April 2008 Archives

New drug research suggests that teens may get addicted and relapse more easily than adults because developing brains are more powerfully motivated by drug-related cues. This conclusion has been reached by researchers who found that adolescent rats given cocaine – a powerfully addicting stimulant – were more likely than adults to prefer the place where they got it. That learned association endured: Even after experimenters extinguished the drug-linked preference, a small reinstating dose of cocaine appeared to rekindle that preference – but only in the adolescent rats.

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On average, adolescents living with half- or stepsiblings have lower grades and more school-related behavior problems, and these problems may not improve over time, according to Florida State University Assistant Professor of Sociology Kathryn Harker Tillman.

“These findings imply that family formation patterns that bring together children who have different sets of biological parents may not be in the best interests of the children involved,” Tillman said. “Yet one-half of all American stepfamilies include children from previous relationships of both partners, and the majority of parents in stepfamilies go on to have additional children together.”

Many studies have focused on the structure of parent-child relations in connection to academic achievement, but Tillman’s study is unique in that it focuses on the composition of the entire family unit. Tillman studied data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative study of more than 11,000 adolescents in grades 7 through 12 in the United States. Her study is published in the journal Social Science Research.

All stepfamilies are not equal -- at least in terms of their impact on children’s academic performance. Surprisingly, teens who live in the most seemingly complicated family arrangement of all -- those with both half- and stepsiblings fare better than those who live with only stepsiblings or only half-siblings. Tillman theorized that perhaps the decision of the parents in these families to have a biological child together reflects a stable relationship or one in which child rearing is especially important. Only 1 percent of youth in Tillman’s study lived in this so-called complex blended sibling composition, however.

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From suburbia to seminary and back again I grew up in the suburbs. The college I attended was comprised predominantly of white, middle- to upper-class students and faculty. As a youth ministry major, I participated in internships in local, suburban church communities. When I graduated, I served for a number of years as a youth pastor in an affluent suburban church, ministering to affluent suburban teenagers and young adults. In seminary, I continued to think about and study the church in suburban America. I have become incredibly worried. What worries me is the subtle, perhaps even invisible, oppression of teens in the suburbs. When we think of oppression we tend to think of the poor and needy, those without a voice whose cry goes largely unheard—and we are right to do so. Please don’t miss that. In nothing I say do I mean to imply that this form of oppression is not one of the greatest challenges (read opportunities) facing the global church today. It is, and there is much work to be done. At the same time, however, this fact does not excuse us from ignoring other forms of oppression, equally as sad and perhaps harder to address. In suburban America the powers of consumerism, materialism and individualism have become so all-pervasive that we scarcely recognize them anymore. When combined, these forces have resulted in enormous pressure on teens to strive for success in all that they do in order to achieve the “American Dream.” But any force that compels us to pursue a dream that isn’t God’s is an oppressive one.
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Web Site Promotes Plastic Surgery and Diet Pills - Miss Bimbo, an online Internet game, is
being targeted to girls 9 to 16 in which they can earn “bimbo dollars” to purchase breast
implants, other plastic surgeries and diet pills.  The Web site was initially introduced in France
and then promoted in Britain.  Parents have expressed outrage and concern.  The medical
community has also drawn issue with the site due to the increasing number of teenagers
undergoing breast enlargement procedures.
 
Anorexia groups believe the site further encourages young girls who are already vulnerable to
developing eating disorders.  Nicholas Jacquart set up the site and suggests that the game is
harmless.  The question remains - will the majority of the young girls playing this game interpret
the information in a way that compromises their self image, or are they capable of seeing it as an
ironic poke at today’s culture? 
 
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3613881.ece

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080416152245.htm

If you think your parents let your younger siblings get away with everything, you’re probably right. A new study from researchers at Duke University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland concludes that parents punish older children more harshly -- and they’re wise to do so.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24183188/

WASHINGTON - Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post-traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates. Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation. “There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Terri Tanielian, the project’s co-leader and a researcher at the nonprofit RAND.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSCOL06967420080410

