5 Ways Parents Can Help Their Teen Overcome Peer Pressure

5 Ways Parents Can Help Their Teen Overcome Peer Pressure
As a parent, you see it all the time. Overnight, your teen has a new profound interest in the latest gadget or fashion style you’ve never heard of. That iPhone 4s you gave them last year is an “embarrassment” to have in public and now they want purple highlights in their hair. It all becomes so clear when their BFF (best friend forever) comes over to visit and proudly displays their new hair style and an iPhone 5 with a customized case. Close friends can exert a tremendous amount of influence even if they’re not trying to do so. We are social creatures and those we choose to spend our time with will, to a certain degree, shape our opinions, actions, and interests.
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Parenting Tips for Teens & Mental Health Report by the CDC

Parenting Tips for Teens & Mental Health Report by the CDC
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has released its first comprehensive report on the state of mental health in children aged 3 to 17. The report titled, Mental Health Surveillance Among Children – United States, 2005 – 20011, compiles research and statistics from a number of federal agencies such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Institute of Mental Health. This report is an important step in identifying the prevalence of mental health disorders in children and teenagers and is of great use to parents, educators, and health professionals.
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5 Ways to Improve Your Teenager’s Self-Esteem

5 Ways to Improve Your Teenager’s Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is a person’s perception of their self-worth and is an important part of succeeding in life and being happy. How we view ourselves affects how we act with others and influences what we believe we can achieve. Teenagers commonly struggle with poor self-esteem because they are still developing a sense of who they are and what they are capable of. Fortunately, as a parent you can help your teenager develop a positive self-image and high self-esteem.
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How to Explain the Importance of High School to your Teenager

How to Explain the Importance of High School to your Teenager
Some teenagers hate high school.  They don’t want to be there and they don’t want to deal with difficult people or situations.  They don’t want to do work they consider useless and boring.  Teenagers can have a difficult time tolerating the emotions that being forced to go to school can elicit.  Often teenagers feel that they should somehow never experience frustration.  There are developmental reasons for these beliefs that have to do with earlier childhood experiences when they had no responsibility at all.
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Cultural Differences between Parents and their Teens in Miami

Cultural Differences between Parents and their Teens in Miami
Miami is an international and an immigrant city.  People come from all over the world and especially Latin America to settle here.  The vibrant mix of cultures can sometimes be difficult for families to deal with.  For the teenagers of immigrants who are growing up experiencing a different culture than their parents it can become more and more difficult for them to communicate effectively with their families.  Parents are more likely to adhere firmly to their original culture whereas teenagers tend to very quickly soak up the culture that they experience around them.  This can lead to gaps between teenagers and parents on their levels of Americanism as well as on their levels of the parents’ culture of origin.  In more serious cases parents and teenagers may have a significant language barrier between them, fertile ground for misunderstandings and conflicts to spring up.
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Tolerating your teen’s intense emotions and overcoming parental guilt and anger

Tolerating your teen’s intense emotions and overcoming parental guilt and anger
Teenagers aren’t easy.  They can be demanding, intense and moody.  In the normal world of adults you have more control over how difficult people are involved in your life.  When it comes to your difficult teenager there’s little choice but to be involved.  So what do you do when you notice that your teenager’s words and behavior can provoke out of control and equally intense reactions in you?  This is a question that I am often asked in my practice and I always say the same thing.  Gain some emotional distance.  Don’t take it personally and don’t expect them to behave like mature adults all the time.  For me it is helpful to conceptualize your role as a parent in the following way.
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The Steubenville Rape Video, Alcohol and Teenagers

Michael Nodianos really messed up. He is the teenager in the video recently released by the hacktavist group Anonymous shown joking about an incident of rape allegedly perpetrated by his fellow high school football teammates in Steubenville, Ohio. The language and attitude in the video is highly disturbing and offensive.
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How to Talk to your Teen About Going to Counseling

How to Talk to your Teen About Going to Counseling
For dedicated parents it is important that they feel that they are doing everything they can to help their teenager through life’s troubles.  When parents feel at a loss when confronted with their teenager’s problems they often search for professional help.  However, when they speak to their teenager about it he or she is insulted and dead-set against it.  Teenagers may simply refuse to go or become enraged with the possibility of going to counseling.  This unfortunate reaction puts a frustrating obstacle in the way of parents trying to help their teenagers, especially in the case of older teenagers that you cannot physically force to go.
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Teenagers and Violent Video Games: Questions Following the Newtown Shooting

Teenagers and Violent Video Games: Questions Following the Newtown Shooting
In the aftermath of the nation’s most tragic school shooting, many people across the nation are asking questions to try to understand how this could have happened and how events like this can be prevented in the future. The issues coming to light are age old debates such as gun control and school security, and the link between violent video games and aggressive behavior among teenagers and young people. Adam Lanza, the killer behind the horrific Newtown massacre, was an avid video gamer who played violent video games such as Call of Duty for hours. Do playing violent video games translate to real life violence? Research into this issue shows evidence supporting both sides of the argument.
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Untreated Issues in Adolescence Linger into Adulthood: Teen Dating Violence and Teen ADHD

Two articles published today reinforce the notion that untreated issues in adolescent years linger into adulthood. The first article Teen Dating Violence Affects Well-Being in Adulthood published in USAtoday.com cites a new study that shows that teenagers who reported physical or psychological abuse from a relationship reported more drinking, smoking, drug abuse, depression, thoughts of suicide, and anti-social behaviors 5 years later. The study is hoping to raise awareness about this public health hazard and encourages parents, educators, and pediatricians to talk to teens about dating violence to quickly get help for those who need it.
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