Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Is TikTok Causing Tics in Teen Girls? What Parents Need to Know

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Cleveland Clinic.

Tics are more common in young boys than in teenage girls. So medical professionals around the world were surprised and stumped when the pandemic began and teen girls started coming to them in droves to report the sudden onset of uncontrollable physical and verbal tics.

The tics mimic those seen in Tourette syndrome, a neurological disorder that causes uncontainable movements and vocal sounds. But Tourette’s, which is relatively uncommon, is four times more likely in boys than in girls and typically presents between ages 5 and 7.

Pediatric neurologist Mohammed Aldosari, MD, talks about this disconcerting data, including the role of the social media platform TikTok and what parents can do.

Throughout the pandemic, doctors began seeing more and more teenage girls who were experiencing a sudden appearance of verbal and motor tics. They’d shout the same phrases over and ever, seemingly at random, and display jerking or flapping movements.

As doctors across geographic regions began to communicate with one another, they realized they were all seeing the same thing — around the world.

“Initially, everyone thought they were seeing an isolated phenomenon,” Dr. Aldosari says, “but it turns out that we’re all seeing it — a different age of onset, and disturbingly, an explosive onset. In just a few hours, maybe a day or two, girls who have no history of tics suddenly start to experience a lot of movement and vocalization.”

Globally, doctors were seeing that teens with sudden-onset tics shouted the exact same phrases and experienced the same uncontrolled movements:

• Repetition of seemingly random words or phrases, including “beans,” “woo-hoo” and “flying shark.”
• Repetition of swear words and other obscene phrases.
• Hand/arm movements, including clapping and pointing.
• Hitting or banging body parts, other people or objects.

The similarities in tics — especially given patients’ geographic distance — gave doctors their first clue that social media was at the root of the phenomenon.

t turns out that these tics are specific to a few content creators on TikTok — individuals with Tourette syndrome whose videos have been viewed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of times.

Teens experiencing sudden-onset tics do not have Tourette syndrome, Dr. Aldosari says, even if the behavior seems similar. Rather, studies show that they’re experiencing a movement disorder brought on by stress and anxiety — presumably made worse by the pandemic and teens’ increased social media consumption.

“These tics are a complex way for the brain to release overwhelming stress,” Dr. Aldosari explains. “Essentially, their brains express an emotional stressor as a physical disorder.”

Teens who are prone to depression and anxiety are most likely to develop this condition. And teenage girls are more likely to have depression and anxiety than teenage boys, which may explain the rise in tics in teen girls, in particular.

Dr. Aldosari says teenage patients (and their families) are likely to be reassured by the knowledge that this now is a known medical issue and that there is nothing physically wrong with their brains.

“Now we can say that this has been seen before and that it’s the response of your brain when it’s under extreme stress and overwhelmed,” he says. “And then most of these young people would benefit from behavioral therapy.”

Can TikTok-induced tics be prevented?

“When it comes to social media, this should be a wake-up call for us all,” Dr. Aldosari says.

Responsible digital consumption is key. Whether your child has not yet begun using social media or already spends a lot of time on it, have the conversation now about the risks of being online too much — not just tics but everything from self-esteem issues to doomscrolling to sleep problems.

Source: Cleveland Clinic
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/tiktok-causing-tics-in-teen-girls/

Lack of Sleep Affecting Students’ Mental Health Especially Women

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

More than two-thirds (65.5%) of students are experiencing poor sleep quality and this is linked to mental health problems, new research published in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Human Biology suggests.

The findings, based on more than 1,000 (1,113) men and women attending university full-time, also show those reporting depressive symptoms were almost four times as likely to suffer from inadequate sleep habits.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) was a problem among over half (55%) of the students -- they were almost twice as likely to have depression or experience moderate to high-stress levels. In addition, the study highlights a gender divide, with poor quality sleep and EDS more prevalent among females.

