Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Communication Helps Parent Relationships With New College Students But Has Limits

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by ScienceDaily.

When young adults first go off to college, more communication with parents generally leads to better relationships, but parents should avoid always initiating it, according to a study led by Washington State University researchers.

In a paper published in the journal Emerging Adulthood, WSU Assistant Professor Jennifer Duckworth and co-authors found that phone, text, video or in-person communication made first-year students feel better about the relationship with their parents. Students also felt better about the relationship when parents offered support or advice, and when they discussed important topics, such as studying and friendships. However, researchers found negative associations when parents initiated nearly all of the communication.

"That could be indicative of over-involved parenting," said Duckworth, a faculty member in WSU's human development department. "It can be a fine line, but students with so-called 'helicopter parents' could have a more negative view of their relationship with those parents."

The research shows that it's beneficial for parents to regularly stay involved in students' lives, provide support and discuss topics important to students without overwhelming them.

"Text messages are great for a quick check-in that can be very beneficial to the relationship quality," Duckworth said. "If a student feels they have a good relationship, that's indicative of well-being and positive behaviors like more studying and less alcohol and drug use."

The study also shows that frequent communication improves the relationship between familial units.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/09/240903144919.htm

Screen Time and Social Media Use Linked to Eating Disorder Symptoms in Young Adolescents

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

As adolescents continue to spend more time on screens and social media, a new study finds that among 9–14-year-olds, excessive time online is associated with a higher risk of having eating disorder symptoms.

These symptoms include worrying about gaining weight, tying one's self-worth to weight, compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain, binge eating, and experiencing distress over binge eating.

The study uses data from the nationwide Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, the largest long-term study of brain development in the United States. The study collected data for 11,875 children aged 9–14 years old. Study participants provided information about their typical screen habits, as well as whether they had experienced eating disorder symptoms.

The study is published in the journal Eating and Weight Disorders—Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity.

"Social media promotes constant comparisons to peers and exposure to unattainable body ideals," says senior author Jason M. Nagata, MD, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. "This can contribute to dissatisfaction with one's own body, reduced self-esteem, and unhealthy attempts to control weight, all of which increase the risk of developing eating disorders and other mental health issues."

Problematic social media and mobile phone use, characterized by dependence that impairs daily life, are also associated with eating disorder symptoms. Social media overconsumption may not only increase exposure to body ideals and comparisons, but may also intensify impulsive behaviors, reinforce binge eating, and contribute to addictive tendencies.

"Adolescents should limit social media that encourages eating disorders and appearance comparisons. Parents can play an important role by developing Family Media Use Plans and holding open conversations about problematic screen use and disordered eating concerns," says Nagata.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-screen-social-media-linked-disorder.html

Rising Injury-Related Mortality Rates Among U.S. Children and Adolescents

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by News Medical.

Injury-related mortality rates, including firearm-related deaths, among children and adolescents increased in almost every state between 2018-2022, according to findings from the University of Michigan.

Researchers from the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention analyzed mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide-ranging Outline Data for Epidemiologic Research and found that nearly 90% of states saw an increase in mortality rates among children and adolescents overall during the study period.

North Dakota's numbers show the largest increase among states at 65% and Rhode Island saw the largest decrease at 20%. The researchers noted that while mortality rates for children aged 1 to 9 increased, the majority of the overall rate increase was among those ages 10 to 19 years old.

The data also showed that six states saw decreases in injury-related mortality rates and three states reported decreases of more than 10%.

The research defines children and adolescents as ages 1-19. In 2022, institute researchers found that firearms surpassed motor vehicles as the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States.

The newest analysis is published as a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

The study also found that states with the highest per-capita mortality rates among children and adolescents tended to have firearm injuries as the leading cause. States with the lowest per-capita mortality did not include firearms as a top-two cause. Motor vehicle-related deaths, malignant neoplasms and suffocation were found to be in the top two causes of child and adolescent death in multiple states.

Source: News-Medical
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20240904/Rising-injury-related-mortality-rates-among-US-children-and-adolescents.aspx

What's Hot? 09/13/24

Trending Today on X (formerly Twitter) - 9/13/24
 1. Friday the 13th
2. #Friday13th
3. Good Friday
4. Drill
5. John Legend
6. #FridayFeelings
7. $BILLY
8. Happy Friyay
9. Boeing
10. #13Sep
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 9/13/24
 1. Tua Tagovailoa
2. Chad McQueen
3. Miami Dolphins vs Buffalo Bills
4. Boeing Strike
5. Playboi Carti
6. ABC Whistleblower
7. Edward Caban
8. Laverne Cox
9. Red Sox vs Yankees
10. Derek Bender
Source: Google

Top Five on Apple Music - 9/13/24
 1. Not Like Us - Kendrick Lamar
2. I Had Some Help (feat. Morgan Waller) - Post Malone
3. Die With A Smile - Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars
4. Taste - Sabrina Carpenter
5. Please Please Please - Sabrina Carpenter
Source: Apple Music

Top Box Office Movies - Weekend of 9/6/24
1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
2. Deadpool & Wolverine
3. Reagan
4. Alien: Romulus
5. It Ends With Us
Source: Showtimes.com 

