Category: Academic Reportage

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Mauricio A. Garcia-Barrera, Professor of Psychology, University of Victoria

On any given night, 60,000 people in Canada will go to sleep homeless. Research estimates that more than half of them have had a brain injury at one point in their lives, most of them being injured before becoming homeless. An estimated 22.5 per cent live with moderate or severe brain injuries, a rate nearly 10 times higher than the general population.

Several avenues can lead a person to experience homelessness, including abuse, criminality and other adverse life events, all of which can be interrelated with brain injury. For example, experiencing a brain injury can lead to the onset of a mental health or substance use disorder, impulsivity and aggression, which can, in turn, lead to unemployment, family breakdown or other known causes of homelessness.

“Acquired brain injury” refers to brain damage after birth, either from external physical force (called traumatic brain injury) or internal problems like stroke or infection (non-traumatic). The more severe the brain injury, the greater the impairment, with cognitive abilities often being the most affected.

Cognitive impairment and homelessness

At the CORTEX Lab at the University of Victoria, one of our research interests is the impact of brain injury.

Brain injury often leads to a wide range of cognitive challenges, including mental fog, fatigue, difficulty concentrating and memory problems that disrupt learning and daily functioning. Executive functioning, including decision-making and problem-solving processes, can be particularly affected.

When these impairments go undiagnosed and unsupported, the consequences ripple across every aspect of life: work and school performance decline, relationships suffer and healthy coping mechanisms erode.

Sustaining employment, education and family responsibilities becomes overwhelming. Remembering medications, appointments, and effectively completing tasks such as filling out a form can feel nearly impossible. Financial strain, interpersonal loss and chronic stress compound these difficulties.

Without adequate recovery supports, these factors converge, increasing vulnerability to homelessness and perpetuating a cycle where further brain injuries become more likely.

Systemic gaps in supports

Our research identified several systemic barriers that make it difficult for people living with brain injuries to break the cycle of housing instability and homelessness.

Stigma is pervasive and can undermine the quality of care people receive. People may be discouraged from seeking help when they need it because their trust in systems and service providers is broken.

Health-care and housing systems operate in silos. Long wait-lists, complex application processes and limited communication between organizations make the available services difficult to navigate, especially for people with brain injuries who may require additional support to complete paperwork, attend appointments and advocate for their needs.

Many people with brain injuries rely on income assistance. There is growing concern about the discrepancy between these supplements and the rising cost of living. In today’s rental market, “affordable” housing is financially inaccessible for those relying on income assistance. When housing is obtained, individuals are left with minimal resources to meet their basic needs after rent is paid. This, coupled with under-investment in existing supportive and transitional housing, further limits the availability of appropriate shelter options.

What can we do? Top five solutions

Our community partners’ insights yielded the following recommendations for improving the health and well-being of people experiencing homelessness and brain injury, listed below in order of priority:

1. Provide accessible and affordable housing

People with a brain injury need affordable, accessible housing with special support, including alternative transportation, age-appropriate settings and flexible living options. A housing-first approach with adequate financial help provides the stability needed for successful community living.

2. Enhance resources for service providers

Specialized training for health-care and public service workers who commonly interact with people experiencing homelessness, such as community outreach workers and police, can help to improve the quality of care. The expansion of brain injury health-care services into homeless communities is also key, with particular emphasis on screening and diagnostic services as the first step to connecting people to specialized care.

3. Design needs-based services

Health-care services must consider basic needs that are often overlooked. For example, providers should offer storage, even without ID, so that unhoused patients can safely store their belongings while attending appointments, which can be plentiful following a brain injury.

4. Improve collaboration and adopt a long-term integrated approach

Improving communication between health authorities and housing service providers may facilitate a smoother transition from hospital (post-brain injury) to housing, in turn preventing people from being discharged to the streets. The idea of “care with distinction” is critical, as a team of multidisciplinary health-care professionals are needed to understand needs specific to brain injury, psychiatric or physical conditions, and how these challenges interact in people experiencing homelessness. Continuity of care is also crucial, as brain injury can require lifelong support.

