New research on parental stress, emotional regulation, and the invisible demands of family life offers important insights into how we can better support children's mental health. Most parents recognize those occasions when family life seems to become more difficult than it should be. A child who ordinarily manages the morning routine becomes increasingly resistant to getting ready for school. A parent who is usually patient finds themselves becoming frustrated over seemingly

Understanding Why Lasting Behavioural Change Begins with Relationships, Expectations, and Environments By Dr. Bob Carey There is a question I have returned to many times throughout my career, particularly when working with children, adults with developmental disabilities, and families struggling with persistent behavioural or emotional difficulties. Why is it that an individual can function reasonably well in one environment, yet experience considerable difficulty in another,

New research on parental stress and childhood ADHD raises important questions about how we understand challenging behaviour and why supporting parents may be an essential part of helping children. By Dr. Bob Carey For many parents raising a child with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), everyday family life can become an exhausting series of reminders, negotiations, frustrations, and attempts to keep things moving in the right direction. Getting ready for school

By Dr. Bob Carey New research suggests that the everyday experiences we sometimes overlook may have a much greater influence on children's emotional well-being than we realize. Most parents are familiar with those mornings when everything seems to go wrong. One child cannot find their shoes, another is refusing to get dressed, breakfast has barely been touched, and the clock seems to be moving much faster than everyone else. A parent who began the morning determined to remain

By Dr. Bob Carey There is a point in many conversations about a young person's mental health when someone says, quite reasonably, that the child needs help. Perhaps a teenager has stopped attending school regularly, seems increasingly withdrawn, or no longer enjoys the things that once mattered to them. Parents become concerned, teachers notice changes, and a referral is made. We tend to think of that referral as the beginning of a solution. Yet for some families, it is the b

by Dr. Bob Carey One of the greatest risks in working with children is believing that we already know why they behave the way they do. A child who cannot sit still is often labeled as having ADHD. A student who refuses to complete schoolwork may be described as oppositional or unmotivated. Another child who withdraws from classmates might be viewed as shy, anxious, or socially awkward. While these descriptions may contain elements of truth, they often do not tell the whole s

When parents come in for a consult about their child's emotional wellbeing, the conversations typically focus on the factors most people naturally think about. They talk about family relationships, friendships, school experiences, learning challenges, anxiety, stress, behaviour, and self-esteem. Occasionally they discuss sleep, exercise, or the impact of technology. What rarely comes up, at least initially, is nutrition. Yet nutrition is becoming an increasingly important pa

The Alarming Statistics Over the past several years, researchers have documented a troubling increase in emotional distress among adolescent girls. The statistics are difficult to ignore. According to the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), four in ten high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness during the previous year. Among girls, the numbers are even more concerning, with n

By Dr. Bob Carey, C.Psych. Over the past several years, many parents, educators, and mental health professionals have noticed a concerning shift in the emotional lives of children. Increasingly, children who appear bright, capable, and conscientious are presenting with significant levels of anxiety related to performance, achievement, and fear of failure. While anxiety surrounding grades, sports, auditions, and social acceptance has traditionally been associated with adolesce

When parents are concerned about their child's wellbeing, the conversation often begins with something concrete. A child may be experiencing frequent headaches. Another may seem exhausted much of the time despite spending long hours in bed. Some struggle to fall asleep, while others wake repeatedly during the night or find it difficult to get going in the morning. In many cases, families have already begun searching for answers. They may have consulted medical professionals,

One of the more emotionally difficult realities that parents, educators, and clinicians encounter during adolescence is the use of suicidal statements, threats of self-harm, or dramatic emotional crises during moments of conflict, frustration, or demand. A teenager may suddenly threaten suicide when limits are imposed, when access to electronics is removed, when expectations increase, or when they are confronted about school refusal, substance use, peer conflict, or behaviour

By Dr. Bob Carey Following up on my blog post from last week regarding “Digital Disassociation” I realized that there is an even larger issue that I need to address – namely, video gaming addiction. There was a time when concerns about youth and video games were largely dismissed as another moral panic—an echo of earlier fears about television, comic books, or rock music. Parents were often told that gaming was simply “what kids do now,” that it was harmless entertainment,

A Psychologist’s perspective on “digital dissociation” and what it’s really telling us about our children by: Dr. Bob Carey Not long ago, a parent sat across from me and said something I’ve been hearing with increasing frequency: “It’s like he’s not even there anymore. When he’s on the iPad, he’s calm. But when I take it away… it’s like I’ve flipped a switch.” Most parents don’t need research to validate that experience—they’re living it. Still, it was striking to see a recen

A recent regional survey from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (March 11, 2026) reported that approximately one in three parents in Tennessee say their child has been diagnosed with a mental or behavioral health condition. While striking, this figure reflects parent-reported diagnoses within a regional sample rather than population-level prevalence. In contrast, Canadian epidemiological data indicate that roughly 10% of children have a professionally diagnosed mental

When I read a recent Instagram post noting that they are introducing a feature that alerts parents when their teen repeatedly searches for suicide or self-harm content, I had two immediate reactions. The first was relief. Any effort to interrupt suffering earlier is worth paying attention to. The second was caution. An alert is only as helpful as the response that follows it. In my career as a Clinical Psychologist, I have learned that behaviour—especially the kind that scare

Over the past month, several compelling articles and research findings have emerged in the world of child psychology—many of them circling around a common theme: children are carrying more emotional weight than ever before, and it’s showing up in their behaviour. But what stands out in this new wave of research is not just the rising rates of distress, but the growing acknowledgment that behaviour cannot be understood apart from the systems surrounding the child. In other wor

Over the past several weeks, I have run across a wave of new reports and research studies that have been released on the state of children’s and adolescents’ mental health. The themes are familiar by now—rising anxiety, more school refusal, emotional dysregulation, and the continuing strain on families trying to navigate it all. But as concerning as these headlines may be, they also point to something deeply important, something that resonates strongly with the Positive Syste

As a psychologist, I often find that the most profound insights come not from looking deeper into a child’s mind, but by stepping back to view the entire world they inhabit. A recent report from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) provides a sobering example of why this systemic perspective is more critical now than ever. The Findings: A System Under Strain The CAMH article highlights a distressing trend: emergency department visits for mental health concerns am

In Part 1, I described the "Resilience Well" and how it gets depleted. In Part 2, I explained that the "Resilience Well" is refillable, and how to fill it. In this, Part 3, I want to talk about how the well is depleted over time and how the well can be refilled over time, while engaged in pretty typical day to day activities. The well has been designed into us by evolution, so it is calibrated to allow us to survive lengthy periods of adversity. Think flood, famine, drought f

In my last blog post, I described the "resilience well" and how we may find ourselves "on empty". I said that the well is refillable. The bad news is, that once it gets near empty, it takes a long time to refill - it is a slow process at the best of times. The best thing is to never let it get even close to empty in the first place. But making sure it stays mostly filled, and keeping the revenue and expenditure of resilience relatively balanced and stable, is a commitment to