Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

The Way U.S. Teens Spend Their Time is Changing

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Pew Research Center.

Teens today are spending their time differently than they did a decade ago. They’re devoting more time to sleep and homework, and less time to paid work and socializing. But what has not changed are the differences between teen boys and girls in time spent on leisure, grooming, homework, housework and errands, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Overall, teens (ages 15 to 17) spend an hour a day, on average, doing homework during the school year, up from 44 minutes a day about a decade ago and 30 minutes in the mid-1990s.

Teens are also getting more shut-eye than they did in the past. They are clocking an average of over nine and a half hours of sleep a night, an increase of 22 minutes compared with teens a decade ago and almost an hour more than those in the mid-1990s.

Teens now enjoy more than five and a half hours of leisure a day (5 hours, 44 minutes). The biggest chunk of teens’ daily leisure time is spent on screens: 3 hours and 4 minutes on average. This figure, which can include time spent gaming, surfing the web, watching videos and watching TV, has held steady over the past decade. On weekends, screen time increases to almost four hours a day (3 hours, 53 minutes), and on weekdays teens are spending 2 hours and 44 minutes on screens.

Time spent playing sports has held steady at around 45 minutes, as has the time teens spend in other types of leisure such as shopping for clothes, listening to music and reading for pleasure.

Time spent by teens in other leisure activities has declined. Over the past decade, the time spent socializing – including attending parties, extracurriculars, sporting or other entertainment events as well as spending time with others in person or on the phone – has dropped by 16 minutes, to 1 hour and 13 minutes a day.

Teens also are spending less time on paid work during the school year than their predecessors: 26 minutes a day, on average, compared with 49 minutes about a decade ago and 57 minutes in the mid-1990s.

Read the entire article on the Pew Research website by clicking the source link below.

Source: Pew Research Center
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/20/the-way-u-s-teens-spend-their-time-is-changing-but-differences-between-boys-and-girls-persist/

Half of U.S. Kids With a Mental Health Disorder Don't Get Treatment

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

If you're worried that your child may suffer from a mental health condition, such as anxiety, depression or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you have plenty of company.

About one in every six American kids has at least one mental health disorder, new research shows. But the study delivered even more troubling news -- only half of those children are getting treatment.

The researchers also found startling differences in the number of kids being diagnosed and treated between states. For example, the statewide prevalence of kids with at least one diagnosed mental health disorder (including depression, anxiety and ADHD) varied from about 8 percent in Hawaii to 27 percent in Maine.

The prevalence of children with a mental health disorder who didn't get treatment varied from 30 percent in Washington, D.C., to 72 percent in North Carolina, the findings showed.

"The purpose of the study was to look at geographical differences in mental health outcomes for children and adolescents. We did not expect these findings to be this extreme," said senior study author Mark Peterson. He is an associate professor in the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Peterson said the study wasn't designed to tease out the reasons for the differences. He suggested there could be a lot of factors at play, including policy differences, socioeconomic factors, access-to-care issues or even parents' individual decisions. "We can't assume anything," he said.

However, Peterson did note that the findings indicate "that there is a much larger problem, and the study highlights the need for better care for kids."

For the study, the researchers culled through surveys from a nationally representative group of more than 50,000 children under 18 years of age. From this data, the investigators were able to estimate that 7.7 million children in the United States have at least one mental health disorder.

Dr. Gregory Fritz, past president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), said the finding that 16.5 percent of children have at least one mental health condition is in line with previous research.

But he said there are probably more kids who haven't been diagnosed and who aren't getting any treatment, so the problem may even be underestimated.

Study author Peterson said that parents shouldn't feel like they don't have options. If you're concerned that your child might have a mental health condition, talk with your child's pediatrician and ask them for resources. He suggested that parents of children who have chronic health conditions might want to be more vigilant about looking for signs of mental health disorders.

The findings were published online in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/adolescents-and-teen-health-news-719/half-of-u-s-kids-with-a-mental-health-disorder-don-t-get-treatment-742602.html

Brain Condition CTE Seen in High School Football Players

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

Crippling brain injury from football can start early, even among high school players, a new study suggests.

And its effects can last over time, even without additional head impacts, researchers report.

Football players can develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after playing high school football, although higher rates of CTE are tied to college and pro football, the researchers said.

