Take a moment to review the youth substance use data below. These percentages highlight a few key findings from the most recent Monitoring the Future report. Each year, a total of approximately 50,000 students in 8th, 10th and 12th grades are surveyed. The data shown in the table below...
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Imagine getting both of your teens to agree to join you and your partner for a family night out this weekend. You promise ice cream and something that’s “not lame” in exchange for their presence and good attitudes. When Saturday evening arrives, you all head out for BBQ and...
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This story was shared with permission from a member of the Possibilities for Change team. Last month, my friend Jean invited me to her home for dinner. We had curry chicken and rice, roasted brussels sprouts, and homemade cookies for dessert. Jean is enjoying the slower pace and quieter...
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Do you feel overwhelmed by the sight of back-to-back calls on your work calendar or a full week of family appointments? Moments before you begin a public speaking engagement or manage a conflict with a peer, how fast is your heart beating? If you answered “Yep, really fast, and...
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Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who just Googled, “What does menty b mean?” Most of us are a generation or two removed from Gen Z (born 1997-2012) and even further from Generation Alpha, aka the digital natives. Googling the definition of unfamiliar slang you hear from a...
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Part II Editor’s Note: To read Part I of Motivational Interviewing, check out our first post: How to Strengthen Your Connections with At-Risk Youth. In it we provide an overview of Motivational Interviewing, including the key pillars (open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summarizing), sample scenarios and scripts, and more....
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It’s been nearly a year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the hallmark Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. Last June, the landscape of pregnancy care and reproductive health in America changed significantly. In honor of National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, we’re revisiting the...
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POV: You’re the parent of a teen. Your 16-year-old daughter comes home from school every day and takes a 2-hour nap in her room before emerging for dinner and then back to her room for another late night of studying. When you ask her how she’s doing she looks...
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In recent years, society has lightened the stigma around mental health. Do you agree? Thanks to policy initiatives, marketing campaigns, and celebrity disclosures about their own battles, public perception of mental health is changing. Words like resilience, boundaries, grief, self-care, culturally-responsive, and trauma-informed are becoming part of our vernacular. ...
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Note: this article is Part II of a series on ‘at-risk youth.’ Read Part I to learn what we mean when we say ‘at-risk youth’ and how to differentiate between risk factors and risk behaviors. Part I also covers the interrelated nature of risks, adverse outcomes associated with increased...
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