Wintertime is a time of gift-giving and festive holidays, when joy is supposed to ring through the air like the jingles of Salvation Army bell ringers. So why do you feel so sad?

As the news of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. sinks in across the nation, many parents may be struggling to find ways to help their children process the news.

Depression is more than "feeling blue." It affects about 14.8 million American adults and can have negative short-term and long-term health effects.

Few things pierce a mother's heart like her baby's cry. This is why so many parents hesitate to use sleep training methods. But take heart — sleep-trained kids do just fine later on.

You may have seen the studies trumpeting the higher amount of life satisfaction found among parents. Or the studies that found lower levels of well-being among parents. So which is it?

Loneliness can creep into your life at any age. But it's a more common problem among older adults, who can easily become isolated and detached from friends and family.

It's a staple of mental and emotional health that you must know how to build and maintain healthy relationships with others. But foster students lack this luxury.

There is little debate that children who are abused, physically or mentally, undergo such significant trauma that they often carry it throughout their lives. Child abuse can affect a person's mental health forever, leading to depression and other psychological disorders later in life.

Depression and mental illness in children and adolescents is a rising concern. About five percent of youth under age 18 suffer from depression at any given time, but their numbers are rising. Rates of depression and anxiety among American youth have increased steadily over the last fifty to seventy years, and children are the fastest growing group of depression sufferers.

The American Dream of a good job, home ownership and creating a better life for our children has long been the dream of many. But has that dream been shattered over the past few years of an economic recession?