A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
The behavior of depressed children and teenagers often differs from the behavior of depressed adults. Signs of depression in children and adolescents include: Increased irritability, anger or hostility Acting out or sudden behavioral issues Decreased interest in activities or inability to enjoy previously favorite activities Frequent sadness, tearfulness, crying Hopelessness Persistent boredom; low energy Social [...]
Positive Psychology has become the ‘buzz’ trend among educators and others who work with children. Living our best life, and helping our youth to find greater joy, purpose, contribution and meaning does sound appealing. But is positive psychology all it’s cracked up to be? Is the evidence base solid enough for us to change entire school wellbeing [...]
• Parents are the largest supplier of alcohol to under 18s • Teens three times more likely to drink full serves if parents supply Teenagers whose parents supply alcohol in early adolescence are three times as likely to be drinking full serves of alcohol at age 16 as children in families that do not supply [...]
Children who suffer from frequent nightmares or bouts of night terrors may be at an increased risk of psychotic experiences in adolescence, according to new research that shows that children reporting frequent nightmares before the age of 12 were three and a half times more likely to suffer from psychotic experiences in early adolescence. Similarly, [...]
Late adolescence is a period when many youth become involved in high-risk behaviors with adverse consequences. Researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University studied the degree to which two such behaviors, adolescent sexual behaviors and gambling, affected African American youth in nine primary schools in Baltimore, MD. In [...]
Many negative effects of drinking, such as transitioning into heavy alcohol use, often take place during adolescence and can contribute to long-term negative health outcomes as well as the development of alcohol use disorders. A new study of adolescent drinking and its genetic and environmental influences has found that different trajectories of adolescent drinking are [...]
The teen years are often fraught with door-slamming, eye-rolling and seeming insensitivity, even by kids who behaved kindly before. Some parents worry that they're doing something wrong, or that their children will never think of anyone but themselves. New research shows that biology, not parenting, is to blame. In adolescence, critical social skills that are [...]
The development of the human brain is fascinating. We see a huge migration of cells to various parts of the developing brain in the second trimester of pregnancy, and in the early years after birth the infant brain grows in density and wires up in response to what is seen, heard, smelt, tasted, felt and [...]
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 [...]
Medical researchers at the University of Alberta recently published findings showing that brain development is delayed throughout childhood and adolescence for people born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Christian Beaulieu and Carmen Rasmussen, the two primary investigators in the research study, recently published the results of their work in the peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of [...]