The authors surveyed 1,113 undergraduates and post-graduates aged from 16 to 25 years who were enrolled in a range of studies at the Federal University of Mato Grosso in Brazil. Participants were asked about their sleep quality, EDS, socioeconomic status, and their body mass index (BMI) was also assessed.

The data was used to estimate the level of association between poor sleep quality/EDS, and depressive symptoms, and perceived stress levels. Results showed a significant link between these factors, and depressive issues, and moderate to high-stress levels.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/11/211102111148.htm

Screening School Kids for Depression Boosts Diagnoses, Outcomes

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

Schools could provide solutions for kids who are grappling with depression, a new study suggests.

Students who have school-based depression screening are twice as likely to begin treatment as peers who don't get that service, researchers say.

"Our study is publishing at a time when more adolescents are reporting symptoms of depression," said principal investigator Dr. Deepa Sekhar, a pediatrician at Penn State Health Children's Hospital and an associate professor of pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine.

The three-year study included nearly 13,000 students from 14 public high schools in Pennsylvania. They were from both rural and urban school districts, many were from poor families and they were predominantly from minority groups.

Researchers randomly assigned two of the four high school grades to screening for depressive symptoms through a questionnaire. Students in the other two grades were not screened or offered support unless they were flagged for concerning behavior and treated through the state-mandated Student Assistance Program.

The school-based screening increased both identification and treatment for adolescent depression, according to the study.

Students who received universal screening were twice as likely to initiate treatment, the research team found.

Fewer than half of U.S. adolescents ages 12 to 18 have regular doctor checkups, so relying on those appointments for screening depression isn't effective, the researchers noted. Even those who do see a physician aren't always screened for depression, despite a recommendation from the U.S. Prevention Services Task Force, according to the study.

Most kids and teens are enrolled in public education, Sekhar said. Just as screening is done for vision and hearing to identify barriers to student academic success, screening and treating depression can also help students, she said.

The researchers published their findings in JAMA Network Open.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/b-11-9-screening-school-kids-for-depression-boosts-diagnosis-outcomes-2655504172.html

E-violence Increases Through Early Adolescence but Declines as Teens Become Adults

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted by the University of Michigan.

Electronic dating violence—including electronic harassment, coercion, and monitoring—starts increasing in preadolescence but curves as teens reach young adulthood, according to a new University of Michigan study.

The study looked at the three behaviors in students in two age groups (12-15 and 15-18) to determine how they experienced electronic dating violence. Electronic harassment includes messaging, calling, and sending other items to illicit compliance via intimidation and fear tactics; electronic coercion is pressuring a partner to share sexual or illicit messages, pictures, or videos; and electronic monitoring is the viewing, listening, or reading of messages, images or videos of one’s partner.

“We found that at age 12, youth are at risk of engaging in all three forms of electronic dating violence that we studied, and that between 9th and 10th grade—when youth are 15 to 16 years old—the risk of all three domains increases substantially. But we see that risk becomes somewhat constant or perhaps even declines after age 16,” said Elyse Thulin, a doctoral candidate at U-M’s School of Public Health, noting that more research is needed to understand the undercurrents of this decline.

“This corresponds to a developmental shift and adolescents getting more autonomy; once an adolescent can drive they can go be in person with their girlfriend or boyfriend, so it might be that these behaviors increase within in-person interactions, which is why we see a flattening out or potentially even a decrease by age 18 of the electronic behaviors.”

Thulin and colleagues used data from the longitudinal Strengthening Healthy Adolescent Relationships and Environments Study, for which data was collected between 2013 and 2017 from 1,236 youth.

Among the younger cohort grades 6 through 9 (ages 12-15), they found that all three forms of electronic violence increased across time. Electronic harassment increased from 18% to 33%; electronic coercion from 12% to 28%; and electronic monitoring from 6% to 8%.

When looking at the older cohort, ages 15-18, researchers found the older adolescents reported the greatest engagement in electronic harassment, coercion, and monitoring.

