Author Archives: middleearthnj

How Teen Marijuana Use Has Significantly Changed

The cultural perception of marijuana is that it is medicinal, natural, and not dangerous. Most consider it less addictive than many other illicit drugs and unlikely to create substantial impairment or behavior changes. These stereotypes likely have become more entrenched as many states legalize marijuana. While some of that is true, teen marijuana use has radically transformed in the decades

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“Forever Chemicals” Change Youth Development

New research, published last month in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, demonstrates that potentially toxic chemicals found in everyday products are altering the hormonal and metabolic pathways needed for human growth and development in teens. What are “forever chemicals”? Researchers analyzed study samples from young children, teens and young adults, all of whom had a mixture of different synthetic compounds

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Teen Risky Behavior

Teenagers and risk seem to go hand in hand. As teens walk the path of becoming independent adults, exploring their limits and abilities is part of developing their identities. Risk-taking is an important way for teenagers to learn about themselves. It peaks at around 15-16 years and tends to tail off by early adulthood. While it’s very stressful for parents,

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Empowering Youth to Self-Advocate

Teens with self-advocacy skills are more likely to have higher self-esteem, a positive sense of identity, greater social connections, more leadership qualities and enhanced problem solving abilities. Self-advocacy is an individual’s ability to effectively communicate, negotiate or assert his or her own interests, desires, needs and rights. Self-advocacy can be used in many ways, for example a student with learning

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Preventing Sports Injuries in Youth

More than a million kids ages 5 to 14 are injured each year in sports and require a trip to the emergency room, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Football has the highest incidence of injury, followed by basketball. Along with sports, the agency also reports significant injuries from things like playground equipment and skateboards. While high contact

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How Parents Can Reduce Youth Violence

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the results of their Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a bi-annual survey that measures adolescent health and well-being. Collected in fall 2021, the survey responses from 17,232 U.S. high school students showed that most of the indicators for teen well-being worsened significantly from past years. The survey showed that experiences of

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Tips for Addressing the Significant Increases in Teen Girl’s Sadness and Hopelessness

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the results of their Youth Risk Behavior Survey. The survey, which has been conducted every other year for three decades, includes responses from 17,232 U.S. high school students and measures adolescent health and well-being. Collected in fall 2021, these survey responses represent the first data collected by CDC since

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Talking to Teens about Dating

One goal of raising children is to help them become increasingly responsible and independent as they age, and one of those developmental milestones on the path to independence is dating. Many parents and educators tend to shy away from talking about dating with youth. While we don’t think twice about discussing other independent living skills, such as budgeting or cooking,

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How to Prevent Teens from Destroying Property

In today’s current online environment, social media has encouraged vandalism through challenges, dares, or viral trends. For example, after the pandemic, the “Devious Licks” trend on TikTok portrayed students stealing or destroying items in school. The US Department of Justice defines vandalism as “willful or malicious destruction, injury, disfigurement, or defacement of any public or private property, real or personal,

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Helping Teens Establish Good Social Media Habits

Adolescence is both a time of critical brain development and high social media use. Adolescent brains are going through the most development and reorganization, second only to infancy, making them more susceptible to environmental influences. As a result, many doctors and parents wonder how social media will impact this generation. In today’s blog we examine the results from two recent

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Teach Teens to be Wary of High Control Groups

High control groups are organizations that entice unsuspecting individuals to commit to, and comply with, the group’s way of thinking, acting and believing. Cults are an extreme form of high control groups, but there are many other types, such as political groups, religious groups, gangs, multi-level-marketing (MLM), conspiracy theory communities, self-help groups, activist groups, and lifestyle groups. Some psychologists even

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Teaching Teens Skills to Cope with Strong Emotions

Dealing with the emotions we feel inside is an important life skill that we all must develop. People who learn coping skills for managing their emotions have better relationships with others, report better well-being, and are more successful in their personal and professional lives. Parents often complain that their teens’ over-the-top reactions to the smallest issues are infuriating, but there’s

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