At Frontiers, we bring some of the world’s best research to a global audience. But with tens of thousands of articles published each year, it’s impossible to cover all of them. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, we’re taking a look at some papers that help us understand how the relationships we have with the people around us shape our lives.

Our relationships could impact overall well-being more than demographics

Many factors can influence how satisfied we are in life, but what impacts our overall well-being the most? Researchers in the US and Canada have investigated and published their finding in Frontiers in Psychiatry. Almost 500 people aged between 20 and 69 participated in the study aiming to better understand well-being variations across subgroups.

The researchers found that life situations that increase our frequency of contact with others, offer opportunity for human and social connection, and contribute to others’ well-being had the most significant positive impact on our own well-being. This includes couple relationships, in particular being married, and being parents.

Employment status and age, too, influenced overall well-being, however not as strongly as relationships. Household income had a very slight impact, and the researchers found no differences reported between genders on overall well-being. Across life situations, purposeful contribution and social connection, with associated feelings of efficacy and significance were key drivers of differences in well-being, the researchers wrote.

Article link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1516729/full

Maternal singing could positively influence neurobehavioral development of preterm babies

Neonatal care improvements mean better survival rates, but babies being born too early can lead to several health challenges, including short- and long-term complications for babies, their families, and societies as a whole.

Writing in Frontiers in Psychology, researchers in Switzerland and Italy asked mothers of babies born between 25 and 32 weeks to speak and sing to them for 20 minutes, three times a week for two weeks. Then they examined the effects of this interaction on preterm infants’ spontaneous motor activities that involved the whole body at the time of birth and three months later. These movements can be used as markers for neurological deficits.

Their results showed that live, infant-directed vocal interaction had a sustained effect on neurobehavioral development of preterm infants at three months of age. This, they wrote, highlighted the potential brain mechanisms underpinning the effects of maternal singing and speech on the observed improvements in spontaneous movements in preterm infants.

Article link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1536646/full

Teens’ reputational concerns could determine if lying makes them more depressed

Just like anyone else, teenagers lie, sometimes with the benefit of others in mind, known as prosocial lying, and sometimes selfishly for their own advantage. At the same time, teenagers are often sensitive to their reputation. Different people show different levels of reputational concern, which can manifest as the desire to avoid negative reputation from others (rejection avoidance) or the desire to obtain positive reputation from others (praise seeking).

In a recently published Frontiers in Developmental Psychology study, researchers in Japan have examined if teens’ reputational concerns impact how depressed lying makes them.

They found when both rejection avoidance and praise seeking were high, and when rejection avoidance was high and praise seeking was low, prosocial liars showed higher levels of depression. Low rejection avoidance and high praise seeking led to the same group showing lower depression levels. In addition, the results showed that teens with higher tendencies toward selfish lying tended to have higher levels of depression, regardless of rejection avoidance or praise seeking levels.

Article link : https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/developmental-psychology/articles/10.3389/fdpys.2024.1513617/full

Comparing your kid to others could come at a cost for their mental health

The way kids are raised greatly impacts them later in life. When parents showcase other children as role models for their own, kids’ mood might be impacted, which could lead to lower self-esteem.

In a sample of more than 500 Chinese children, researchers in Czechia have investigated how children’s self-esteem is impacted when parents compare them to their peers. They published their results in Frontiers in Psychology.

They found that parents’ comparing their children to other kids negatively impacts adolescent self-esteem both directly and indirectly. By frequently deeming their own children less competent or successful than other people’s children, parents may diminish their kids’ self-esteem, which can shape their self-perception and psychological outcomes. While the researchers wrote that social comparison is not advisable in general, they also found that if parents teach their children to be optimistic, the negative effects of comparison may be somewhat mitigated.

Article link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1473318/full

Kids might be more likely to become addicted to their phones if parents never put away theirs

Phones are everywhere and are a constant part of our lives – even when we ourselves try to minimize the time we spend using them.

In a new Frontiers in Psychiatry study, researchers in China have, over six months, tested the relationship between children becoming addicted to their phones when parents don’t put down theirs during shared interactions, a phenomenon known as ‘phubbing’.

The results showed a positive link between parental phubbing and kids’ mobile phone addiction. Underlying mechanism were found to be maladaptive cognition, which refers to a distorted belief system in which the virtual world is perceived as superior to the real world, and ego depletion, which means activities that deplete limited self-control resources, leading to reduced self-control. Unlike some parenting methods, phubbing does not involve negative emotions, and can easily be missed, the team wrote. Nevertheless, its harmful impacts should not be overlooked as it can have serious effects, including mobile phone addiction.

Article link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1470306/full

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