But the trajectory over time looked a lot different. In 9th grade, 32% reported electronic harassment, which peaked in 10th grade at 38.8%, declining to 32% in 12th grade. And for electronic coercion, which started at 31% in 9th grade and increased to 39% in 10th grade, declined to 32% in 11th grade and 31% in 12th grade.

Source: University of Michigan
https://news.umich.edu/e-violence-increases-through-early-adolescence-but-declines-as-teens-become-adults/

What's Hot? 11/05/21

Trending Today on Twitter - 11/5/21
1. Summer Walker
2. SADIE
3. #fridaymorning
4. Kanye
5. #FridayFeeling
6. Odell
7. #FridayMotivation
8. #FridayVibes
9. 5th of November
10. Xavi
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 11/5/21
1. Priyanka Chopra
2. Kit Harington
3. Mike White
4. Eternals
5. OSHA
6. Chris Pratt
7. Diwali 2021
8. Robert Sarver
9. Alex Tuch
10. Forza Horizon 5
Source: Google

Top Five on Spotify - 11/5/21
1. Easy On Me - Adele
2. INDUSTRY BABY (feat. Jack Harlow) - Lil Nas X
3. STAY (w/ Justin Bieber) - The Kid LAROI
4. Heat Waves - Glass Animals
5. Knife Talk (w/ 21 Savage ft. Project Pat) - Drake
Source: Spotify

Top Five on Apple Music - 11/5/21
1. Easy On Me - Adele
2. Way 2 Sexy (w/ Future & Young Thug) - Drake
3. Knife Talk (w/ 21 Savage ft. Project Pat) - Drake
4. Who Want Smoke?? (feat. G. Herbo, Lil Durk & 21 Savage) - Nardo Wick
5. Girls Want Girls (feat. Lil Baby) - Drake
Source: Apple Music

TV Shows Trending on Streaming Services - 11/5/21
1. Yellowstone - Peacock
2. Dexter - Prime Video
3. Dopesick - Hulu
4. Succession - HBO
5. Ted Lasso - AppleTV+
Source: Reelgood

Trending Today on YouTube - 11/5/21
1. Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic - Smokin Out The Windo
2. ELDEN RING - Gameplay Preview
3. NLE Choppa - Jumpin (ft. Polo G)
4. Minecraft, But The World Is Corrupted!
5. Ozuna, Anthony Santos - Senor Juez
Source: YouTube

Netflix Top 5 in the U.S. Today - 11/5/21
1. The Harder They Fall
2. YOU
3. 21 Jump Street
4. Squid Game
5. Army of Thieves
Source: Netflix

More Sleep Leads to Better Grades and Well-Being

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

New research from Tim Bono, lecturer in psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, found that students who get a good night's sleep night in and night out earn higher marks and feel a stronger sense of well-being than those with fluctuating sleep schedules.

"You can't skimp on sleep one night and expect you will 'catch up' the next,'" Bono said.

Bono's study, published recently in Psychology, Health & Medicine, tracked the sleep habits of 97 Washington University first-year students during their first semester on campus. The students who reported the most stable, consistent sleep patterns earned a GPA of 3.66, on average, while the students with the most variable sleep earned a GPA of 3.21. Students with regular sleep patterns also reported higher levels of well-being. These effects held even when controlling for SAT scores and baseline happiness.

"When asked to identify factors affecting their academic performance, sleep difficulty was identified more often than homesickness, roommate difficulties, health problems, even depression," said Bono, who said seven to eight hours of sleep a night is optimal.

Although getting four hours of sleep some nights, and 12 on others might average to eight, that's not the same as getting eight hours on a regular basis.

"It all comes back to our circadian rhythm—that comes from the Latin for circa, meaning around, and diem, meaning day," Bono said. "It doesn't matter what the clock on your desk says. Your body has its own internal clock. An erratic sleep cycle is inconsistent with the body's natural cycles."

"As homework and activities pile up, sleep is often the first to go. And that's a problem because when we go to sleep, the brain goes to work," Bono said. "During sleep, the brain transfers information you have learned to storage regions like the hippocampus so you can later retrieve that material."

