LGBTQQ Youth and Health

Written By: Rodrigo Garcia-Reyes, Outlet Program Spanish-language and Education Coordinator  22 states, including California and the District of Columbia require public schools teach sex education. 35 states and the District of Columbia allow parents to opt-out on behalf of their children.  A 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey indicates that more than […]

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Additional Support for Parents when Adolescents Lie about Drug Use

Written By: Mayra Vargas, MFTI, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Program Parental instinct is key to supporting their teens with their drug use/abuse. Parents sometimes ignore their “gut instinct” that lets them know something is happening with their adolescent.  Often a parent will tentatively ask about these issues, and the teen will say ‘everything is fine’ — […]

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Cyberbulling: What Parents Need to Know

by Katie Luce, LMFT Site Director at Redwood High School & Jordan Middle School This article is intended to educate parents and families about a serious issue affecting adolescents known as cyberbullying. My hope is to provide information, highlight some of the emotional issues that arise from cyberbullying, and offer suggestions regarding what families can […]

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Use of Pot in Teen Years Linked to IQ Decline by Age 30

As recent studies have shown that marijuana use is extremely popular with adolescents, more so than alcohol and tobacco, further research, just released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that habitually smoking marijuana before age 18 showed an eight-point drop in IQ between the ages of 13 and 38, a considerable […]

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Anti-bullying Campaign Targets Parents

Starting in October of 2012, a series of print and web ads, targeting parents, will run with the message: Teach your kids to put a stop to bullying. The ads are a joint effort by the Ad Council, a non-profit that produces and distributes public service announcements, and the Free to Be…You and Me foundation. […]

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How to Make a Safe Teen Driver

With graduation and summer around the corner, AAA and Volvo want to make sure that parents speak to their kids about safe driving habits. According to research from the AAA Foundation seven of the 10 deadliest days of the year for teens fall between the holidays Memorial Day and Labor Day. July and August are […]

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The Significance of 4/20

The date 4/20 or time 4:20 pm has long been popular with the marijuana sub-culture. Even mainstream media will sometimes mention the infamous date/time in reference to marijuana use. It is used as code or slang for many marijuana users as the time when one smokes. It is also a date that many marijuana users […]

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Marijuana is Most Popular With Teens, How to Notice the Signs of Use

Since marijuana use among teens is thought to be more widespread than alcohol, About.com has posted some very informative statistics about marijuana use amongst teens. These statistics come from trusted government studies and prevention organizations and they tell a powerful story about when our children begin using substances like marijuana. Here are just a few: […]

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New Study Finds US Adolescent Substance Abusers Started Using at Age 14

A new study published in the April issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry found many alarming statistics about what age US children begin using substances such as; alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and harder narcotics. In the study, Joel Swendsen, of the University of Bordeaux in France, and colleagues analyzed data from a U.S. survey […]

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