sunshine,” Mann said. That changed around second grade, when her joy began to fade. “She got sadder and sadder,” Mann recalled. “It was like watching someone disappear.”Mann later realized that her child’s growing sadness was connected to a struggle to reckon with her gender identity.Her daughter came out as transgender at home in Massachusetts four years ago. “Mom, I’m a girl,” Mann remembers hearing her say. Though she was surprised by the news, she quickly came to admire her daughter’s bravery.Since then, the family has striven to find the best ways to support Ellie within their modern Orthodox community, where tradition and strict gender roles shape daily life. They’ve managed to find emotional and spiritual resources close to home at a time when transgender rights are under attack nationwide.
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Vivian Wilson came out as transgender through an Instagram Stories post in 2020PeopleBy Nicholas RiceMarch 23, 2025Vivian Wilson, the daughter of Elon Musk and Justine Wilson, is recalling the differing reactions she got from her parents when she came out as transgender.Vivian, 20, told Teen Vogue in an interview published on March 20 that her mom was more supportive than the Tesla CEO, 53, when she confirmed her gender identity to them in 2020."She was very supportive of my transition," Vivian told the outlet of mom Justine, 52. "She is a published writer of supernatural romance fiction, which is where I get all my Vivian-isms.""When I came out to her, she was like, 'Yeah, that figures.' She kind of [pieced it together], so when I came out, she pretended to be slightly surprised for 30 seconds and then was like, 'Yeah, honey. Okay,' " she continued.As for Musk, Vivian told Teen Vogue, "He was not as supportive as my mom," adding: "First of all, I had not talked to him in months — in months — so I had to get f------ parental consent to get testosterone blockers and [hormone replacement therapy]."
"It was 11:00 p.m., and I was like, I know for a fact I am trans. I had known for a few months at that point, and I was like, I cannot f------ do this anymore," she said. "That was the point where puberty was really picking up and everything in my life was completely falling apart.""I was constantly having mental breakdowns in the middle of class. I could not get through days. I didn't want to wake up, I didn't want to do anything," Vivian continued. "I just wanted to rot, pretty much."She added: "It was like, I cannot do this anymore. If I stay in the closet anymore, this is going to take me down a very destructive path."
As for where her relationship with her father stands currently, Vivian and the SpaceX founder are estranged. In the past, Musk has said that he was "tricked" into allowing Vivian to undergo transgender-related medical treatment when she was 16 — a claim that Vivian, who legally filed to change her name and gender in 2022 at age 18, denied in an interview with NBC News, referring to it as a "lie."
A reader is looking for advice on what to say to her child and what to do moving forward.|The Press DemocratBy JEANNE PHILLIPSDEAR ABBYAugust 28, 2024Dear Abby: My young child came out to us as transgender several months ago. My husband and I, along with her siblings, are supportive and love her unconditionally.She decided to share the news with her grandparents, sending a heartfelt email along with a couple of resources specifically for grandparents. One grandparent has been completely supportive, immediately started using the correct name and pronouns and began doing some research.The other grandparents sent a text that pretty much said, “We love you because you’re family, but we don’t really support you.” They have had no contact since. My child is extremely disappointed, and my heart breaks for her. She (and we) knows she may lose friends and family over this, but I guess we always hoped grandparents’ love was unconditional. What advice do you have for her and for us to continue to support her?— Unconditionally in Oregon
Dear Unconditionally: Your daughter is fortunate to have loving, supportive parents, siblings and ONE grandparent who is willing (and able) to accept her as her true self.This other set of grandparents appears to be less open to learning and less flexible in what they are able to accept. Your daughter should continue on her own path and not permit their judgments to define her.
The rise in transgender health care bans is putting providers in the crosshairs.NBC NewsBy Emma DavisAugust 28, 2024Dr. Kade Goepferd has received death threats for their work treating transgender youths at Children’s Minnesota Hospital, but Goepferd said the harassment isn’t the most worrying part of the job.“The waitlist is what keeps me up at night,” said Goepferd, who uses they/them pronouns. “It has grown every year, and it got particularly long after the bans went into effect.”Goepferd is the medical director of the hospital’s Gender Health Program, the only multispeciality pediatric gender clinic in Minnesota. The program has experienced a 30% increase in calls since surrounding states outlawed gender-affirming care for minors, and the waitlist is now at least a year for new patients, even after Goepferd hired additional staff to help the hundreds of trans youths requesting appointments.
