Does Social Contagion Cause Teens to Identify as Transgender?
News stations have spent the last few years stoking debates about transgender individuals. From transgender people enlisting in the military to whether transgender people should be allowed to play sports to which restroom transgender people should use, the small but substantial portion of the population has faced intense public scrutiny from every direction. An estimated […]
The Impact of Peer Pressure on Depressed and Anxious Teens – Risks and Warning Signs
Depression and Anxiety Increase Vulnerability to Peer Pressure When we talk about peer pressure, most of us immediately think about high school. Although peer pressure exists in elementary school, escalates in middle school, and permeates college culture on social, academic, and personal levels, high school is the time and place peer pressure appears to exert […]
LGBTQ History Month: Looking Back, Moving Forward
by Toby LaPlant October is LGBTQ History Month in the United States. While one month isn’t nearly enough time to learn the names of every person who marched, spoke, took action, wrote, organized, and dreamed of a better life for themselves, their friends, or their family, it’s a great chance to get to know some […]
The Danger of Drinking Games for Teens
Celebrations in the U.S. often feature alcohol. At sports events, concerts, parties, and sometimes school dances and proms, it’s quite common to see young adults and teenagers with alcoholic beverages in hand. This even happens when alcohol isn’t officially allowed at these events. Teens manage to sneak in alcohol anyway. Or they may pregame the […]
What Age Should My Child Get a Phone?
The time has come. Your child, or adolescent, is asking for a phone. But not just any phone will do, of course. They need a smartphone. Preferably the latest model. “Everyone has one,” they’re telling you. (Which may not be 100% true, by the way.) But before you go and purchase said smartphone, you decide […]
Helping Teens Navigate High School Cliques
Teenage Cliques: The More Things Change Research on teenage social groups shows that even though there are hundreds of names for teenage cliques and that their names may change from place to place, teenagers have the tendency to group themselves into four basic categories, or cliques. Most schools have their share of what we call […]