Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

When States Legalize Pot, More Teens Light Up

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

Pot use among U.S. minors increases when states legalize recreational cannabis for adults, according to a new study.

University of California, San Diego researchers tracked more than 6,900 youths and almost 15,000 adults, using data from a national assessment. The team found that in states where recreational cannabis use was legal for those 21 and up, young people ages 12 to 20 were more likely to use pot, even though it was illegal for those ages. Adults also had an increased likelihood of cannabis use.

"Our findings provide useful information to policymakers and public health practitioners interested in understanding the consequences of legalizing recreational cannabis," said principal investigator Yuyan Shi, an associate professor at UC San Diego School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science.

"It's especially concerning that increased cannabis use occurs among young people because of the detrimental health effects associated with cannabis use at a young age, including impaired respiratory function, cardiovascular disease, and adverse effects on mental health," Shi said in a university news release.

The findings were published online in Addiction.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/b-5-27-when-states-legalize-pot-more-teens-light-up-2657387795.html

Adolescent Females Found Especially Vulnerable to Mental Health Impact of Pandemic-Related School Closings

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

Data from 44 hospitals in 26 states show that suicide or self-injury and depressive disorders were the primary mental health reasons children received emergency department (ED) or hospital inpatient care after statewide school closures were enacted during the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A study published in the May 25 issue of the journal Psychiatric Services validates findings from earlier public health surveillance data suggesting a disproportionate rise in ED visits for suicide—especially among adolescents and females—but goes further to examine percent changes in ED and hospital discharges by type of psychiatric disorder, said Dr. Bonnie Zima, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neurosciences and Human Behavior, the article's lead author.

In this large retrospective study, researchers examined the percent changes in ED discharges and hospital stays between 2019 and 2020, matching 36-week time intervals corresponding to spring through fall of both years and capturing data for children ages 3 to 17.

"Our study found that the declines in ED and hospital discharges for primary psychiatric diagnoses after statewide school closure orders were two to three times less than those for general medical conditions. Suicide or self-injury and depressive disorders continued to account for more than 50% of all acute mental health care encounters before and after the statewide school closures," Zima said. "Hospitalizations for suicide, psychosis, and eating disorders substantially increased after statewide COVID-19 school closure orders. By fall 2020, hospitalizations for suicide or self-injury rose by 41.7%, with a 43.8% and 49.2% rise among teens and girls."

"Our findings identify drivers of the disproportionate rise in acute mental health care encounters that occurred during the time intervals corresponding to the abrupt shift to remote learning, followed by summer vacation and the start of a new school year," said Zima, professor-in-residence, UCLA Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-adolescent-females-vulnerable-mental-health.html

What's Hot? 05/27/22

Trending Today on Twitter - 5/27/22
1. #StrangerThings4
2. #fridaymorning
3. #ObiWan
4. Memorial Day
5. Daily Quordle 123
6. Free NFT Giveaway
7. #FursuitFriday
8. #Wordle342
9. JISOO FOR ROLLING STONE
10. Latinx
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 5/27/22
1. Atlas
2. Edmonton Oilers
3. Ray Liotta
4. Warriors
5. Stranger Things Season 4
6. Kevin Spacey
7. Irma Garcia
8. Obi-Wan Kenobi
9. Depche Mode
10. Rangers
Source: Google

Top Five on Spotify - 5/27/22
1. As It Was - Harry Styles
2. Late Night Talking - Harry Styles
3. Matilda - Harry Styles
4. Music For a Sushi Restaurant - Harry Styles
5. Daylight - Harry Styles
Source: Spotify

Top Box Office Movies - Weekend of 5/20/22
1. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
2. Downton Abbey: A New Era
3. The Bad Guys
4. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
5. Men
Source: Showtimes.com

TV Shows Trending on Streaming Services - 5/27/22
1. Night Sky - Prime Video
2. The Lincoln Lawyer - Netflix
3. Obi-Wan Kenobi - Disney+
4. Downton Abbey - Prime Video
5. Under the Banner of Heaven - Hulu
Source: Reelgood

Trending Today on YouTube - 5/27/22
1. Post Malone Has His Brain Hacked by Spicy Wings
2. Polo G - Distraction (Official Teaser)
3. Russ - HANDSOMER Remix (Feat. Ktlyn) (Official Video)
4. Surviving the Total Wipeout Challenge
5. Uvalde, TX School Shooting, Eyewitness
Source: YouTube

Netflix Top 5 in the U.S. Today - 5/27/22
1. The Lincoln Lawyer
2. Wrong Side of the Tracks
3. Ozark
4. The Circle
5. The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib
Source: Netflix

Adventurous Play Outdoors Leads to Stronger Mental Health for Kids

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

Excitement and exploration help kids avoid anxiety, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. Their study finds children who spend more time playing adventurously show fewer signs of anxiety and depression. Moreover, adventurous kids also tended to be happier during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

Researchers surveyed nearly 2,500 parents of children between five and 11 years old for this project. Some parents (427) were living in Northern Ireland, while the majority (1,919) hailed from the United Kingdom (England, Wales, and Scotland).

