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It's Mother's Day this weekend. If you're lucky enough to spend time with your mom, you might spot some of these mother-daughter relationship realities explained by science. Many research dollars have been spent to find out why your mom loves to text you or why she always seems to mimic your fashion sense. Scientists have also discovered the very positive, and sometimes negative, influences moms can have on their daughters' lives. Keep reading to find out what they are.

As She Gets Older, She Likes You More Than Dad
If you noticed that your mom texts and calls you more and more, British researchers say that's totally normal. A 2012 study analyzed two billion cell phone calls and half a billion texts and found that in early adulthood, women communicate most with romantic partners. But when a woman reaches her 40s, the attention goes to her daughter. And by 60, communication between a mom and daughter peaks.

Her Favoritism Stings, Even If You're the Favorite
Researchers at Cornell University found that perceived favoritism on behalf of a mother can lead to depression in her adult kids. And even if you're the favorite, it can have adverse effects, like feelings of guilt or resentment on behalf of your siblings. The study's Karl Pillemer also explained: "With older parents, favored children may be expected to provide more care and assistance for the parent, leading to stress."

If You Take Your Sexual Health Seriously, You Have Her to Thank
If your mom is open about sexuality, you've probably taken steps to ensure your sexual health. A study from Ohio State University found that college-age women who talked to their moms about the HPV vaccine were nine times more likely to get it. The study concluded that even if the conversations are difficult, communication between moms and daughters is crucial. Another study out of Belgium looked at teen girls and concluded that those who had a close bond with their mothers were less likely to have their attitudes about sex negatively influenced by TV.

You Influence Her Fashion Sense
A study in the Journal of Consumer Behavior concluded that a daughter influences her mother's fashion sense more and not vice versa. As you probably guessed, "Mimicking her daughter is like a shortcut to what is hip and cool," according to researcher Ayalla Ruvio. As for daughters, they're more likely to look to celebrities than Mom for fashion inspiration.

Her Protectiveness Comes From a Good Place
Mother-daughter rivalries have popped up in everything from soap operas to literature, but according to researcher Dr. Terri Apter, maternal protectiveness is often mistaken for envy for a daughter's youth. Apter found that when it comes to their daughters' dating lives, for example, mothers worry that their daughters don't realize how complex life can be, and when they try to assert their concerns, it can lead to conflict. But overall, these concerns come from a tender, not envious, place.

You know that your birth control helps to prevent pregnancy, but did you know it may be causing painful orgasms and affecting your taste in men? If you're on the pill, it's important to know exactly how that dosage affects your body and behaviors. To stay informed, take a look at these fascinating study findings about birth control:

Women on Birth Control Prefer Feminine Guys
Feeling more attracted to less-masculine men? Your birth control may explain it. A 2013 study of college-age women in the UK showed that women on the pill were less drawn to masculine features like sharp jaws, prominent brows, and angular face shapes.

Low-Dose Pills Can Make Orgasms Painful
According to a new study conducted at NYU Langone Medical Center, low-dose birth control pills make sex more painful. Based on her research of about 1,000 women, low-dose pill users were twice as likely to report pain during or after orgasm.

Binge Drinking Increases the Pregnancy Risk For Pill Users
Those extra weekend cocktails may make your birth control less effective. According to 2012 reports, binge drinking can increase the risk of pregnancy because the unfortunate cycle of heavy drinking and vomiting often leads to unprotected sex.

Free Access to Birth Control Lowers Abortion Rates
The link between birth control and abortions has long been debated, but the findings of a 2012 study show that providing free birth control could prevent 41 to 71 percent of abortions. When researchers supplied more than 9,000 teens with free contraception methods, the program reduced the group's abortion rate by 62 percent.

Women Are Misinformed About IUDs
A recent survey showed that the majority of women have false perceptions about the safety and effectiveness of IUDs. The study participants didn't know that IUDs are more effective than the pill, which means that one of the most safe, successful methods of birth control is widely underused.

If you've ever wondered how hookups affect you, what people think of playboys, or whether "booty calls" have guidelines, then rest easy knowing science has the answers. With the help of a few studies, we're taking a look at what research says about casual sex. Most recently, the media has been following a strain of gonorrhea that was called "worse than AIDS" — a reminder that casual or not, it's still important to practice safe sex. Curious about what science has to say about sex? Take a look at these surprising findings on everything from women's sexual power to the real meaning of "friends with benefits"!

College Hookups Are Good For Women
Feeling bad about your no-strings-attached relationship in college? Don't! In 2011, researchers at North Carolina State University found that casual sex allows women more sexual power than classic dinner dates. The study doesn't look down on dating or promote reckless hookups, but the data shows that in casual-sex situations, students are more open to women taking the sexual lead, while in more formal dating environments, they slip into traditional gender roles.

Guys Get the "Slut" Label Too
It looks like no one's free from sexual judgment these days. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago studied data from over 19,000 college students and found that about half the subjects lose respect for anyone who has sex with "lots of people" — regardless of gender. Findings showed that 48 percent of students judged men's and women's sexual activity equally, 12 percent judged women more harshly than men, and 13 percent judged men more harshly than women.

Casual Sex Has Rules
A researcher at the University of Ottawa found that there's a specific code to identify different sexual relationships. Looking at people ages 18 to 27, she found that the four most popular casual sex terms are "booty call," "friends with benefits," "one-night stand," and "f*ck buddy." Each term has a different meaning — for instance, a "booty call" usually involves a late-night text, while "friends with benefits" involves two people who were friends first.

