Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Teenage Brains Particularly Vulnerable to Concussions

Teens may be more vulnerable to the effects of concussions than either adults or younger children, a new study says.

In the study, teens had larger impairments on tests of working memory — the ability to process and store short-term information in the brain, which is needed for learning — six months after they suffered a concussion compared with adults and children.

The region of the brain responsible for working memory, known as the frontal lobe, undergoes a growth spurt during adolescence, making it more fragile and susceptible to the effects of concussions, said study researcher David Ellemberg, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Montréal in Quebec.

Deficits in working memory can impair a person's ability do everyday things, such as multitasking, Ellemberg said.

Teens between ages 13 and 16 who had experienced a concussion had worse working memory abilities compared with teens their age who had not had a concussion. This difference was not seen in children ages 9 to 12, or adults.

The study was published in the journal Brain Injury.

Source: Today
http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/28/10528725-teenage-brains-particularly-vulnerable-to-concussions

Familes See Tablets As Playmate, Teacher, Babysitter

The rise of gadgets is ushering in a new generation of kids who are growing up digital. According to a Nielsen survey of adults with children under 12 in tablet-owning households, in the fourth quarter of 2011, seven out of every 10 children in tablet-owning households used a tablet computer – a nine percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2011.

Seventy-seven percent of those surveyed said children play downloaded games on their tablets and 57 percent said children used tablets to access educational apps. The portable gadget also keeps kids quiet while families are on-the-go: 55 percent and 41 percent of parents report that their children used tablets for entertainment while traveling or in restaurants, respectively. This can also include watching TV shows and movies, which 43 percent of children often do. Communicating with friends and family is a less popular function on tablets– only 15 percent of kids engage in this activity.

Source: Nielsen Co.
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/american-families-see-tablets-as-playmate-teacher-and-babysitter

Teen Drivers and Marijuana: A Dangerous Trend

A growing percentage of teens do not see marijuana use as a distraction while driving, and nearly one in five (19%) say they have gotten behind the wheel after smoking pot, a new study reports.

In the study of nearly 2,300 11th- and 12th-graders across the country, commissioned by Liberty Mutual Insurance and SADD, 70% of teens say marijuana use is "very" or "extremely" distracting to their driving, down from 78% in 2009.

The findings reflect "a dangerous trend toward the acceptance of marijuana and other substances compared to our study of teens conducted just two years ago," says Stephen Wallace, senior adviser for policy, research and education at SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).

The trend has been reflected elsewhere. In December, the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study of 47,000 eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders found that marijuana use rose in 2011 for the fourth straight year and that daily use was at a 30-year peak level among high school seniors.

The new study's findings are disturbing "both in terms of the increased use of marijuana and from the perspective that many think this is not a danger," Wallace says.

Among teens who have driven after using marijuana, 36% say it presents no distraction when operating a vehicle. Nearly one in five (19%) say alcohol is no distraction.

In talking with teenagers around the country, "we hear from young people who believe that marijuana actually makes them a safer driver, that they concentrate harder, drive slower," Wallace says. Those are all misconceptions, he says, adding that "marijuana affects memory, judgment, and perception" and can lead to poor decisions when behind the wheel.

Source: USA Today
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/teen-ya/story/2012-02-22/Marijuana-is-no-big-deal-to-teen-drivers/53211980/1

What's Hot? 2/24/12

Google Hot Internet Searches - 2/24/12
   1. bridge to nowhere
   2. nascar
   3. jk rowling new book
   4. kathy ireland
   5. enquirer
   6. knicks
   7. chicago weather
   8. gas prices
   9. kate walsh
   10. nfl combine
Source: Google

Top 10 U.S. Websites - 2/24/12
   1. Google
   2. Facebook
   3. YouTube
   4. Yahoo!
   5. Amazon
   6. Wikipedia
   7. eBay
   8. Twitter
   9. Craigslist
   10. LinkedIn
Source: Alexa

