Pacific Standard July-August 2013 Cover

Teens Care About Online Privacy—Just Not the Same Way You Do

May 22, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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The latest round of research on teenagers and digital privacy is out, this time in the form of a joint study by the Pew Research Center and the Berkman Center for Internet Society. The results of the study are similar to the results of past studies on youth and the Internet: teens are sharing more information about themselves. Interestingly, however, the report indicates that teens are also taking “a variety of technical and non-technical steps to manage the privacy of that information.” Here’s how the research breaks down. The joint paper found that teenagers are sharing more and ... Read More

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Why Everyone Should Have Access to Plan B

May 17, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Last month, Judge Edward Korman ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make the emergency contraceptive, Plan B, available over the counter to people of all ages, rather than requiring prescriptions for those under 17. Last week, he stood by that decision. In his harshly worded ruling, Korman rejected the claim that easier access to Plan B would allow adolescents to make decisions that were beyond their capabilities. The scientific evidence supports his ruling. Indeed, it shows adolescents to be more competent in thinking about their decisions than many people suspect. However, ... Read More

More like this: Health
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Help Others to Help Yourself: High School Students Benefit From Volunteer Work

April 5, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
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Let’s perform a little parental thought experiment. Your daughter (or son) is in her senior year of high school, headed for the exit, when she’s told she must perform 30 hours of community service before graduation. How does the scene play out? A bit of drama, perhaps some eye rolling and door slamming. After you threaten to revoke her car privileges, she signs up to volunteer at the local elementary school. Once a week, she spends an hour reading to youngsters, helping out with homework, leading playground games, and organizing arts and crafts. In the end, she survives. Maybe she even has ... Read More

More like this: Education, Findings
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Is Facebook Stunting Your Child’s Growth?

April 23, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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I waved as I walked past Sara’s room: I’m a resident supervisor, a “Dorm Dad,” in a coed dorm at Stanford University. Sara told me she was texting Billy, her “sort of” boyfriend. I had just seen Billy sitting in the lounge down the hall, and told her so. “I know,” she said. “It’s more efficient to text him.” I smiled. The computer screen behind her was filled with Facebook pages, chat windows, YouTube videos, and a smattering of homework assignments. Efficiency? I’ve never seen a group of people better at wasting time than college freshmen. Not long before this, I ... Read More

More like this: Culture, May-June 2012
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Text Messages No Substitute for Mother’s Voice

August 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

For young people, text messaging is rapidly replacing talking on the phone. Parents could easily assume that typed text is the best way to stay in touch with their tech-savvy kids. But newly published research suggests that, in times of stress, there’s no substitute for the soothing sound of mom’s voice. That’s the conclusion of a research team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison cultural anthropologist Leslie Seltzer. In a study released last year, Seltzer and her colleagues found comforting words from mom decreased levels of cortisol (a biomarker of stress) and increased ... Read More

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College Costs Linked to Risky Teen Behavior

April 25, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Why do some teenagers engage in risky behavior such as drinking, drug use and multiple sex partners? Washington State University economist Ben Cowan has discovered a startlingly simple correlation that provides at least part of the answer. The more it costs to attend community college, the more likely it is that teens will act in self-destructive ways. “I find that lower college costs in teenagers’ states of residence raise their subjective expectations regarding college attendance and deter teenage substance use and sexual partnership,” Cowan writes in the Economics of Education ... Read More

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The Upside of Teen Pregnancy

January 13, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Jenelle is a party-loving high school junior in Oak Island, N.C., with blond hair and a metal stud above one side of her mouth. Andrew is a slim, smooth-talking former model with a fondness for alcohol. They've been together three years. Jenelle thought unprotected sex with Andrew would be OK because they'd tried it before and nothing had happened. Now they've got a baby on the way, and Jenelle's determined to keep it and stay with Andrew, too. "We're in it forever now," she predicts. For the stars of the first episode of the recently completed second season of MTV's reality show, "16 ... Read More

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Can Drug Policy Prevent Reefer Madness?

February 7, 2010 • By • 6 Comments

Raise your hand if you've consumed an alcoholic beverage or smoked marijuana in the last month. Raise your hand if you abstained from using alcohol until you were of legal age. Now, raise your hand if you refrained from smoking pot in the last month because it's illegal. Anyone? Do strict alcohol and marijuana laws actually prevent their use? That's the question a team of researchers set out to answer in a recent paper published in the International Journal of Drug Policy. Their cross-national comparison of drinking and cannabis use among 10th-graders indicates that although strict alcohol ... Read More

More like this: CAROUSEL, Culture, Culture & Society, Legal Affairs
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Give Me Something to Believe in

February 4, 2010 • By • 1 Comment

"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

More like this: Environment, Findings, Science, Science & Environment
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Are American Kids Crazy or What?

January 7, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

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

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society
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