Plenty has been said about how and why women orgasm, but which claims have the research to back them up? Collecting results from recent studies, we're highlighting the juiciest facts about the big "O." Take a look at these surprising finds to learn what makes for better sex, what you can do to prompt your body, and more:

Yep, Size Matters
Based on a 2012 study conducted by Stuart Brody, a psychologist at the University of the West of Scotland, it seems that size does matter when it comes to women who experience vaginal orgasms. Although the size issue has sometimes been attributed to cultural pressure and internalized stereotypes, it's a fact: women do climax more easily with men who have larger penises, preferring 5.8 inches or more.

Women Have Premature Orgasms, Too
Think it's only men who can come early? Not true — women also experience premature orgasms. A 2011 Portuguese study found that 40 percent of women came more quickly than intended during sex, and for 3 percent of women, it's a chronic issue.

Better Communication Leads to Better Sex
Looks like there's a case against "no strings attached" sex — a 2011 study at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health revealed that sex is far more enjoyable for people who listen, understand another person's emotions, and empathize with their partner.

Read on for more of what studies say about orgasms.

These days, the old saying "first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in the baby carriage" seems to have it all wrong. By the age of 25, 55 percent of women have cohabited with a partner outside of marriage. And while 40 percent of first premarital cohabitations lead to marriage within three years, 20 percent of women experience pregnancy within the first year of cohabitation. This is all according to a new study by the National Center for Health Statistics, which analyzed a nationally representative sample of women age 15-44 between 2006 and 2010 and discovered that cohabitation is more popular than ever. Here is a breakdown of the most illuminating findings:

• The average length of cohabitation is getting longer: 22 months vs. 13 months in 1995.
• 48 percent of women cohabited with a partner as a first union, compared to only 34 percent in 1995.
• 70 percent of women with less than a high school diploma cohabited, while only 47 percent of women with a college degree or higher did.
• 40 percent of first premarital cohabitations led to marriage in three years, 32 percent remained as is, and 27 percent broke up.
• About 20 percent of women became pregnant in the first year of their first premarital cohabitation, and half of the births were unintended.
• US-born Hispanic women were the most likely (65 percent) to cohabit by age 25. Among other races, the probabilities were 57 percent among white women, 53 percent among foreign-born Hispanic women, 51 percent among black women, and only 19 percent among Asian women.

Do these stats match up to your experiences?

We're happy to present this excerpt from one of our favorite sites, The Good Men Project.

You hear people say it all the time: men should "naturally" be more rational and less sensitive, whereas women's "natural" brain structures wire them for language and empathy. But what if these differences aren't so cut and dry (or even that drastic)? Consider some of these studies:

Related: Five Important Things Women Don't Know About Men

1. Between infancy and first grade, boys express their emotions more passionately than girls.

Boys are taught to keep a stiff upper lip, but Harvard med school researchers found that young boys smiled, cried, and laughed more to researchers than girls did. By elementary school, boys become less likely to express sadness or distress, perhaps because of the influence of parenting and culture.

2. Worldwide, boys aren't any better at math than girls.

Math scores in 86 countries show that K-12 boys don't significantly do better at math than girls, either in general or at elite levels. And the "math gap" in the US has been closing over time. In the 1970s, the ratio of boys to girls with high math scores on their SATs was 13:1. By the 1990s, it was 3:1.

3. Young men are more emotionally vulnerable to troubles in their relationships than young women are.

   Florida State researchers found that men between the ages of 18 and 23 were much more likely be emotionally affected by relationship woes than women. The study authors wrote, "For young men, their romantic partners are often their primary source of intimacy," whereas women feel more encouraged to confide deeply with family and friends. Contrary to what every frat joke tells you, men aren't just naturally detached.

4. Men are less-rational investors than women.

A study of 35,000 households in MIT's Journal of Economics found that men traded stocks with irrational confidence in their judgment. Single men traded less rationally than married men, and married men traded less rationally than single women.

5. Men aren't worse than women at reading emotional cues.

When asked to correctly identify emotions of people in video clips, men were no less capable of reading nuances in emotions than women were. (Interestingly, parents were much better emotional detectives than nonparents.) So men can read moods, but whether they do anything about this emotional information may be a matter of cultural upbringing, which can change.

Read the rest of the story: 8 Studies That Debunk Gender Stereotypes.

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We all know the stereotype that Yanks are more emotional than the stiff-upper-lip English. But a new study purports to pinpoint the moment — the 1960s — when the shift in expression occurred, at least in the written word.

Researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Sheffield, and Durham used Google to search for "mood" words in over five million books from the 20th century. The study looked for language associated with anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise and found that since the 1960s, American books have contained significantly more emotional content than English titles. And with the exception of fear, references to emotion have consistently decreased in English literature over the last century in general.

The study's coauthor Alex Bentley points to American postwar prosperity and the baby-boomer counterculture to explain the transatlantic divide. Bentley says: "In the USA, baby boomers grew up in the greatest period of economic prosperity of the century, whereas the British baby boomers grew up in a post-war recovery period so perhaps 'emotionalism' was a luxury of economic growth." The research offers other examples of how current events impact emotions expressed in books. For example, sadness was more common during World War II, while fear came up regularly during the Cold War era. When we look back on books published during our current era, I wonder what the dominant emotion will be.