Generation Next Blog

March 2014

More On Positive Psychology

By |2014-03-02T23:47:53+11:00March 2nd, 2014|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

I’ve never received such a response to a Generation Next article like the one I received to last week’s column, 3 Common Myths About Positive Psychology.   I was overwhelmed by the amount of emails I got, the majority of which were saying, “I’ve heard of positive psychology, but where can I find out more?” So [...]

Feeling Down: When Does A Mood Become A Disorder?

By |2014-03-04T00:56:53+11:00March 2nd, 2014|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing|Tags: , , , , |

We’ve all felt sad, anxious or down at one time or another, but where does the normal experience of emotion end and the clinical picture of a mood or anxiety disorder begin? Psychiatry has two widely used classificatory systems that provide definitions of “clinical” states of such emotions as differentiated from “normal” states – the World [...]

February 2014

Research links risky behaviors of gambling and sex

By |2014-03-04T01:00:51+11:00February 27th, 2014|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing, Society & Culture|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

Late adolescence is a period when many youth become involved in high-risk behaviors with adverse consequences. Researchers at the Mailman School of Public Health with colleagues at Johns Hopkins University studied the degree to which two such behaviors, adolescent sexual behaviors and gambling, affected African American youth in nine primary schools in Baltimore, MD. In [...]

Why Middle-School Girls Sometimes Talk Like Babies

By |2014-03-04T01:03:44+11:00February 24th, 2014|Categories: Society & Culture|Tags: , , , , , , |

For years, I ignored the habit of baby voice and upspeak because while it is irksome, I was grateful my students were speaking up in class at all. I appreciate how hard it can be for some kids to open their mouths in class and risk embarrassment, so I did not want to do anything [...]

3 Common Myths About Positive Psychology

By |2014-02-24T00:19:46+11:00February 24th, 2014|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing|Tags: , , , , , , , |

In my work with schools, I’m finding more and more interest arising in the area of Positive Psychology and its offshoot Positive Education.   And as the interest around these grow, so do some of the more common misconceptions.   I’ve found some teachers to be a little cynical, and why wouldn’t we be? After [...]

Too much sport ‘may be bad for teens’ health’

By |2014-02-23T23:54:48+11:00February 23rd, 2014|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing, Science & Research|Tags: , , , , , , |

Teenagers have long been told that being active and taking part in sports is good for their health. But new research suggests that too much sport for teenagers could negatively impact their well-being just as much as too little sport. The US Department of Health and Human Services recommends that young people aged between 6 [...]

Severe depression linked to increased aging process

By |2014-02-23T23:46:00+11:00February 23rd, 2014|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing|Tags: , , , , , |

New research suggests that people suffering from major depressive disorder may age significantly faster, compared with people who do not suffer from depression. This is according to a study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. Severe depression linked to increased aging process - Medical News Today.

New Type of Boredom Discovered, and It’s Rampant

By |2014-02-23T23:31:39+11:00February 23rd, 2014|Categories: Mental Health & Wellbeing, Science & Research, Society & Culture|Tags: , , , , , , , |

According to new research, there are no fewer than five types of boredom — one more than previously theorized. This new type of boredom is marked by a strong strain of apathy, psychologists reported in the November issue of the journal Motivation and Emotion. "Of particular concern is the relative frequency of apathetic boredom observed [...]

Girls’ brains reorganize earlier, may explain their faster maturity

By |2014-02-23T23:14:17+11:00February 23rd, 2014|Categories: Science & Research|Tags: , , , , , , |

As we grow older, our brains reorganize themselves, pruning and streamlining nerve fiber linkages to reduce overall network connectivity while selectively preserving long-distance connections that are crucial to information integration. Now, a team led by Newcastle University in the UK has found this brain streamlining starts earlier in girls, suggesting it may explain why they mature before [...]

Alcohol giants pour into social media’s digital drinking spaces

By |2014-02-23T23:03:09+11:00February 23rd, 2014|Categories: Drugs & Alcohol|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

"Booze pages” on Facebook that have as many as 10m “likes” have been blamed for promoting excessive drinking through giveaways and posts that suggest things like drinking early in the morning. Alcohol companies have certainly spotted the potential of social media to market their wares to a younger audience. The growth of social media, especially [...]

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