“There’s been a growing awareness over the last year that the environment is only getting more and more dangerous for providers,” said Kellan Baker, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Institute, a nonprofit advancing LGBTQ health care.
It is becoming clear that much of the stakes of the November contest will revolve around questions of gender – and specifically, questions of familyBy Moira DoneganJuly 29, 2024It’s possible,” writes Jessica Winter in the New Yorker, “that if JD Vance had his way, citizenship in the United States would be conferred not solely by birthright but by marriage and children.” This is no exaggeration. In a now viral 2021 clip, JD Vance said: “Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power – you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic – than people who don’t have kids. Let’s face the consequences and the reality: If you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice.”This position now represents large swaths of the Republican party, which has taken on an angry and aggressively prescriptive approach to family life.If you’re a woman in America, Republicans want you to be a mother whether you care to or not. They want you to risk your health to give them more babies. Then, when those babies get bigger, they want to make sure that those children’s fathers – or, excuse me, “parents” – have a near-total control over both them and you.
They want to bar the medical treatments that allow you to plan your family and have children on your own terms – things like egg freezing and IVF. They want to make you have your children young, and they want to stigmatize those of us women who pursue our own careers, interests and ambitions instead of popping out as many children as they deem appropriate.If you say no – if you resist their prescription for marriage, motherhood and perpetual feminine self-sacrifice – they want to let you know, in sneeringly condescending terms, that you’re “childless cat ladies”, that you’re not as good as them, that step-parents are not real parents, blended families are not real families, that women who don’t have children are disgusting, worthless and deserving of contempt. If you say no, they want to denigrate you in public, punish you financially, dilute your vote and lessen your citizenship.[…]They aim, that is, to advance so-called “family values” in which birth is mandatory, marriage is inescapable, children are property rather than persons with rights of their own, and men are in charge. There’s a word for this dark vision of a world in which the private sphere is wholly controlled by husbands and fathers. That word is “patriarchy”.
“Family values; fiscal responsibility; states’ rights; pro-law enforcement; upholders of the Constitution.” These handy benchmark slogans are still being touted by even the most immoral and hypocritical members of the party.So how were their so-called values reached in the first place? And how did our modern fringe group of look-at-me Republicans miss the memo regarding the meaning behind the ideals they claim to uphold? Let’s take a look…[…]The volatile, consequential 1960s and 1970s are often cited as the years during which the modern GOP became animated behind the notion that they’re the party of traditional Family Values™. It was always a front, used to garner power and make themselves appear safe and sound at a time when the Republican Party was flailing. The defeat in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, Nixon’s resignation, and a wobbly economy left the overwhelmingly white, Christian party in need of a rallying cry. That party viewed itself as being attacked on all sides by those seeking equality (operating under the absurd notion that others’ gaining rights is somehow an affront to their own). Racial integration in schools, the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, and increased awareness of LGBTQ+ rights provoked conservative Republicans to break out their megaphones and shout from some supposed moral high ground. “Family values” proved a crucial shield and sword during this revolutionary era. It would quickly become an essential courting phrase for evangelicals across the country.
- Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to cite religion as a source of meaning in their life. People in both parties mention spirituality, faith and religion as a source of meaning, with specific references to participating in traditional religious practices (e.g., “attending church services”), as well as more general references to living a life informed by faith. One Republican woman, for example, said, “My faith and the ability to choose to be thankful, optimistic and joyful are what keeps me going.
- Republicans are more likely than Democrats (12% vs. 6%) to bring up freedom and independence as something that gives their life meaning. Some people mention freedom in the personal sense, focusing on their ability to live the way they want, their work-life balance, or having or wanting free time. One Republican woman said, “I like being able to have the freedoms to make my own decisions and to be able to contribute to my country. Being able to express my views without worrying about retribution.”
- Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cite physical and mental health as part of what gives them meaning in life – and they mention the COVID-19 pandemic more frequently. When the survey was fielded in February, some 13% of Democrats and 9% of Republicans mentioned health – whether people’s current state of well-being, their exercise regimens or the steps they take to lead healthy lives. For some, health is also a precursor for other sources of meaning. One Democratic man put it this way: “The biggest thing for me is health. If you don’t have your health you don’t have much. Everything else can come later but you have to have your health.”
