The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana are starting to grapple with teenagers’ growing use of highly potent pot, even as both boost the industry and reap huge tax windfalls from its sales. Though the legal purchase age is 21 in Colorado and Washington, parents, educators and physicians say youths are easily getting hold Read more
Social media is increasingly making teens dissatisfied with their appearance and obsessed with achieving a filtered version of “perfection,” even going so far as to pursue plastic surgery, say medical professionals. Dr. Neelam Vashi, director of Ethnic Skin Center at Boston University’s School of Medicine, published an article analyzing the new trend in Jama Facial Read more
The earliest written record from the town of Hamelin in Lower Saxony is from 1384. It states simply, “It is 100 years since our children left.” Historical accounts indicate that sometime in the 13th century, a large number of the town’s children disappeared or perished, though the details of the event remain a mystery. “The Read more
You might imagine that the way our parents behave towards each other and how they behave towards us ought to be a major factor in how we develop as teenagers. After all, our parents are the most important people in our lives. We see them at close range more than we see anybody else. They Read more
Around 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens. In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless – classic symptoms of depression – surged 33 percent in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts increased 23 percent. Even more troubling, the number of 13- to Read more
More than one-third of 15-year-old children in the UK could be classified as ‘extreme internet users’, or those who are online for more than six hours daily outside of school. A report from UK think-tank Education Policy Institute (EPI) states that children in the UK have a higher rate of extreme usage (37.8 percent of all UK Read more
Promise Jesus and me not to bully anyone, Pope Francis asked 45,000 teens when he met them in Milan last Saturday. He also told their teachers to be aware of the bullying problem. “I ask you, in silence: In your schools, in your neighborhoods, is there someone that you mock? That you make fun of Read more
Young people are self-centred, self-interested and self-ish. They are ego and, ergo, their world begins (and ends) with them. They are the i-Generation – emphasis on the “I”. Maybe. “Turn it off,” she said. “I can’t watch.” My 11-year-old niece closed her eyes against the screen, blocking out the kids with no shoes, raincoats or Read more
The teenage years can be mystifying for parents. Sensible children turn scatter-brained or start having wild mood swings. Formerly level-headed adolescents ride in cars with dangerous drivers or take other foolish risks. A flood of new research offers explanations for some of these mysteries. Brain imaging adds another kind of data that can help test Read more
The same brain circuits that are activated by eating chocolate and winning money are activated when teenagers see large numbers of “likes” on their own photos or the photos of peers in a social network, according to a first-of-its-kind UCLA study that scanned teens’ brains while using social media. The 32 teenagers, ages 13-18, were Read more