Each parent was asked how often their children engaged in play considered “thrilling and exciting.” Examples include climbing trees, riding bikes, or exploring a wooded area. Study authors point out that such activities are often unpredictable and may even lead to a scary or uncertain moment or two.

“We’re more concerned than ever about children’s mental health, and our findings highlight that we might be able to help protect children’s mental health by ensuring they have plentiful opportunities for adventurous play,” says study leader Helen Dodd, a professor of child psychology, in a university release.

“This is really positive because play is free, instinctive, and rewarding for children, available to everyone, and doesn’t require special skills. We now urgently need to invest in and protect natural spaces, well-designed parks, and adventure playgrounds, to support the mental health of our children.”

Kids are more plugged in nowadays than ever before, which means most children don’t have as many opportunities for adventurous play outside as previous generations. An important aspect of adventurous play in many cases is that it takes place away from adult supervision. Researchers wanted to test their theory that adventurous play helps kids build up their resilience, making them less vulnerable to mental health issues.

Sure enough, kids who spent more time playing outside dealt with less “internalizing problems,” hallmarked by anxiety and depression. Those same children were generally more positive during the first lockdown as well.

The study was published in the journal Child Psychiatry & Human Development.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/adventurous-play-mental-health/

Children Exercising Less, Spending More Time on Couch Than Before COVID-19 Pandemic

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

Children are exercising less than they did before the pandemic and spending too much time on the sofa, warns a new study.

Researchers in the United Kingdom show that less than four in 10 youngsters (36 percent) were doing enough exercise by the end of last year — despite their parents still keeping fit as much as they used to before COVID-19 struck.

Children ages 10 to 11 in the U.K. were doing 56 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on weekdays as lockdown rules were eased between last April and December. That’s four minutes less than the recommended hour and eight minutes less, or a drop of 13 percent, compared with what they were doing prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Young ones are also spending 25 more minutes lounging around on the sofa or in bed during the week than they used to. Children were even less active at the weekend when they did just 46 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity, eight minutes less than before the pandemic.

For the study, 393 children and their parents from 23 schools in the Bristol area wore an accelerometer to measure the intensity of their exercise. Participants also completed a questionnaire. These findings were compared with facts and figures about 1,296 children and their parents who were recruited from 50 schools in the same area before the pandemic.

Getting enough exercise is vital if children are to grow up healthy and happy.

The findings were published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/children-exercise-pandemic/

Motivation for Sports and School Go Hand in Hand for Adolescent Athletes

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

Adolescent athletes with high motivation for school also have high motivation for sports. Male students tend to be less interested in school than their female peers, a new study from Finland shows.

Successfully integrating elite sports with education requires motivation to commit oneself to both domains. In Europe, the EU has instructed its Member States to formulate and adopt national guidelines on dual careers of athletes. Sufficient policy actions are needed in support of combining elite sports with academic education. In Finland, for example, talented and elite adolescent athletes have the opportunity to complete their upper secondary education in special sports upper secondary schools, which offer equal competitive sports opportunities for both genders and often specialize in multiple sports.

A new study conducted among nearly 400 adolescent athletes in Finland examined the development of, and gender differences in, their task values for school and sports across the upper secondary school years. The students were aged 15-16 at the beginning of the study, and they were all completing their upper secondary education in a sports upper secondary school. They were followed four times during their upper secondary school years.

The researchers found that the task values for school and sports among the students were strongly related to each other. Students with high motivation for school also had high motivation for sports. On the other hand, students with lower motivation for school struggled to maintain their motivation for sports, too.

The results showed that male students' school-related task values were lower than female students' task values at the beginning of upper secondary school and that the gender differences remained across the school years. However, no gender differences were found in the students' motivation for an athletic career.

The study was supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and led by Adjunct Professor Tatiana V. Ryba at the University of Jyväskylä.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220517112234.htm

Most Marijuana Use Videos on TikTok Portrayed as Positive

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Wiley Online Library.

Abstract

Introduction

With over 1 billion monthly users globally, a third of whom are under 14 years, TikTok's popularity is indisputable. Publicly available cannabis-related content on this platform may influence perceptions of cannabis use. We aimed to examine how cannabis-related videos are portrayed on TikTok.

Methods

Data were collected from TikTok using hashtag-based keywords on cannabis-related videos. Seven researchers documented video metrics (i.e. views, likes, comments) and independently coded videos for sentiment and theme.

Results

After removing duplicates and non-related content, the final sample contained 881 videos. These videos had a median view count of 518 700, median likes count of 99 900, and median comment count of 931. Many videos portrayed cannabis use positively (54.14%; collectively viewed 417 million times), with 15.84% of this subset actively depicting cannabis or administration products. The thematic analysis identified seven non-mutually exclusive themes. Content portraying cannabis use as entertaining or humorous accounted for 71.74% of videos, with a further 42.90% discussing personal cannabis use experiences and 24.63% promoting the social and cultural acceptability of cannabis use.

