Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Poll Shows Parents Torn When Teens Enter the Workforce

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

As summer nears, teens may want to apply for their first job or try to boost their hours for the season.

Not all parents think this is such a good idea, though, according to a new C.S. Mott Children's Hospital poll.

"Teen jobs can be super positive, and I think we see that in our data, but there's also the risk of potential physical and mental health" problems, said Sarah Clark, co-director of the Mott Poll at the University of Michigan.

For teens, these early work experiences can gain them money for the things they want or need and help to build their self-esteem. But parents worry their kids might get overloaded.

Parents expressed concerns about kids with jobs not getting enough sleep. They also had concerns about scheduling and transportation, the impact on grades during the school year, stress, and workplace safety.

More than 1,000 parents of teens were polled. About 8% said their 14- and 15-year-olds had jobs, compared to 42% whose teens were 16 or 17 and more than half (53%) of those who had 18-year-olds.

About 76% of parents polled cited money management as a positive impact, while 70% cited self-esteem, 63% said time management, and 28% said social life.

Among the cons were sleep, according to 16% of parents, and impacts on activities and social life (11% each) and school grades (4%).

About 87% of parents said how a job fit into their teen's schedule mattered when thinking about whether a job was appropriate. About 68% cited the convenience of getting them to and from their job as a key factor. Other important considerations included the learning experience (54%), pay rate (34%) and the other teens who work there (25%).

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/parenting-a-teen-2659845780.html

Average Family Spends Just 6 Hours Together Each Week

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

The typical family spends just six hours together a week, thanks in part to long working hours and time spent diving down the digital device rabbit hole.

According to a survey of 2,000 British parents with children at home, most agree that work shifts hinder family quality time (56 percent). Other factors include homework (29 percent), household chores (27 percent), TV time (21 percent), social media use (20 percent), and after-school activities (19 percent).

When families are at home together, 37 percent admit they don’t set aside specific time to spend with one another. The survey finds half of the respondents think there are too many distractions in the home — particularly devices with screens — which impact quality time.

There’s plenty of research that shows how eating meals together as a family has positive effects on everyone. To that end, a quarter of parents would like to eat more family meals together to encourage conversation, as 42 percent say they struggle to initiate chats with their children. The most popular topics around the table when they do dine together are school (50 percent), TV shows (48 percent), and friendships (46 percent).

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/average-family-spends-6-hours-together/

Researchers Find Strong Adolescent-Parent Relationships Lead to Better Long-Term Health Outcomes in Young Adults

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

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have found that adolescents who report strong relationships with their parents have better long-term health outcomes. Study findings, published today in JAMA Network Open, suggest that investments in improving parent-adolescent relationships could help improve general health, mental health, and sexual, health while also reducing substance use in young adulthood.

The study utilized data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Reseachers tested whether adolescents' reports of specific, measurable characteristics of their relationships with mother- and father figures with whom they live were linked to health outcomes measured 14 years later. The researchers looked at data from more than 15,000 adults who were initially enrolled in the study in the mid-1990s when they were between 12 and 17 years old.

The researchers looked at characteristics such as reported parental warmth, communication, time together, and academic expectations as assessed when the participants were between 12 and 17 years old. When those same participants were 24 to 32 years old, they reported on current levels of stress, depression, optimism, nicotine dependence and substance abuse, and other measures of general health. The study controlled for age, race, ethnicity, family structure, and other factors and separated the data based on relationships with mother and father figures who lived in the home. More than 10,000 participants were analyzed for the study.

The study found that participants who reported higher levels of mother-adolescent and father-adolescent warmth, communication, time together, academic expectations, relationship or communication satisfaction, and inductive discipline reported significantly higher levels of general health in young adulthood. Similarly, they reported significantly higher levels of optimism and romantic relationship quality and lower levels of stress and depressive symptoms as young adults. Higher levels of adolescent-reported parental warmth, time together, and relationship or communication satisfaction were also significantly associated with lower levels of nicotine dependence and substance abuse in young adulthood as well as lower odds of unintended pregnancy.

Source: ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230321112658.htm

Happy, Loved Teens Become Heart-Healthier as Adults

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

When teenagers feel good about themselves and their lives, it may also do their hearts good in the long run, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that teenagers who generally felt happy, optimistic, and loved went on to show better cardiovascular health in their 20s and 30s versus kids who lacked that level of mental well-being.

Overall, they were more likely to maintain a healthy weight, as well as normal blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels. And having such positive feelings appeared particularly important for Black teenagers' future health.

"One thing I'm struck by is we really don't have a handle on the 'good things' that kids need to support their cardiometabolic health," said lead researcher Farah Qureshi, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore.

To dig into the question, her team examined data from a national health study that enrolled nearly 3,500 U.S. high school students in the 1990s and followed them for more than two decades.

