Frequent abdominal pain in children associated w/school-related stress/ peer harassment

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“If a school-age child has abdominal pain, it can be worth looking a little deeper and asking whether they also experience pain elsewhere. If they do, this may suggest that the pain may not simply be a symptom of an organic condition, but part of a more complex pain disorder. This can be the case even if the child was previously diagnosed with an organic condition such as celiac disease or Crohn’s disease, because that condition may no longer be what is causing the symptoms,” says Dr. János Major, first author of the study, assistant professor at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences at Semmelweis University and head of the Paediatric Pain Centre at Bethesda Children’s Hospital. 

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Credit: Photo: Boglárka Zellei - Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary

Many parents feel reassured when their child’s recurrent abdominal pain is investigated and no underlying organic condition is found. However, a study by researchers at Semmelweis University, published in the International Journal of Pediatrics, suggests that this may be when it is worth asking a few further questions: Does the child experience pain elsewhere in the body? Has the pain persisted for at least a year? If the answer to either question is yes, it may be a warning sign.  

Researchers at Semmelweis University analyzed data from 522 Hungarian schoolchildren aged 11 to 18 in a nationally representative study. Their findings show that in adolescents with functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) — conditions characterized by recurrent or persistent abdominal pain that is not explained by an organic disease — abdominal pain often occurs alongside pain in other parts of the body. Overall, 80.6% experienced multisite pain, meaning pain at two or more body sites, while 54.8% reported their primary pain site outside the abdomen. Headache was the most common, while joint and back pain were also reported. In more than half of those affected, symptoms had persisted for at least a year. 

According to the researchers, the process may initially be triggered, for example, by an infection or inflammation. However, if the pain persists and is accompanied by stress, anxiety, or other psychological strain, the pain-processing system may gradually become hypersensitive and remain in this state even after the original trigger has resolved. Even relatively mild stimuli may then be enough to trigger pain, and over time even normal bodily processes — such as digestion beginning after a meal — may become painful despite normally causing no discomfort. This may help explain why the pain can persist and occur in several parts of the body. 

“If a school-age child has abdominal pain, it can be worth looking a little deeper and asking whether they also experience pain elsewhere. If they do, this may suggest that the pain may not simply be a symptom of an organic condition, but part of a more complex pain disorder. This can be the case even if the child was previously diagnosed with an organic condition such as celiac disease or Crohn’s disease, because that condition may no longer be what is causing the symptoms,” says Dr. János Major, first author of the study, assistant professor at the Institute of Behavioural Sciences at Semmelweis University and head of the Paediatric Pain Centre at Bethesda Children’s Hospital. 

Adolescents with FAPDs were more likely to feel that they faced too many assessments at school, that there was not enough peace and quiet in the classroom, or that teachers treated them unfairly. Peer exclusion and other forms of harassment were also more common among them. 

The researchers also examined the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of the children affected. They assessed not only physical functioning but also emotional functioning, social functioning, and everyday school functioning. Questions on emotional functioning covered issues including fear, sadness, anger, sleep problems, and worries. Social functioning looked at how children got along with their peers, including whether they were excluded or teased and how well they were able to fit in. School functioning included factors such as their ability to concentrate and keep up with schoolwork, as well as how many school days they missed because of feeling unwell or attending medical appointments. 

According to the study, adolescents with FAPDs scored significantly worse across all areas assessed, and 14.5% had overall HRQOL scores in the extremely low range. Verbal harassment — such as teasing, mocking, or name-calling — was also associated with extremely low HRQOL. Those affected also missed more days of school, and regular analgesic use was more common among them. 

The researchers say these symptoms should therefore be taken seriously. Without treatment, the underlying factors do not necessarily resolve on their own, and the pain may persist into adulthood, significantly affecting quality of life and everyday functioning. In the longer term, persistent severe pain may place a substantial burden on health care systems, lead to difficulties maintaining employment, and, in severe cases, even result in early disability.

“Parents often tend to play the problem down and say that it will pass or that the child will grow out of it. The problem is that the factors triggering or maintaining the pain do not necessarily disappear on their own,” says Dr. Szilvia Ádám, last author of the study and associate professor at the Health Services Management Training Center at Semmelweis University. 

With appropriate support, the condition can be treated successfully. In some cases, even changing schools or a short course of psychotherapy can make a considerable difference, while pain treatment initiated in childhood may reduce the likelihood that the pain will persist or recur in adulthood. 

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Journal

International Journal of Pediatrics

DOI

10.1155/ijpe/9964179

Main factors in pornography use among adolescents

A study by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) has analysed which factors are most associated with pornography use during adolescence. The results show that the most predictive variable is gender, followed by problematic internet use, cannabis and alcohol consumption, family conflict and engaging in certain risky sexual behaviours. The research, published in the journal Computation, was based on the 2023 ESTUDES survey and worked with a sample of 33,543 adolescents. The aim was to determine which personal, family, digital and behavioural variables are most useful for predicting whether an adolescent reports having viewed or used pornography in the previous 30 days.