5. Reduce stigma through public health education

Public health education campaigns arose as a promising means for promoting awareness and reducing stigma. By fostering greater awareness for the interconnections between brain injury and homelessness, greater compassion might be promoted.

Supporting a national strategy: Bill C-206

The high burden of brain injury among people experiencing homelessness is undeniable. Bill C-206, an Act to establish a national strategy on brain injuries, represents a critical step toward addressing brain injury in Canada and, as an outcome, addressing homelessness.

The legislation aims to improve prevention, treatment and recovery support for the millions of Canadians affected by brain injury. The bill emphasizes collaboration, public education, and comprehensive care for individuals and families navigating life after a brain injury. A national strategy will have a visible impact not only on affected individuals but on our communities at large.

Mauricio A. Garcia-Barrera receives research funding associated with the work referred in this article from the (former) BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, the Vancouver Foundation, Michael Smith Health Research BC, and Mitacs.

Cole J. Kennedy receives funding for the research referenced in this article from the BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, Vancouver Foundation, Michael Smith Health Research BC, Mitacs and the BC Brain Injury Association. He is also supported by Island Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Grace C. Warren receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s award.

– ref. Brain injury is almost 10 times more common in unhoused people. Addressing it is key to reducing homelessness – https://theconversation.com/brain-injury-is-almost-10-times-more-common-in-unhoused-people-addressing-it-is-key-to-reducing-homelessness-270162

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Laura Neary, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Waterloo

River deltas are among the most complex and productive environments on Earth. Yet, they face serious threats from upstream industrialization and climate change, which alter supplies of water, sediment and contaminants. Even deltas distant from densely populated and industrialized areas are not immune to these stressors.

Nestled in a remote area of northeastern Alberta is the world’s largest freshwater boreal delta. Spanning 6,000 km², the Peace-Athabasca Delta is the traditional territory of Indigenous nations and a haven for biodiversity. The Delta is recognized internationally as a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. It also contributes to Wood Buffalo National Park’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Despite these recognitions, concerns have persisted for decades that hydroelectric dams on the Peace River, oilsands mines along the Athabasca River and climate change are degrading the Delta by reducing freshwater availability and increasing contaminants.

In 2014, the Mikisew Cree First Nation highlighted these concerns and petitioned UNESCO to include the park on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites in danger.

This designation would be a first for Canada.

This has renewed calls to establish a lake monitoring program to track environmental changes and their causes. Yet, the Delta’s vast size, remoteness and hydrological complexity pose challenges that are difficult to overcome.

Freshwater availability

During our 25 years of research in the delta, we also recognized the need for lake monitoring to track environmental changes caused by the threats. After engaging with stakeholders and rightsholders, we launched an intensive, multi-faceted seven-year research program in 2015. The research demonstrates methods for ongoing monitoring of freshwater availability and contaminants across the Peace-Athabasca Delta.

Our research highlights that water isotope tracers are effective for tracking freshwater availability across space and time. This method measures ratios of naturally occurring stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in water molecules. It can identify the roles of snowmelt, rainfall, river flooding and evaporation on lake water balance.

Using water isotope tracers, freshwater availability can be expressed as evaporation-to-inflow (E/I) ratios. This metric compares how much water flows into a lake versus how much water leaves by evaporation.

Maps of E/I ratios reveal where lakes are prone to drying from evaporation (areas in orange and red). It also reveals where lakes receive large inputs of river floodwater and precipitation (blue areas).

Time-series graphs reveal a strong influence of climate on freshwater availability. They demonstrate that E/I ratios at 60 lakes across the Delta correspond with a climate index. Departures from this correspondence would potentially signal that freshwater availability is being altered by other human activities.

Industrial contaminants

In 2010, freshwater scientist David Schindler drew attention to the inability of existing monitoring programs to determine “the extent to which mining has increased concentrations of contaminants in the [Athabasca] river over natural background levels.” A key missing piece was that natural background levels, before mining began, remained unknown.

Following subsequent recommendations of a federal Oilsands Advisory Panel report in 2010, we determined the natural (baseline) concentrations of contaminants in lake sediment deposited before oilsands mining began. We then compared this to concentrations in sediment deposited afterwards to assess for pollution.