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 2/24/12
   1. We Are Young (Feat. Janelle Monae) - Fun
   2. So Good - B.o.B.
   3. What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger) - Kelly Clarkson
   4. Glad You Came - The Wanted
   5. Part of Me - Katy Perry
   6. Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
   7. Starships - Nicki Minaj
   8. Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye
   9. Turn Up the Music - Chris Brown
   10. Fly/ I Believe I Can Fly (Glee Cast Version) - Glee
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 2/24/12
   1. American Idol - Wednesday
   2. The Voice (up two spots)
   3. The Big Bang Theory (up three spots)
   4. American Idol - Thursday
   5. Modern Family
   6. Two and a Half Men
   7. NCIS (down five spots)
   8. Two Broke Girls
   9. How I Met Your Mother
   10. Mike & Molly
Source: Nielsen Co

Top 5 Most Viewed Videos on YouTube - This Week - 2/24/12
   1. Mario Bros. vs. Wright Bros. Epic Battles of History Season 2
   2. "Call Me Maybe"
   3. Chris Brown - Turn Up the Music
   4. Big Bang Blue M/V
   5. Dereck Chisora Brawls with David Haye
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Week Ending 2/24/12
   1. Safe House (up one spot)
   2. The Vow (down one spot)
   3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
   4. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
   5. This Means War
Source: Variety

Ugly YouTube Trend: Teens Ask World "Am I Ugly or Pretty?"

“People say I’m ugly, so tell me, am I?” is a daring question to ask online, but dozens of teenagers, mostly girls, are unhesitatingly putting out the question on YouTube. Some of these teens are even younger than the required age to use YouTube, according to site’s terms of service – a user must be older than 13 to upload a video. It’s a disturbing trend: some of the videos are garnering thousands, if not millions, of hits.

“I have a pretty basic question,” one girl begins, after revealing that her friends tell her she’s pretty but she’s not sure because she doesn’t have a boyfriend.

There, they face the wrath of YouTube commenters, some of who aren’t very shy or downright cruel about their opinions. “Just the fact that u did this video makes u ugly. But u were ugly already,” a viewer commented on one video.

The fact that some of the teens can be young as 11 years old signifies something is definitely amiss. Does YouTube need to monitor these videos more closely, or is it part of the need for greater parent vigilance when it comes to their children’s online activities? When every action is anonymous, commenters playing on the insecurities of young tweens is exactly the last thing the Internet needs.

Source: Time
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/02/23/an-ugly-trend-teens-turn-to-youtube-to-evaluate-their-looks/

Additional Media Coverage:
http://jezebel.com/5886241/teens-are-now-asking-youtube-commenters-if-theyre-ugly
http://socialtimes.com/youtube-trend-am-i-ugly_b90013
http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2012/02/20/teens-post-am-i-ugly-videos-on-youtube/

Most U.S. Children Born Out of Wedlock

More than half of births to American women younger than 30 are outside marriage, research has found.

And across all ages, a staggering four in ten women are not married when they have children.

And with two-thirds of children in the U.S. born to mothers under the age of 30, it appears the majority of births across the country are out of wedlock.

The data was compiled by Child Trends, a Washington research group that analysed government data, and reported by the New York Times.

The paper reported that most college graduates marry before they have children, suggesting family structure is becoming a new class divide. "Marriage has become a luxury good," Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Times.

The results carry concerning consequences, with researchers finding children born out of wedlock are more likely to struggle in school or suffer emotional and behavioral problems.

Source: Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103235/Most-children-U-S-born-wedlock.html

Parents' Strict Rules Could Curb Kids' Drinking

By imposing strict rules about alcohol, parents can reduce their kids' impulses to drink, according to a new study.

Tight parental control over drinking helps inhibit what's called "approach tendencies" in teens, the researchers explained in the study published online and in the May print issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Approach tendencies refer to a person's inclination to approach or avoid a stimulus.

With repeated alcohol use, cues that are previously associated with alcohol use -- such as the sight of a beer bottle -- become increasingly important," study corresponding author Sara Pieters, a researcher at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, said in a journal news release. "This might be due to alcohol-induced changes in the brain's reward system and the formation of memory associations."

"Results indicated that in young adolescents, approach tendencies were related to alcohol," Pieters said. "However, we found that if parents set strict rules regarding their offspring's alcohol use, adolescents could inhibit these approach tendencies, particularly males. Conversely, permissive parenting seems to exacerbate the link between approach tendencies and alcohol use for adolescent males."

Adolescents may internalize parental rules in such a way that their approach tendencies can be more successfully inhibited, Pieters suggested.

