Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

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

Parents' Excessive Smartphone Use Could Harm Children's Mental Health

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

A child at the dinner table talks about trouble at school or an argument with a friend, but parents aren't listening: They're checking their smartphones instead.

It's a scenario that plays out millions of times per day across America, and it could be harming the mental health of children, a new study suggests.

Kids ages 9 to 11 who said their parents spent way too much on their smartphones were more prone to anxiety, attention issues and hyperactivity later on compared to the youngsters of parents who weren't phone-obsessed, Canadian researchers report.

"When children's emotional and physical needs are consistently ignored or inappropriately responded to, they are at risk of developing mental health difficulties," explained a team led by Sheri Madigan, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Calgary in Alberta.

Her team published their findings in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The researchers looked at data from more than a thousand Canadian children ages 9 to 11, provided at multiple points between 2020 and early 2022. Kids were asked how much they agreed with statements such as "I wish my parent would spend less time on their phone and other devices" or "I get frustrated with my parent for being on their phone or other devices when we're spending time together."

The children were also assessed for various mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and inattention that developed over time.

According to Madigan's team, "higher levels of [child] anxiety symptoms were associated with higher levels of perceived parental technoference later in development."

According to the new data, it appears that having more anxious kids can push harried parents to use their smartphones more, but that excessive parental smartphone use could encourage inattention and hyperactivity in developing adolescents.

Overall, the study "highlights the complex relations between parental technoference and emerging adolescents' mental health," Madigan's team said.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-parents-excessive-smartphone-children-mental.html

Too Much Time Watching Screens in 20s Raises Heart Attack Risk

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

Spend your youth glued to your phone, computer and TV and you cut your odds of making it to 60, a new study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine warns.

Data from a study tracking the health of more than 4,000 young adults for over 30 years found higher odds for heart attack for those who'd spent a lot of time watching TV in their early 20s.

"Our findings suggest that the amount of time young adults spend watching screens can significantly influence their risk of developing serious heart conditions later in life," said study lead author Dr. Jason Nagata.

"More screen time can displace important activities like sleep and physical activity," he added. "This underscores the importance of promoting healthy screen habits early in life to prevent future heart disease and stroke."

The new data comes from the longstanding Coronary Artery Risk and Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, which has tracked the heart disease risk of thousands of adults for decades.

Every additional hour spent watching television when participants were 23 years of age was tied to a 26% higher odds for developing heart disease over the course of the study. It was also linked with a 16% higher odds for heart attacks and/or strokes, the UCSF team found.

Screen time wasn't only dangerous in youth: Every additional hour of daily TV time during midlife also raised a person's odds for coronary heart disease by 55%, stroke by 58%, and overall heart disease by 32%, the study found.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-screens-20s-heart-experts.html

Just 8 Minutes on TikTok is Enough to Ruin Someone’s Body Image

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

A recent study found that 8-minutes of watching videos on TikTok, especially "pro-anorexia" and "fitspiration" videos, harmed females' self-perception of their body image.

The research was led by Rachel Hogg, senior lecturer in psychology at Charles Stuart University in Australia.

Social media have only made body image issues worse for young people, leading them to compare themselves with others and strive for often unattainable – and unhealthy – beauty standards.

TikTok, which allows people to create and consume short videos, has amassed more than 1 billion users. Harmful content, including videos that glamorize disordered eating and extremely thin bodies, circulate readily on the platform.

Given most TikTok users are young, the study sought to explore how such content affects young women’s body image. The study found watching just eight minutes of TikTok content focused on dieting, weight loss and exercise had an immediate negative effect on body image satisfaction.

The study recruited 273 female-identifying TikTok users aged 18 to 28 and randomly allocated them into two groups. People with a past or current eating disorder diagnosis were excluded from the study.

Participants in the experimental group were shown a 7–8 minute compilation of “pro-anorexia” and “fitspiration” content taken directly from TikTok. These video clips featured young women restricting their food intake and giving workout advice and dieting tips, such as describing their juice cleanses for weight loss.

Participants in the control group watched a 7–8-minute compilation of TikTok videos featuring “neutral” content, such as videos of nature, cooking, and animals.

