The recession’s effect on children: More kids face homelessness, poverty

A larger number of children fell into poverty between 2008 and 2009 than was ever recorded before in a single year, going back to 1960. Nearly 21 percent of children lived in poverty as of 2009, the most recent year for which data is available, making children more likely than any other age group to be poor.

The number of homeless children in America's public schools increased by 41 percent between the 2006 and 2008 school years, a recent report by the Children's Defense Fund says. Homelessness among pre-school aged children spiked by 43 percent over the same period. These children are more likely to repeat a grade, fall ill, suffer from mental disorders like anxiety and go hungry than their peers, according to data from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.Mississippi, Washington, D.C., Arkansas, Kentucky and New Mexico are the states with the highest percentages of poor children. A family of four that makes $22,500 a year or less is considered to be living in poverty.  - Yahoo! News

Minority Youth Media Consumption May Hamper Academic Achievement

The study has renewed debate about whether minority youths spend too much time on media consumption and not enough on reading and studying. While some people insist that the disparity in media consumption contributes to the education gap between minority and white youths, others cite it as a positive that can aid a child's educational growth.

"I think that the results of this study coupled with the other factors that we know influence student performance," says Sharon Lewis, research director for the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocate for urban public schools and students. "When you combine all of this together, it's another indication that we need to take extra steps to reach [minority] youth.  Read more…

How being a teenage mother is 'contagious' as siblings follow the examples of elders

Teenage motherhood is ‘contagious’ within families, according to a study.

Scientists have discovered that the sister of a teenage mother is twice as likely to follow in her footsteps as a girl with no family experience of early motherhood.

And the ‘peer effect’ on girls aged 16 to 19 was shown to have a far more powerful impact than any education or advice they are given at school. It was most pronounced when the sisters were close in age.

Read more…

A couple of months ago, I went to Mexico to give talks at the National University in Mexico, UNAM. It's quite an impressive university — hundreds of thousands of students, high-quality and engaged students, excellent faculty. It's free. And the city — Mexico City — actually, the government ten years ago did try to add a little tuition, but there was a national student strike, and the government backed off. And, in fact, there's still an administrative building on campus that is still occupied by students and used as a center for activism throughout the city. There's also, in the city itself, another university, which is not only free but has open admissions. It has compensatory options for those who need them. I was there, too; it's also quite an impressive level, students, faculty, and so on. That's Mexico, a poor country.

  Read more…

Facebook Use May Lead to Psychological Disorders in Teens [STUDY]

Increasing research on social media’s effects on human interaction has revealed the development of antisocial behavior, narcissism and a slew of other character flaws and negative by-products.

Overdosing on Facebook may lead to the development of such psychological disorders in teens, according to a recent study conducted by Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University.  Read more…

Young people 'more likely to reach 100 years old'

Today's 20-year-olds are three times more likely to live to 100 than their grandparents and twice as likely as their parents, official figures show.

And a baby born in 2011 is almost eight times more likely to reach their 100th birthday than one born 80 years ago. "BBC News

Also read:

• Can we live forever?
• UK life expectancy 'on the rise'
• Nearly one in five 'to reach 100'
• 
  

NAACP panel sees education as key to lifting black men out of lives of crime, unemployment

Education is the key to breaking black men and youths out of a vicious cycle of crime and unemployment, African-American leaders said Thursday at the close of the annual NAACP convention.

The plight of black males, which have above average rates of joblessness, incarceration, HIV infection and lower rates of educational achievement, was one of the themes of the six-day convention, which was attended by more than 5,000 members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Tribune.com

Parenting Style May Affect Child's Mental Health

Matching your parenting style to your child's personality can greatly reduce the youngster's risk of depression and anxiety, researchers say.
The three-year study of 214 children and their mothers revealed that a good match between parenting styles and the child's personality reduced the child's risk of depression and anxiety symptoms by half.

But children in a mismatched relationship had twice the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms. - Yahoo! News

Kids Still See Unhealthy-Food Ads on TV, Study Finds

American children see fewer food and drink ads on television today, but most of the ads they view are for unhealthy products, a new study says.

The study also found a large jump in children's exposure to TV ads for fast-food restaurants.

The findings suggest food industry self-regulation has done little to reduce children's exposure to ads for unhealthy products, the researchers said. Yahoo! News

More U.S. kids in hospital for mental illness

American kids are increasingly likely to be admitted to the hospital for mental problems, although rates of non-psychiatric hospitalizations have remained flat, a new study shows.

From 1996 to 2007, the rate of psychiatric hospital discharges rose by more than 80 percent for 5-13-year-olds and by 42 percent for older teens.

'This occurs despite numerous efforts to make outpatient services for the more vulnerable kids more widely available,' said Joseph C. Blader of Stony Brook State University of New York, whose findings appear in the Archives of General Psychiatry. - Yahoo! News

Many Kids Now Engage in Media 'Multi-Tasking'

Apparently, today's youngsters love their media -- a lot.

So finds a new British study, which reveals that media 'multi-tasking' is all the rage among some 10- and 11-year-olds who simultaneously surf TV, laptops, cell phones and other devices.

'Children are doing lots of screen-viewing at the same time, [and] the TV was just a small part of this viewing,' noted study lead author Russell Jago, from the Centre for Exercise, Nutrition & Health Sciences in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. - Yahoo! News

Pauline Black: Going back to my roots

Pauline Black's earliest memory is of throwing up her breakfast in response to the news that she was adopted. It was 1958, in Romford, Essex, and Pauline was four. Until then, she had been in 'blithe ignorance' about her origins, despite the fact that she was the only non-white person in her family. She knew her skin colour was different from that of the rest of her family, and that this seemed often to be worthy of negative comments, but she hadn't understood why. 'It was something that never came up, I had no notion of it,' she says. | The Guardian

Most U.S. hospitals fail to support breastfeeding

Breastfeeding protects against childhood obesity, but less than 4 percent of U.S. hospitals provide the full range of support mothers need for breastfeeding, according to a report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday.

Improving rates of breastfeeding by providing better hospital support to mothers and babies is an important strategy to improve children's health, including a reduced risk of childhood obesity, the monthly Vital Signs report said.

"Hospitals play a vital role in supporting a mother to be able to breastfeed," it said.

Read more…

Spain's youth battle unemployment

Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe, with one in three young people out of work, and there are few sectors of society that have managed to escape the global economic downturn.
Unemployment in the Canary Islands is higher than anywhere else in Spain, and it is particularly difficult for those that are young.
But, despite the lack of opportunities, some are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to find work.
Al Jazeera's Emma Hayward reports from the Spanish island of Gran Canaria.

8 Reasons Young Americans Don't Fight Back: How the US Crushed Youth Resistance

Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it. A 2010 Gallup poll asked Americans “Do you think the Social Security system will be able to pay you a benefit when you retire?” Among 18- to 34-years-olds, 76 percent of them said no. Yet despite their lack of confidence in the availability of Social Security for them, few have demanded it be shored up by more fairly payroll-taxing the wealthy; most appear resigned to having more money deducted from their paychecks for Social Security, even though they don’t believe it will be around to benefit them.   AlterNet