- Democrats are more likely than Republicans to find meaning in hobbies and recreation, nature and the outdoors, and pets – though small shares of Americans overall mention these things. Overall, only one-in-ten Americans say hobbies are a source of meaning in their life, and even fewer say the same about nature (4%) or pets (3%). But Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to cite each one as a source of meaning in their life. Among Democrats, liberals are more likely than moderates and conservatives to find meaning in hobbies, nature and pets, but there are few ideological differences among Republicans on these topics.
- Conservative Republicans are particularly likely to mention their country or where they live as a source of meaning. Among Republicans, 16% mention the country, patriotic and national sentiments, or the state of America’s economy or society as a source of meaning, compared with 12% of Democrats. But conservative Republicans (21%) are particularly likely to mention society relative to moderate and liberal Republicans (9%), while there are no major ideological differences among Democrats.
Now that is family values and look what the Republicans said and did about him.Gus Walz broke the internet with his tearful love for his dad. Then the bullying began
USA Today
By Michael Collins and Sam Woodward
August 22, 2024A tearful, unscripted moment between Tim Walz and his 17-year-old son, Gus, has unleashed a flood of praise and admiration – but also prompted ugly online bullying.
Gus Walz, who has a nonverbal learning disorder as well as anxiety and ADHD, watched excitedly from the front row of Chicago’s United Center and sobbed openly Wednesday night as his father, the Democratic nominee for vice president, delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
[…]
Walz followed up by expressing his love for his family from the stage, saying, "Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world. And I love you."
But the show of affection triggered a swath of snark and ugly comments on social media, many from MAGA supporters of former President Donald Trump, who faces Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Walz in November.
Conservative columnist and right-wing provocateur Ann Coulter mocked the teenager’s tears. “Talk about weird,” she wrote on X. The message has since been deleted.
Mike Crispi, a Trump supporter and podcaster from New Jersey, mocked Walz’s “stupid crying son” on X and added, “You raised your kid to be a puffy beta male. Congrats.”
Alec Lace, a Trump supporter who hosts a podcast about fatherhood, took his own swipe at the teenager: “Get that kid a tampon already,” he wrote, an apparent reference to a Minnesota state law that Walz signed as governor in that required schools to provide free menstrual supplies to students.
“Talk about weird…” Coulter wrote above the news article.
[…]
The founder of the gun safety groups, Moms Demand Action and Everytown, Shannon Watts, wrote on X: “I am neurodivergent. When I was 14, I was diagnosed with ADHD, OCD, and several learning disorders, including dyscalculia.”
“We’re not weird, we’re wonderful. And we’re your family, friends, and fellow Americans.”
“Jesus. What ass-wipes,” Ana Navarro wrote in an Instagram post that featured Coulter’s deleted comment. “Of course Republicans and Trumpers on social media taking shots at Gus Walz. You have to be a special kind of heart-less mutant to attack a 17 year-old special needs kid -not involved in politics- for the simple act of expressing love for his father.
[...]
Rosie O’Donnell reacted to Coulter’s remark by writing: “Talk about a cruel heartless woman – she’s the worst.”
“There is a special place in Hell for adults who bully Children,” added Star Jones. “God does not like ugly … and he ain’t [too] fond of vile and disgusting women who use their vast platform to vilify the vulnerable. #DoBetter.”
To those of us watching at home, the poignant moment built slowly—then happened all at once. Wearing a suit that was a little too big and a slightly loosened tie, young Gus stood in the audience and cheered, alongside mom Gwen and sister Hope, as his father talked about public school teachers and respecting individual privacy. As Walz shared with the country the fertility struggles he and his wife had endured, Gus sat silently, his mother’s arm around him. “Hope, Gus, and Gwen, you are my entire world, and I love you,” Walz told his family. The line once again brought Gus to his feet, and his lips started quivering. Applauding along with the arena crowd, Gus put his hand on his heart, pointed to his dad onstage, and shouted “I love you!” in return. “That’s my dad!” he then declared proudly and tearfully three times to those around him.[...]When Gus wept on Wednesday night, he became a paragon of something bigger than him: an evolved sense of manhood—or boyhood. Other young men across the country could see in Gus the catharsis that can come from defying any stereotypes and expressing this love publicly and with pride. Gus’ tears might be his greatest secret power yet.
