July 2012
Ten tips on how to tame anger in children
Violence on the streets seems to be on the increase. Displays of anger, unprovoked aggression and violence against strangers are reaching epidemic proportions. However, how young people handle their anger is learnt early in childhood. So how can we help children manger their anger? It should be pointed out that anger is a normal and [...]
Getting Kids Active
How much sport should children do? One hour a week? Two? More? What parents believe their child ought to be doing is greatly influenced by their own experiences of sport, and as a PDHPE teacher I’m only too aware that sport isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. One of the messages we convey in our [...]
Smokers sabotage mates who want to quit
Jealousy, guilt about their own habit and wanting a smoking "buddy" are among the reasons to wreck other people's quitting attempts.Data collated from 6,300 current and former smokers by Pfizer shows 31 per cent of smokers admit being saboteurs.The study also found that 72 per cent of smokers who have tried to quit think someone [...]
‘Time to consider raising the drinking age’ – top health expert
INCREASING the drinking age is just one tough measure that would help curb random violence, according to a top health expert who says the time for "soft actions" is over. Professor Mike Daube says the US, which has a legal drinking age of 21, shows it can be done and it works, but adds that [...]
Dolly escalates its attack on the self esteem of women and girls
We give talks at schools about body image and there are always girls in tears. They come up to us afterwards and confide that they compete to see who can eat the least number of calories at lunch. Even those who present as confident reveal they can feel ''like a pig'' for eating an apple [...]
Good-Natured Jokes Ease Pain
An amiable joke can be much more effective than darker humor at improving mood, according to recent research from Stanford University. In the study, led by psychologist Andrea Samson and James Gross and published in February in Cognition & Emotion, 40 people in Switzerland and 37 people in the U.S. looked at photographs of upsetting [...]
Gory, erotic images ‘blind’ us
Graphic images that depict violence or eroticism blind us for a split second, according to new research on how the brain processes visual information. The finding could explain why people have a hard time concentrating after seeing a particularly sexy photo, or after witnessing a car crash while driving. Such images emotionally jolt us to [...]
Health benefits of living in a community
People's physical and mental health is significantly greater in those who have links with their neighbours than those without. "In a typical Australian suburb, people who have links with their neighbours have better health than those who do not," said Professor Bush. "The links are often fairly simple - not only knowing your neighbours but [...]
Bully check
In an attempt to address bullying in schools, ClubsNSW are piloting Bully Check. This program involves those who apply for jobs with ClubsNSW in the Murray region, being investigated as to whether or not they were bullies at school. If they were, then ClubsNSW will not employ them. On the surface at least, this seems [...]