News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

Finnish researchers have discovered that eight-year-old boys who screened positive for psychiatric problems may be at increased risk for suicide as teenagers. This relationship does not appear to hold true for girls.

Researchers from Turku University Hospital in Finland screened 5,302 people who were born in 1981, and followed them until 2005. Thirteen males and two females within the group committed suicide, and 39 made serious attempts (requiring hospitalization). Of the 27 males in the group, 78 percent screened positive for severe mental problems as eight-year-olds, but this was true of only 11 percent of the girls.

"The main finding of our study is that severe suicidality in adolescence and early adulthood has different childhood trajectories among males and females," the researchers wrote in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Labels: children, suicide, teenagers, warning_signs

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Parenting isn't easy for anyone - not the married couple, the single parent, or the blended family. Experts tell parents to watch for signs like mood swings, changes in social circles, a sudden drop in grades that indicate a teen may be headed down the wrong path. But parents have another, often unused advocate for their kids - each other.

"Parents need to stick together. Over the years, I've had people come to me with concerns about my girls. They tell me something they had seen or heard, and they share concerns about people they may have seen one of my girls with and wanted to make me aware of it. I appreciate when people share with me."

Parents can and should be allies, working together to guide their kids toward bright, healthy futures. Rather than judging, pointing fingers, or worse yet ignoring each other, parents can offer each other much needed support and encouragement, and be an extra set of eyes and hears. Source: Havelock News

A therapeutic boarding school can help teens and their families work through their issues and strengthen their relationships.

Labels: support, warning_signs

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Last year, social networking sites like MySpace came to the forefront in the media, but the focus was online predators. While it's true that teens need to be mindful of who they're interacting with online, social networking sites aren't all bad. They can, in fact, provide information or clues as to whether a teen is engaging in dangerous or inappropriate behavior.

"...some experts [are] urging parents to use social networking Web sites as an early warning system to alert them to problems from substance abuse to eating disorders to violent fantasies."

Some parents admit they're hesitant to view their children's MySpace or Facebook profiles, because they feel it's an invasion of privacy. But Ann Collier, of Net Family News, hopes parents will reconsider. There's a big difference, she says, between viewing a web page on the internet and looking through - for example - a diary hidden in a drawer. And the information found in a child's profile could help a parent steer him or her away from dangerous or even life-threatening behaviors. Read more online.

Labels: internet, myspace, warning_signs

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