One of the more persistent myths about the end-of-year holidays is that suicides rise during this period. According to a recently completed analysis of news reporting during last year’s holiday period, there was renewed repetition of this myth in newspaper reporting. Despite the sizeable drop that occurred during the preceding holiday period in 2006, newspapers
Mental health
Internet Gambling Stays Low Among Youth Ages 14 to 22 But Access to Gambling Sites Continues; Sports Gambling Makes Resurgence
After last year’s precipitous decline, card playing for money on the Internet has remained at the same low level among both high school and college-age males, according to the latest National Annenberg Survey of Youth. Card playing for money at least once a month on the Internet among male youth remained at the same level
Essential Mental Health Resources Now Available in Spanish
Books for parents, counselors and others concerned with the prevention and treatment of mental disorders in adolescents are now available online in Spanish. The volumes, produced by the Sunnylands Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (AMHI) and published by Oxford University Press, provide concise guides to eating disorders and schizophrenia. The books offer up-to-date information from noted
National Annenberg Survey of Youth data sets – New Datasets Available
The NASY was first conducted in its present form in 2002, in the inaugural year of the Adolescent Risk Communication Institute of the APPC. The NASY expanded on prior surveys involving tobacco use to include questions on gambling, media use, positive youth activities, suicide risk and mental health, and stigma of mental disorder.
Many youth expect to die early, new APPC study finds
Many U.S. youth ages 14 to 22 expect to die before age 30, according to a new study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. About one out of 15 young people (6.7 percent) expressed such “unrealistic fatalism,” the study concludes. “I am surprised that one in 15 young Americans report they will die so
Holiday-Suicide Link: Newspapers Turn the Corner
Newspapers are close to putting to rest the myth that the holidays increase the risk of suicide. A new study shows a dramatic drop in articles that – despite having no basis in fact – attribute the arrival of the holiday season with an uptick in suicides. An analysis of newspaper reporting released today by