News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

A study of 28,722 autistic children on Medicaid found that they were diagnosed at an average age of 64.9 months. Most experts in the field prefer that children are diagnosed earlier, so that they can participate in early intervention programs.

Medicaid is a government healthcare program for people whose incomes are below the poverty levels.
 

Labels: autism, poverty

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

A study of 30,000 teenagers in Norway found that too much time in front of television, computers, and video games produces physical complaints such as headaches, neck, back and shoulder pain. Headaches in girls were particularly associated with computer use and television, but not video games.

The study was published in BMC Public Health.
 

Labels: video_games, health, teenagers, television, computers, pain

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

Nine out of ten teenagers have driven cars while they are distracted, according to a new study from the American Automobile Association and Seventeen magazine.

Distractions included adjusting the radio or other music players, eating, texting, and talking on cell phones. The majority told interviewers they did not see anything wrong with their behaviors.

"It's great that so many teenagers are able to identify the bad driving habits that will put them and their friends in danger," said the editor of Seventeen magazine, Ann Shoket. "The bigger challenge we face now is to give them the tools they need to stop driving while distracted."
 

Labels: driving, safety, text messaging, cell phones

Posted By: By Parents For Parents 1 Comment

The rate of divorce is double the normal rate for couples raising a child with an autism spectrum disorder, according to new study from the University of Wisconsin.

• Researchers studied 391 families participating in the Adolescents and Adult Autism Study, comparing them with families matched on the basis of the age, sex, and birth order of their children, as well as age, ethnicity, and education of the mother.
• Among parents whose children did not have autism, the rate of divorce decreased once their child turned eight years old and became "virtually nonexistent" when the child reached the mid-20s.
• This was untrue of families with a child with autism spectrum in that the risk for divorce remained the same even when the child was over 30 years old.
• The divorce rate was not related to how severe the symptoms of autism were, or if more than one child had the spectrum. However, the mother's age mattered in that younger mothers of children with autism were more likely to divorce.

The study appears in the Journal of Family Psychology.
 

Labels: autism, divorce

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

A study out of Australia makes a strong case for nutritional adjustments in the diets of children with ADHD. The study found a fairly strong link between a “Western”-style diet and ADHD symptoms.

Leader of Nutrition studies at the [Telethon] Institute, Associate Professor Wendy Oddy, said the study examined the dietary patterns of 1800 adolescents from the long-term Raine Study and classified diets into "Healthy" or "Western" patterns.

"We found a diet high in the Western pattern of foods was associated with more than double the risk of having an ADHD diagnosis compared with a diet low in the Western pattern," [Oddy said]. [Source: Science Daily]

A “Western” diet consists of primarily processed, fried and refined foods, and foods high in sugar. A “Healthy” diet, in contrast, consists of fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and whole grains. One of the benefits of the “Healthy” diet is that it is high in Omega-3 fatty acids, typically considered a key component of brain function.

Labels: adhd, diet, attention

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

As school districts around the country face tighter and tighter budgets, a lot of creative programs are getting cut. Music, art and theater just aren’t considered priorities. But the creativity a child uses during the spring play can also help him during his math final. And teaching creativity now rests solely on the shoulders of many parents.

“A new down-loadable booklet ‘Encourage Creativity in Children’ (AnswerGirls $1) tells why creativity is such a useful tool for both children and adults, and it describes in detail how to promote creative thinking in children of all ages. This booklet is available only at www.AnswerGirls.com.” [Source: i-Newswire]

The booklet contains eight lessons, each designed to help kids and their parents discover their creative streak. A child who learns to be creative may not appear on Broadway, or have her name attached to a best-selling novel, but she’ll be a better problem-solver and critical thinker – two traits that are helpful in nearly every aspect of our lives.
 

Labels: education, parental influence, development

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

A study of gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers found that they benefitted from same-sex relationships, but relationships with the opposite sex had no effect on their self- esteem, depression or anxiety.

Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Health studied 350 teenagers from three Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender drop-in centers in New York City. Same-sex relationships helped girls in the study reduce internalized homophobia; for boys, such relationships raised self-esteem, if the relationships lasted long enough.

"I actually expected to see more associations between psychological distress and having an opposite sex partner," said Jose Bauermeister, lead author of the study. "But there was no association with self-esteem, depression, or anxiety. ... Having an opposite sex partner is not protective, but it is not harmful either."

The study appears in the journal Youth and Adolescence.

Many gay youth experience anti-gay slurs and other types of sexual bullying in school -- traumatic experiences that can inflict significant damage on their physical, emotional and mental well-being.

Labels: relationships, gay, lesbian

Posted By: By Parents For Parents 1 Comment

The average college student connects to a parent via cellphone or internet 13 times a week, and 17 times a week after they leave college, according to Professor Barbara Hofer. Almost one in five email their college papers for their parent's approval before they turn them in for a grade.

Dr. Hofer, a professor at Middlebury College and the author of a new book, The iConnected Parent, believes that unlimited phone minutes plans and the constant availability of the Internet changed the way parents relate to their children in late adolescence.

"So much has changed just a few years ago," she said. "When you think about what happened when kids went away to college - they called home maybe once a week. What I started observing was that kids were walking out of class, flipping up their cell phones and rather than calling their friends, they were calling Mom and Dad to say, 'I got a C on the calculus test' or 'Wait until you hear what happened with my roommate last night."

