Teens get a bad rap as selfish, dangerous risk-takers. But neuroscience and psychology research is revising that image: Adolescents are primed to help those around them, with positive benefits for all.
Parental role-modelling, encouragement and seeking support from the school can help make the awkward bits of making friends as a teen easier.
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Navigating friendships as a teen can be hard. Parents can help by modelling good behaviour and making sure their teen feels they can talk to them about their friendships.
If screens are kept at an arm’s length, measures of well-being tend to improve.
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Almost a third of American adolescents have anxiety disorders. Researchers in developmental neuroscience are figuring out that how the brain matures over time may be part of the reason why.
Sex-ed can equip and empower young people to make healthy and safe choices about their sexuality for themselves and for others.
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The notion that religious groups are opposed to sex-ed is simply not true. And our youth need it more than ever to take control over their lives, their bodies and their decisions.
Boosting someone else may deliver a mood boost to you too.
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Adolescents have important developmental work to do. Despite what worried grownups think, taking needless risks isn’t the goal for teens. Being risky is part of exploring and learning about the world.
Research shows that holding down a job as a teenager has real benefits later in life.
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Instead of trying out for band or the hockey team, adolescents might do better to choose a part-time job as an extracurricular activity. Research shows it pays big dividends later in life.
In the past, kids couldn’t wait to get their driver’s licenses. Now? Not so much.
Jenn Huls
Social media use is weakly associated with depressed mood in the young, but it’s not clear which way cause and effect runs.
Constant sugar hits in a developing brain can change the reward centres for life, leading to behavioural and mood issues later in life.
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Electronic baby simulators given to schoolgirls as part of a sex education program may make teenage girls more, not less, likely to become pregnant, a new Australian study has found.