TV Shows Trending on Streaming Services - 9/13/24
 1. The Perfect Couple - Netflix
2. The Old Man - Hulu
3. Slow Horses - AppleTV+
4. Beetlejuice - Tubi
5. Kaos - Netflix
Source: Reelgood

Trending Today on YouTube - 9/13/24
 1. Tate McRae - It's ok I'm ok
2. Playboi Carti - ALL RED
3. The Weeknd - Dancing in the Flames
4. Full Debate: Harris vs. Trump
5. Venom: The Last Dance | Trailer
Source: YouTube

Netflix Top 5 TV Shows in the U.S. Today - 9/13/24
 1. The Perfect Couple
2. Emily in Paris
3. Selling Sunset
4. The Circle
5. Outlast
Source: FlixPatrol

Grit, Love for Learning: It's Not Just Smarts That Boost Child Academics

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

A child's intelligence is not the sole key to academic success, a new British study concludes.

Instead, intelligence plus "non-cognitive" factors, such as a determination to excel despite obstacles and an innate love of learning, can push a child to the top of the class, new genetic data shows.

"Our research challenges the long-held assumption that intelligence is the primary driver of academic achievement," said study co-lead author Dr. Margherita Malanchini.

"We’ve found compelling evidence that non-cognitive skills -- such as grit, perseverance, academic interest and value attributed to learning -- are not only significant predictors of success, but that their influence grows stronger over time," added Malanchini, a senior lecturer in psychology at Queen Mary University of London.

She and co-lead study author Dr. Andrea Allegrini, of University College London, published their findings in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

The new study involved over 10,000 British children whose academic success was tracked from ages 7 to 16. At the same time, the London researchers took a look at each child's DNA, seeking genes that are known to be linked to certain non-cognitive skills.

"We discovered that genetic effects associated with non-cognitive skills become increasingly predictive of academic achievement over the school years, in fact their effect nearly doubles between the ages of 7 and 16," Allegrini, a research fellow at University College London, said in a Queen Mary news release. "By the end of compulsory education, genetic dispositions towards non-cognitive skills were equally as important as those related to cognitive abilities in predicting academic success."

In other words, intelligence alone isn't always enough to excel: Drive, curiosity and other traits also play a big role in academic success.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/grit-love-for-learning-its-not-just-smarts-that-boost-child-academics

COVID-19 Lockdowns Prematurely Aged Teenage Brains

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world implemented restrictive measures—such as stay-at-home orders and school closures—to mitigate the spread of the respiratory illness. It's been well-documented that this disruption of daily routines and social activities had a negative impact on the mental health of adolescents.

New research from the University of Washington, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found the pandemic also resulted in unusually accelerated brain maturation in adolescents. This maturation was more pronounced in girls. When measured in terms of the number of years of accelerated brain development, the mean acceleration was 4.2 years in females and 1.4 years in males.

"We think of the COVID-19 pandemic as a health crisis," said Patricia Kuhl, senior author and co-director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences (I-LABS), "but we know that it produced other profound changes in our lives, especially for teenagers."

Brain maturation is measured by the thickness of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of tissue in the brain. The cerebral cortex naturally thins with age, even in teens. Chronic stress and adversity are known to accelerate cortical thinning, which is associated with an increased risk for the development of neuropsychiatric and behavioral disorders. Many of these disorders, such as anxiety and depression, often emerge during adolescence—with females at a higher risk.

The UW research began in 2018 as a longitudinal study of 160 teens aged between 9 and 17 years, with the original objective of evaluating changes in brain structure during typical adolescence.

The cohort was slated to return in 2020, but the pandemic delayed the repeat tests until 2021. By then, the original intent to study typical teen development was no longer viable.

"Once the pandemic was underway, we started to think about which brain measures would allow us to estimate what the pandemic lockdown had done to the brain," said Neva Corrigan, lead author and research scientist at I-LABS. "What did it mean for our teens to be at home rather than in their social groups—not at school, not playing sports, not hanging out?"

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-covid-lockdowns-prematurely-aged-teenage.html

U.S. Youth Vaping Drops to Lowest Level in a Decade

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Just 5.9% of American middle and high school students now vape, a big drop from the 7.7% who did so a year ago, new government data shows.

Put another way, about 1.6 million youth now say they used e-cigarettes at least once over the past month, compared to 2.1 million in 2023.

Among those who say they vape, 23.6% said they do it on a daily basis.

It was high school kids who drove the change, according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS), with middle schoolers still vaping at rates roughly similar to a year ago.

Still, any reduction in vaping is welcome, said Brian King, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products.

The NYTS survey is taken each year and involves U.S. middle (grades 6–8) and high school (grades 9–12) students. This year, kids were surveyed between late January and late May.

After decades of steady declines in cigarette smoking among youth, health experts have been disheartened by the quick rise of nicotine-laden vaping instead.

However, rates have begun to fall, and now that number is only a third of the 2019 tally.

The vast majority of youth who vape use flavored e-cigarettes (87.6%), with fruit (62.8%), candy (33.3%), and mint (25.1%) as the top flavors of choice.