Using a series of questionnaires, the researchers measured levels of body image satisfaction and attitudes towards beauty standards before and after participants watched the TikTok content.

Both groups reported a decrease in body image satisfaction from before to after watching the videos. But those exposed to pro-anorexia content had the greatest decrease in body image satisfaction. They also experienced an increase in internalization of beauty standards.

The content shown to participants in the experimental group is widely circulated on TikTok, not just within “pro-ana” communities. “Clean” eating, detoxing and limited-ingredient diet trends are the wolf in lamb’s clothing of disordered eating, allowing diet culture to be rebranded as “wellness” and “self-care”. This content, alongside fitspiration, often rewards and gamifies excessive exercise and disordered eating.

In the study, 64% of participants reported seeing disordered eating content on their For You page. Examples could include videos portraying binge eating, laxative use or excessive exercise.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/8-minutes-tiktok-body-image/

Survey: The Average Child Leaves 21 Percent of Their School Lunch Uneaten

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

In a revealing new survey, American parents are shedding light on the complexities of packing school lunches and the creative lengths they go to ensure their children eat nutritiously. The poll of 2,000 parents with school-aged kids unveils some startling statistics about the modern school lunch experience and parental strategies for promoting healthy eating habits.

One of the most striking findings is that nearly a third of parents (29%) admit to eating their children’s uneaten lunch leftovers for dinner. This resourceful approach comes as parents estimate that, on average, 21 percent of their child’s lunch returns home uneaten each day.

While 43 percent of parents believe today’s school lunches are healthier than those of their own childhood, and 28 percent note increased variety, the classic sandwich (61%), chips (56%), and juice (52%) combination remains the most popular lunch option.

Parental guilt plays a significant role in lunch-packing decisions, with 60 percent of respondents feeling remorseful when opting for easy, less healthy options due to time constraints (20%) or their child’s pickiness (21%). This guilt has led to some extreme measures, with 79 percent of parents reporting they’ve gone to dramatic lengths to keep unhealthy foods away from their children. These tactics include avoiding certain foods at the store (30%), hiding them (18%), and even telling white lies (13%).

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/average-child-leaves-21-of-their-school-lunch-uneaten/

All That Time Your Kids Play Video Games Could Lead to Career

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

A new study by the Rutgers Education and Employment Research Center (EERC) reveals that gaming, modifying games (modding), and related hobbies can form a career pathway into the high-demand IT field, especially for adolescents and teens with supportive parents.

“Students don’t realize it at first, but playing video games and having related hobbies is often really helpful when choosing a career and even while job hunting,” said Eliza Peterson, a research analyst and lead author of the study. “For example, if they’re hosting a Minecraft server for their friends, they could parlay those skills and lessons into a Server Administration major, and later, maybe a career in that area of IT.”

As part of a larger study supported by the National Science Foundation, Rutgers researchers interviewed 43 students and alumni of the Ivy Tech Community College School of Information Technology in Indiana. The interviews, conducted over three years, revealed a common trajectory.

Most participants became interested in technology at a young age, often while bonding with their parents, and more than half of them (26 of 43) eventually developed a hobby such as gaming, modifying games, coding, programming, or building computers.

As teens, they did not expect that their passion for playing Minecraft or Fortnite could eventually lead to a job. But they eventually had a revelation – what the researchers call the “hobby-to-career reckoning” – and decided to study IT in their community college.

The Rutgers study adds to this growing body of work by highlighting a pathway from the thumb-cramping World of Warcraft into the lucrative world of IT work.

There are nearly 4.5 million computer and information technology professionals in the U.S., earning a median annual wage of $104,420, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s more than double the median annual wage for all occupations ($48,060).

More than 377,000 computer and IT job openings are expected each year, and overall employment is projected to grow “much faster” than the average for other occupations by 2032, including 25% growth for software developers and 32% for information security analysts.

Source: Rutgers
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/all-time-your-kids-play-video-games-could-lead-career-study-finds#main-content

Teens Ramp Up Spending on Beauty, Pull Back on Shoes, Apparel

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

Self-reported spending is down 6% among US teens (which includes Gen Alpha and Gen Z consumers), but they are still shelling out on beauty, according to Piper Sandler’s latest Taking Stock with Teens survey.