"Unfortunately, we found CTE in people who only played high school football and passed away at a very young age," said lead author Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, from Boston University's School of Medicine CTE Center.

CTE is a devastating degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma, according to the Concussion Legacy Foundation.

It is most prominently found among football players: 110 of 111 deceased NFL players were found to have some form of CTE in a study released in 2017. Among them were Junior Seau, Ken Stabler and Frank Gifford.

"We still don't understand a lot about the disease and what causes it," Daneshvar said.

But, he added, the findings suggest that CTE is progressive and worsens with age even in the absence of additional head trauma.

CTE can only be diagnosed after death by examining brain tissue.

For the study, Daneshvar and his colleagues looked at the brains of football players who had died. The study included more than half of the diagnosed CTE cases worldwide.

The brains were donated between February 2008 and May 2016. The researchers also surveyed people who had known these men.

Autopsies of the brains found signs of CTE in 177, or 87 percent of all the football players in the study. Specifically, it was found in 29 percent of high school players, 87 percent of college players, 71 percent of semi-pro players, 88 percent of Canadian Football League players and 99 percent of National Football League players.

The researchers found CTE followed an age-dependent evolution, from small lesions in teenagers and young adults to severe brain damage in middle age.

Based on their interviews and surveys, the players also often had cognitive, behavior, mood and motor symptoms during their life, the researchers said.

Pro players suffered from CTE at greater rates and died with advanced CTE. They were also more likely to have been diagnosed with dementia, compared with college players.

Daneshvar hopes that a way to diagnose the disease can be found while players are alive and can lead to a treatment.

What can be said is that CTE occurs in a high percentage of individuals who play contact sports, Daneshvar said.

"The brain doesn't care what hits it. We've see CTE in victims of domestic violence, in hockey players, boxers and military veterans. So if you end up getting hit in the head a lot, you're at risk for CTE," he added.

One expert not involved with the study said parents of kids who play football should be aware that there may be potential long-term harm.

"I tell parents that we don't know what's going to happen," said Dr. John Kuluz, director of traumatic brain injury and neurorehabilitation at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami.

"We don't know what effects concussions are going to have on their child, but we should be concerned about it," he said.

"We should also keep an open mind, because this study is not definitive," Kuluz added.

The results of the study were scheduled to be presented Feb. 21 at the annual meeting of the Association of Academic Physiatrists, in Puerto Rico.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/child-safety-news-587/brain-condition-cte-seen-in-h-s-football-players-study-743006.html

Teens Say Depression is Greater Problem Than Bullying, Drugs or Drinking

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on USA Today.

As teen depression in the United States has risen in the past decade, most boys and girls are seeing mental health as a major problem, according to a new survey from Pew Research Center.

In a survey of nearly 1,000 teens ages 13 to 17, 70 percent say anxiety and depression are critical issues among their peers, Pew found.

While there isn't data to compare this trend to past generations, Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Pew's associate director of research, told USA TODAY this finding was still "most striking" given how it compared to other concerns teens said were major problems.

Just 55 percent said bullying was a major problem, 51 percent said drug addiction and 45 percent said drinking alcohol.

Moreover, concern around anxiety and depression rang true across gender, racial and economic divisions within the surveyed group.

Depression among teens has been on the rise in recent years, a 2016 study in the medical journal Pediatricsconcluded. Researchers found that from 2005 to 2014, major depressive episodes increased in children ages 12 to 17 from 8.7 percent to 11.3 percent.

So, what's driving teens' concerns about mental health? While Horowitz noted Pew asked about the issues teens saw among their peers – not their own experiences with depression or anxiety – and didn't tie the concerns around mental health to any one cause, the research center's data does show the pressure to get good grades affects more than others.

Sixty-one percent of teens said they felt a lot of pressure to get good grades whereas only 29 percent said they felt a lot of pressure to look good and 28 percent felt a lot of pressure to fit in socially. Not even 10 percent felt a lot of pressure either to be sexually active, use drugs or drink alcohol.

Additionally, over half of teens say they're planning to go to a four-year college, with girls (68 percent) more likely than boys (51 percent) to say so.