As shown in the above graph, we applied this method to measurements of vanadium, a metal abundant in bitumen and mine wastes. Results show enrichment at a lake near the mines due to emissions from the mines, but no enrichment at lakes in the Delta. In other words, mining has not increased vanadium concentrations in the lakes of the Delta.

Monitoring is needed to inform policy

Continued use of these approaches is critical for tracking freshwater availability, detecting pollution and determining causes of change. Such information is needed to inform upstream land-use and water-use decisions and policies, and to evaluate their effectiveness.

Water releases from the W.A.C. Bennett Dam on the Peace River are being considered as a strategy to increase freshwater availability in the Delta. Also under consideration is the release of treated oilsands mine wastewater into the Athabasca River to enable landscape remediation.

These decisions come with costs and risks, and their effectiveness must be evaluated if implemented.

Evaluating strategic water releases could be done by measuring water isotope tracers and depth variation at lakes across the Delta before and after each release. These measurements have been adopted for lake monitoring elsewhere in Northern Canada. Their benefit is that these measurements allow us to determine the impact of river floodwaters versus snowmelt on the amount of freshwater in a lake.

New legislation may allow the release of treated mine wastewater into the Athabasca River. If so, robust baselines generated from lake sediment deposited before oilsands development can be used to detect pollution in recently deposited surface sediment.

More than 50 years ago, the Peace-Athabasca Delta Project Group identified the need for long-term monitoring in the Delta. Many years later, UNESCO’s first fact-finding mission recommended expanding monitoring and project assessments to include possible individual and cumulative impacts of industrial developments on Wood Buffalo and the Peace-Athabasca Delta.

This year, UNESCO will conduct another fact-finding mission to decide on Wood Buffalo National Park’s World Heritage status. The approaches we have developed for monitoring directly address long-standing recommendations from UNESCO and many other governance bodies. They also provide stakeholders with tools to safeguard this world-renowned Delta now and in the future.

Laura Kendall Neary received funding from Polar Knowledge Canada’s Northern Scientific Training Program for fieldwork in the Peace-Athabasca Delta and doctoral scholarships from NSERC and Weston Family Foundation.

Brent Wolfe received funding for the research from the NSERC Collaborative Research and Development program (contributing contracts from BC Hydro, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Suncor Energy, and the Alberta Environmental Monitoring Evaluation & Reporting Agency (now Alberta Environment and Protected Areas)), NSERC Discovery and Northern Research Supplement programs, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Polar Continental Shelf Program of Natural Resources Canada, Northern Water Futures program of Global Water Futures and Parks Canada Agency.

Roland Hall received funding for the research from the NSERC Collaborative Research and Development program (contributing contracts from BC Hydro, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Suncor Energy, and the Alberta Environmental Monitoring Evaluation & Reporting Agency (now Alberta Environment and Protected Areas)), NSERC Discovery and Northern Research Supplement programs, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Polar Continental Shelf Program of Natural Resources Canada, Northern Water Futures program of Global Water Futures and Parks Canada Agency.

– ref. The Peace-Athabasca Delta is at risk. Here’s what we can do to evaluate the threats – https://theconversation.com/the-peace-athabasca-delta-is-at-risk-heres-what-we-can-do-to-evaluate-the-threats-272495

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Michel Magnan, Professeur et Titulaire de la Chaire de Gouvernance S.A. Jarislowsky, Concordia University

Every year, millions of workers are injured or die on the job, imposing enormous human and economic costs. The socio-economic impact of workplace safety is hard to avoid and presents governments and organizations with a major challenge.

In the United States alone, more than 2.6 million work-related injuries occurred in 2023. These incidents resulted in an estimated economic cost of US$176 billion and a loss of around 103 million workdays, according to national data.

In Canada, a recent report estimates the economic costs of workplace injuries at $29.4 billion, which is even higher than in the U.S. once population size is taken into account.