“Our aim was not to single out individual adolescents, but to better understand which factors tend to be associated with this behaviour,” explains Jorge de Andrés-Sánchez, a researcher at the URV’s the Social and Business Research Laboratory and co-author of the article.

Detecting patterns with artificial intelligence

The study combines the conventional statistical technique of logistic regression, three machine learning models (XGBoost, LightGBM and CatBoost) and explainable artificial intelligence techniques. These tools are able to detect complex relationships between variables and reveal the weight that each variable carries in the predictions.

The different models produced similar results. The machine learning systems slightly improved some indicators, but the differences compared with logistic regression were small. The authors therefore note that more complex models should not automatically replace traditional statistical techniques. “Artificial intelligence helps us see that this behaviour does not appear in isolation, but within a broader profile of digital, family and behavioural factors,” the authors affirmed.

Sex and problematic internet use: the most influential factors

The sex of the individual is, by far, the variable that carries the most weight in the predictions, with boys being more likely to use pornography. Age is also associated with it, but has a lower predictive importance.

After gender, the next most significant factor is problematic Internet use, which includes behaviours such as having difficulty staying offline, sleeping less to be online, neglecting obligations or using the Internet to escape from worries or negative emotions. The researchers point out that problematic internet use does not equate to a clinical diagnosis of Internet addiction.

The next most predictive variables are cannabis and alcohol use and family conflict. Some risky sexual behaviours, such as having sex without a condom or having a sexual encounter that the teenager regrets the next day, are also slightly predictive. In contrast, parental control has a much more limited effect when all the variables are analysed together.

The study also identifies differences between boys and girls. Among boys, alcohol consumption is the most important predictor once the individual’s sex is excluded from the analysis, whereas among girls it is problematic internet use. The weight of family conflict also varies. Age-related differences, however, are smaller.

More comprehensive prevention

The research team insists that although the results show associations and predictive patterns, cause-and-effect relationships cannot be established. For this reason, the models should not be used to diagnose, label or sanction specific adolescents, but rather to better understand the phenomenon and to guide educational and preventative policies.

The conclusions point towards programmes that combine sex and relationship education, digital literacy, critical reflection on pornographic content, substance misuse prevention, the promotion of safe sexual practices and the strengthening of family communication.

“Pornography should not be addressed as a phenomenon disconnected from the other dimensions of adolescent life. It is part of a broader ecosystem of digital practices, family relationships, substance use and sex education,” the authors summarise.

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Journal

Computation

DOI

10.3390/computation14080177

Boys' academic underachievement and attitudes about effort

Caption

National gender gaps in attitudes toward academic effort based on data from the PISA 2012 and PISA 2018 surveys, shown as a function of each country's level of socioeconomic development, measured using the PISA Economic Social and Cultural Status index. Attitudes toward academic effort are captured by students' agreement with the PISA statement, “Trying hard at school is important” (THI). 

Credit

Clotilde Napp 

A survey of 15-year-olds around the world suggests that the underperformance of boys in education may be linked to gendered cultural attitudes about whether it is important to try hard at school. Girls do better academically than boys in most countries, earning higher grades and completing tertiary education at higher rates than their male counterparts. Research in some individual countries has shown that boys have more negative attitudes about academic effort, which may explain some of this gap. 

Clotilde Napp analyzed data from the 2012 and 2018 waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial assessment of 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading, and science conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA includes data on 750,000 15-year-olds across 61 countries, including survey data about the teens' attitudes and opinions. 

Napp found that boys in nearly every country are less likely to agree that "trying hard at school is important"—and that their responses to this question are correlated with individual academic performance, especially in reading. This gender gap is larger in more developed countries. Across countries, larger gaps in these attitudes also coincide with boys' weaker relative academic performance and their lower participation in higher education—except in STEM fields. 

Boys were also less likely than girls to report that their parents strongly supported their academic efforts. According to the author, the attitude gap may reflect a cultural stereotype associating talent and brilliance more with boys—implying they need not put in much effort—and effort and diligence more with girls.

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Journal

PNAS Nexus

 

Devaluation, not work-life balance, underlies the academic gender gap

Women leave academia at higher rates than men, contributing to consistent gender imbalances at senior levels. Interventions often target work-life balance and motherhood. Katie Spoon and colleagues surveyed thousands of current and former tenure-line faculty in 29 academic fields across nearly all U.S. PhD-granting institutions. 

