4 Troubled Teens Blog

A study of campus violence entitled "Campus Attacks," examined 272 incidents of "targeted violence," in which 281 people died and 247 were injured. Of these, 190 were students and 72 were college employees.

The definition of targeted violence is an incident in which an attacker selects a victim before hand or randomly chooses victims because they fit a predetermined profile or relationship. This definition excludes violence that breaks out spontaneously.

• Intimate relationships triggered one-third of the attacks, and academic stress was involved in 10 percent of them.
  
• Sixty percent of the perpetrators were students or former students, and guns were used in the majority of the incidents.
  
• Knives were used 20 percent of the time.
  
• Ninety percent of the attackers were male, and 75 percent of the time, the perpetrator specifically targeted one or more individuals.

The Campus Attacks report was released on the third anniversary of a shooting rampage at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which left 33 students and faculty members dead. The FBI and the Education Department are currently studying factors such as past behaviors and mental illness of perpetrators of college violence.

Labels: causes, relationships, violence, stress

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Traumatic experiences can affect children's memories, according to new research from Stanford University.

• Dr. Victor Carrion and his colleagues tested 16 children ages 10 to 17 years old, who had Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS), and 11 children without the syndrome.
• Researchers monitored brain responses using magnetic resonance imaging as the children tried to remember lists of words.
  
• The children in the PTSS group suffered poor memory, and the hippocampi in their brains did not activate as often as those in the control group.

Dr. Carrion said he is hopeful that this research may help children who survive natural disasters and other traumas. The study appeared in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

Labels: stress, brain_function, trauma

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Psychologist Stephen Hinshaw has released a new book in which he warns that the high expectations placed on teenage girls is creating a "generational mental health crisis." Surges in depression, eating disorders, self-mutilation, and suicide are being fueled by a host of conflicting messages, he writes.

"In the book, Hinshaw and coauthor Rachel Kranz make a compelling case that, compared to previous generations of young women who juggled fewer roles, today's teenage girls are literally collapsing under the weight of adult expectations, consumerism and a highly sexualized pop/cyber culture that celebrates physical perfection and stratospheric success."

The book, titled Triple Bind: Saving our Teenage Girls from Today's Pressures plays on the phrase "double bind," which was coined in the 1950s to describe the conflicting messages children receive from adults. The phrase "triple bind" is meant to convey the increased complexity of the messages that are inundating today's teenagers. Source: Berkley (CA) News

Labels: stress, mental_health, crisis

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Whether or not you experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a catastrophic event may depend on your genetics.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 200 people from 12 multi-generational families who experienced a terrible earthquake in Armenia in 1988. Everyone in the study saw buildings destroyed, and over 90% saw dead bodies and severely injured people left lying in the streets.

According to the report published in Psychiatric Genetics, about 40% of post-traumatic stress syndromes developed by people in the study was due to genetic factors. Genetic factors accounted for 61% of depression and 66% of anxiety. Dr. Armen Goenjian of the UCLA Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and lead author said that other studies have shown that depression tends to coexist with anxiety.

"Our findings show that a substantial portion of the coexistence can be explained on the basis of shared genes and not just environmental factors such as upbringing," he said. "This was a study of multigenerational family members - parents and offspring, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings and so on, and we found that the genetic makeup of some of these individuals renders them more vulnerable to develop PTSD, anxiety and depression."

Dr. Goenjian also pointed out that it is hard to do family studies on PTSD because typically whole families do not experience a single stressful event together.

Labels: stress, genetics, trauma

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For many college students, classes, homework, and exams are the least of their troubles. Some face stresses related to emotional issues that far outweigh the typical college pressures - experiences that can lead to depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.

"Some parents miss the warning signs: a sharp drop in the amount of communication, excessive requests for money, weight fluctuations, depression and fatigue, along with failing grades... According to Outsidetheclassrom.org, a Boston-based company... the introductory weeks are when many abusive habits are formed among college students."

Parents can catch these problems early by communicating regularly with their children to find out how they are really doing. Listen for warning signs of stress or anxiety, such as if the student says he is having trouble sleeping, or refers to a sudden change in appetite. Source: Channel 7 News (Denver, CO)

Labels: stress, emotional_issues, pressures

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For many working parents, a child's teenage years are just as stressful, if not more so, than the infant and toddler years. Teens that are left home alone and unsupervised are far more likely to get into trouble. In fact, recent studies have shown that half of all crimes committed by teens happen during the day - not at night.

"Quality after-school programs at high schools or in the community are viewed as the best way to decrease teen crime, increase safety and reduce teen pregnancy. Some of the better programs teach job skills and community service. Yet, middle and high school students now experience the greatest unmet need for after-school programs."

Read more at MiamiHerald.com.

Learn more about juvenile delinquents and parental liability at About-Juvenile-Deliquents.com.

Labels: stress, juvenile crime, delinquents

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When Autumn Hayes was getting ready to start seventh grade, her family moved to a new town where she had to attend a new school and make new friends. The pressure was too much and, not knowing of any other way to cope, she began cutting herself. School officials became aware of her actions and sent her to a week of residential treatment.

"At the treatment center, Autumn learned other ways of coping with stress. She began keeping a journal and listening to music by rock bands such as Linkin Park and Panic! at the Disco instead of cutting."

When her dad was dying of prostate cancer, he made her promise that she'd never cut again. His voice still rings in her memory and reminds her to seek healthy coping mechanisms. Now Autumn hopes to get involved in support groups and help other teens who are grieving or cutting.

A good residential treatment center, like Island View in Utah, can help assess a troubled teens needs and then create a solid treatment plan. Learn more at IslandView-rtc.com.

Labels: stress, treatment_programs, cutting

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The phrase "troubled teen" is most often associated with broken and underprivileged families, but for the last several years a new kind of troubled teen has been emerging from upper-middle class families. The stress of high expectations is pushing many teens over the edge.

"Twenty-two percent of girls from affluent families suffer from clinical depression, three times the national average, [Madeline] Levine said. And when [Denise] Pope researched her book, 'Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic and Miseducated Students', she found that 75 percent of high school students said they had at some point cheated on a test, and 90 percent had copied homework."

While many parents push their kids academically, they simultaneously try to protect their kids from feelings of frustration, sorrow, or disappointment, which hinders the development of proper coping mechanisms in adolescents, causing them to resort to things like cutting, or substance abuse to deal with their stress. Read more at News-Service.Stanford.edu.

Labels: stress, substance_abuse, affluence

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The transition to college can be a stressful one. New city, new roommate, big campus... it’s a lot of change. For years, people have said that transition is harder at some schools than others; the classes are more challenging and expectations are higher, making kids at those schools more susceptible to mental illness and even suicide. But is that true?

“Suicide can be highly imitative in nature. That means it often occurs in clusters – both on and off college campuses. Any given school can go years without a single student suicide and then have half a dozen or more within a year or two.

But the idea that some schools are particularly prone to suicide – because they are too demanding or attract a certain type of student – is not supported by research.” - Source: Newsweek

Fortunately, most schools are equipped to help students who struggle with anxiety, stress, depression and other mental illnesses.

 

Labels: stress, suicide, depression, students, anxiety, college

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