A large body of research shows that external pressures shape workplace safety, with finances, regulatory enforcement and corporate governance being key drivers. However, emerging evidence points to the influence of corporate leadership itself — particularly the “tone at the top” set by chief executive officers (CEOs).

Previous studies suggest that certain executive traits can undermine safety. Overconfidence, equity-based pay incentives and regulatory compliance can impact safety policies, often negatively. What remains less explored is the role of a CEO’s personal traits and backgrounds. Our recent study sought to fill that gap.

Early adversity and executive decision-making

Our study examined whether CEOs’ formative experiences help explain differences in workplace safety outcomes.

Our analysis focused on more than 500 CEOs of large U.S. corporations between 2002 and 2011. We identified where each CEO lived between the ages of five and 15, and matched this information to county-level evidence of natural disasters that caused significant economic damage.

CEOs in the top decile of disaster-related economic damage were classified as having experienced an early traumatic experience.

We then assessed whether such exposure translated into better workplace safety performance. We measured this using government injury and illness data, scaled by the total number of hours worked by employees.

After accounting for firm and CEO attributes, we found that firms led by CEOs who grew up amid severe disasters — such as floods, hurricanes or earthquakes — reported significantly fewer workplace injuries than comparable firms (about 24 per cent less, on average).

Further tests revealed that such results were not an outcome of CEO risk aversion preferences. Instead, the differences appeared to reflect distinct managerial choices.

When character counts the most

One plausible explanation for our findings lies in how early adversity shapes values. Experiencing a disaster during childhood may foster empathy and a sense of responsibility toward others.

In a corporate setting, such prosocial tendencies may motivate CEOs to translate their empathy into concrete organizational actions that prioritize employee welfare. These include improving safety standards, investing in employee safety training or adopting technologies designed to mitigate workplace hazards.

Importantly, these effects were nuanced. The relationship between early-life disaster exposure and workplace safety was strongest where CEOs had more power relative to their boards, faced intense pressure to meet earnings targets or operated in industries with weaker union representation.

In such environments, a CEO’s personal values and character may matter more. Leaders who experienced disasters earlier in life appear to be more willing to protect workers, even when it is costly or inconvenient.

Consistent with this interpretation, we also found that firms led by these CEOs were more likely to make concrete operational changes linked to safer workplaces, including investing in health and safety programs and easing excessive employee workloads — practices that are typically linked to lower injury rates.

Implications for governance and policy

Early adversity does not automatically produce better leaders, nor should personal history replace regulation, enforcement or collective bargaining. That said, our findings suggest that leadership is shaped not only by training and incentives, but by life itself.

The findings are noteworthy from governance, leadership and societal perspectives, as they suggest there are some corporate leaders who are willing to confront short-term financial constraints and corporate resistance to making workplaces safer.

For boards, investors and policymakers, understanding leaders’ formative experiences may offer new insight into who is most likely to truly put human safety first.

In an era in which corporate responsibility is increasingly scrutinized, who leads firms can have tangible consequences for millions of workers.

Yu Wang receives funding from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project-ID:
72302033).

Michel Magnan and Yetaotao Qiu do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. CEOs who experience natural disasters are more likely to lead safer workplaces – https://theconversation.com/ceos-who-experience-natural-disasters-are-more-likely-to-lead-safer-workplaces-275061

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Samuel Freeze, PhD Student in Clinical Forensic Psychology, Simon Fraser University

In the aftermath of violent tragedies like the recent mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., a common panic-fueled and grief-stricken reaction is to rush to simple, tidy explanations. Mental illness, for example, is often used to make sense of what appears to be senseless.

The explanation is appealing because mass shootings feel shocking and sudden, and mental illness offers a way to wrestle with them and try to understand. But the reality is that although mental illness sometimes plays a role in violence, it’s rarely the most important factor.

Regardless, politicians proceed to call for improvements to the mental health-care system, sidestepping more difficult conversations about violence prevention. Framing mass shootings as a mental illness problem misrepresents the evidence, and redirects our attention away from the other psychological, social and structural conditions that increase the risk of violence.