Bono advises his students to set a sleep schedule. He personally uses a sleep app to make sure he gets to bed at the same time every night. Bono also tells students to stop scrolling an hour before sleep as the light that emanates from devices suppresses the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes us drowsy.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10-grades-well-being.html

Joining Social Media Before Age 11 is Associated with Problematic Digital Behaviors

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on EurekAlert!

A new study published in Computers in Human Behavior found that using Instagram or Snapchat before age 11 was significantly related to more problematic digital behaviors compared to those who joined these platforms when they were older. Parental restrictions on phone use and checking social media ameliorated some of the negative effects.

“Social media sites all require a minimum age of 13 to register, but the reality is that many users are younger than that: one-third of our sample had already started using social media at age 11 or 12 and another one-third had begun at age 10 or younger,” said the study’s lead author Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D., director of the Youth, Media and Wellbeing Research Lab at the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW). “This study helps us understand the risks and benefits for kids and tweens so that parents and policymakers can make decisions that prioritize their wellbeing.”

Charmaraman and her co-authors surveyed 773 middle schoolers in the Northeast U.S. about their social media initiation, digital behaviors, and parental restrictions on digital use. The researchers found that joining social media platforms like Instagram or Snapchat before age 11 was significantly associated with having online friends or joining social media sites parents would disapprove of, more problematic digital technology behaviors, more unsympathetic online behaviors, and greater likelihood of online harassment and sexual harassment victimization. Some of these effects were lessened when parents restricted phone use and limited how often their kids checked social media.

Source: EurekAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/932846

U.S. Adolescents' Daily Screen Time Doubled During Pandemic

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

As teens dramatically stepped up their screen time during COVID-19 lockdowns, their well-being took a hit, a new study reveals.

Recreational screen time among U.S. teens doubled from before the pandemic to nearly eight hours per day during the pandemic, according to the report. And this estimate doesn't include time spent on screens for remote learning or schoolwork, so the total was likely much higher, the researchers said.

"More screen time was linked to poorer mental health and greater stress among teens," said lead researcher Dr. Jason Nagata, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.

The findings stem from a survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adolescents, mostly 12- and 13-year-olds.

Nagata's team looked at time teens spent playing games, texting, using social media, video chatting, browsing the internet, and watching or streaming movies, videos or television shows.

The findings were published online as a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/11-2-u-s-adolescents-daily-screen-time-doubled-during-pandemic-2655438524.html

High School Football Won't Raise Lifetime Risk for Suicide

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

Some parents may worry about whether playing high school football might put their kids at risk for depression and suicidal thoughts in adulthood, but new research suggests they can relax.

It included more than 2,300 U.S. males who enrolled in the study at an average age of 15 and were assessed again at an average age of 29. At the start of the study, about 28% of the participants said they played or intended to play football. As young adults, about 10% of participants said they had been diagnosed with depression at some point during their lives, and nearly 6% said they had suicidal thoughts over the past year.

But rates of suicidal thoughts and depression were not significantly different for young men who played football as teens. In contrast, the researchers found a strong association between mental health problems during the teen years and suicidal thoughts in young adulthood.

As teens, about 11% of the study participants said they had received mental health counseling. At age 29, men in this group were more than twice as likely to report being diagnosed with depression as other participants, about 20% vs. nearly 9%.

At age 29, men who reported suicidal thoughts as teens were much more likely to report a depression diagnosis in their 20s (21% vs. 8.5%) and thoughts of suicide over the past year (7% vs. 4%).

Both risks were higher among men who reported a suicide attempt in their teens, according to the study published in the November issue of the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.

"There is societal concern that playing football might be associated with increased risk for later in life depression, suicidality and suicide," said study leader Grant Iverson, from Harvard Medical School, and colleagues.

But it "is overly simplistic, and inconsistent with the published literature, to link suicidality with playing high school football," they said in a journal news release.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/b-10-29-youth-football-won-t-raise-lifetime-risk-for-suicide-study-2655407389.html