Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Concussions Extra Dangerous to Teen Brains

While the outcome was not typical of most concussions suffered by high school athletes, this CNN report looks at the devastating impact a concussion had upon one teenage football player, Max Conradt. It provides a cautionary tale and waves the flag, calling for clearer rules for identifying and treating adolescent concussions.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 4 million sports and recreation-related concussions occur each year. Experts say the vast majority are suffered at the high school level, but few schools have rules governing how concussion is treated -- and few coaches are trained to identify it.

"It's the group we need to worry about most," said Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, chairman of the American Academy of Neurology Sports Neurology Section, adding that fewer than half of high schools have access to athletic trainers.

"If there is any suggestion of a concussion, we need to take kids out of the game," said Dr. Stan Herring, team physician for the Seattle Seahawks. "The consequences [of not doing so] can be devastating or even fatal."

Source: CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/03/concussions.teen.brains/index.html

American Teen Girls Feel Pressure To Be Thin

Almost nine in 10 American teenage girls say they feel pressured by the fashion and media industries to be skinny and that an unrealistic, unattainable image of beauty has been created, a poll showed on Monday.

The online survey of 1,000 girls aged between 13 and 17 for the Girl Scouts of the USA found that three quarters said they would be more likely to buy clothes that they see on real-size models than on women who are skinny.

But three out of four girls said that fashion is "really important" to them.

"The fashion industry remains a powerful influence on girls and the way they view themselves and their bodies," said Kimberlee Salmond, senior researchers at the Girl Scout Research Institute.

"Teenage girls take cues about how they should look from models they see in fashion magazines and on TV and it is something that they struggle to reconcile with when they look at themselves in the mirror," she said.

More than 80 percent of teen girls said they would rather see natural photos of models rather than pictures that had been digitally altered or enhanced.

One in three girls said they have starved themselves or refused to eat in an effort to lose weight, while almost half said they knew someone their age who has forced themselves to throw up after eating. More than a third said they know someone who has been diagnosed with an eating disorder.

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE6104Q420100201

No big surprises here, just more of what we already know -- that our culture promotes certain images of what beautiful or even "normal" is -- and when it comes to female body image -- thin fashion models are the images young teenage girls see most often.  Parents can help offset the impact of cultural norms by placing an emphasis on helping their daughters develop a healthy self-image based upon more important character and spiritual aspects and by offering a lot of affirmation, warmth and encouragement (A.W.E.) 

For more information on teen self-image and parenting with AWE, click on the titles below to view these online articles:

Kids and Self-Esteem

Parenting with A.W.E.

Most High School Students Are Sleep Deprived

There seems to be a general consensus among experts that adequate sleep for teens is important for their physical and emotional well-being...and that most don't get the sleep they need. I'm aware that helping teens get the sleep they need is much easier said than done. But, given the importance of adequate sleep, I urge parents to make this a high priority.

Only about 8 percent of high school students get enough sleep on an average school night, a large new study finds. The others are living with borderline-to-serious sleep deficits that could lead to daytime drowsiness, depression, headaches and poor performance at school.

The study, which appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, evaluated responses from 12,000 students in grades 9 through 12 who participated in the 2007 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

The authors found that 10 percent of adolescents sleep only five hours and 23 percent sleep only six hours on an average school night. More females than males have sleep deficits as do more African-Americans and whites compared to Hispanics. Nearly 20 percent more 12th-grade students have sleep deficits than do those in ninth grade.

The findings of this study were consistent with those reported from the National Sleep Foundation’s 2006 Sleep in America Poll, the authors say, adding that that although no formally accepted sleep guidelines exist, the foundation defines nine hours a night as optimal for adolescents, eight hours as borderline and anything under eight hours as not enough.