Source: USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/02/21/depression-anxiety-seen-major-problem-among-teens-pew-survey-says/2940998002/

What's Hot? 02/22/19

Trending Today on Twitter - 2/22/19
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2. Steve Irwin
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Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 2/22/19
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Source: Google

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 2/22/19
1. Walk Me Home - Pink
2. Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
3. I Guess I Just Feel Like - John Mayer
4. Please Me - Cardi B & Bruno Mars
5. Sunflower - Post Malone & Swae Lee
6. 7 rings - Ariana Grande
7. Feel Something - Adam Lambert
8. You Say - Lauren Daigle
9. Without Me - Halsey
10. Always Remember Us This Way - Lady Gaga
Source: iTunes

Top 10 TV (Broadcast) Shows - Week Ending 2/17/19
1. NCIS
2. AGT Champions
3. 60 Minutes
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5. Blue Bloods
6. Chicago Med
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8. The Big Bang Theory
9. The Masked Singer
10. Young Sheldon
Source: Nielsen Co.

Trending Today on YouTube - 2/22/19
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Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
1. Alita: Battle Angel
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3. Isn't It Romantic
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Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Vaping Is Erasing Gains Made Against Teen Smoking

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

E-cigarettes have obliterated past progress in reducing tobacco product use among teenagers, U.S. health officials said recently.

About 4.9 million middle and high school students were current users of a tobacco product in 2018, up from 3.6 million in 2017, according to results from the annual National Youth Tobacco Survey.

All told, more than 1 in 4 high school students and about 1 in 14 middle school students used a tobacco product in 2018, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Researchers chalk this increase up entirely to e-cigarettes, noting that no significant change was found in the use in any other tobacco product -- including traditional tobacco cigarettes.

"The skyrocketing growth of young people's e-cigarette use over the past year threatens to erase progress made in reducing youth tobacco use. It's putting a new generation at risk for nicotine addiction," CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said in a statement.

Kids who use e-cigarettes could be more likely to progress to smoking tobacco after becoming hooked on nicotine, according to previous research cited by the CDC.

The nicotine in e-cigarettes also pose other health hazards, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director.

"Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm brain development, including harmful effects on learning, memory and attention," Schuchat said. Nicotine also primes the brain for addiction to other substances, she added.

There were 1.5 million more young e-cigarette users in 2018 than 2017, and those who vaped did so more often, the CDC found.

E-cigarette use increased to nearly 21 percent among high schoolers and 5 percent among middle schoolers in 2018, up from about 12 percent and 3 percent in 2017, respectively.

The proportion of high schoolers who vaped at least 20 of the past 30 days increased to 28 percent in 2018 from 20 percent the year before, the CDC added.

For the fifth year in a row, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among high schoolers. Cigarettes (8 percent) were next most common, followed by cigars (7 percent), smokeless tobacco (6 percent), hookah (4 percent), and pipe tobacco (1 percent).

The findings were published Feb. 11 in the CDC publication Vital Signs.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/electronic-cigarettes-970/vaping-is-erasing-gains-made-against-teen-smoking-742638.html

The Reality of Watching Reality TV

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

When it comes to analyzing the effects of watching reality TV, well, it's complicated. While some see these shows as a brief escape from daily life, they can have negative effects on some viewers, including impressionable teens.

Researchers asked 1,100 girls aged 11 to 17 about their viewing habits. On the one hand, watching reality TV was tied to increased self-esteem and the level of respect girls expected in dating relationships. On the other, it also was tied to an increased focus on appearance and a willingness to compromise values for fame.

A study led by Central Michigan University psychologist Bryan Gibson found that some people become more aggressive after watching shows portraying relationships punctuated by aggression, such as bullying and manipulation. Gibson's conclusion: These shows aren't the "harmless entertainment" people think they are.

Some series have other types of unhealthy consequences. For instance, viewers of reality TV beauty shows are more likely to seek out harmful tanning, from both tanning beds and sun exposure. Others can even influence a person's desire for cosmetic surgery.

Because kids are often most vulnerable to these effects, parents were encouraged to watch their kids' favorite shows with them and talk about them afterward, contrasting the performers' behavior with their family's values and principles.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/media-health-news-760/the-reality-of-watching-reality-tv-741564.html

Where Marijuana is Legal, Many Teens Drive While High

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

In states where marijuana is legal, teens smoking pot and then getting behind the wheel of a car is common, a new study finds.

"There's a general public zeitgeist that marijuana is a pretty safe drug," said study co-author Darin Erickson, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health.

"In actuality, there hasn't been a lot of research regarding how marijuana is used, its safety or its harms," he added in a university news release.

