Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

How Tech is Changing College Life

More than 90% of college students use email to communicate with professors and 73% say they cannot study without technology. Seven in 10 take notes on keyboards instead of paper, virtually all students who own an ereader read textbooks on it and most use digital tools when preparing a presentation. All that tech has caused something of a dependency too — 38% of students can’t go more than 10 minutes without checking their smartphone or other device. All told, students spent $13 billion on electronics in 2009.

Source: Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/05/06/tech-college-infographic/

 

Some Kids Perform Poorly at School Due to Problems at Home

More than a quarter of children in the UK are not reaching their potential at school because of poor living conditions and unwell parents, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of London's Institute of Education and the University of Sussex analysed the intellectual development of 18,000 children between the ages of nine months and five years.

They found that children were likely to have stunted intellectual development if they were exposed to two or more disadvantages, such as having a parent who suffered from depression, and living in an overcrowded home.

Some 28% of the children they studied came from families that faced two or more disadvantages. In most cases, these children had a considerably reduced vocabulary or behaved worse than their peers.

In their study, multiple risk factors in young children's development, the academics highlight 10 situations that can impair a child's development. These include living in an overcrowded home; having a teenage mother; coming from a family with poor basic skills or a history of drug or alcohol abuse.

Source: The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/07/home-problems-affect-child-development?newsfeed=true

Population of Needy College Students is Exploding

A higher education official from Wisconsin who attended the recent Council of Independent Colleges conference in Florida made a remarkable statement during a question-and-answer session.

There is a group of students who enter college with such dire financial need that the amount the federal government expects their families to contribute to college is effectively zero. In Wisconsin, that zero-pay population has grown by half in a single year: from 42,641 students in the 2008-09 academic year to 65,800 in 2009-10.

The data come from Rolf Wegenke, president of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and surely they mirror a national trend.

Incoming college students have grown markedly more needy since the 2008 economic downturn.

“The precipitous increase in student need represents a genuine crisis for these students and their families—a crisis which is replicated across the country,” said Wegenke.

It’s also a crisis for colleges. The federal government, through its Free Application for Federal Student Aid, has determined that many more students bound for Wisconsin colleges should have their expenses covered entirely through aid: Their “expected family contribution” is zero. But the federal government doesn’t stipulate where that aid will come from.

Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/population-of-needy-college-students-is-exploding/2012/01/11/gIQARRaLrP_blog.html

Lots of Exercise May Boost Kids' Grades

A Dutch review of prior research reveals that the more physically active school-aged children are, the better they fare in the classroom.

"We found strong evidence of a significant positive relationship between physical activity and academic performance," the researchers, led by Amika Singh of the Vrije Universiteit University Medical Center at the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, said in a journal news release.

"The findings of one high-quality intervention study and one high-quality observational study suggest that being more physically active is positively related to improved academic performance in children," the authors noted.

Fourteen studies were analyzed; they ranged in size from about 50 participants to as many as 12,000 and involved children between the ages of 6 and 18.

The investigators noted that increases in blood and oxygen flow to the brain that accompanies exercise may play a role in improving classroom performance. The suggestion is that the dynamic prompts an increase in levels of hormones responsible for curtailing stress and boosting mood, while at the same time prompting the establishment of new nerve cells and synapse flexibility.

The findings are published in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Source: USA Today
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/story/2012-01-03/Lots-of-exercise-may-boost-kids-grades/52354464/1

'Sleep Debt' Tied to Attention Trouble in Teens

High school students who catch up on sleep over the weekend do worse on attention tests in school than kids who don't get extra shuteye, according to a new study.

Researchers say the findings suggest "sleep debt" accumulated during the week might be taxing the teens' intellectual resources.

"It's like a bank -- they are on constant, huge sleep overdraft," Dr. David Gozal, an expert in childhood sleep problems at the University of Chicago, told Reuters Health.

On average, the South Korean teens who were studied -- some 2,600 high school students -- only got five hours and 42 minutes of sleep on weekdays. During the weekend, however, they added nearly three hours of shuteye per night, based on questionnaires.

Those who slept more on weekends -- indicating they were sleep deprived during the week -- did worse on computerized attention tasks in class, Dr. Seog Ju Kim of Gachon University of Medicine and Science in Incheon and colleagues found.

Although their results don't prove that lack of sleep is to blame, they could not be explained by differences in age, sex, depression or snoring, the researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Attention problems were not tied to the number of hours teens slept during the week, however. Gozal said that makes sense because some children may thrive on little sleep, whereas those who don't will try to catch up on their sleep debt over the weekend.

Source: Reuters / Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/09/07/sleep-debt-tied-to-attention-trouble-in-teens/

Outlook on Back-To-School Spending

A new study from American Express reports that while parents say they will not scrimp on what kids need to start the school year, it won't be painless: They'll cut back on restaurant spending, entertaining, and their own clothing.