Her research indicated that those students who talk to their parents the most are also the least autonomous and least likely to make decisions on their own.

"'Do I boil the water before I put the spaghetti in? How do I separate laundry?' -- whatever it might be, the parents are live and available for this kind of consultation," she said. "It's not just about letting go, which is what parents have been told to do. It's about letting go while staying connected and how to stay connected in healthy ways."

Her research indicates that the young adults who are more independent of their parents have higher grades, procrastinate less, enjoy college life more, and have better relationships with their parents.

Labels: technology, parental influence, communication

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

A new study out of the University of Maryland found that college students are so accustomed to calling their parents that many did it out of habit even after agreeing to give up technology for 24 hours. Are college students talking to their parents too much?

“’Some folks do have some troubles because of instant communications,’ [psychologist Daniel] Thistlewaite said. ‘Sometimes life throws us curveballs that upset us. Kids need to have time to process it, first with themselves, then with their friends, then they can call their parents. If we instantly text Mom or Dad, it’s an immediate response, and then parents respond in kind and that can exacerbate the reaction.’” [Source: Charleston (WV) Gazette]

Students who are quick to call their parents in a crisis may not learn how to manage their own lives. Instead, they come to rely so heavily on their parents’ input that they’re unable to make their own decisions.

Labels: helicopter_parenting, communication, college

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

"Problem children" adversely affect their parents' health and well-being for decades, according to a study from Purdue University. Issues such as teen and young adult substance abuse, relationship problems including divorce, encounters with the legal system, psychiatric disorders, and poor academic and career performance can carry over into adulthood, and cause their parents to have mental health issues of their own for years.

• Professor Karen Fingerman and her colleagues surveyed 633 parents of 1251 grown children, comparing them to their peers in terms of education, career and relationships.
• Those parents who had adult children still struggling with legal or relationship problems or substance abuse and other serious issues had parents with poorer mental health, even if the "problem child's" siblings were successful.

"The reason these problems affect parents is because the parents are still invested in their grown children," Dr. Fingerman said. Some parents also view their children as extensions of themselves and believe if their child fails, they fail too.

"Parents .... may not be able to do anything to make it better," Dr. Fingerman said, "or they may be trying to help the grown child, which taxes their own financial resources or time."

This study was presented before the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.

Labels: parents, mental_health

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

More evidence that even when the "village" is looking out for the welfare of children, too much free time can lead to bad outcomes for teenagers.

Unsupervised teenagers with nothing to do are more likely to engage in violent behaviors, even if they live in good neighborhoods, according to a new study from Ohio State University.

• Dr. Christopher Browning and his colleagues used data from the Project on Human Development in the Chicago Neighborhoods Community Survey, that included a series of three interviews of 842 children.
• The interview subject were age 8 at the beginning of the study, and age 13 at their final interview.
• The research team divided their neighborhoods into areas where neighbors trust each other and help each other keep their children on track and those which did not have such attitudes.
• In areas where neighbors were more involved with each other, parents were more likely to allow their children to roam unsupervised, which in turn increased the level of violence in those neighborhoods.

This lead the researchers to conclude that adults need to supervise teenagers even in places where neighbors know and trust one another. Dr. Browning also recommend after-school programs as another way to control adolescent behaviors.

This study appears in the journal Criminology.
 

Labels: parental influence, crimes, supervision

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 3 Comments

Women over age 30 who abuse alcohol while pregnant are more likely to give birth to babies with fetal alcohol syndrome and attention deficit problems, according to a new study from Wayne State University.

• Professor Lisa Chiodo tested 462 African-American children at age seven years old.
• If their mothers were 30 or older when they were born, and if their mothers were binge drinkers during pregnancy, their children were more likely to have problems paying attention on the test.
• These children were also more likely to have been born with fetal alcohol syndrome.

"It is very important and women are warned that with increasing maternal age, fetuses may be more severely affected by alcohol exposure, even when the mother's alcohol intake during pregnancy has not increased from previous pregnancies, and even if prior pregnancies and older children appear to have been unaffected," said Dr. Chiodo.

The study appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
 

Labels: alcohol, fetal alcohol syndrome

Posted By: CRC Health 0 Comments

A new study from Temple University is advancing a controversial finding about teens and sex. According to the study, which was led by Dr. Laurence Steinberg, teens who enjoy reading or watching sexually-explicit materials or having sex in their teens are not being unduly influenced by sex-saturated media images.

• Dr. Steinberg analyzed studies from 2006 which concluded that children who consume sexually-explicit media at higher rates than average when they are ages 12 to 14 years old are more likely to be sexually active by age 16 years.
• Dr. Steinberg analyzed the data in terms of the children's school performance, religiosity, parental relationships, and how they perceived their friends' attitude toward sex.
• "It may look as if the exposure leads to sexual activity," Dr. Steinberg said, "but the relationship between the two is artificial. If a child reports being religious, he or she will start sex at a younger age and will also be less likely to consume sexualized media."

Other experts were quick to disagree with the results of the Temple University study.
 
"Exposure to sexually explicit media in a young age can lead to a range of problems, including low self-esteem, eating disorders and sexually transmitted diseases," according to Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch and the United Kingdom.

This study appears in the journal Developmental Psychology.
 

Labels: media_infuences, sex

Posted By: By Parents For Parents 1 Comment