As many as one in five women in the United States suffers from postpartum depressive symptoms, according to results of a new survey.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children's mental well-being may affect the types of jobs they eventually get, and, thereby, their odds of work-related stress, new research findings suggest. In a study of more than 8,000 British adults followed since birth in 1958, researchers found that those who had shown "internalizing behaviors" as children -- such as excessive sadness, anxiety or withdrawal -- were more likely to end up with a stressful working life. This included jobs with high demands, little autonomy or little job security. These job stressors, in turn, were linked to a greater risk of depression and anxiety once the study participants reached middle-age, the researchers report in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "Depression and anxiety in childhood might affect the types of jobs that people may be eligible for, and these tend to be lower-status jobs," explained lead researcher Dr. Stephen Stansfeld, of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. "It is then possible that the adverse conditions of these jobs might act as risk factors for anxiety and depression in midlife," he told Reuters Health. Stansfeld and his colleagues analyzed data from 8,243 men and women in the 1958 British Birth Cohort study, which assessed participants periodically between the ages of 7 and 45. Both childhood internalizing symptoms and psychological distress in young adulthood raised the odds of "adverse work characteristics" in middle-age, the researchers found. Continued...

Parents are used to hearing their teens speak in code - from the trendy catchphrase of the week to the popular acronyms used for text messaging and online chatting. But one term that might come up more frequently this time of year is "420" (pronounced "four-twenty"). Those familiar with popular drug culture might recognize the code as a reference to the annual pot-smoking holiday on April 20 (or 4-20). There are many theories explaining the origin of the term and the date - from the supposed number of active chemicals in marijuana to an alleged police crime code for drug arrests to the time of day a group of California teens congregated to smoke up in the 1960s. Whatever the actual origins of 420, many teens now know April 20th as the day to smoke marijuana. So parents should be especially mindful of monitoring for drug use on this day in particular. Learn more about the risks of marijuana. Marijuana: Then and Now So you tried pot at some point in your life and think you'll feel like a hypocrite telling your teen not to use? Get over it. It's important to talk about your experiences to help your children learn from them. Be honest and emphasize that this discussion is about your child's future and not about your past. Marijuana today is more potent than it was a generation ago and more kids are using it at a younger age, when their bodies and minds are still developing. Talk to your teens. Kids who learn about marijuana and other drugs from their parents are less likely to use them. Tell your teens how to say no, even if you didn't.

Whether you are running for president or looking for a clerical job, you cannot afford to get angry if you are a woman, Yale University psychologist Victoria Brescoll has found. Brescoll and Eric Uhlmann at Northwestern University recently completed three separate studies to explore a phenomenon that may be all-too-familiar to women like New York Senator Hillary Clinton: People accept and even reward men who get angry but view women who lose their temper as less competent The studies, published in the March issue of Psychological Science, provide women with recommendations for navigating emotional hazards of the workplace. Brescoll says it pays to stay emotionally neutral and, if you can't, at least explain what ticked you off in the first place. Clinton's presidential campaign has put a spotlight on the question of whether anger hurts a female candidate. The answer, according to the studies, appears to be an unequivocal yes - unless the anger deals with treatment of a family member. "An angry woman loses status, no matter what her position,'' said Brescoll, who worked in Clinton's office as a Congressional Fellow in 2004 while she was preparing her doctoral thesis on gender bias. She noticed over the years that women pay a clear price for showing anger and men don't. In all studies, both men and women were shown videos of actors portraying men and women who were ostensibly applying for a job. The participants in the studies were then asked to rate applicants on how much responsibility they should be given, their perceived competence, whether they should be hired, and how much they should get paid. Both men and women in the reached the same conclusions: Angry men deserved more status, a higher salary, and were expected to be better at the job than angry women. When those actor/applicants expressed sadness, however, the bias was less evident, and women applicants were ranked equally to men in status and competence, but not in salary. Brescoll and her colleague then compared angry job applicants to ones who did not display any emotion. And this time the researchers showed study participants videos of both men and women applying for lower-status jobs. The findings were duplicated: Angry men were valued more highly than angry women no matter what level position they were applying for. However, the disparities disappeared when men and women who were emotionally neutral were ranked. A final study showed another way bias against female anger could be mitigated. When women actors explained why they were angry, observers tended to cut them more slack. However, Brescoll noted a final gender difference: Men could actually be hurt when they explained why they were angry - perhaps, says the Yale psychologist, because observers tend to see this as a sign of weakness.

One out of four toddlers born prematurely showed early signs of autism in a study, and the risk was greatest among those children who were the smallest at birth, Canadian researchers said on Wednesday.

FAIRFAX, Va., March 28, 2008—Parents should not worry when their pre-schoolers talk to themselves; in fact, they should encourage it, says Adam Winsler, a professor of psychology at George Mason University. His recent study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly showed that 5-year-olds do better on motor tasks when they talk to themselves out loud (either spontaneously or when told to do so by an adult) than when they are silent.