How to Talk to Your Teen About Sextortion
Stranger Danger in the 21st Century We published an article recently called “Guns, Suicide, and Teens,” in which we talk about a disturbing threat to teenagers – teenage boys in particular – known as “sextortion.” We realize that word sounds like made-up internet slang, but it’s not. It’s used in official press releases by serious […]
Texting While Driving and Addiction in Teens
Is Texting While Driving a Warning Sign or Risk Factor for Addiction? There’s an interesting phenomenon in the field of mental health research that’s developed over the past fifteen years. We should clarify that. The phenomenon developed in a subfield of mental health research: addiction research. The subject of the phenomenon we’re talking about goes […]
Increase in Suicide Deaths among Adolescents: Did Boxed Warnings on Depression Medication Lead to Missed Diagnoses of Serious Depression and Suicide Risk?
Researchers: FDA Warnings Associated With Decreases in Treatment Teen mental health is everywhere in the news right now. There’s one aspect of teen mental health dominating the headlines: the increase in teen suicide risk and suicide deaths. It’s not a new story. Between 2007 and 2018, teen suicide rates increased almost sixty percent. In 2014, […]
Can Social Media Escalate Adolescent Self-Harm to Suicidality?
News Headlines Highlight the Risks: We Examine the Evidence Over the past ten years, parents have worried that screen time and social media use are harmful to their children’s development. For parents who grew up without smartphones and the internet, it’s an easy position to take. The way kids, tweens, and teens spend their spare […]
Can TV Shows Help Teens Struggling with Depression and Other Mental Health Issues?
A University of California – Los Angeles Study Says “Yes, They Can” When adults involved in the lives of teens talk about the relationship between television and mental health, their default starting position is often negative. This may derive from the fact that when most parents of teens were young, they heard their parents say […]
The Risks of Social Media to Adolescent Mental Health
If you’re the parent of a teenager in the year 2021, there’s a good chance you worry about the impact of social media on their mental health. You have good reason to worry. Media headlines over the past several years have presented a consistent message: social media is bad for our teens. Data from reputable […]
Would Keeping Cell Phones Out of Schools Help Teens’ Mental Health?
Experts Disagree on the Effect of Cell Phones on Adolescent Mental Health We recently published an article called Why Are Teens Lonelier and More Depressed? that discussed the state of mental health in our adolescent population as of 2021. Evidence from a wide variety of sources shows a marked deterioration in the overall mental health […]
Social Media and Wellbeing: It’s Not That You Use It, It’s How You Use It
Shortly after social media platforms entered the national spotlight about ten years ago, critics began warning us that excessive time scrolling, posting, liking, and commenting on posts would lead to negative mental health consequences. Over the past ten years, various studies have examined the effect of social media use on well-being, with mixed results. Some […]
Why Are Teens Lonelier and More Depressed?
Do Cell Phones Make Teens Lonely? If you’re the parent of a teen, you’ve probably seen a constant stream of headlines over the past year and a half about teen mental health. The consensus is that we’re in the midst of what laypeople and professionals alike label a teen mental health crisis. These headlines started […]
Social Media and Anxiety in Youth: How Social Media Can Lead to Anxiety in Teens
Can Anxiety Be a Sign of Bipolar Disorder? Adults with teenage children have a tendency to blame social media for every behavior they don’t like to see in their teens. They cite excess social media use for changes in the way their kids dress and talk. They say it leads to changes in their interests […]