Source: Health Behavior News Service
http://www.cfah.org/hbns/archives/getDocument.cfm?documentID=22165

Read the study from the Journal of Adolescent Health:
Prevalence of Insufficient, Borderline, and Optimal Hours of Sleep Among High School Students – United States, 2007
http://www.cfah.org/hbns/archives/viewSupportDoc.cfm?supportingDocID=873

Earlier Bedtimes May Fight Teen Depression

Adolescents whose parents set earlier bedtimes are significantly less likely to suffer from depression or have suicidal thoughts compared to youngsters who hit the sack later, new research indicates.

Youngsters in the study whose parents set bedtimes of midnight or later were 24% more likely to suffer from depression and 20% more apt to have thoughts of suicide, compared to youngsters with bedtimes of 10 p.m. or earlier, researchers report in the Jan. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

This suggests sufficient sleep may offer youngsters some protection from depression and thoughts of suicide, the researchers say.

Adolescents who reported they usually sleep five or fewer hours per night were 71% more likely to report depression, and 48% more likely to have thoughts of committing suicide, compared to young people reporting eight hours of sleep nightly, the study shows.

"Our results are consistent with the theory that inadequate sleep is a risk factor for depression," says study researcher James E. Gangwisch, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Source: WebMD
http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20100101/earlier-bedtimes-may-fight-teen-depression?src=RSS_PUBLIC

Teenage Girls Not Getting HPV Vaccine

University of Michigan research finds few teenage girls are getting vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease linked to cervical cancer. Infection by the Human Papillomavirus is preventable with a vaccine that's been on the market for several years. The vaccine only works if administered before a girl becomes sexually active. U of M researcher Amanda Dempsey says overall vaccine use is low among adolescents, with only 15% of girls eligible completing the 3 dose regimen. "People are, in general, are becoming more and more hesitant about vaccinations," says Dempsey, "And because this is a relatively new vaccine, a lot of people are waiting for it to be out longer and for there to be more public experience with it before they give it to their own child."

Source: Michigan Radio
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/6/0/1592777/Science..and..Medicine/U.of.M.Study.Teenage.Girls.Not.Getting.HPV.Vaccine

Teen Survey Shows Drops in Meth Use, Smoking

Methamphetamine use and smoking among U.S. teens has dropped significantly in recent years, but declines in marijuana use have stalled, according to the annual "Monitoring the Future" study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse released on Monday.

Only 1.2 percent of high school seniors say they used meth, as it is commonly called, in the past year, the survey found -- the lowest level since 1999 when use of the street drug was reported at 4.7 percent.

The proportion of 10th graders reporting meth was easy to obtain dropped to 14 percent, down from 19.5 percent five years ago, according to the survey of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders by researchers at the University of Michigan.

Cigarette smoking among teens also dropped to the lowest level since the survey began in 1975.

Only 2.7 percent of eighth graders smoke daily -- down from a peak rate of 10.4 percent in 1996 -- while 11.2 percent of high school seniors say they smoke daily, less than half of the 24.6 percent rate reported in 1997, the survey said.

It indicated marijuana use among teens has been on a downward trend since the mid-1990s, but the decline has stalled with use rates at the same levels as five years ago. schools in the eighth, 10th, and 12th grades were surveyed.

So far, we have not seen any dramatic rise in marijuana use, but the upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade," said University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, the study's principal investigator.

"Not only is use rising, but a key belief about the degree of risk associated with marijuana use has been in decline among young people even longer, and the degree to which teens disapprove of use of the drug has recently begun to decline. Changes in these beliefs and attitudes are often very influential in driving changes in use."

Sources: ABC News and Healthcanal.com
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=9332709
http://www.healthcanal.com/substance-abuse/4312.html

Many Doctors Unaware of Deadly 'Choking Game'

It would be wise for parents to take note of "choking game" warning signs, listed below...

Almost a third of U.S. doctors have never heard of the "choking game" played by many teens, nor can they spot the tell-tale signs of the potentially lethal pass-time.

Also known as the "blackout game," "pass-out game," "scarf game" and "space monkey," among other monikers, the activity involves intentionally trying to strangle oneself or another, using hands or some sort of noose to briefly achieve an euphoric state.