The authors asked respondents what needed to be different to reduce stress in their position or, for those who had left, what would have kept them in their position. Across respondents, 38% of women compared with 16% of men reported experiencing devaluation. Devaluation was also the topic most strongly associated with women both considering leaving and actually leaving. 

This pattern held across STEM and non-STEM fields, across nearly 300 institutions, and at every level of institutional prestige. It was strongest for women of color, and it was the only topic that grew more gendered with career age: a 19-point gender gap for early-career faculty widened to 31 points among late-career faculty.

 Despite reaching the top of their careers, women still reported having to justify their professional standing. For example, one senior Black woman in the social sciences wrote that she had to "justify each year why a course release is required [for me] to properly run the program," whereas a male colleague directing another program "was freely offered what I had to fight to keep," and a senior white woman in social work wrote, "I've had to fight for every raise I've received... [this] has made me realize over time that the university does not have my back... If I could see leaders in the higher ed space trying to solve these problems in earnest and large-scale ways, I may be tempted to stay." 

According to the authors, the results provide a basis for action by policymakers and institutions hoping to improve equity in academic retention. 

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Journal

PNAS Nexus

Why story and play time really matter

• First-of-its-kind study shows toddlers’ brains are more engaged during parent interaction than screen viewing   

• Scientists surprised to find children with slower language development and children diagnosed with autism showed similar brain patterns to children with typical development  

• Research is a “paradigm shift” in studying brains during real interactions 

EVANSTON, Ill. –– The everyday moments parents spend reading books, solving puzzles and playing with their toddlers may do more than create memories. New research shows these simple interactions engage young brains in ways that screen time cannot. 

For the first time ever, Northwestern University researchers show how toddlers’ brains respond during natural moments of play with their parent or caregiver using child-friendly electroencephalography (EEG). Comparing those moments with periods spent watching a movie together, the study found that those playful, interactive moments are associated with increased brain activity linked to attention, learning and social processing. 

“We know that parent-child interactions are key for children’s development and this work highlights how meaningfully connecting with your child in play and book reading shifts their brain into a learning mode,” said Elizabeth Norton, senior author of the study, associate professor in the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and director of Northwestern’s Language Education and Reading Neuroscience (LEARN) Lab.  

Co-led by Norton as part of the larger study “When to Worry” about children’s language and mental health development with Laurie Wakschlag, professor of child psychiatry at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the research will be published Oct. 12 in a special issue of the journal “Brain and Language.” 

Bringing neuroscience into the real world 

Norton called the research a “paradigm shift” in studying brains in the “real world,” not just in artificial lab environments. 

Most neuroscience studies of child development take place under highly controlled laboratory conditions, with children viewing single static images on a screen, hearing sounds or performing structured tasks while researchers measure brain responses. 

To better understand how children’s brains work during everyday experiences, Norton and her research team developed the “Social EEG paradigm,” which enabled the recording of brain activity during natural parent-child interactions. 

The study included 49 toddlers between 24 and 44 months of age with a range of language abilities and with and without autism. Along with their caregivers, the children wore stretchy fabric EEG caps that measured the brain’s natural electrical activity from the scalp. Parents and children participated in familiar activities such as reading interactive books and solving puzzles together. Researchers also recorded brain activity while the children watched movies alongside their parent. 

Norton and collaborators, including Brittany Manning, research assistant professor at Feinberg, reviewed recordings frame by frame to identify moments when parents and children were socially engaged with one another and compared those moments to times when the child’s attention was focused on the movie. 

The study investigated two of the most researched brain activity patterns. Researchers looked closely at alpha brain waves which, when lower, are often associated with being in an awake state and paying attention. They also focused on theta brain waves, which when higher, are associated with a person being socially engaged or socially attentive. 

“Toddlers consistently displayed lower alpha brain activity and higher theta brain activity during those moments of parent-child engagement, compared to just watching a movie,” Manning said. “Even when children look like they are very engaged with a movie, the study’s findings show it’s really these moments of quality interaction with the caregiver that the children are most engaged.”  

Similar patterns across children with and without autism 

Norton says one of the study’s most surprising findings was that the same brain patterns emerged across a variety of children, including those with varying language abilities and children diagnosed with autism. 

“In our study, autistic children and children with a language delay showed many instances of social engagement with their parent,” Norton said. “While that engagement was less frequent than typically developing children, their brains were just as engaged as their peers.” 

Next step 

The current study focused on children’s brain activity, but researchers also collected EEG data from parents during the interactions. The team is now examining whether parents’ and children’s brains become synchronized during moments of engagement and whether that neural synchrony is linked to language and mental health development and might help identify which children would benefit from early support and intervention. 

