News Articles

By Raushan Zhubanova Courtesy of Youth Time Magazine The society we live in that is well into the new millennium started to recognize serious concerns that affect the youth. Some issues have always been there but there have been new obstacles beginning to surface in the eyes of the public. American student news source The Bobcat View made up a list of 10 issues facing the youth today. How you find with them? Single Parent Households Since the 1950s, the numbers of the single parent households have significantly increased. Today, 14 million single parent homes are responsible for 28 million [...]

There’s new evidence that viewing habits can affect your thinking, political preferences, even cognitive ability. By Jonathan Rothwell Courtesy of New York Times Other than sleeping and working, Americans are more likely to watch television than engage in any other activity. A wave of new social science research shows that the quality of shows can influence us in important ways, shaping our thinking and political preferences, even affecting our cognitive ability. In this so-called golden age of television, some critics have pointed out that the best of the form is equivalent to the most enriching novels. And high-quality programming for [...]

Too old for camp. Too young to get a job. What to do? If you start early and know where to look, there's plenty out there to keep older kids happy and busy during summer break. By Connie Matthiessen Courtesy of Great Schools It’s a parent’s summertime nightmare. While you’re at work all day, your tween or teen is at home. Alone. With nothing to do. So what does she do? She turns your house into party central. This nightmare is exactly what happened to psychologist John Duffy’s clients, a family in a well-heeled Chicago suburb. “Every day when the parents [...]

By Lisa Damour Courtesy of the New York Times The arrival of spring is often prime time for hay fever, but adolescents seem to be able to develop an allergy to their parents, either intermittent or chronic, at any time of the year. This allergy usually has a sudden onset around age 13 and can last for months or, in some cases, years. While it’s no fun to become the parent who cannot order food or hum along to a song without irritating his or her own child, we’re better able to ride out this temporary adolescent affliction when we [...]

The good news about today's youth: 7 positive trends show them behaving more virtuously than earlier generations By Kristy Cooper Courtesy of Good News Network Have teens gotten a bad rap in recent years? They are typically characterized as self-involved, reckless, and only interested in “sharing” on their phones, but the youth of today, in reality, are actually behaving more virtuously than they have in a long time. Statistics tell an optimistic story. From smoking and drug use to unwanted pregnancies and abortions, the trends today show most teenagers making good choices. They are even volunteering in their communities more [...]

Four tips that will increase your child's happiness. By Marilyn Price-Mitchell Ph.D. Courtesy of Psychology Today Learning how to set and maintain emotional boundaries is an important part of growing up. It is also a key to developing relationships that are supportive, caring, and respectful. These kinds of positive relationships create the foundation for lifelong happiness. Unfortunately, many adults have difficulty setting their own emotional boundaries, let alone teaching their children. The reasons are simple. Setting boundaries is uncomfortable, forces us to speak for ourselves, and seldom results in a “thank you” from others. Yet, it is one of the [...]

Experts say kids are growing up with more anxiety and less self-esteem. By Rachel Ehmke Courtesy of Child Mind Many parents worry about how exposure to technology might affect toddlers developmentally. We know our preschoolers are picking up new social and cognitive skills at a stunning pace, and we don’t want hours spent glued to an iPad to impede that. But adolescence is an equally important period of rapid development, and too few of us are paying attention to how our teenagers’ use of technology—much more intense and intimate than a 3-year-old playing with dad’s iPhone—is affecting them. In fact, [...]

Teaching adolescents how to manage self-confidence is important to do By Carl E Pickhardt Ph.D. Courtesy of Psychology Today The two most common self-confidence drops I see during adolescence are at the beginning, in Early Adolescence (9-13) when separating from childhood, and at the end, in Trial Independence (18-23) when leaving home to operate more on one’s own terms. In both cases, the young person must get used to functioning on a significantly expanded playing field of life experience than she or he encountered before. At these first and last stages of adolescence, as the scope of life enlarges, the [...]

By Marilyn Price-Mitchell Ph.D. Courtesy of Psychology Today We understand the benefits of mentoring young people when we hear the powerful stories of teens whose lives have been changed by a single, caring adult. If you listen, those stories are everywhere. Like me, you likely have a story of a mentor from your own youth. What we know about mentoring is that it matters to positive youth development. Now, one of the largest mentoring studies ever conducted continues to support this thinking and links mentoring to a reduction in bullying. A five year study sponsored by Big Brothers Big Sisters [...]