The NBA Hall of Famer was presented with the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award for his advocacy for the trans communityPeopleBy Liam QuinnMay 23, 2024Dwyane Wade racked up a number of accolades during his Hall of Fame NBA career. Now, he’ll need to make room for another award — this time for his advocacy work done off the court.Wade, 42, was presented with the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award on Thursday, May 23, in Miami, where he spent most of his Hall of Fame NBA career with the Miami Heat. The 13-time All-Star received the award for his advocacy work for the transgender community. Wade, who has turned down several honors prior to this one, says this new accolade stands separate from his basketball achievements.[...]“You will hope as a parent that your kids feel comfortable to communicate with you when they're confused and they're looking for answers,” Wade says. “Whatever it is they are experiencing, that they feel comfortable enough to express those things to you. You won't want it to be someone else. At the end of the day, they're your kids. But you have to create the environment for that.”
Elon Musk's transgender daughter, in first interview, says he berated her for being queer as a childIt is so hard to come out to your parents but when one parent is totally against her transition it must be doubly hard. It must complicate things when your father believes in authoritarianism.
In an exclusive interview, Vivian Jenna Wilson said her father’s recent statements, including that she is “not a girl,” inspired her to speak out: “I’m not just gonna let that slide.”
NBC News
By David Ingram
July 25, 2024Vivian Jenna Wilson, the transgender daughter of Elon Musk, said Thursday in her first interview that he was an absent father who was cruel to her as a child for being queer and feminine.Wilson, 20, in an exclusive interview with NBC News, responded to comments Musk made Monday about her and her transgender identity. On social media and in an interview posted online, Musk said she was “not a girl” and was figuratively “dead,” and he alleged that he had been “tricked” into authorizing trans-related medical treatment for her when she was 16.Wilson said that Musk hadn’t been tricked and that, after initially having hesitated, he knew what he was doing when he agreed to her treatment, which required consent from her parents.
Macho man, macho man…Wilson said that, for as long as she could remember, Musk hasn’t been a supportive father. She said he was rarely present in her life, leaving her and her siblings to be cared for by their mother or by nannies even though Musk had joint custody, and she said Musk berated her when he was present.“He was cold,” she said. “He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.”
The Washington Posts reports that,Wilson said that, when she was a child, Musk would harass her for exhibiting feminine traits and pressure her to appear more masculine, including by pushing her to deepen her voice as early as elementary school.“I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn’t know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars — I don’t remember which one — and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high,” she said. “It was cruel.
I believe that Ms. Wilson doesn’t want all this publicity, that it is all her father’s doing, I believe that he hates us so much that he is willing to drag her though the political mud storm. Contrary to popular belief about starting Tesla from scratch the U.K. news outlet Independent writes,In an interview with Jordan Peterson, Musk alleged he had been “tricked” into approving gender-affirming care for Wilson at 16 and had subsequently “lost” his son. The experience, he said, made him an ardent opponent of gender-affirming care and fueled his quest to “destroy the woke mind virus.”On X after the interview, Musk said that his child was born “gay and slightly autistic” and claimed these traits “contribute to gender dysphoria.” Wilson shot back soon after on Threads, dismissing her father’s characterization of her childhood as “entirely fake.” She criticized him for peddling harmful stereotypes about trans and queer people in “an attempt to garner sympathy points.”“He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there,” the 20-year-old said in one post. And when her father was present, Wilson said, he “relentlessly harassed” her for her “femininity and queerness.”[…]The dispute marks a rare public spat between Wilson and Musk, whose frustrations over her transition have been central to his well-documented rightward political shift. In recent years, Musk has been embraced by prominent conservatives such as Tucker Carlson, spoken out against corporate diversity initiatives and amplified right-wing commentators on social media.That political shift apparently cemented this month, when Musk endorsed former president Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
Money makes money and having $22 million in seed money helps a lot…“We went to this guy’s prefab and he opened his safe and there was just stacks of money and he paid me out, £80,000, it was a huge amount of money,” Errol Musk [Elon’s farther] said, according to Business Insider. Errol Musk was then made another offer: to spend £40,000 on an emerald mine. “I said, ‘Oh, all right’. So I became a half owner of the mine, and we got emeralds for the next six years,” Errol Musk said.As a result of this, the teenage Elon Musk once walked the streets of New York with emeralds in his pocket. His father said: “We were very wealthy. We had so much money at times we couldn’t even close our safe,” adding that one person would have to hold the money in place with another closing the door. “And then there’d still be all these notes sticking out and we’d sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.”