"In summary, the link between parental rule-setting and adolescent alcohol use is well-established, with more rules being associated with less alcohol use. This study extends previous research on this topic by indicating that parental rules might also be related to the degree to which approach tendencies are linked to changes in alcohol use, with approach tendencies being predictive of increases in alcohol use for adolescents with permissive parents," Pieters said in the news release.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/02/17/parents-strict-rules-could-curb-kids-drinking

Movies Influence Teen Drinking More Than Parents

Stars who knock back whiskey, wine or beer in a movie are an invisible but potent force in prompting youngsters to experiment with alcohol or binge-drink, a new large study suggests.

Major exposure to scenes of alcohol consumption in movies is a bigger risk for teen drinking than having parents who drink or if booze is easily available at home, it says.

Unprecedented in its scope, the probe entailed a confidential telephone survey of more than 6,500 randomly-selected Americans aged 10 to 14 years, who were then interviewed three more times over the next two years.

The youngsters were surveyed on what big movies they had seen, whether they drank alcohol or owned merchandise with a liquor brand on it, and were also asked questions about their personality, school and home life.

The researchers then measured the amount of exposure to alcohol in movies, determined by a character's actual or implied consumption of a drink or purchase of it.

The youngsters, they found, had typically notched up a total of four and half hours of such exposure. Many had seen a total of more than eight hours.

Teens who watched the most movies featuring alcohol were twice as likely to start drinking as those who watched the least. They were also 63 percent likelier to progress to binge-boozing.

Watching movies were alcohol was consumed was a far greater risk than having dud parents or parents who drank, having lots of pocket money, being a rebellious character or having drink available at home.

Source: Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/21/movies-influence-teen-alcohol-consumption-more-than-parents-study-finds/

What's Hot? 2/17/12

Google Hot Internet Searches - 2/17/12
   1. gary carter
   2. stephen colbert
   3. colbert report
   4. pat buchanan
   5. underwear bomber
   6. presidents day
   7. randy travis
   8. whitney houston
   9. heart attack grill
  10. daytona 500
Source: Google

Top 10 U.S. Websites - 2/17/12
   1. Google
   2. Facebook
   3. YouTube
   4. Yahoo!
   5. Amazon
   6. Wikipedia
   7. eBay
   8. Twitter
   9. LinkedIn
  10. Craigslist
Source: Alexa

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 2/17/12
   1. Part of Me - Katy Perry
   2. We Are Young - Fun.
   3. Set Fire to the Rain - Adele
   4. Rolling in the Deep - Adele
   5. I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
   6. Starships - Nicki Minaj
   7. What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger) - Kelly Clarkson
   8. Turn Up the Music - Chris Brown
   9. Someone Like You - Adele
  10. What Makes You Beautiful - One Direction
Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time - Week Ending 2/12/12
   1. Grammy Awards
   2. NCIS
   3. American Idol - Wednesday
   4. American Idol - Thursday
   5. Voice
   6. NCIS: Los Angeles
   7. The Big Bang Theory
   8. Person of Interest
   9. The Mentalist
  10. 60 Minutes
Source: Nielsen Co

Top 5 Most Viewed Videos on YouTube - This Week - 2/17/12
   1. Арест Владимира Путина
   2. RE: Everything
   3. Rhino Sausage
   4. No se Me Olvida
   5. I Was Brainwashed!
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Week Ending 2/16/12
   1. The Vow
   2. Safe House
   3. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
   4. Star Wars: Episode I - Phantom Menace
   5. Chronicle
Source: Variety

Deaths Rise Among Youngest Drivers

A report from a national road safety group highlights what could be a troubling trend among young drivers: an increase in fatalities among 16- and 17-year-old drivers after several years of declines in that age group.

The Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) examined deaths of 16- and 17-year-old drivers through the first six months of 2011 and found an 11% increase over the same period in 2010. Deaths of 16-year-olds rose 16% and 17-year-olds 7%, for an overall jump of 11%.

The study by the GHSA, which represents states on highway safety issues, covers only the first half of last year. Traffic deaths usually rise during the second half of the year, which includes summer and vacation driving. If data for the second half of 2011 continue the trend, it would be the first time in eight years that deaths have risen for this age group of drivers.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-02-15/teen-driving-deaths/53109102/1