At the outset, the students answered questions that gauged five psychological assets: happiness; hopefulness about the future; high self-esteem; feeling socially accepted; feeling loved and wanted.

The bad news: More than half of kids — 55% — had none or only one of those positive feelings.

But when they had four or five of those assets, they were about 69% more likely to maintain good cardiovascular health into their 30s compared with their peers. That was with a range of other factors — like family income, parents' education, and kids' body weight — taken into account.

In line with past research, this study found that an unfortunately small number of participants maintained good cardiovascular health into their late 30s: just 12% overall.

The study was published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/heart-disease-adolescent-health-2659080064.html

As Legal Pot Grows, More Kids Sickened by Edibles at Home

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

The number of young kids, especially toddlers, who accidentally ate marijuana-laced treats rose sharply over five years as pot became legal in more places in the U.S., according to a new study.

More than 7,000 confirmed cases of kids younger than six eating marijuana edibles were reported to the nation's poison control centers between 2017 and 2021, climbing from about 200 to more than 3,000 per year.

Nearly a quarter of the children wound up hospitalized, some seriously ill, according to a new analysis in the journal Pediatrics.

And those are just the reported cases, said Dr. Marit Tweet, a medical toxicologist with the Southern Illinois School of Medicine, who led the study.

Cases of kids eating pot products such as candies, chocolate, and cookies have coincided with more states allowing medical and recreational cannabis use. Currently, 37 U.S. states permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and 21 states regulate adult recreational use.

Tweet called for greater vigilance by parents and for more laws like those adopted by several states to make pot products—often packaged to look like kids' candies and snacks—less appealing and accessible to children.

"When it's in a candy form or cookies, people don't think of it in the same way as household chemicals or other things a child could get into," she said. "But people should really be thinking of it as a medication."

Of more than 7,000 reports, researchers were able to track the outcomes of nearly 5,000 cases. They found that nearly 600 kids, or about 8%, were admitted to critical care units, most often with depressed breathing or even coma. Nearly 15% were admitted to non-critical care units, and more than a third were seen in emergency rooms. Drowsiness, breathing problems, fast heart rate, and vomiting, were the most common symptoms.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-legal-pot-kids-sickened-edibles.html

Young Adults Living With Their Parents Are Driving a Luxury Boom

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Yahoo!

In recent years, millennials and Gen Z have chosen to live with their parents instead of leaving the nest, thanks to the groups’ pursuit of higher education and delay of marriage, plus soaring rental costs. Now the two generations are opting to use their new disposable income to purchase high-end luxury items, according to a new report from Morgan Stanley.

And their shopping habits are definitely having an impact: The trend has helped drive sales and increase the appeal of goods such as purses, watches, and jewelry across the luxury industry, according to Bloomberg.

According to recent US Census data, nearly half of young Americans between the ages of 18 to 29 are living with their parents; the highest percentage reached nationwide since 1940—when the country was rebuilding after the decade-long Great Depression.

One of the main reasons millennials and Gen Z are opting to stay put? The two age groups are largely delaying taking the next step in their relationship and having kids to achieve financial security before taking the plunge.

Source: Yahoo!
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/young-adults-living-parents-driving-230000331.html

Age That Kids Acquire Mobile Phones Not Linked to Well-Being

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Stanford Medicine.

Parents fretting over when to get their children a cell phone can take heart: A rigorous new study from Stanford Medicine did not find a meaningful association between the age at which kids received their first phones and their well-being, as measured by grades, sleep habits, and depression symptoms.

The study, which appeared recently in Child Development, is unusual because it followed a group of more than 250 children for five years, during which most of them acquired their first cell phones. Instead of comparing phone-using kids with those who don’t have phones at a single point in time, the scientists tracked the participants’ well-being as they transitioned to phone ownership.

“We found that whether or not the children in the study had a mobile phone, and when they had their first mobile phone, did not seem to have meaningful links to their well-being and adjustment outcomes,” said lead author Xiaoran Sun, Ph.D., who was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford Medicine and Stanford Data Science when the study was conducted. For parents wondering when to get their child a phone, she said, “There doesn’t seem to be a golden rule about waiting until eighth grade or a certain age.”

The average age at which children received their first phones was 11.6 years old, with phone acquisition climbing steeply between 10.7 and 12.5 years of age, a period during which half of the children acquired their first phones. According to the researchers, the results may suggest that each family timed the decision to what they thought was best for their child.

“One possible explanation for these results is that parents are doing a good job matching their decisions to give their kids phones to their child’s and family’s needs,” Robinson said. “These results should be seen as empowering parents to do what they think is right for their family.”