It was Confinity’s own money-transfer service, PayPal, that became the official title for the banking venture - but eventually Musk was replaced by Peter Thiel as CEO in 2000 and PayPal was bought by eBay in 2002. Musk, as the largest shareholder in the company, received over $100 million, with reports saying the full figure is somewhere between $165 and $180 million.With all this wealth it doesn’t guarantee that he would not be an A**hole. NBC Today writes about her brothers and sisters,
No wonder why he likes Trump, they both came from the same mold… super rich fathers, they both objectify and sexualize women. Both have a history of making disparaging remarks about women, and both faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. Two peas on a pod.Musk wears many different hats, and in addition to the above, he’s also a father of 11 children that he's had with three different women.The X owner shares three kids with the musician Grimes, twins with tech executive Shivon Zilis and five children, a set of twins and triplets, with his ex-wife, Justine Wilson.“He believes that people should have many more children,” author Walter Isaacson, who published both a biography and Time magazine cover story about Musk in September 2023, said while appearing on TODAY Sept. 11, 2023. Isaacson added that Musk "wants to have a lot of children.”
Would you rather pass along these values then what the family values of Republicans?As his trans daughter struggles, a father pushes past his prejudice. ‘It was like a wake-up’
AP News
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
April 11, 2024Before his transgender daughter was suspended after using the girls’ bathroom at her Missouri high school. Before the bullying and the suicide attempts. Before she dropped out.
Before all that, Dusty Farr was — in his own words — “a full-on bigot.” By which he meant that he was eager to steer clear of anyone LGBTQ+.
Now, though, after everything, he says he wouldn’t much care if his 16-year-old daughter — and he proudly calls her that — told him she was an alien. Because she is alive.
“When it was my child, it just flipped a switch,” says Farr, who is suing the Platte County School District on Kansas City’s outskirts. “And it was like a wake-up.”
Looking back, Farr figures his daughter, the youngest of five, started feeling out of place in her own body when she was just 6 or 7. But he didn’t see it.
Farr said he didn’t have “a lot of exposure to what I would consider the outside world” in the conservative Nebraska community where he was raised. “Just old farmers” is how he described it.
Moving to the Kansas City area, which has 20% more people than live in all of Nebraska, was a culture shock. “I had never seen the LGBTQ community up close, and I would still have my closed-minded thoughts.” He said things then that he now regrets. “A lot of derogatory words. I don’t want to go back to that place.”
“No parent has a favorite,” Farr says, “but if I had a favorite, it would be my youngest.”
But when she was 12, she started to steer away from him, spending more time with the rest of the family. It lasted for a few months before she came out to her family. He knows now how hard this was. “Growing up,” he says, “my kids knew how I felt.”
His wife, whom he described as less sheltered, was on board immediately. Him, not so much.
Family values, that is what conservatives preach… but only their values.
Then it hit him. “She’s a girl.”
“I got peace from God. Like, ‘This is how your daughter was born. I don’t make mistakes as God. So she was made this way. There’s a reason for it.’”
“Where we’re at now is what matters,” he says. “Me being a loving father. Me being accepting, me knowing that this isn’t a choice. This is how she was born.”
Could it have something to do with migrations? That we are traveling thousands of miles for jobs? While Europe in much more compacted, that jobs are closer to their roots and they ar enot moving as far as us?Summary: New research highlights a significant loneliness gap between middle-aged adults in the U.S. and their European counterparts, with Americans experiencing higher levels.
The study utilized data from over 53,000 participants to explore loneliness trends across three generations, finding that U.S. adults report increasing loneliness, particularly among younger generations. Key factors contributing to this discrepancy include cultural norms, socioeconomic factors, and weaker social safety nets in the U.S., suggesting a need for policy interventions to address this public health issue.
The findings underscore loneliness as an endemic challenge, emphasizing the role of social connections and support policies in mitigating its impact.
Key Facts:
- Generational Increase in Loneliness: Younger generations in the U.S. report higher levels of loneliness than older ones, indicating a growing trend of isolation.
- Cultural and Socioeconomic Factors: Differences in cultural norms, such as individualism and social media use, alongside economic challenges like job insecurity and income inequality, contribute to the U.S.’s higher loneliness rates.
