News Articles

By Taylor Massey.
Courtesy of Cenage.

Staying motivated in the long winter months is no easy feat. Schools in many locations experience blizzards and severe weather conditions that make it hard to commute. And we’re all faced with fewer daylight hours that can make it hard to stay active and in high-spirits. If you’ve noticed your students dragging more than usual lately, share these top five tips for staying motivated in the winter months.

Find inspiration

[Schoolwork] is not for the faint of heart. It’s easy to lose your motivation in the middle of spring semester, when all you want to do is stay inside your cozy bedroom. […]

On #GivingTuesday we are raising funds for Free Teens USA’s educational and youth activities. Your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500. Every bit helps! And on Giving Tuesday Nov 27, starting at 8am EST, Facebook and PayPal will match all donations worldwide until a $7 million limit is reached. THANK YOU for partnering with us in this life-saving and life-transforming work!

By Jeanna Bryner, Live Science Managing Editor
Courtesy of Live Science

Delaying sex makes for a more satisfying and stable relationship later on, new research finds.

Couples who had sex the earliest — such as after the first date or within the first month of dating — had the worst relationship outcomes.

“What seems to happen is that if couples become sexual too early, this very rewarding area of the relationship overwhelms good decision-making and keeps couples in a relationship that might not be the best for them in the long-run,” study researcher Dean Busby, of Brigham […]

Courtesy of The Conversation.

What leads to success in school?

Recent research suggests success is partly driven by character skills. “Grit,” for example, or perseverance and passion for long-term goals, seems to be a better predictor of success than IQ in school and beyond.

Researchers have also demonstrated that having a “growth mindset,” meaning that a person recognizes that abilities are not fixed, but developed through practice, is associated with academic success.

Researchers at Research Schools International are exploring other character skills that might contribute to success. In a recent study, we explored the relationship between […]

By Susan Heitler, PhD.
Posted Nov. 11, 2017
Courtesy of Psychology Today

How can families prepare students for doing well when they finish college?

Reading today’s newspaper I found three depressing themes with regard to young adults. They feel burdened by huge debts from college loans. They can’t get jobs. They’ve had to move back in with their parents after finishing college. What can parents of teenagers do to prepare their kids for the challenges they will face finding work after their education years have ended?

Parenting is the art of preparing children to be adults. That is, the goal of parenting is […]

By Amy Morin, Nov. 11, 2015
Courtesy of livestrong.com

Music has the potential to be a major influence in a child’s life. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the average child listens to more than 2 1/2 hours of music daily. Music does not necessarily pose problems for teenagers who live a balanced and healthy lifestyle, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The site does warn, however, that, “If a teenager is persistently preoccupied with music that has seriously destructive themes, and there are changes in behavior such as isolation, depression, alcohol […]

A new study reveals that for adolescent girls, having a romantic relationship play out differently than they imagined it would has negative implications for their mental health.

“I found that girls’ risk of severe depression, thoughts of suicide, and suicide attempt increase the more their relationships diverge from what they imagined,” said the study’s author Brian Soller, an assistant professor of sociology and a senior fellow of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at the University of New Mexico.

“Conversely, I found no evidence that romantic relationship inauthenticity — which captures the extent to which relationships unfold in ways […]

By Rebecca Oas, Ph.D.
June 30, 2016

NEW YORK, July 1 (C-Fam) New evidence from the United States suggests abstinence education is a reason why teen pregnancy has fallen to historically low rates. Nearly sixty percent of high school students had never had sex, up from 46% in 1991. Meanwhile, another new report links condom giveaways in schools with increases in teen pregnancy.

This investigation of the impact of the condom distribution programs was published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)—more than twenty years after the fact. It found higher pregnancy rates when students were given condoms in the […]

Being admitted to college doesn’t mean a student is ready for it. Parents can encourage kids to step up their levels of personal responsibility while still in high school.

By Mark McConville
July 26, 2018

As a psychologist, I receive calls each summer from anxious parents, worried that their high-school graduate won’t be ready for college. In some instances, they describe the normal conflict that signals impending separation. But in some cases, they describe a child who isn’t ready for the independence of college. I do an assessment and issue a recommendation — mostly green light (he’s ready for college) or occasionally red […]

By James McCue, Edith Cowan University

From getting beyond drunk at a friend’s party, to some seriously questionable outfit choices, teenagers often do things that seem outlandishly stupid.

But there is a biological reason for this behaviour: the areas of the brain that control decision-making don’t fully develop until early adulthood.

A teen’s developing brain places them at greater risk of being reactive in their decision-making, and less able to consider the consequences of their choices.

So how can parents help their teenagers learn and apply good decision-making skills?

The difference between ‘know’ and ‘do’

Most children demonstrate an understanding of “right” and “wrong” behaviour from […]