The percentage of teenagers reporting that they experienced bullying, assaults, and other forms of victimization dropped between 2003 and 2008, according to a new study funded by the United States Department of Justice. The researchers believe that anti-bullying programs in schools were behind the decreases.

• Dr. David Finkelhor and his colleagues at the University of New Hampshire's Crimes against Children Research Center went through surveys filled out by children ages 2 to 17 years old in 2003 and again in 2008.
  
• The researcher found that the percent of children reporting bullying went from 22 percent to 15 percent, and the rate of those reporting assaults declined from 45 percent to 38 percent in that period.
  
• The study found declines in sexual assaults and emotional abuse by caretakers, but slight increases in robberies targeting children, children witnessing violence among family members, and dating violence.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program has been used in several thousand American schools. The program involves training staff members to deal with bullying immediately when they observe it. Much of decline in bullying occurred in low income schools using such programs.

"The decline is not happening everywhere," said Marlene Snyder of Clemson University's Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life and director of development for Olweus. "It is in schools where adults really understand how detrimental this conduct can be and have made a conscious effort to bring the numbers down."

The Finkelhor study appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Labels: awareness, bullying, prevention

The Pinellas County School district in Florida identified 1,916 homeless students in February. In February of last year, 1,315 homeless students were identified. That's a 60 percent increase.

"Many homeless students live in shelters, motels or are forced to live with friends and other family members after being displaced. Some girls, and male students, too, actually live in makeshift camps along the wooden areas of major roads an in cars and trucks." [Source: Pinellas Park Beacon]

A representative of PACE, a private organization that works with at-risk youth, told the Beacon that the rise in teen homelessness is due in large part to the troubled economy.

Labels: florida, homelessness

Well-meaning advertisements designed to stop teenage drinking may backfire and make them drink more, according to a new study from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

• Professor Adam Duhachek and his colleagues studied 1,200 undergraduates who saw two ads against drinking.
  
• The first one depicted a person vomiting after drinking, and the second was about how drinking can adversely affect loved ones.
  
• The participants who felt the most guilty after looking at the ads told researchers they were more likely to binge drink in the coming year.

Dr. Duhachek called the phenomenon "defensive processing," which occurs when a person reacts negatively to messages that provoke feelings of guilt or shame.

Groups such as the National Institute of Health and the Centers for Disease Control frequently develop public service announcements aimed against unprotected sex, drug use, drinking, smoking, and other risky teenage behaviors. Dr. Duhachek's study has implications for the contents of these messages.

Labels: advertisements, behavioral_issues, media

Monterey County, California residents are all too familiar with the tragic results of teen drinking and driving. In the early morning hours of Feb. 20, five teens were seriously injured in a car accident cause by the mixing of alcohol and automobiles.

This latest accident prompted a stern editorial from the Monterey County Herald:

We have lost tolerance for parents who have given in to the notion that "they're going to drink no matter what we do."

Many parents -- too many -- have even chosen to provide their teens with alcohol and a place to drink it under the theory that at least they will know where the kids are. ...

Teens don't need cool parents. What they do need is full-fledged parents, not friends, who are willing to play the roles of enforcer, spy, traffic cop, detective, judge, jury and, if necessary, jailer. ...

Teens will always act like teens. It is time for their parents to act like parents.

Labels: parental_involvement

The American Psychiatric Association is proposing changes to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The Association is asking for help from psychiatrists and the public to help define mental diseases for the DSM-5, the first new edition in 10 years.

The following are among the proposed changes:

• "Substance abuse" and "substance dependence" would become "addiction and related disorders," including "substance use disorders," such as "alcohol use disorder" and "heroin use disorder."
  
• "Behavioral addictions" would include gambling, but not addictions to sex or the Internet.
• Young children now diagnosed with bipolar disorder could instead be diagnosed with "temper dysregulation with dysphoria," which would include behavioral and mood problems.
• Asperger's Syndrome would no longer be a separate diagnosis but included under the term "autism spectrum."
• Binge eating would be recognized as an eating disorder.

DSM-5 is slated to be published in 2013.

Labels: dsm-v, mental_health, mental_illness

A state-run Florida program is receiving praise for effectively keeping troubled teens out of the juvenile court system. The Child in Need of Services program works with kids ages 10 to 17 who are deemed to be troubled, and to have the potential to commit crimes.

"The state says about 85 percent of those who spend time at one of its shelters do not commit a crime within six months of being released," the Associated Press reported. "For those with less severe issues who receive nonresidential counseling, the program’s success rate is about 95 percent."

The program is said to save millions in taxpayer money by keeping kids out of the court system and out of prison.

Labels: jails, prevention

In a Feb. 16 article on the website of The Guardian, writer Louise Tickle reported on growing support in Great Britain for the positive benefits of wilderness programs for struggling teens:

"Being in a true wilderness means having to work with things you can't change," says [Jo Roberts, chief executive of the Wilderness Foundation UK'.

If someone has anger management issues or a history of violence, it's often rooted, she says, in a deeply felt frustration with the world. But there's no point in being angry or frustrated with nature. You just have to get on and solve the problems it throws at you -- because if you don't, you can't shout, punch or even negotiate away the consequences.

Plenty of international research is emerging to show that there are health benefits to spending time in the natural environment, says Roberts. Taking this a step further, lots of people believe from long experience -- in Roberts's case, years working in South African townships -- that lifting disturbed youth out of destructive home environments in stressful urban settings and putting them in the great outdoors can be a catalyst for transformation.

Labels: wilderness_therapy