Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Study Shows Negative Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth Minority Mental Health

Recent historical, political and public health events, most notably the COVID-19 pandemic, have collectively contributed to increased stress and mental health challenges among many groups of people — including adolescents in racial and ethnic minorities.

Prof. Dr. Thanyavee Puthanakit, National Outstanding Researcher in Medical Science, with Clinical Research on the Treatment and Prevention of HIV in Youth

Prof. Dr. Thanyavee expressed her appreciation and honor for receiving the Outstanding Researcher Award.

Psychologist Calls Attention to Social Media as a Public Health Hazard

In New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City speech, he discussed protecting kids’ mental health in the face of excessive social media usage.  Dr. Anthony Anzalone, a clinical psychologist at Stony Brook Medicine, also agrees that social media…

Research Details Perils of Not Being Attractive or Athletic in Middle School

Life is harder for adolescents who are not attractive or athletic. New research shows low attractive and low athletic youth became increasingly unpopular over the course of a school year, leading to subsequent increases in their loneliness and alcohol misuse. As their unpopularity grows, so do their problems.

Study Finds Disparate Gender Differences in Victims of Child Sex Trafficking

Youth involved in sex trafficking have extensive victimization experiences during childhood, and these experiences vary by gender. In the nationally representative study, 75 percent were males and 25 percent were females. Almost two-thirds of the girls were molested as a child, half were raped, and three-fourths were emotionally abused as a child, compared to 36 percent of males who were molested, 31 percent who were raped, and 37 percent who were emotionally abused. Eighty percent of females reported three or more victimization types compared to males (49 percent), and 31 percent of females experienced all five types of prior victimization compared to 11 percent of males.

Physicians Should Screen Youth for Cyberbullying, Social Media Use

Researchers recommend primary care physicians screen adolescents and young adults for inappropriate or misuse of social media and cyberbullying utilizing screening tools developed for use in the health care setting. Physicians also can ask about the many symptoms that could be warning signs of cyberbullying such as sleep disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, self-harm behaviors, academic problems, fatigue and headaches. They also can undergo training to detect bullying and ensure that their staff is trained appropriately.

FAU Harbor Branch Lands U.S. EPA Grant for ‘Hands-on’ Indian River Lagoon Field Trip

The project will host 125 field trips, which will educate as many as 3,125 socially disadvantaged middle and high school students about Florida’s natural resources and the importance of conserving them.

How to talk with youth about the dangers of viral challenges and online safety

Viral challenges have been around almost as long as the internet. Some, like the ice bucket challenge are good, raising awareness on important issues. But others are not, and can put both youth and their parents at risk. What makes these viral challenges attractive for youth? How should parents approach the topic of online safety with their children? A Virginia 4-H specialist and a Virginia 4-H’er provide advice on how to do just this.

Copy-cat? Youth with Few Friends Conform to Stay in a Friend’s ‘Good Graces’

What gives one friend influence over another? Considerable attention has focused on who influences whom; much less is known about why one partner is prone to be influenced by the other. A study tested the hypothesis that within a friend dyad, having fewer friends than one’s partner increases susceptibility to influence, because it reduces dissimilarity and promotes compatibility. Results showed that partners with fewer friends were influenced by children with more friends. In each case, the partner with fewer friends became more similar to the partner with more friends. Academic engagement was the only domain where partners with fewer friends also influenced partners with more friends.

UCI-led study discovers pre-treatment cognitive impairment in younger cancer patients

Irvine, Calif., Nov. 16, 2022 — A team of researchers led by the University of California, Irvine has discovered that adolescent and young adult cancer patients can experience cancer-related cognitive impairment before chemotherapy or radiation treatment, highlighting the importance of evaluating and managing toxicity at the time of diagnosis to help prevent further deterioration.

