The protests in Lower Manhattan have been going on for more than a month. Other protests have steadily built in recent weeks, with large numbers of people turning out in cities from Boston to Los Angeles. Though predominantly young, protesters include older and middle-aged people as well. Some have jobs, others are unemployed and they represent just about every race and ethnicity. The messages and wants of the protesters are just as varied.
Want to interact with your favorite alcohol companies on Facebook? Then you better be able to legally take a drink. Starting September 30, alcohol companies in the United States and Europe now have to consider a set of self-regulatory guidelines designed to prevent marketing their products to kids, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) issued these rules for advertising and marketing on all branded digital marketing communications, including social networking sites, websites, blogs, mobile communications and other applications. Alcohol marketers already use age gates on their brand websites, requiring people to enter their birth date to prevent minors from accessing the sites.
When Anthony Richards, Jr., was born on an early Sunday morning in June, the only complications involved his family getting the cameras in focus to capture his arrival into the world. He was a healthy baby and his parents, Queenyona Boyd and Anthony Richards, Sr., couldn’t have been happier. Yet, only four days later Anthony was put in foster care after doctors discovered an unexplained broken femur, his distraught parents the suspects of child abuse. A Protective Father's Discovery
After the hospital discharged Boyd and her baby boy, Richards took the two straight home later that Sunday. The following day, Boyd slipped out to pick up her prescriptions at a pharmacy only a short drive away.
Parents who are worried about their kids playing violent video games might want to shift their concern. Recent research focuses on the player and not the game itself. If your kid has certain dispositions — say they are moody, impulsive or unfriendly — then you might want to limit their violent video game playtime. Otherwise, placing all the blame on the violence may be unfair, according to USA Today. This study, which aims to cut through the confusion surrounding the topic, comes from psychologist Patrick Markey who co-wrote it and had it published in the journal Review of General Psychology.
In an effort to turn September's Childhood Obesity Awareness Month into Stop Childhood Obesity Month, a new, in-your-face billboard, television and radio ad campaign, called Strong4Life, hopes to wake people up to the skyrocketing rate of childhood obesity in Georgia. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, designer of the campaign, calls the approach “tough love,” but with slogans such as “Fat kids become fat adults,” some are left wondering if the ads will hurt the very kids the campaign is trying to help. The stark, black-and-white multimedia campaign includes television ads featuring overweight children talking about being picked on at school or how they are scared because they were diagnosed with hypertension. At their conclusion the ads say, “Stop sugarcoating it Georgia.” Billboards popping up all around metro-Atlanta show some of the same kids with messages like, “Warning: Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid.”
According to a 2009 report by Trust in America’s Health, more than 20 percent of Georgia’s children are overweight, the second-worst percentage in the country, only barely trailing behind Mississippi. In the South, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi all have child obesity rates of more than 20 percent.
Make access to alcohol more difficult and young adults are likely to commit fewer violent crimes. That’s what two studies by University of California at Riverside researchers showed recently, according to an article published by CBS Los Angeles. The first study, which examined 91 of the largest American cities in 36 states, found a link between alcohol store density and violent crime among teens and young adults aged 13-24. In the second study, researchers found higher rates of violent crimes in neighborhoods near alcohol outlets with more than 10 percent of freezer space for single-serve containers. The researchers described the effect as “modest,” yet crime did increase in areas with a higher percentage of single serve alcohol containers.
To watch the energetic SpongeBob and his dim-witted friend Patrick Star zipping around with their under-sea antics may slow down your child's brain. In a 60-kid study mentioned by U.S. News and World Report, children who watched the fast-paced SpongeBob SquarePants were unable to solve problems as well as children who watched slower-paced shows or spent time drawing. Unrealistic, fast-paced shows could be damaging to children because they overstimulate the brain, making it harder to maintain focus, plan, organize and control inappropriate behaviors, the researchers wrote. Researchers told Bloomberg they don’t know how long the effect lasts. “It may be that children recover quickly.
September is National Recovery Month in the United States. As the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration puts it Recovery Month “promotes the societal benefits of treatment for substance use and mental disorders, celebrates people in recovery, lauds the contributions of treatment providers, and promotes the message that recovery in all its forms is possible. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recover.”
Nicely, and succinctly, put.
Simply ideas tend to make for movements. And that seems to be the case with Recovery Month. All over the nation events are going on aimed at increasing awareness and, yes, celebrating countless victories.
The JJIE is housed at Kennesaw State University, in metro Atlanta. We had a number of Recovery Month events here and we are fortunate enough to be the home of the Center for Young Adult Addiction and Recovery. Its director, Teresa Johnston, is an expert in the field and a forceful advocate for those in recovery.
Facts about smokeless tobacco products, teenager boys and their usage via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute
Spending time on social media sites, such as Facebook, can help students do better in school, according to new research by an education professor at University of Maryland. In a survey of 600 low-income high school students, Christine Greenhow found that students build bonds when they connect with school friends on social networking sites.