The most popular brands in 2024 are Elf Bar (36.1%), Breeze (19.9%), Mr. Fog (15.8%), Vuse (13.7%) and JUUL (12.6%).

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/child-health/us-youth-vaping-drops-to-lowest-level-in-a-decade

Cyberbullying is Pushing Teenage Girls Towards Cosmetic Procedures

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Adolescent females subjected to appearance-related cyberbullying are more likely to feel ashamed of their bodies, a desire to change their appearance and suffer eating disorder symptoms, according to UniSC research published in the Journal of Eating Disorders.

University of the Sunshine Coast neuroscience researcher Taliah Prince said the results were concerning, given that appearance-related cyberbullying was the most common form of cyberbullying experienced by adolescent females.

"We found 98% of the adolescent females surveyed had experienced cyberbullying and that the majority of these incidents were appearance-related, where they were teased or insulted about their body weight, shape or physical features," Ms. Prince said.

"More than 96% of these appearance-related cyberbullying victims expressed a desire to change their appearance as a result—which can lead to harmful behaviors like extreme dieting and excessive exercise—while 81% felt the need to change their appearance through cosmetic procedures."

Ms. Prince, a Ph.D. candidate at UniSC's Thompson Institute, said it was believed to be the first study to comprehensively investigate the effects of appearance-related cyberbullying on girls' mental health and well-being.

"This is important because eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric disorders among adolescent girls, and body dissatisfaction is the leading risk factor for eating disorders," Ms. Prince said.

"Because appearance-related cyberbullying is associated with body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms, we must understand its prevalence and impact and how it might be contributing to these serious mental health conditions."

The findings demonstrate the profound consequences of appearance-related cyberbullying at a particularly vulnerable time in brain development.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-09-reveals-cyberbullying-teenage-girls-cosmetic.html

What's Hot? 09/06/24

Trending Today on X (formerly Twitter) - 9/6/24
 1. Go Birds
2. Game Day
3. Tesehki
4. #GoPackGo
5. Good Friday
6. HappyFriYay
7. #FridayFeelings
8. #NationalReadABookDay
9. Chester
10. BandCamp Friday
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 9/6/24
 1. Rich Homie Quan
2. Emily Armstrong
3. Baltimore Ravens vs Kansas City Chiefs
4. Chiefs
5. Colin Gray
6. NFL Scores
7. Alex Morgan
8. Argentina vs Chile
9. Rashee Rice
10. Daylight Savings Time Fall Back
Source: Google

Top Five on Apple Music - 9/6/24
 1. Taste - Sabrina Carpenter
2. I Had Some Help (feat. Morgan Waller) - Post Malone
3. Die With A Smile - Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars
4. Please Please Please - Sabrina Carpenter
5. Espresso - Sabrina Carpenter
Source: Apple Music

Top Box Office Movies - Weekend of 8/30/24
1. Deadpool & Wolverine
2. Alien: Romulus
3. It Ends With Us
4. Reagan
5. Twisters
Source: Showtimes.com 

TV Shows Trending on Streaming Services - 9/6/24
 1. Kaos - Netflix
2. English Teacher - Hulu
3. The Perfect Couple - Netflix
4. Slow Horses - AppleTV+
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Prime Video
Source: Reelgood

Trending Today on YouTube - 9/6/24
 1. A Minecraft Movie | Teaser
2. Marlon Wayans' Hollywood Stories
3. Arcane: Season 2 | Official Trailer
4. Mr. McMahon | Official Trailer | Netflix
5. How to Get Spongebob El Primo FOR FREE!
Source: YouTube

Netflix Top 5 TV Shows in the U.S. Today - 9/6/24
 1. The Perfect Couple
2. Worst Ex Ever
3. KAOS
4. Outlast
5. The Accident
Source: FlixPatrol

Why Children Can't Pay Attention to the Task at Hand

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by ScienceDaily.

Scientists have learned that children find it hard to focus on a task, and often take in information that won't help them complete their assignment. But the question is, why?

In a new study, researchers found that this "distributed attention" wasn't because children's brains weren't mature enough to understand the task or pay attention, and it wasn't because they were easily distracted and lacked the control to focus.

It now appears that kids distribute their attention broadly, either out of simple curiosity or because their working memory isn't developed enough to complete a task without "over-exploring."

"Children can't seem to stop themselves from gathering more information than they need to complete a task, even when they know exactly what they need," said Vladimir Sloutsky, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

Sloutsky conducted the study, published recently in the journal Psychological Science, with lead author Qianqian Wan, a doctoral student in psychology at Ohio State.

In this new research, Sloutsky and Wan confirmed that even when children successfully learn how to focus their attention on a task to earn small rewards such as stickers, they still "over-explore" and don't concentrate just on what is needed to complete their assignment.

Future studies will look at whether this unneeded exploration is simple curiosity, Sloutsky said. But he said he thinks the more likely explanation is that working memory is not fully developed in children. That means they don't hold the information they need to complete a task in their memory for very long, at least not as long as adults.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240826131209.htm