For the study, Erickson and his team surveyed 50 local enforcement agencies in Colorado and Washington state in 2016 and 2017 to find out if underage marijuana use (under 21) and marijuana-impaired driving are problems in their cities. In addition, the researchers asked about the types of enforcement used to tackle those problems, and the resources available to do so.

All of the agencies said that underage use is somewhat or very common, and most said that marijuana-impaired driving is somewhat or very common.

Thirty percent said they conducted enforcement targeting underage use or possession or marijuana, and 20 percent said they conducted underage compliance checks at licensed stores, with a higher rate in Colorado (32 percent) than Washington (8 percent), the findings showed.

One local enforcement agency in each state specifically targeted marijuana-impaired driving, according to the study published recently in the International Journal of Drug Policy.

"In general, we found that enforcement is not a high priority for most places," Erickson noted.

"That said, we know enforcement strategies work to curb illegal substance use. Enforcing alcohol laws reduces underage drinking and related problems -- and it could be used to improve the situation with marijuana," Erickson said.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/marijuana-news-759/where-marijuana-is-legal-many-teens-drive-while-high-742278.html

What's Hot? 02/15/19

Trending Today on Twitter - 2/15/19
1. #FakeTrumpEmergency
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Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 2/15/19
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Source: Google

iTunes Top 10 Singles - 2/15/19
1. Please Me - Cardi B & Bruno Mars
2. Shallow - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper
3. break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored - Ariana Grande
4. Sunflower - Post Malone & Swae Lee
5. 365 - Zedd & Katy Perry
6. Without Me - Halsey
7. 7 rings - Ariana Grande
8. Cold in LA - Why Don't We
9. You Say - Lauren Daigle
10. Happier - Marshmello & Bastille
Source: iTunes

Top 10 TV (Broadcast) Shows - Week Ending 2/10/19
1. Grammy Awards
2. The Big Bang Theory
3. Young Sheldon
4. Chicago Med
5. AGT Champions
6. Chicago Fire
7. Blue Bloods
8. Chicago PD
9. The Neighborhood
10. Grey's Anatomy
Source: Nielsen Co.

Trending Today on YouTube - 2/15/19
1. Ken Jeong Performs a Physical While Eating Spicy Wings
2. Cardi B & Bruno Mars - Please Me
3. Moving with Pete Davidson and Kevin Hart
4. Conviction - An Anthem Trailer From Neill Blomkamp
5. Zedd, Katy Perry - 365
Source: YouTube

Top 5 Movies - Last Weekend
1. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
2. What Men Want
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4. The Upside
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Source: Rotten Tomatoes

Teen Pot Use Linked to Later Depression, Suicide Attempts

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on U.S. News & World Report.

Pot may be particularly dangerous for the teenaged brain, a new review suggests.

Not only were those who smoked marijuana more likely to suffer depression and suicidal thoughts, they were also more than three times as likely to attempt suicide between the ages of 18 and 32.

What isn't clear from the review is why. Does marijuana (cannabis) somehow affect the developing teen brain? Or might teens who were later diagnosed with depression or who later attempted suicide have been using the drug to self-medicate?

Regardless, teens and preteens "should avoid using cannabis, as use is associated with a significant increased risk of developing depression or suicidality in young adulthood," the Canadian researchers wrote.

In the United States, pot use is growing exponentially, the study authors noted. Between 2001-2002 and 2012-2013, the number of people aged 18 to 29 who used marijuana in the past year jumped from almost 11 percent to more than 21 percent.

Among U.S. high school seniors, about 7 percent said they smoked pot daily, according to background information in the report.

In the Canadian review, researchers led by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi of McGill University in Montreal looked through 269 studies to see if there was any link between teen marijuana use and depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts. The researchers ended up including 11 of those studies in their final analysis.

There was no statistically significant link between anxiety as a young adult and marijuana use as a teen. However, the odds of developing depression as a young adult were 37 percent higher for those who used marijuana in their teen years compared to those who didn't, the findings showed.

The odds of a young adult thinking about suicide were 50 percent higher in those who smoked pot. The odds of a suicide attempt were almost 3.5 times higher in the pot smokers versus those who didn't use marijuana, the investigators found.

The findings were published online in JAMA Psychiatry.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2019-02-13/teen-pot-use-linked-to-later-depression-suicide-attempts