A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Cole Skinner was hanging from a wall above an abandoned quarry when he heard a car pull up. He and his friends bolted, racing along a narrow path on the quarry’s edge and hopping over a barbed-wire fence to exit the grounds. The chase is part of the fun for Skinner and his friend Alex [...]
By now parents are familiar with the worrisome finding that the thrill-seeking centers of the adolescent brain can readily outmatch the teenage brain’s emerging rational control systems. I count myself among the adults who find this neurological account of adolescent recklessness to be both clarifying and confounding. It helpfully explains why really thoughtful teenagers sometimes [...]
Eighty per cent of adult smokers start smoking before 18 years of age, at an average age of 15 years. (1) Young people assume that they will stop before they experience any serious health problems. However, nicotine dependence can develop very quickly and most regular teenage smokers are soon unable to quit, often before they [...]
It seems that for boys ‘risk taking’ is all part of growing up and is needed to test their skills, strengths, weaknesses and independence in the world. Andrew Fuller, child psychologist and Generation Next speaker, says "We have a world that sanitises away risk, so that means risk becomes even more alluring. Boys are going [...]