• Teen spending on beauty has reached its highest level since spring 2018, growing 8% YoY to reach $339 per person annually, per the survey.
• Cosmetics holds the majority share of total beauty spend, but fragrance shows the fastest growth at 23% YoY.

Discover the beauty: The majority (85%) of teens prefer to shop for beauty in-store, according to the survey. However, online sales of beauty products will grow at double the rate (12.0%) of physical sales (5.7%) in the US this year, according to our forecast.

The other shoe drops: Most teens slowed spending on footwear and athletic apparel purchases.

• Teen spending on footwear was down 1% YoY, though among teens in upper-income households, it was up 5%, per Piper Sandler, which considers $66,280 a year as the average household income.

The bottom line: Teens are not immune to inflation. The lipstick effect has buoyed beauty so far, but that may not be the case going forward. Brands who want to keep or grow their share of teen spend must understand how and where they shop and what motivates them to make a purchase.

Source: eMarketer
https://www.emarketer.com/content/teens-ramp-up-spending-on-beauty-pull-back-on-shoes-apparel

Just Half of High School Grads Plan to Attend 4-Year College, New Survey Shows

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

Going to college was once a textbook goal for most high school graduates, but our current generation of youngsters doesn’t seem to be on the same page. A shocking new survey of 1,000 recent high school graduates shows that just half are planning to attend a four-year college or university.

The poll, which also included 1,000 parents of public high school students, reveals another worrisome result: just 22% of students feel “very prepared” for life after graduation. And parents agree: less than half of parents surveyed (43%) believe their child is ready for the “real world” after graduating high school.

Results also show that one in two students are considering less traditional routes. About a quarter (24%) plan to immediately enter the job force after high school, while a fifth (21%) are planning for a two-year college or university, like a community college.

Others are looking to go to a trade school or get a certificate (9%), take a gap year (7%) or join the military (4%).

When asked what they wished their high school focused more on, 36 percent agreed they would have liked to learn about post-high school life — beyond going to college. And with so many opting for less traditional next steps, 37 percent vied for more exposure to job skills and 20 percent desired more application of classroom material, outside of testing.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/half-of-high-school-grads-planning-to-attend-college/

Suicides Among Kids Ages 8 to 12 Are Rising, Especially Among Girls

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

New data shows a troubling 8% annual increase in the number of American children ages 8 to 12 who died by suicide, with the sharpest increase seen among girls.

Suicide has now become the fifth leading cause of death among both male and female preteens, report a team led by Donna Ruch, of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Ruch works at the hospital's Center for Suicide Prevention and Research. Her team published its findings in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Rising rates of suicides among children have set off alarm bells for experts in recent years.

"In 2021, the National Institute of Mental Health convened a research roundtable series to address the rising rates of suicides in preteens, defined as youths aged 8 to 12 years," Ruch's group noted.

They said that, until now, there's been little good data on suicides among preteens.

To help remedy that, the Ohio group looked at data for 2001 through 2022 from a major federal online database that lists the underlying cause of death for U.S. preteens.

Overall, 2,241 preteens are known to have died by suicide during the more than two decades covered by the database.

Initially, there was a encouraging downward trend in these deaths between 2001 and 2007, Ruch's group noted.

However, beginning in 2008, that trend reversed.

Each year after 2007, there's been an 8.2% annual increase in preteen suicide cases.

Preteen suicide is still exceedingly rare: Between 2001 and 2007, there were 3.3 such cases per 1 million population, Ruch's team noted.

By 2022, that number had risen to 5.7 per million, however.

In sheer numbers, preteen boys are still more likely to die by suicide compared to girls, with almost double the number of deaths.

But the rate at which young girls die by suicide is rising, more than tripling over the study time period. This trend reveals "a narrowing of the historically large gap in youth suicide rates between sexes," the researchers noted.

Whereas suicide was the 11th leading cause of death for preteen girls in 2007, by 2022 it became the 5th leading cause -- similar to boys.

Source: HealthDay
https://www.healthday.com/health-news/mental-health/suicides-among-kids-ages-8-to-12-are-rising-especially-among-girls