The "game" can also cause seizures, headaches, bone breaks and brain injury -- if not death.

A survey in the January issue of Pediatrics, which was published online Dec. 14, reports that almost one-third of family doctors and pediatrics are unaware of the "game." And although two-thirds of physicians said the issue should be discussed during office visits, only 2 percent reported actually having done so.

"There needs to be a more standardized approach to education [of doctors]," said study first author Dr. Julie McClave, a pediatric resident at Rainbow Babies. "Hopefully by giving more information about warning signs and how prevalent this is in adolescents, more physicians will be aware."

According to McClave, warning signs parents and physicians should be aware of include bruise marks or red marks around the neck; severe frequent headaches; blood vessel breaks on the face or eyes; red eyes; aggressive behavior or a change in behavior; unusual demands for privacy, such as locked bedroom doors; and wear marks on furniture, such as bunk beds or closet rods.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/12/14/many-doctors-unaware-of-deadly-choking-game.html

Teen Internet Addicts More Likely to Self-Harm

A survey of Chinese adolescents found that teens who are addicted to the Internet are twice as likely to harm themselves as other teens.

The survey of students aged 13 to 18 found that about 16 percent said they had harmed themselves in some way within the previous six months; 4.5 percent reported that they'd harmed themselves at least six times during that period.

Self-harm, as defined by the study, included hair pulling, hitting, deliberate burning and pinching.

The researchers, who reported their findings in the Dec. 3 issue of the journal Injury Prevention, noted that about 90 percent of the survey participants were normal users of the Internet, but about 10 percent were moderately addicted and 0.6 percent were severely addicted.

Addicted teens suffered from emotional problems such as depression and nervousness when they weren't online, but felt better when they returned to the Internet, the study authors explained in a news release from the journal's publisher. Addicted teens also fantasized about or were preoccupied by being online.

After adjusting their statistics to account for the potential influence of other factors, such as health problems, the researchers found that the Internet-addicted teens were twice as likely to have harmed themselves. When they did hurt themselves, they did so more seriously than other teens.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/12/03/teen-internet-addicts-more-likely-to-self-harm.html

Early Relationships Influence Teen Pain and Depression

Angst could be more than a rite of passage for insecure teenagers, according to a study published in the Journal of Pain. Researchers from the Université de Montréal, Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center and McGill University have discovered that insecure adolescents experience more intense pain in the form of frequent headaches, abdominal pain and joint pain. These teens are also more likely to be depressed than peers with secure attachments.

Dr. Isabelle Tremblay, a researcher at the Université de Montréal and its affiliated Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center, and Dr. Michael Sullivan, a psychology professor at McGill University, launched this study to build on previous findings that childhood experiences play a major role in the relationships people develop in later life. Simply put: insecure infants grow up to be insecure adolescents, and later, insecure adults.

"Although previous studies in adults found that an individual's security level was influenced by painful experiences, it was not clear why relationship security should be related to pain," says Dr. Tremblay. "We found that adolescents with insecure relationships tend to be more 'alarmist' about their pain symptoms; they have a tendency to amplify the degree of threat or severity of their pain. This amplification leads to more intense pain and more severe depressive symptoms."

Source: Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091125110849.htm

Sleep May Limit Teens' Depression

Depression in adolescents, a problem 1 in 5 teens experiences before age 18, could be reduced or even prevented by something relatively simple yet often ignored by late-night tweeting or texting teens - sleep.

Few teenagers get the recommended nine hours of nightly sleep for people their age, staying up well past a reasonable bedtime e-mailing, e-chatting or doing homework. And in the morning, they can be groggy, cranky and distracted.

If sleep deprivation becomes chronic, however, depression can result, UC Berkeley researchers say.

This is new thinking.

In the past, the general view was that sleep disturbances were a by-product of depression. Now research is pointing to a lack of sleep as a cause, said Allison Harvey, a clinical psychologist at UC Berkeley.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/11/13/MN1E1AFT5P.DTL