An alarming trend has emerged over the past three decades in the United States: children and adolescents are falling victim to a wide array of health problems. According to studies released by the CDC, the Kaiser Foundation, and countless peer-reviewed academic journal publications, data indicate that obesity, asthma, and type 2 diabetes are all on the rise. Not only do these medical conditions degrade a child’s overall quality of life

Your daughter goes on shopping sprees, ordering piles of clothes or accessories she really doesn’t need. Or your son drives erratically, leaving you to hang on for dear life while he speeds down the street. Your teen forgets things everywhere, is extremely spontaneous, and doesn’t think before acting. Or perhaps your son or daughter gets angry at the slightest provocation and won’t let things go…even for weeks. The question is

Your adolescent is upset about something or another. Maybe he or she is crying. You know what the experts say: validate, validate, validate. Because children and teens are not always looking to problem-solve. They’re looking to be validated. But what exactly does it mean to validate, and how do you do it? Dialectical Behavior Therapy suggests that there are six levels of validation. With so many ways to show your

If you’ve ever been to a teen sports game, you’ve probably witnessed a fight at least once. It starts out, sometimes, with some muttering behind the coach or referee’s back. The parents raise their voices. There’s yelling, maybe even cursing. And then a fight breaks out. Tensions run high at sports games. Especially youth games. Almost 70% of parents say they’ve gotten angry at their child’s sports game before. And

In 2000, two angry parents got into a fight at their sons’ hockey game. This wasn’t just any fight, though. Thomas Junta got upset about some rough play on the ice. Fellow parent and referee Michael Costin responded brusquely. “That’s what hockey is all about,” he said. A serious fistfight ensued. In the end, Costin was dead. Junta beat him so hard, so repeatedly, that he actually ended up killing