Why mental illness is a poor predictor of violence

Most people living with a mental illness are never violent, and most people who are violent are not living with a mental illness. One estimate suggests that even if all mental illnesses were somehow eliminated, about 95 per cent of violent acts would still need to be explained.

In fact, people living with mental illness are themselves more likely to be victims of violence. And mental illness is much more strongly associated with suicide than violence, especially when guns are involved.

It shouldn’t be treated as a single explanation — it’s a broad label covering hundreds of conditions. Some symptoms of mental illness, like psychosis, are associated with a slightly higher risk of violence. But the vast majority of people experiencing these symptoms will never be violent.

The appeal of mental illness as an explanation is driven in part by stigma. It resonates with people because there’s a commonly held belief that those with mental illness are dangerous, despite evidence to the contrary.

In most cases, other risk factors play a much larger role in explaining violent acts.

Violence risk is about probability, not prediction

Research on violence shows that it rarely emerges from a single cause, but from the interaction and accumulation of multiple risk factors over time in particular contexts and situations.

Professionals who assess the potential for violence focus on specific risk factors — personal, situational and contextual characteristics identified through research — that help to understand someone’s likelihood for future violence.

Even those risk factors simply point to the probability of violence, not certainty.

Substance misuse and intoxication, antisocial traits and attitudes that support violence, experiencing victimization or past trauma, negative peer influence and access to lethal means like firearms are examples of risk factors other than mental health problems that are statistically associated with violence.

These factors often interact with each other and build up over time, potentially shaping motivation, lowering inhibitions and destabilizing decision-making.

Psychiatrists and psychologists involved in the investigation of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado described perpetrators Eric Harris as a psychopath and Dylan Klebold as an “angry depressive.” They noted that Klebold likely would not have carried out the attack on his own. What proved important for attempting to explain his involvement was not depression, but the interaction between anger, grievance, negative peer influence and access to firearms.

This case illustrates how diagnosis alone explains little without paying attention to other factors like social dynamics and access to weapons.

The common pathways behind mass shootings

Mass shootings only make up about one per cent of gun deaths in the U.S., yet they tend to shape the overall discussion about gun violence. The risk factors and motivations involved in mass shootings vary by context (workplace, school) and differ somewhat from those involved in more typical violence.

The definitive role of mental illness in mass shootings isn’t clear, given how complex, unique and statistically rare these tragedies are.

Part of the challenge is that mental illness is defined differently across studies. Overall, severe mental illness appears overrepresented among mass shooters, and having a history of mental health problems, more broadly, is also common. However, rejection, despair, grudges and rage appear to be far more important in explaining why these attacks occur.

Mass shooters tend to be young white men who are socially isolated, struggling at work or in school, and experiencing a sense of alienation. Many report histories of childhood trauma, bullying and social rejection, or at least perceive themselves to have been repeatedly wronged.

Perpetrators may fixate on and ruminate about negative experiences, which can harden into grievances directed at groups or institutions that they feel wronged by. Violence, in this context, then seems justified and can offer a sense of power, revenge or recognition.

Some mass shootings are also tied to extremist ideologies and are intended to garner attention, communicate a message or assert identity within a movement. This may increase a perpetrator’s sense of belonging or purpose. Online environments can act as echo chambers that promote and accelerate radicalization, particularly when someone feels they have been rejected elsewhere.

Many mass shooters also develop an intense interest in weapons and “leak” their plans or grievances to others before an attack.

Recognizing these warning signs can help create opportunities for intervention. At the same time, many people who fit these descriptions will never be violent, highlighting the uncertainty involved in risk assessment.

The future of violence risk assessment

The uncomfortable truth is that we just don’t know for sure what leads to a mass shooting. But focusing on a single risk factor distracts from the many others that research shows are important to pay attention to before they lead to violence.

Preventing future tragedies requires a clearer understanding of how risk develops along a pathway to violence and early intervention to handle warning behaviours.

Viewing violence as a complex process is essential. Reducing it to cursory labels like “mentally ill” makes it harder to address.