Discussion and Conclusions

Our sample revealed over half of the videos portrayed cannabis use positively and none were age-restricted. All were publicly accessible through standard web and smartphone applications. With previous research demonstrating that exposure to cannabis-related content can influence adolescents' attitudes and problematic cannabis use, it is important more effective age restrictions and regulations are introduced to social media platforms.

Source: Wiley Online Library
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/dar.13433

What's Hot? 05/20/22

Trending Today on Twitter - 5/20/22
1. #fridaymorning
2. #HarrysHouse
3. #FridayVibes
4. Wordle 335 X
5. #NationalRescueDogDay
6. Daily Quordle 116
7. #FridayMotivation
8. Ugly Sonic
9. SpaceX
10. TWO MORE SEASONS
Source: Twitter

Trending Today on Google - 5/20/22
1. Denver Weather
2. Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe
3. Daredevil
4. PGA Championship
5. Rihanna
6. Harry Styles
7. Nick Saban
8. Angelyne
9. Vangelis
10. MultiVersus
Source: Google

Top Five on Spotify - 5/20/22
1. As It Was - Harry Styles
2. N95 - Kendrick Lamar
3. First Class - Jack Harlow
4. Die Hard - Kendrick Lamar
5. Moscow Mule - Bad Bunny
Source: Spotify

Top Box Office Movies - Weekend of 5/13/22
1. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
2. The Bad Guys
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
4. Firestarter
5. Everything Everywhere All At Once
Source: Showtimes.com

TV Shows Trending on Streaming Services - 5/20/22
1. The Lincoln Lawyer - Netflix
2. Better Call Saul - Netflix
3. Candy - Hulu
4. Hacks - HBOMax
5. The Essex Serpent - AppleTV+
Source: Reelgood

Trending Today on YouTube - 5/20/22
1. Official Trailer | She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
2. World's Largest Squid Game Honeycomb Candy Challenge in Real Life
3. Yungeen Ace _ It Go
4. BabyTron - Emperor of the Universe
5. Inside Travis Barker's Tranquil Modern Home
Source: YouTube

Netflix Top 5 in the U.S. Today - 5/20/22
1. The Lincoln Lawyer
2. Senior Year
3. The Circle
4. Ozark
5. Who Killed Sara?
Source: Netflix

Loneliness Can Begin in Childhood — and Last a Lifetime

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

Loneliness that begins during childhood could have a lasting impact for the rest of a person’s life, a new study warns.

Researchers in Austria found that the odds of being lonely at the age of 50 or older were 1.24 times higher for people who rarely or never had comfortable friends in childhood.

Life circumstances when youngsters are growing up – including having fewer friends and siblings, low-quality relationships with parents, bad health, and growing up in a poorer household – are a link to a higher rate of loneliness later in life, according to the findings.

The research team found that while poor health is the main factor connecting to loneliness in older age, explaining 43.3 percent of the variance in loneliness, social support in older age also accounts for 27 percent of the variance. Personality traits account for 10.4 percent and life circumstances during childhood account for 7.5 percent.

Study authors note that the odds of loneliness at age 50 were 1.34 times higher among those who had a fair or poor relationship with their mother as a child in comparison to those with an excellent maternal relationship. Loneliness was 1.21 times higher when someone grew up in a low-income household.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS One, confirm the importance of social networks and support in older age, as well as the role of personality traits, and childhood circumstances.

Source: StudyFinds
https://www.studyfinds.org/loneliness-childhood-lifetime/

COVID-19 Took Devestating Toll on Adolescent Mental Health and Suicidality

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

The past decade has seen a worrisome increase in mental health crises among adolescents. A new study led by Patricia Ibeziako, MD, associate chief of clinical services in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Services at Boston Children's Hospital, shows that the situation worsened with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings appear in Hospital Pediatrics, a publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Ibeziako and colleagues looked back at the Boston Children's own records over a two-year study period—the first pandemic year (March 2020 to February 2021) and the year just prior. During this time, nearly 3,800 children aged 4 to 18 were admitted to the emergency department (ED) or inpatient units for mental-health-related reasons. About 80% were adolescents aged 12 to 18.

In the year before the pandemic, 50% of admitted patients had suicidal ideation or had made suicide attempts. That jumped to 60% during the first pandemic year. The number of patients making actual suicide attempts rose from 236 to 369—going from 12% to 21% of all mental health admissions.

"The majority of suicide attempts were overdoses," says Ibeziako. "We were seeing patients without known mental health issues presenting for the first time with suicide attempts, as well as patients with pre-existing mental health diagnoses."

Aside from suicidality, mental health admissions at Boston Children's increased year over year for depressive disorders (from 63 to 70% of admissions), anxiety disorders (from 46 to 51%), eating disorders (from 7 to 14%), substance-related disorders (7 to 9%), and obsessive-compulsive related disorders (4 to 6%). Admissions rose especially for girls, whose share increased from 56 to 66%.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-covid-devastating-toll-adolescent-mental.html