- Need for Policy Intervention: The research calls for tailored policy interventions, such as enhancing social safety nets and promoting family and work benefits, to combat loneliness and foster social connections.
“Loneliness is gaining attention globally as a public health issue because elevated loneliness increases one’s risk for depression, compromised immunity, chronic illness and mortality,” said lead author Frank Infurna, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University.
[…]
Compared with European counterparts, adults in the U.S. reported significantly higher levels of loneliness. This “loneliness gap” widened with younger generations (late baby boomers and Generation X) reporting greater loneliness than older ones (early baby boomers and the Silent Generation).
While the U.S. showed consistent historical increases in midlife loneliness during the period data were collected, some European nations displayed more varied patterns. For instance, England and Mediterranean Europe demonstrated similar increases in loneliness for later-born participants (late baby boomers and Generation X). Continental and Nordic Europe demonstrated stable or even slightly declining levels across generations.
Loneliness as a global public health issue has called attention to the importance of advancing social connections, according to Infurna. The study defends the promotion of social safety nets, through generous family and work policies, which may lessen midlife loneliness by reducing financial pressures and work-family conflict, in addition to strengthening job security and workplace flexibility. Infurna said such practices would also address health and gender inequities.
When bullying and harassment is condoned it begins to run rampant and unchecked. With a wink and a nod evil is done.
After Nex Benedict’s death, LGBTQ youth group saw 200% rise in crisis contacts from OklahomaBigotry is a learned trait, it is passed down through generations, children of racist learned to be racists. The American Psychological Association wrote an article about how bigotry runs in families, it is taught from one generation to another.
The Rainbow Youth Project, a national LGBTQ suicide prevention group, also said calls increased ahead of a protest in Owasso, Oklahoma, by Westboro Baptist Church.
By Jo Yurcaba
March 7, 2024A national LGBTQ youth nonprofit group said crisis calls from Oklahoma more than tripled in the weeks after transgender student Nex Benedict died there on Feb. 8.Lance Preston, founder of the Indianapolis-based Rainbow Youth Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, said the group’s crisis hotline for LGBTQ young people received 1,097 contacts, including calls and online messages, from Oklahoma in February — an increase of more than 200% from its monthly average of 350 contacts.The group received just under 1,000 of those contacts after Feb. 16, when Nex’s death began to receive widespread media attention. Of the 1,097 contacts, 87% reported incidents of bullying in Oklahoma schools.“The high volume of contacts underscores the pressing need for intervention and support services — support services that are far too often unavailable, especially in rural areas of the country,” Preston said at a news conference Thursday hosted by the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization.
You got to be carefully taught.Raising anti-racist children
Psychologists are studying the processes by which young children learn about race—and how to prevent prejudice from taking root
By Kirsten Weir
May 18, 2023Racism occurs across a spectrum. It lives within individuals and between them, within institutions and across society. And at every level, children are affected by discriminatory beliefs and practices, said Farzana Saleem, PhD, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. “Racism is learned early on in development, and children receive many messages about race and racism from a young age.”
Kids pick up on what their parents and teachers say (and don’t say), who and what they see on TV, what their dolls look like, and how other people are treated in their schools and neighborhoods. “Humans are sponges for their social environment,” said Evan Apfelbaum, PhD, an associate professor of management and organizations at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. Over decades, research has explored how children come to understand race—and how they learn racism. Yet the science is a long way from prescribing a formula for anti-racism. “There’s a whole host of factors that can affect kids’ holistic understanding of race—and so much research that needs to be done,” he said.
Tell me what does it teach the when you “Can’t Say Gay?”
Race in early childhood
When do children understand race? It’s not an easy question, in part because “race” isn’t the rigid construct it’s often made out to be. “It’s well established that there’s no biological basis for race,” said Diane Hughes, PhD, a professor of applied psychology at New York University. “Race has meaning because we give it meaning—especially in the U.S., where our history is largely structured to uphold these ‘racial differences,’” she said. “We assume that there are unobservable underlying personality traits that correlate to certain physical characteristics.”