Source: Stanford Medicine
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/11/children-mobile-phone-age.html

Sleepaway Summer Camp Promotes Altruism in Children, Scientists Show

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

pending a little bit of time away from home may benefit kids in a big way, according to new research from the University of Geneva. Scientists report attending sleepaway summer camp can help promote essential socio-emotional abilities in kids, such as the ability to control oneself, cooperate, or help others. In comparison to other adolescents who hadn’t attended camp, those returning from their time away displayed a notable increase in altruism.

“These overnight camps are spaces of socialization and experimentation, outside the family, which take place over a more or less long period of time and integrate all daily life. They involve permanent interactions with adults and other children, rich in informal learning. We wanted to show that such a context is favorable to the development of socio-emotional skills,” says Edouard Gentaz, full professor at the UNIGE’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences and at the Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, in a media release.

Researchers wanted to ascertain to what extent participation at sleepaway camps may increase both adolescent altruism and self-esteem. Study authors also wanted to identify whether specific elements, such as going with friends or not, may make the experience more or less beneficial. A sample of 256 children between the ages of six and 16 were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire. Some of those kids had attended sleepaway summer camps, while some had not.

In conclusion, researchers said their findings demonstrate the usefulness of sleepaway summer camps as a tool for developing socio-emotional abilities. Going away for just 10-15 days appears to promote increased altruistic intentions.

The study was published in PLoS ONE. 

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/sleepaway-summer-camp-altrusim/

Words Can Wound When Parents Talk to Kids About Obesity

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

With U.S. health officials calling childhood obesity a public health crisis, conversations about weight are important. But what you say to your kids can be challenging, and even counterproductive, a new study found.

"Body weight is a sensitive issue, and the way we talk about it matters," said lead author Rebecca Puhl, deputy director of the University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health.

"We really want to identify language that adolescents feel more comfortable using in these conversations, that they don't feel stigmatized, that they don't feel blamed or shamed," Puhl noted.

To do that, researchers reviewed 2021 survey data from more than 2,000 kids ages 10 to 17, along with more than 1,900 parents. Participants were asked about 27 terms and phrases that can be used to describe body weight.

The teens felt the most negative emotions about terms like "overweight," "fat," and "extremely obese," the study found. More than one-third of youths reported feeling embarrassment, shame, and sadness when their parents used these words.

Have a daughter? Tread lightly, the researchers recommended. Girls reported feeling more negative emotions in response to words used about weight than boys did.

"I think a lot of parents have positive intentions when it comes to talking about their child's weight. They want their child to be healthy. They want their adolescent to feel good about their body size, but sometimes the way that they communicate can come across as being critical or judgmental or using words that really make them feel bad about themselves," Puhl said.

At least half of the kids surveyed don't want their parents talking about weight. They're more willing to talk when they bring it up first or if their parents ask their permission to discuss it, Puhl said.

Even better than talking is modeling healthy behaviors and providing opportunities to eat healthy food at home. Go for walks and make dinner together as a family, she said.

The study findings were published in the December issue of Pediatrics.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/child-obesity-2658669715.html

Kids Who Feel Poorer Than Their Friends More Likely to Have Mental Health Problems

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

Youngsters who try to keep up with richer friends are more likely to have worse mental health than those who feel economically equal, a new study reveals.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge say feeling poorer can lead to lower self-esteem, anxiety, and behavior problems such as anger issues or hyperactivity. Those who felt equal in wealth had much higher self-esteem and behaved better socially, with those who felt poorer or richer than their friends being more likely to bully others.

Researchers link their findings to a difficulty to feel a sense of belonging when feeling economically inadequate.

“Adolescence is an age of transitions, when we use social comparisons to make self-judgments and develop our sense of self,” says study lead author Blanca Piera Pi-Sunyer, a Cambridge Gates Scholar and PhD candidate in the university’s Department of Psychology, in a media release.

“A sense of our economic position not just in wider society, but in our immediate environment, might be problematic for our sense of belonging,” Piera Pi-Sunyer adds. “Belonging is particularly important for well-being and psychosocial functioning during adolescence.”

“It may be that feeling different in any way at a time when belonging is important increases the risk of interpersonal difficulties such as bullying,” the researcher continues. “Our research suggests that wealth comparisons with those around us might contribute to a sense of social and personal self-worth when we are young.”

The researchers analyzed perceived economic inequality within friendship groups of 12,995 11-year-olds in the United Kingdom. They surveyed children who were born between 2000 and 2002 and gathered data on their family income.

The self-esteem of those who thought they were poorer than their friends was six to eight percent lower than those who felt equal. They also scored 11 percent lower in well-being than those who saw themselves as economically equal to their friends.

The children who felt poor in their friendship groups were 17 percent more likely to report being bullied compared to those who felt they were in the same financial position as their friends. On the flip side, those who felt richer or poorer than friends were three to five percent more likely to bully others.

The study was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/kids-feel-poorer-mental-health/