A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
90% of students have tried alcohol by the age of 14* With schoolies week fast approaching and the planning of wild parties to celebrate the end of exams well underway, it is a good time for parents and carers to remind young people about low risk drinking. It is important for young people to always [...]
When it comes to substance abuse like smoking or abuse of intoxicating drugs, it is very difficult to determine what a “safe” limit of exposure is. Quite often, the initial exposure to mood altering substances like nicotine occurs during the teenage years. The period of adolescence is marked by a tendency towards risk-taking behavior which [...]
It seems that the older children get the further away from you they become both emotionally and physically. This is the experience of many parents and developing and maintaining a deep and healthy connection as they grow is a balancing act that requires constant nurturing. Psychologists refer to this bonding process as ‘attunement’. It is [...]
"8% of kids are playing games at a level where it impacts negatively on their life," says Dr Warburton. Many parents and teaching professionals are concerned about the effects of exposing growing children to violent music (rap/hip hop and heavy metal) and violent media (games such as Grand Theft Auto). “Although media is just one [...]
Jessica Barlow, a 20 your old student in Melbourne has got the ball rolling by setting up a petition to demand that magazines like Cleo and Cosmopolitan stop altering the images they feature in photo spreads because of the damage it can cause to young girls by increasing any body image issues that they might [...]
As children grow up, they become increasingly distant from their parents and while some parents think that the dwindling time spent with their teenager is simply a sign of their child's budding independence and evolution into adulthood, new findings suggest that private parents-child encounters during the time of adolescence are especially important for an individual's [...]
Today many teenage girls see themselves as potential sexual objects before they see themselves as people in their own right. This is greatly attributed to the portrayal of women in the media, from celebrities to ‘yummy mummies’. It seems that no female form is safe from being re-shaped into the now version of what’s hot. [...]
90% of children play computer games. 10% of them are addicted. The dangers of computers games have been in the news again recently with the death of a teenager in Taiwan after playing for 40 hours straight without refreshments or leaving the computer. Internet computer games have and addictive dimension to them that some young [...]
Despite the fact that nearly a year has passed since the Australian and New Zealand Food and Health Ministers recommended that the alcohol industry be given two years to voluntarily implement alcohol warning labels, less than 16%* of alcoholic products carry a consumer information message. Of those that do, 98% take up less than 5% [...]
10% of children have problems coping with anxiety* Some children are very easy going and nothing seems to bother them. However many other children worry about all sorts of things, and when these normal everyday worries turn into anxiety it can be very difficult for a young person to participate in and experience school and [...]