The average family of four expects to spend $800 on back-to-school shopping. But 67% say they will make financial trade-offs to cover it, including dining out less (53%), spending less on entertainment (39%), and buying less clothes for themselves (37%).

Clothing is expected to be the largest expense, at $290, with another $110 for shoes and $100 for school supplies. (Many parents say they are forking over more for these, as schools cut back on what they provide to kids.) But braces (at about $2,000) and new computers and laptops ($830) are also on many parents' minds.

Unlike last year, the survey also shows a slight uptick in spending on designer clothes, with 68% of parents planning to buy big-brand sneakers, 66% buying designer jeans, and 53% buying high-end shoes.

Another change this year -- and a sign that parents are a little less cost-focused -- is that significantly less (24%) parents say they will shop at outlet or discount stores. Some 38% plan to head to department stores. Plenty will shop online as well, with 31% saying they do so because of coupons and deals and 21% to avoid the hassles.

Source: Marketing Daily
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=154955

Is College Worth It? Yes!

Keep in mind that exceptions apply! Not every college graduate makes more money than a non-graduate over a lifetime. But, Pew Research does the math, and on average, college graduates do better financially.

The typical college graduate earns an estimated $650,000 more than the typical high school graduate over the course of a 40-year work life, according to a new analysis of census and college cost data by the Pew Research Center.

Of course, this difference doesn’t apply in all cases; some high school graduates are high earners, and some college graduates are low earners. Also, the monetary return to college is influenced by a variety of factors, including type of college attended and major field of study.

But on average—and after taking into account the fact that a dollar earned at the start of someone’s working life is more valuable than a dollar earned toward the end of that person’s working life18—the analysis finds that the typical or average high school graduate with no further education earns about $770,000 over a 40-year work life. The typical worker with a (two-year) associate degree earns about $1.0 million, and the typical worker with a bachelor’s degree and no advanced degree earns about $1.4 million.

Source: Pew Research Center
http://pewsocialtrends.org/2011/05/15/is-college-worth-it/6/

Desire to Please Parents Motivates Kids at School

Children in both China and the United States who want to please their parents tend to do better at school, new research finds.

Yet in the United States, American kids' drive to please their parents declines during early adolescence, while in China feelings of obligation toward parents stay strong and even grow as kids hit their teenage years.

Researchers attribute that to cultural differences -- Americans view adolescence as a time in which teens assert their individualism, while the Chinese believe in "filial piety," or the idea that it's a child's responsibility to bring honor to their families and repay their parents for the sacrifices they made in raising them.

During early adolescence, "U.S. children feel less obligated toward their parents, and less concerned with showing their parents they are responsible members of the family," said study author Eva Pomerantz, a professor in the department of psychology at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "You don't see that decline in Chinese kids."

In both countries, kids who felt connected to their parents, who felt an obligation to their parents and who wanted to please them tended to do better academically.

"Kids who have these high-quality relationships, who feel they can trust their parents and who feel close to their parents, also feel more responsible for their parents," Pomerantz said. "This sense of connection and closeness plays a role in academic achievement."

The study is published in the current issue of Child Development.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/childrens-health/articles/2011/05/12/desire-to-please-parents-motivates-kids-at-school

85% of New College Grads Move Back in with Mom and Dad

Thanks to a high unemployment rate for new grads, many of those with diplomas fresh off the press are making a return to Mom and Dad's place. In fact, according to a poll conducted by consulting firm Twentysomething Inc., some 85% of graduates will soon remember what Mom's cooking tastes like.

Times are undeniably tough. Reports have placed the unemployment rate for the under-25 group as high as 54%. Many of these unemployed graduates are choosing to go into higher education in an attempt to wait out the job market, while others are going anywhere — and doing anything — for work. Meanwhile, moving back home helps with expenses and paying off student loans.

The outlook isn't sunshine and roses: Rick Raymond, of the College Parents of America, notes, "Graduates are not the first to be hired when the job markets begins to improve. We're seeing shocking numbers of people with undergraduates degrees who can't get work."

Source: Time
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/10/survey-85-of-new-college-grads-moving-back-in-with-mom-and-dad/?hpt=C2

High-Schoolers Who Work Less Likely to Finish College

Students who work more than 15 hours a week in high school show lower rates of college completion, suggests a new study assessing the harm of high school work intensity.

The study, which is published in last month's issue of the journal Developmental Psychology, supports other recent research that has found high school students who work long hours are likely to show increased problem behaviors and decreased school engagement.

The new study, conducted at the University of Michigan, used data from a national survey of high school seniors called the Monitoring the Future Project. The survey has followed more than 68,000 students, starting with the class of 1976.

Researchers found that by age 29 or 30, more than half of high school students who had worked less than 15 hours a week had completed a bachelor's degree. But for every five additional hours worked over 15 hours a week, students experienced an 8% drop in college completion. Only about 20% of those who had worked 31 hours or more a week in high school finished college.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/parenting-family/teen-ya/2011-04-28-highschooljobs28_st_N.htm