July 12

Study: The Potential Benefits Of Additional Sleep For Teenagers

Sleep Adolescence Trackbacks (0)

Extra half-hour in bed 'helps children concentrate'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7872758/Extra-half-hour-in-bed-helps-children-concentrate.html

Small delay in school start times=big benefits
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/05/small-delay-in-school-start-timesbig-benefits/

At St. George's, more sleep equals better performance
http://www.projo.com/education/content/SCHOOL_START_TIME_SLEEP_07-06-10_BTJ3V3C_v18.1687c8e.html

National Sleep Foundation
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/

Sleep Disorders: Medline Plus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/sleepdisorders.html

Eric Peterson is the head of the St. George's School, a private boarding school in Rhode Island, who had an idea to improve student performance. He thought that it might be useful to have students a bit better rested before they reported for class each morning, so he decided to start the school day at 8:30AM, rather than at 8. The effects were quite dramatic, and a sleep researcher studied his efforts. The researcher in question was Dr. Judith A. Owens, whose daughter was a senior at the school. Over time, Dr. Owens noticed that fewer students were late for class and that overall students felt more motivated and less depressed. Recently, Dr. Owens published her findings in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine journal, and other scholars are taking note. Owens' work seems to mirror other findings. Later school start times have had positive effects in places like Kentucky and Minnesota. In the study Owens found that sleep deprivation is quite harmful to the parts of the brain that need to develop in adolescence and noted, "We have no idea what the long-term consequence is." [KMG]

The first link will take users to a news article from this Monday's Telegraph which reports on both the US sleep study and a similar one from the UK. The second link leads to a post from The Chart blog from CNN, which talks about the study findings. Moving on, the third link leads to an article by The Providence Journal's Felice J. Freyer about Eric Peterson's experience with the modified start time. The fourth link leads to the homepage of the National Sleep Foundation, which has some excellent resources on how to get a good night's sleep. The fifth link will whisk users away to information on sleep disorders, provided courtesy of Medline Plus and other quality partners, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

From The Scout Report

January 30

Depression In Children And Young People

Depression Children Adolescence Trackbacks (0)
Depression in children and young people
This clinical guideline looks at the identification and management of depression in children and young people in primary, community and secondary care, and is aimed at health professionals working for the NHS in England and Wales. It was published in September 2005, and was produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health. Key priorities for implementation include: prescribing antidepressants for children and young people; care of all children and young people with depression; stepped care; detection, risk profiling and referral; recognition; mild depression; moderate to severe depression and transfer to adult services. Links are also included to a quick reference guide, information for the public and implementation guidance. It is due for review in September 2009. From Intute.ac.uk
http://www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/CG28
January 06

Adolescent Romantic Relationships And Offending [In USA]

Health Sex, including sex education Social Psychology Adolescence Trackbacks (0)

Love, Sex, and Crime: Adolescent Romantic Relationships and Offending (PDF; 1.4 MB)
Source: American Sociological Review

Scholars are often pessimistic about adolescent dating, linking it to increases in depression, interpersonal violence, conflict with parents, school failure, associations with delinquents, substance use, and offending. Yet, the various dimensions of dating may have opposing consequences. The closeness offered by adolescent romantic love may fill an important void found between the weakening of bonds with parents and the onset of adult attachments, and it may discourage an array of negative outcomes, including involvement in crime. Adolescent sexual activity, in contrast, may increase offending, in part by augmenting the strain created by relationships. When coupled with a romantic relationship, however, sex is likely less stressful and consequential for crime. In this article, we analyze patterns of romance, sexual behavior, and adolescent crime with panel data from the nationally representative Adolescent Health Survey. Findings support our expectations regarding differential effects of romance and sex. We conclude by discussing the implications of these results for understanding adolescent delinquency, social attachments, and development.

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October 04

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Diagnosis And Management. NHS, UK

Youth Children Adolescence ADHD Adults Trackbacks (0)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder : diagnosis and management of ADHD in children, young people and adults
This clinical guideline is for the NHS on the care, treatment and support that children, young people and adults with ADHD should be offered, and how families and carers can support people with ADHD. Access is provided to key documents for this guideline including full guidelines (in PDF), information for the public, and a quick reference guide. Published in September 2008 by the produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp?action=byID&o=12061
May 20

Child And Adolescent Psychiatry And Mental Health : A Journal

Children Mental health Psychiatry Adolescence Trackbacks (0)
Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health : BioMed Central Chid and adolescent psychiatry and mental health is an online journal which is part of the BioMed Central journals collections. BioMed Central is an independent publishing house 'committed to providing immediate open access to peer-reviewed biomedical research'. This journal is 'an international platform for rapid and comprehensive scientific communication on child and adolescent mental health across different cultural backgrounds'. The journal includes research, reviews, case-studies, and commentaries. Free and unrestricted full-text is available to this journal. Intute.ac.uk
http://www.capmh.com/
April 15

Sleep Problems Are Risk Indicators Of Later Emotional Difficulties

Depression Sleep Children Anxiety Adolescence Trackbacks (0)

Parent-Reported Sleep Problems During Development and Self-reported Anxiety/Depression, Attention Problems, and Aggressive Behavior Later in Life
Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine

Sleep problems are risk indicators of later emotional difficulties in childhood and adolescence and in adulthood, as well as across these developmental periods. Although most research, to date, has focused on symptoms of insomnia in association with emotional difficulties, there is emerging evidence that other sleep and sleep-related problems (referred to herein as sleep problems) may also be linked to subsequent difficulties that are not only emotional but also behavioral. Indeed, results of one study demonstrated that a composite of different sleep problems predicted symptoms of anxiety and depression, attention problems, and aggression later in life. For knowledge concerning links between sleep problems and later emotional and behavioral difficulties to be maximally beneficial to the physician, clarification of which particular sleep problems are associated with later difficulties is paramount. Toward this aim, this article documents associations between parental perceptions of 6 aspects of sleep (examined during development) and subsequent self-reported emotional and behavioral difficulties in a representative sample of 2076 participants from Zuid-Holland. This study is novel in allowing comparison of different types of sleep problems as predictors of different types of later behavioral and emotional problems. Based on previous research, associations between different aspects of sleep and different types of emotional and behavioral problems were expected, but hypotheses concerning specific patterns of association were considered premature.

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March 27

Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexual Topics

Parents and parenting Children Adolescence Trackbacks (0)

Beyond the “Big Talk”: The Roles of Breadth and Repetition in Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexual Topics
Source: Pediatrics

Adolescents whose sexual communication with their parents involved more repetition felt closer to their parents, felt more able to communicate with their parents in general and about sex specifically, and perceived that discussions with their parents about sex occurred with greater openness than did adolescents whose sexual communication with their parents included less repetition. Breadth of communication was associated only with the perceived ease of parent-adolescent sexual communication: adolescents who discussed more new topics with their parents between times 1 and 4 felt that their sexual discussions occurred with greater openness than did adolescents who discussed fewer topics.

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