A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Sarah Blunden, CQUniversity Australia Sleep is important for psychological and physiological health, but many children have trouble getting to sleep, or getting back to sleep when they wake in the night. This can be exhausting for both children and parents, and some parents have turned to giving their kids lollies containing melatonin. These gummies, purchased [...]
Clara Wilson, Queen's University Belfast Dogs have a long history alongside humans, giving them an amazing ability to read human cues. Dogs also possess an incredible sense of smell, which enables them to detect diseases, such as COVID and lung cancer, in humans from odour alone. Whether dogs’ capabilities extend to detecting odours associated with [...]
Over the past decade, Australians have highlighted the importance of climate change action to their future survival with movements such as Extinction Rebellion and School Strikes for Climate . Children, too, have been calling for urgent change by skipping school and taking to the streets in School Strike 4 Climate events, as well as partaking [...]
Christian Moro, Bond University and Charlotte Phelps, Bond University After 50 years of research, eminent Stanford University sleep researcher William Dement reportedly said the only solid explanation he knows for why we sleep is “because we get sleepy”. Even though sleep may be, as one researcher put it, “the only major behaviour in search of a function”, it clearly [...]
Christina Watts, University of Sydney; Becky Freeman, University of Sydney, and Sam Egger, University of Sydney Teen vaping has been in the news, with reports of rapidly increasing use and illegal sales of e-cigarettes. As a Four Corners documentary on ABC TV earlier this year showed, parents and schools are struggling to manage this swift [...]
Melanie Woodfield, University of Auckland and Jin Russell, University of Auckland Exam season is fast approaching for many senior students in New Zealand and Australia. At the best of times, adolescents may struggle with ambition and drive, let alone after two-and-a-half years of COVID-induced disruption and uncertainty. But parents can still nurture their teens’ motivation [...]
Emma Whatman, Deakin University and Paul Venzo, Deakin University Parents will be increasingly aware they need to talk about consent with their children. There is no such thing as “too young” to start the conversation. In fact, the earlier the better, when it comes to understanding how to have respect for your body and other [...]
Lucas Walsh, Monash University Australia’s class of 2022 is on the home stretch. Next month, more than 200,000 year 12 students will be sitting their final exams. In amongst this, they are making big decisions about their lives beyond school. But research shows they are not getting the support they need as they finish school [...]
Rachel Williamson-Dean, University of Auckland; Gavin Brown, University of Auckland, and Pat Bullen, University of Auckland The claim last week by National Party leader Christopher Luxon that 100,000 New Zealand schoolchildren were chronically truant quickly turned into an argument about terminology, statistics and how to interpret them. In fact, it appears Luxon was referring to [...]
Jessica Holloway, Australian Catholic University It’s that time of year again when parents and students anxiously await their NAPLAN results. NAPLAN is a nationwide test of literacy and numeracy that all students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are expected to take. It doesn’t impact entrance to high school or university, but is a [...]
