Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

Anxiety, Depression High Among Young Heavy Metal Fans

rage-against-machine

How would you characterize adolescents who listen to heavy metal music? Angry? Perhaps prone to violence? Newly published research suggests “anxious” and “depressed” are more accurate adjectives. An analysis of 551 college students found “significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression among listeners of heavy metal/hard rock music, as compared with non-listeners.” Furthermore, their underlying level of anger was not significantly different from their peers who prefer other musical genres. The study, conducted by psychologists Gavin Ryan Shafron of Columbia ... Read More

Delaying School Start Times Causes Alarm

If, as the science says, teens are more alert and healthier when they sleep later, why haven't more high schools adjusted their start times? The answer to that question lies in a mix of logistics and politics. "It was, as it's been in every other town, polarizing," recalls Lisa Bogan, a former school board member in Wilton, Conn., which changed its start times in 2003. She is now the school start time change specialist (yes, there is such a position) for the League of Women Voters of Connecticut. The state league embraces efforts to change school start times because it sees them as a way to ... Read More

A Day in the Life of a Sleepy Student

Ethan Boroson at Cheshire Academy

At 5:15 a.m., Della frisks around the kitchen wagging her tail, far more chipper than the rest of the family right now. Ethan has pulled on a hoodie and makes his way downstairs to grab a granola bar "so I don't get hungry during my workout." This is not breakfast. It's hours until breakfast. Ethan alternates between texting a friend to confirm his class schedule for the day, packing equipment into his sports bag and talking with his parents. The 17-year-old jokes about getting his own car over the summer. "Ethan fantasizes in the morning," his father says dryly as he scans the ... Read More

Chicago Kids Take on Bunker Mentality, No ‘Friends’

In violent neighborhoods of Chicago, children on the brink of adolescence are so fearful of their safety that they don't form stable friendships at school. Many don't even use the word "friend." They say they have "associates." At age 13 or 14, they define a best friend as someone who "always has my back" and "sticks up for me a lot" and will not run away if the "raper-man" comes. They watch their fellow classmates for a long time, even staging loyalty tests before deciding whether to get closer. These youngsters do not talk in terms of, " 'You like computer games, I like computer ... Read More

No More Dozing Off in First Period

A pilot study at a small private high school in Providence, R.I., has confirmed the well-documented benefits of a half-hour delay in the school start time for teens, an easy fix for the chronic and rampantly ignored sleepiness of adolescents. The study shows that two months after the St. George's School changed its start time from 8 to 8:30 a.m., students were getting 45 minutes more sleep on school nights, on average, or nearly eight hours in all. They were going to bed an average 18 minutes earlier, presumably because it felt so good. On Sundays, they spent less time sleeping to catch ... Read More

Give Me Something to Believe in

"Some say irreversible consequences are 30 years away," states a grimacing global warming skeptic as a locomotive roars in the distance. "That won't affect me," he deadpans before brazenly stepping off the tracks — allowing a child to get mowed over by an oncoming train. This Environmental Defense Fund commercial, like many catchy and provocative campaigns before it, illustrates the trend of environmental moralizing by well-meaning organizations. Every year, millions of public and private dollars are spent in order to spur Americans, particularly youth, to engage in small but meaningful ... Read More

The Duet of Brain and Music

It's always fascinating to ask a jazz musician about the experience of improvising. During their spontaneous solos, these remarkable players are producing notes faster than their conscious minds can think of them, and many report their primary effort consists of staying out of their own way. New brain-scan research, reported in the new issue of the journal NeuroImage, finds a scientific explanation for that quasi-mystical phenomenon. Meanwhile, a separate study in that same journal examines the brains of teenagers as they listen to music and finds evidence of the strong pull adolescents ... Read More

Teen Steroid Use Suppresses Submissiveness

Steroid use appears to have a more pronounced — and potentially dangerous — effect on male behavior when the drugs are administered during adolescence. That's the conclusion of a newly published study, which suggests that while professional athletes who use the performance-enhancing drugs may be doing themselves long-term harm, those at greatest risk may be the teenagers who follow their example. In a series of experiments, a research team led by Kaliris Salas-Ramirez of Michigan State University directly compared the behavioral consequences of anabolic androgenic steroid exposure ... Read More

Are American Kids Crazy or What?

Many American teenagers are rebellious thrill-seekers who revel in immediate gratification and relinquish autonomy to peer pressure. But is it just the devil of biology that makes them do it? Or is American culture an accessory to the fact? That's what renowned adolescent psychologist Laurence Steinberg wants to know — and now he has a $1 million research grant to help him find out. Steinberg, distinguished professor of psychology at Temple University, recently received the first Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize, one of the largest prizes ever awarded to a social scientist; it rivals the ... Read More

What Matters Most

The moment before Abraham could plunge a dagger into his beloved son Isaac and sacrifice him in devotion to Yahweh, an angel's voice rang out, steadied his hand — and saved the boy. Shaken, but immensely relieved, Abraham untied the boy, hugged him and wept. If this sequence from Genesis 22 in the Old Testament seems archaic, well, it is. Religious sacrifice, the giving up of temporary gratification in return (perhaps) for future blessings, has existed in rituals since before the dawn of history. And while the notion of human sacrifice has faded, modern sacrifices can still be incredibly ... Read More