Samuel Freeze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why mass shootings can’t be reduced to a mental illness diagnosis – https://theconversation.com/why-mass-shootings-cant-be-reduced-to-a-mental-illness-diagnosis-275920

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Marissa Nivison, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary

Parenting can be hard and can feel especially overwhelming when children have strong emotions, such as anger, frustration or excitement, that they are not always able to regulate on their own.

Although children may struggle to manage strong emotions, parents play a critical role in helping them navigate them.

Drawing on our work with children and families, we share practical tips and resources to help parents support their children through emotional ups and downs — big feelings.

The development of processing emotions

Children are not born knowing how to regulate their feelings — it’s a skill they learn as they grow. The ability to process emotions is often learned from modelling, including watching how their parents deal with their own emotions.

In infancy, we see that babies’ cries are a form of emotional communication. For example, this is how babies let their parents know that they are in distress, such as being hungry or needing a diaper change.

Read more:
How children’s secure attachment sets the stage for positive well-being

As toddlers, children often experience new and more complex emotions that they cannot always identify. For example, a two-year-old may feel anger and jealously when introduced to their new baby sibling because their parent’s attention is suddenly focused on the baby instead of them. With limited understanding of their big emotion, they may act out by directing anger toward their baby sibling or parent.

Read more:
Expecting again? Tips for helping your first-born child thrive with a new sibling

As children grow older, they gradually develop their own skills to manage big feelings. Parents can help to build up their child’s “emotional tool kit” through modelling good emotion regulation strategies as well as explicitly teaching children these skills.

Big feelings aren’t necessarily negative. Children often have difficulty regulating big, positive emotions as well, such as excitement or joy.

How parents can help

There are several ways that parents can help children learn how to manage big feelings.

Stay calm. Children are sensitive to the emotions of the adults around them. When possible, approaching your child’s big feelings with a calm presence can help them feel safe and supported. Of course, staying calm is not always easy, especially in the middle of a stressful moment. Many caregivers find that strong emotions can feel contagious or overwhelming.

If you notice this in yourself, it can help to take a short pause. Taking slow, deep breaths, leaving the room momentarily (if possible) or turning away from your child to give yourself time to collect your own emotions can be a valuable reset.

The good news is that there are several resources — many of which are free — that can help strengthen a parent’s ability to regulate their own emotions and promote emotion processing in their children.

Praise positive behaviour. Noticing, recognizing and reinforcing positive behaviours is incredibly important. While it’s natural to react to negative challenging behaviours, it’s just as (if not more) important to acknowledge when your child is handling their emotions well. Reinforcing these positive behaviours has been shown to reduce the number and intensity of negative outbursts over time.

Identify and validate emotions. After a child has settled down from an intense emotional reaction, it can help if the parent explicitly identifies what the child was feeling — for example, “I know you are angry and sad because you cannot have a cookie before dinner.” By identifying the feelings, children are slowly learning to how to recognize their own emotions. This is an important first step in knowing which skills to use to help calm themselves down.

For example, when a child recognizes they are angry, they may know that taking deep breaths makes them feel better. This can also help children to feel that they are in a comfortable environment where they can actually express how they are feeling. Using an emotions wheel or chart that names and illustrates facial expressions of a range of feelings can help parents and children identify and validate emotions.

Practice. Take the opportunity to teach your children about emotions outside of their own feelings. For example, identifying emotions can be turned into a game by making different faces and asking your child what emotions they think you are feeling. Parents can also pause during reading books and ask their child what the characters may be feeling. The Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consolation at Georgetown University has put together an extensive list of activities that can help you teach your child emotions in everyday life.

Finally, know when to seek additional help. Temper tantrums, outbursts and emotional displays are very common in the toddler and preschool years. Young children are still developing the brain systems that support self-regulation. However, if a child’s outbursts are unusually intense, frequent or prolonged, additional supports may be helpful, such as from a family doctor or pediatrician.

Marissa Nivison receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Gizem Keskin receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Sheri Madigan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Calgary Health Foundation, and the Canada Research Chairs program.

– ref. Big feelings: 5 ways parents can help kids learn to regulate their emotions – https://theconversation.com/big-feelings-5-ways-parents-can-help-kids-learn-to-regulate-their-emotions-275173