Several recent studies tell a story of children's mental health that is not entirely new, but still of interest to most parents. Some of the more negative findings include:
1. Young girls are worried about being overweight.
2. Kids are stressed about achievement, grades, and homework, especially if they herald from highly successful families
3. Social networking sites are highly utilized by teenagers (up to 70% of teenage girls interviewed use MySpace, Facebook, and Xanga)
According to Patricia van den Berg, an author of one of the studies, given the popularity of the Internet and the undue influence of the media girl's perceptions about beauty and body image, parents should teach their children to be more media savvy. Some of the good news comes out of the U.S. Census Bureau's recent study of the life of American children, including an increase since 1994 of the number of young children sharing breakfast and dinner with their parents.
Even with the happy thought that some young children actually share meals with their parents, studies about children and teens in this country always seem to emphasize the obvious. If you have a teenage girl and she's spending an undue amount of time reading "Vogue" and logging into "MySpace" you ought to pay attention and take action. If your teenage son is overly stressed about schoolwork or getting into a good college, maybe you should help him remember to enjoy his youth before the onslaught of adult responsibility gives him an ulcer and kills his joy.
Good parents are attentive to the changes (societal, cultural, physiological) that are going on with their children. They don't usually need the experts to spell out the things to worry about. We worry enough without their help.
