Category: Youngsters

Do Young People Have the Right to Think the “Wrong” Things?

A recurring assumption in public debate is that young people should be progressive. When surveys suggest otherwise, concern often follows. Headlines warn that young people are becoming more conservative, less supportive of social change, and increasingly willing to question ideas that many adults take for granted. Whether those observations are accurate is a separate discussion.… Read More Do Young People Have the Right to Think the “Wrong” Things?

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The Frictionless Friendship: What AI Companions Are Really Teaching Our Children

A small scene in an ordinary household. A parent checks their daughter’s screen time and discovers she’s spent six hours in a single day chatting through an app with a friendly-looking icon — Polybuzz. What looks innocent enough turns out to be conversations with AI characters based on her favourite K-pop band. What follows is… Read More The Frictionless Friendship: What AI Companions Are Really Teaching Our Children

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How do you protect children from parents who believe in conspiracy theories?

It sounds like something from a TV drama, but it’s a bitter reality in England – one I came across through this BBC article. The death of 23-year-old Cambridge graduate Paloma Shemirani has reignited a painful debate. She died from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that is highly treatable with conventional medicine. Yet Paloma… Read More How do you protect children from parents who believe in conspiracy theories?

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New report on how teachers use (or won’t or shouldn’t) use AI in class

Sometimes it seems that everything you write about AI is old before you have pushed the ‘publish’ button, but when you step back a bit, you’ll see that the pace is less fast than one might think. For sure, when we discuss AI in education, or rather the implementation of AI in education. This new… Read More New report on how teachers use (or won’t or shouldn’t) use AI in class

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Obesity, covid and children, a study

While it seems that COVID happened a decade ago, it has only been 4 years since the pandemic came to this part of the world. New research examines what the effect of the pandemic has been on obesity among children. And there is good and bad news: Obesity among primary school children in the UK… Read More Obesity, covid and children, a study

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“Pay it forward” (about friendships between teenagers)

I really like the concept of pay it forward, and this study published last summer shows that the concept also is the link between secure family relationships and having empathy for friends as a teen. Do note: I wrote the link, not the causal link as the study doesn’t allow to draw this kind of… Read More “Pay it forward” (about friendships between teenagers)

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The benefits of screen time for school-aged children?

This study only shows correlations, typical for screen time research. Paulich and colleagues show in their research that school-aged children who spend more time in front of screens are only slightly more likely to have attention disorders, disturbed sleep or lower grades and The good news is that they are no more likely to suffer… Read More The benefits of screen time for school-aged children?

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New meta-analysis: Depression and anxiety symptoms have doubled among young people during the pandemic

I’m still busy reading the studies that I missed during my break, and this is certainly an important and depressing one as it shows that an alarming percentage of children and adolescents are experiencing a global-wide mental crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic From the press release: The UCalgary study is a meta-analysis, pooling together… Read More New meta-analysis: Depression and anxiety symptoms have doubled among young people during the pandemic

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Cell phones and social media can also help teens cope with stressful events, but how?

A lot of people associate social media and cell phones with stress and other negative consequences for young people, although we’ve learned from earlier research that social media usage is often a symptom rather than a cause. But we’ve also seen that social media can actually help, this new study confirms this but adds the… Read More Cell phones and social media can also help teens cope with stressful events, but how?

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Being rejected or being isolated from social groups as a young adolescent are two different things

I think this is a very interesting study as it made me look in a different way at something that seemed logical but is not. I do also think that there is some causal relationship is being mixed up with a mere correlation in the press release, luckily not in the actual study. From the… Read More Being rejected or being isolated from social groups as a young adolescent are two different things

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