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About Generation Next

Generation Next is a social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people.

‘Like A Spider That Keeps Building Its Web’: Family of Sexual Abuse Survivor Speaks Out

Pixabay Images When Meg was 12, her mother, Annie, found herself unable to look at her. Seeing her daughter made Annie feel unsettled, at times almost angry. At first, she couldn’t figure out why. “And then, Meg turned 13 and suddenly, everything slid into place for me,” Annie says. “I found myself thinking, [...]

7 Weird Facts About Empathy, Because It Depends On More Than You Think

Flickr Images Psychopathy is an area of psychological study that will forever fascinate the public, but the opposite end of the spectrum can be just as interesting. Over the course of decades, research has turned up all kinds of weird facts about empathy - where it's regulated, how it works, and what makes some [...]

‘At First, She Just Missed Breakfast’: Living With My Sister’s Eating Disorder

Hugh Johnson for the Guardian The siblings of those with anorexia or other eating disorders are often overlooked. The UK’s leading eating disorder charity, Beat, has described siblings as the “forgotten victims”. In one report on the charity’s website, eight teenagers with anorexic sisters were interviewed about their experiences. All were negatively affected, [...]

Relationships – Compassion

Flickr Images You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.. - Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. The fifth quality or value in the Relationship Quotient (RQ) is compassion. Compassion involves showing care for other people by understanding [...]

Gambling Gallops On, Stats Reveal – But What Can Be Done To Curb Its Harms?

Pixabay Images Data released late last week reveal Australia’s gambling habit is growing as fast as ever. The Australian Gambling Statistics for 2014-15 show adult Australians, on average, lost A$1,242 a year on gambling. The amount varies dramatically by state: in New South Wales the average loss was $1,518; in Tasmania, $762. Most [...]

How Artificial Intelligence Could Help Diagnose Mental Disorders

Flickr Images People convey meaning by what they say as well as how they say it: Tone, word choice, and the length of a phrase are all crucial cues to understanding what’s going on in someone’s mind. When a psychiatrist or psychologist examines a person, they listen for these signals to get a [...]

Our Culture Of Objectification Is Not Good Enough For Our Girls

Flickr Images Citizens of Australia, we have a problem. This problem is directly impacting our entire population. It can lead to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, body issues, eating disorders, sexual dysfunction and social isolation. The problem is the sexual objectification of women, and at the root of that is misogyny. Women are being [...]

Australia Broadly Tolerant, But Pockets Of Intense Prejudice Remain

Flickr Images "Social cohesion is not a destination,” says Andrew Markus. “We don’t get to the destination and say we’ve done it. It’s something we need to work at.” Markus is a Monash University professor who oversees the Scanlon reports, a now regular and widespread exercise to measure social cohesion in Australia. Its [...]

Don’t Try To Be Happy. We’re Programmed To Be Dissatisfied.

Flickr Images In the 1990s, a psychologist named Martin Seligman led the positive psychology movement, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the centre of psychology research and theory. It continued a trend that began in the 1960s with humanistic and existential psychology, which emphasized the importance of reaching one’s innate [...]

Self-harm In Schools: The Need For More Collaboration

Pixabay Images As increasing numbers of young people suffer from mental health disorders, the capacity of mainstream schools to support and maintain these students is becoming an increasing challenge. Of particular concern is the number of young people engaging in self-harming behaviour. The 2015 Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and [...]

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