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Within the first years of life, children are bombarded with messages from their environment that shape their beliefs and judgments about other people. It doesn’t take long for such messages to stick. By preschool, children begin showing both implicit and explicit bias toward members of other races. Kristin Shutts, PhD, at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, found that at age 3, White children are equally likely to befriend Black or White children. But by age 4 or 5, White children are more likely to choose other White kids as friends (Child Development Perspectives, Vol. 9, No. 4, 2015).
Bigotry is indeed a learned trait that can be passed down through generations in families. Children learn prejudice and discrimination from observing the society around them, including their parents, teachers, and peers. Research indicates that children start developing attitudes about various groups in society as early as ages three or four, and these attitudes become more difficult to change as they grow older. Social learning theory suggests that prejudice is learned through association, reinforcement, and modeling, primarily from the messages children receive in their environment.
Racism is learned early in development, with children receiving messages about race and racism from a young age. Children absorb these messages from what their parents and teachers say, media representations, toys they play with, and how people are treated in their surroundings. It's emphasized that no one is born racist; rather, individuals learn racism easily through societal influences but can also unlearn it with proper guidance and education.
Furthermore, racism can have transgenerational consequences, impacting health outcomes across generations due to the embodiment of inequality transmitted through epigenetic influences. The stress of racial discrimination can lead to alterations in gene expression with significant implications for bodily systems' healthy functioning. Racism affects children's health in various ways, including physical health risks like exposure to environmental hazards and limited access to healthcare, as well as mental health issues such as higher rates of depression and anxiety.
Parents play a crucial role in combating the transmission of bigotry by openly discussing race and inequality with their children, exposing them to diverse role models, helping them build a strong cultural identity, and teaching them to be agents of positive change against racism. By providing children with the language to address these issues and instilling pride in their cultural identity early on, parents can empower their children to recognize bias and contribute to efforts for racial equality and justice.
Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was arrested twice: in 1927 during a Ku Klux Klan riot, and in 1976 over code violations at a building he owned in Maryland.
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This was not Fred Trump’s first arrest. Forty-nine years earlier, in 1927, he was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally that turned violent in Queens on a charge of “refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so,” according to a newspaper report at the time. He was 21 at the time of this arrest; his son Donald would not be born for another 19 years.
When I attended the tenth anniversary of marriage equality here in Connecticut there dozens of children running around the party. Also I know of a half of dozen children raised by LGBTQ+ parents and the children are straight!LGBTQ+ people want to foster or adopt kids, but fear of discrimination stops them (exclusive)
That's among the findings just released from a study by Gallup and the children's charity Kidsave.
The Advocate
By TRUDY RING
JANUARY 24 2024Thousands of American children need foster or adoptive homes, and many LGBTQ+ people would love to provide them. But there’s a problem — some of these LGBTQ+ people are reluctant to step up due to fear of discrimination.
That’s among the findings of the Americans’ Views of U.S. Foster Care study, conducted by Gallup, the well-known polling organization, and Kidsave’s EMBRACE Project. Kidsave is a nonprofit dedicated to helping older kids in foster care, and EMBRACE — which stands for Expanding Meaningful Black Relationships and Creating Equity — is aimed at improving the outcomes for Black foster youth. The findings regarding LGBTQ+ participation were released Wednesday morning.
LGBTQ+ Americans are more interested in becoming foster or adoptive parents than their straight and/or cisgender peers, Gallup reports. Thirty-seven percent of LGBTQ+ adults have seriously considered fostering a child, and 32 percent have seriously considered adoption, compared with 23 percent and 15 percent of non-LGBTQ+ adults, respectively, according to the study. Women from the LGBTQ+ community express interest at a higher rate than men.
But more than a third of the LGBTQ+ adults surveyed said fear of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is a barrier to becoming foster parents or adopting from foster care. Men are more likely to fear discrimination than are women.
Meanwhile, “fear of facing discrimination is holding back potentially millions of LGBT families and individuals who are serious about caring for children in need of a home,” says the Gallup report. “Family service organizations raising awareness about perceptions of discrimination and addressing those concerns could potentially boost the number of LGBT people open to taking the first step toward fostering children or adopting from the foster care system.”
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| Earthrise (NASW Photo) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). |
It this time of year that we reflect on all that has happened this past year and to give thanks. However, for many it is not a time to rejoice, it is a time of loneliness, their families may have moved and left them behind, their family or spouse might have pasted away leaving them without any close relatives or their children might be at their in-laws for this holiday, for whatever the reason, it is a lonely time.
