March 2014 Beyond Hollywood: Heroin Headlines Report Teen Use Nationwide Last summer’s headline news was the heroin-related death of Glee star Cory Monteith, best known for playing television’s clean-cut high school football star Finn Hudson. Last month’s headline was Philip Seymour Hoffman, also known to teens for his role as head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee in […]
February 2014 Research: Positive Ethnic Identity Boosts Positive Behavior The more positively minority youth feel about their ethnicity or race, the fewer symptoms of depression and emotional and behavior problems they have, according to a new meta-analysis published in the journal Child Development. Researchers at Brown University, the University of Minnesota, Arizona State […]
February 2014 Pew Research: Teen Relationship with Facebook is Complicated and Evolving As Facebook marks its 10th anniversary this month, Pew Research Center reports that among teens, the total number of users remains high — 73 percent of teens 12 to 17 years old are on the social media site. Focus group research reports […]
January 2014 Seasonal Affective Disorder Affects Kids, Too Even as the Arctic Vortex subsides, winter brings gray skies, little sun and shorter days. According to the American Psychiatric Association, winter weather depression — called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) — can affect 10 to 20 percent of the population, including children and teens. Lethargy, irritability, changes […]
December 2013 Digital Restraint: Teens and Online Shopping The holiday season brings a flurry of shopping, no matter one’s age. But teens, in particular, are shopping online, according to a recent survey “Taking Stock With Teens” published by the investment firm Piper Jaffray. The survey found that 79 percent of teen […]
November 2013 Research: Gun Violence in PG-13 Movies Has Tripled According to Ohio State University researchers, the amount of gun violence shown in PG-13 films has more than tripled since 1985, the year the rating was introduced. “It’s shocking how gun use has skyrocketed in movies that are often marketed directly at […]
October 2013 Study: Cyberbullying Rampant Among High School Students As Bullying Prevention Month draws to a close, educators, parents and students everywhere know that the challenge to stop the bullying continues every month of the year. Stories continue to make headlines regarding bullying, cyberbullying and suicides in schools and communities […]
October 2013 Study: Peer Pressure Tests Grade-Schoolers, Not Just Teens In what University of Maryland researchers are calling an investigation into “the group dynamics of childhood,” a new study reports that peer group influences affect children beginning in the elementary school years. The research, published in a recent issue of […]
October 2013 Research Study: Binge Drinking Common Among High School Seniors A study by University of Michigan and Pennsylvania State researchers, published by JAMA Pediatrics, reports that consuming five or more alcoholic drinks in a row is common among high school seniors, with some students engaging in extreme binge drinking of as many as 15 or more drinks. […]
September 2013 Gallup Poll: Americans Say U.S. Schools Should Teach “Soft” Skills While student success may depend upon core subject content like math and reading, other life skills are viewed as critical for student success. The annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll on American’s attitudes toward public education finds that most Americans believe that today’s […]
June 2013 Study: Tobacco in Movies Down; Alcohol Use Up New research published in JAMA Pediatrics and featured in a recent Education Week Blog, shows that the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), enacted 15 years ago in which the motion picture industry agreed not to pay for product placement in various forms of media, including movies, TV, […]
May 2013 Trending: Is Online Privacy Even an Issue for Teens? According to new research released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past, but they are also taking a variety of technical and non-technical […]
