A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Earlier this year in the US, the White House issued a statement on their website saying that enhancing methods for measuring students’ mindsets should be a key focus in future educational research. This signals a shift away from the traditional approach of purely assessing students based on their grades, or improvements in grades. [...]
In Australia nearly one in two marriages end in separation and divorce. This directly impacts many children in our schools and adults in our workplaces, parishes and social networks, and quite possibly our own family too. Coping with the family changes that result can be challenging for children and their parents, and for those supporting [...]
Girl Achieving: Girlfriend September 2013 Melinda Tankard Reist As always, when I review teen girls’ magazines I look for the girls who are taking up their rightful place in the world, engaging in social action and cultural transformation. This issue we meet ‘2013 Girlfriend of the Year’ (I’m ignoring the eight pages on GF’s Rimmel [...]
In the weeks since that Miley Cyrus performance at the VMAs, more fuel has been poured onto the fiery debate around the overtly sexual messages our kids are receiving thanks to the media. Add this to the heady mix of alcohol, violence and drug use with the apparent rise of such related anti-social behaviour [...]
Most adult smokers begin smoking during adolescence. They quickly become addicted and most struggle to quit for decades afterwards. Prevention in the early years can prevent this battle from even starting. Here are 5 strategies that can help: 1. Avoid that first cigarette Young people vastly underestimate the addictive potential of smoking and think [...]
Many teenagers want to quit smoking and make serious attempts to do so each year. However, most are addicted to nicotine and have little knowledge about the quitting process. In most cases young people go ‘cold turkey’, quitting abruptly without any assistance or medication. Not surprisingly, quit rates are very low. Here are 5 tips to [...]
I’ve had too many conversations with teachers who believe that the whole, “Pastoral care, touchy feely, emotional, welfare, wellbeing stuff” isn’t what they signed up for when they decided to become a teacher. As strange as you and or I – I’m assuming we’re on the same page given you subscribe to, or have [...]
“It was six years of hell, it’s a relief to be out of there.” It’s a shame, but none of us would be entirely surprised to hear an eighteen year old say this as they sat their last Year 12 exam. A couple of years ago I noticed that time and time again, [...]
Research on Internet addiction originated in the US by Dr. Kimberly Young. In 1996, she presented the first paper on the topic at the American Psychological Association’s annual conference. Dr. Young applied the diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling to Internet Addictions. Despite being harshly criticized, she remained undeterred, because more and more people began to [...]
Anxiety and sleep: Girlfriend deals with two significant issues for girls Melinda Tankard Reist The two most important articles in this issue are on anxiety and the importance of sleep. Anxiety appears to be a plague on our girls right now. ‘Feeling anxious? How to deal when your worries take over your life’ looks at [...]