The study titled “Toddler EEG Power Reflects Behavioral Social Engagement State During Naturalistic Parent-Child Interaction” was funded by NIH grants R01DC016273 (E.N. and L.W.), R01MH107652 (L.W.), R21DC017210 (E.N.), and R01DC014709 (M.R.). B.M. was supported by T32MH126368. Northwestern faculty Megan Y. Roberts is also an author. 

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Journal

Brain and Language

DOI

10.1016/j.bandl.2026.105848 

Having someone to talk to linked to better mental health among LGBQ+ teens

The study also found lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are less likely to turn to their parents when faced with serious problems. Email

Gay or bisexual teens who have someone to turn to with a serious problem have significantly better mental health outcomes than those who don't, according to a new study from Tulane University researchers.

Among gay and lesbian teens, an estimated 61% of those without a trusted person had experienced depression in the past year, compared with 35% of those who had at least one person to turn to. The gap was even wider for suicidal thoughts: 66% of gay and lesbian teens without a trusted person had seriously considered suicide, compared with 27% of those with one.

"Across the board, having someone to talk to was linked to lower rates of depression, suicidal thoughts and having a suicide plan in the past year," said lead author Evan Krueger, assistant professor in the Tulane University School of Social Work. "But for many LGBQ+ youth, it made an even bigger difference."

The study, published Oct. 12 in JAMA Pediatrics, drew on a national survey of adolescents ages 12 to 17. 

The research team also examined who teenagers turn to for help and explored differences for lesbian, gay, bisexual and other sexual minority teens. About 8 in 10 heterosexual teens said they would turn to a parent, compared with about 6 in 10 gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens. 

"Being a teenager is already hard, and LGBQ+ youth face extra stressors, like stigma, discrimination and bullying, on top of the everyday challenges," Krueger said. "When faced with a serious problem, heterosexual youth were more likely to say they could turn to a parent, like their mother or father. On average, LGBQ+ youth are less likely to feel they can turn to their parents."

LGBQ+ teens more often turned to friends, romantic partners and other adults, and were more likely to rely on several different people. 

"LGBQ+ youth are resourceful," Krueger added. "When they don't find support at home, many of them are finding it in other places, from friends, partners or other adults in their lives. This doesn't mean they don't need their parents. But it shows they're seeking out connection and support elsewhere."

Previous research has found that the presence of supportive school personnel, including teachers, counselors, and other staff, is associated with lower suicide risk among LGBQ+ youth. As Krueger notes, these adults may play pivotal roles in filling the support gap and fostering psychological safety and belonging for youth who lack affirmation at home.

Experts have credited part of the recent improvement in teen mental health, reflected in new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to school-based efforts that connect students with support. The study's findings may help explain why these strategies are working. The researchers note that friends may not fully replace a consistent, supportive adult, and that schools, families and communities all have a role in making sure no teen faces a serious problem alone.

"If we can find ways to facilitate meaningful, supportive relationships, that is one way to start reducing some of the longstanding, entrenched disparities that we see," Krueger said. "Supportive relationships benefit all kids, but strengthening them may also be a way of reducing disparities in mental health outcomes for LGBQ+ youth."

The study was co-authored by Isaac Wright, a recent graduate of the School of Social Work. 

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Journal

JAMA Pediatrics

DOI

10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.4247  

College classroom phone bans improve learning and student engagement

 

in this Policy Article, Alp Sungu and colleagues report on a large-scale randomized controlled trial evaluating the impacts of classroom phone restrictions on student outcomes in India. The findings show that restricting phone use can support learning, particularly among lower-performing students. Amidst growing concerns about smartphones’ effects on learning, mental health, and peer relationships, phone bans are being increasingly adopted in schools worldwide. However, large-scale experimental evidence supporting whether these bans improve learning or social outcomes is lacking. To address this gap, Sungu et al. performed a randomized controlled trial involving 16,683 students across 10 higher education institutions in Odisha, India – a state where smartphone ownership and use among youth aged 15 to 29 exceeds 70%. The authors measured academic performance, attitudes toward phone restrictions, well-being, motivation, digital use, and online harassment.

 

The findings show that banning smartphones in class improved academic performance, particularly among lower-performing students and first-year undergraduates. Effects were minimal among higher-performing, postgraduate, and STEM students. Removing phones also reduced disparities in GPA, suggesting that restrictions may help close gaps in learning outcomes. Importantly, attendance rates did not change, indicating that the improvement was likely driven by greater attention and more productive classroom dynamics, rather than students simply attending class more often. Students who experienced classroom phone bans became more supportive of the restrictions and more likely to view them as beneficial, while showing less preference for unrestricted phone use. Classroom observations also found less disruptive behavior and fewer off-topic conversations, along with greater teacher engagement. According to Sungu et al., these findings suggest that students may become more receptive to phone restrictions after experiencing a more focused, phone-free classroom environment.