Thailand Clean Mobility Program (TCMP) Visioning Workshop with Youth

Chulalongkorn University Transportation Institute, in collaboration with GIZ and OTP, organized learning sessions and workshop for the Thailand Clean Mobility Program at the Chulalongkorn University Social Innovation Hub (CU Social Innovation Hub), Visid Prachuabmoh Building, on July 5 and 7, 2022.

Greater Empathy in Adolescents Helps Prevent Bias-based Cyberbullying

Little is known about cyberbullying and empathy, especially as it relates harming or abusing others because of race or religion. A study is the first to examine general cyberbullying, race-based cyberbullying, and religion-based cyberbullying in young adolescents. Results show that the higher a youth scored on empathy, the lower the likelihood that they cyberbullied others. When it came to bias-based cyberbullying, higher levels of total empathy were associated with lower odds of cyberbullying others based on their race or religion.

COVID-19 vaccine incentives get mixed reception from young people

Offering teens and young adults a chance at a college scholarship, cash, discounts or just some free food might help move the needle on COVID-19 vaccination rates, a new study suggests. In all, 82% of people between the ages of 14 and 24 have a positive attitude toward prizes, raffles, giveaways, and other incentives designed to increase vaccination. But a sizable minority of young people have their doubts about whether such vaccine incentives will work or are ethical.

Make the Olympics Dreams Come True – The Chula Sports Development for the Nation Project Supports Thai Youths to Compete in the World Arena

The alumni of the Chula Sports Development for the Nation Project have made Thailand proud at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and at many other competitions over the past three decades – proof of Chula’s commitment to promoting sports excellence and academic mastery among youth. The project is open yearly to young adults with athletic skills in more than 30 sports.

Self-inflicted Firearm Injuries Three Times More Common in Rural Youth

A national study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found that Emergency Department (ED) visits by youth for self-harm were nearly 40 percent higher in rural areas compared to urban settings. Strikingly, ED visits by youth for self-inflicted firearm injuries were three times more common in rural areas. Youth from rural areas presenting to the ED for suicidal ideation or self-harm also were more likely to need to be transferred to another hospital for care, which underscores the insufficient mental health resources in rural hospitals.

Distance from hospital impacts cancer diagnosis, survival in young adults

Adolescents and young adults living in rural versus metropolitan U.S. counties and those living farther from the hospital where they were diagnosed are more likely to be detected at a later cancer stage, when it is generally less treatable and have lower survival rates compared with those living in metropolitan counties and closer to the reporting hospital, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Preventive interventions can improve mental health outcomes in children, teens and young adults

Offering interventions to young people in the general community can prevent the emergence of certain mental health disorders, according to the first comprehensive systematic review to address this question. The results appear in the May/June issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry, which is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Community-service partnership improves youths’ perception of police, ASU research shows

In his latest research, Adam Fine, an assistant professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, explores how those attitudes diverge by race at a young age, and how a specific community-service partnership program called Team Kids can change youths’ views toward police officers. His paper, “Police Legitimacy: Identifying Developmental Trends and Whether Youths’ Perceptions Can be Changed,” was published recently in the Journal of Experimental Criminology.

It’s 2020: Time to Teach Teens ‘Safe’ Sexting

Telling youth not to “sext” doesn’t seem to be reducing the prevalence of them sharing nude photos or videos. A national sample of about 5,000 youth ages 12 to 17 showed 14 percent had sent and 23 percent had received sexually explicit images. Researchers say it’s time to teach teens ‘safe’ sexting and provide important tips to avoid significant and long-term consequences, such as humiliation, extortion, victimization, school sanction, reputational damage, and even criminal charges.

Suicide attempts among black adolescents on the rise

While suicide attempts decreased overall among U.S. adolescents between 1991 and 2017, they increased by 73% among black adolescents, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.“The rise in suicide rates among black youth can most likely be traced back to an internalization of issues around structural racism in America, along with a lack of coping mechanisms and lack of investment in mental health services in black communities,” said Sean Joe, the Benjamin E.