A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
What makes children want to learn? According to research, it's the joy of exploration—a hidden force that drives learning, critical thinking, and reasoning. We call this ability curiosity, and we recognize it in children when we see them exploring their environment, devouring books and information, asking questions, investigating concepts, manipulating data, searching for meaning, connecting with people and nature, [...]
For Melanie Fennell, a British clinical psychologist, self-esteem is a short-hand for the collection of beliefs you have about yourself and the type of person that you are. When our self-esteem is positive then we often believe that we are good enough to manage the challenges we come across at work, with friends or in [...]
Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and two other anxiety disorders - separation anxiety and social anxiety - are among the most commonly experienced psychiatric problems in youngsters. Similar to adult estimates, girls are about twice as likely as boys to have GAD. GAD symptoms are distressing and can be impairing not just for the child or teen; the family [...]
I never realised just how damaging our obsession with smartphones and our switched-on lifestyle was, nor how addictive screen time was, until I put my teenagers on an extended digital detox. The results were swift and shocking, raising the question of just what is happening to the selfie generation and whether we have more to fear [...]
A new study has examined the development of mental health problems and resilience among at-risk youth. It may be considered as one of the most common "sleep aids" people employ to help them drift off at night, but according to a recent study, alcohol can actually be a roadblock to good sleep in teenagers. The [...]
Early years settings, like preschools and kindergarten, are often the first place social difficulties are identified. Pixabay Alison M Marchbank, Charles Darwin University The rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in selected sites in 2016 signified a shift in cultural views about disability. Historical views were based on a medical model derived from [...]
A group of researchers say depression would be better treated if it was classified into 12 different disorders. There are calls for a major overhaul of the way depression is diagnosed and treated to better recognise its triggers. A group of international psychologists have challenged the classification of 'major depression' and argue it would be [...]
Here’s a phrase that psychiatrists will either love or hate: “State-space temporal analysis suggests that onset of depression may be detectable from Twitter data several months prior to diagnosis.” Indeed, a team of researchers from the University of Vermont, Stanford, and Harvard found that depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can often be detected by [...]
“Be a guide, not a guard” perfectly describes the kinds of parenting behaviors that create happy and responsible children. It’s a term I learned at a recent training session focused on reducing controlling parenting behaviors. When I ask parents “what have you tried to help change your child’s behavior?” little breaks my heart more than hearing a [...]
In the midst of my worst moments of anxiety and panic, I would focus incessantly on the physical sensation and fear that it was something serious and harmful. But, as I learned over time from several experts, my attention was directed on the wrong thing. What if I could shift my focus to something else – [...]
