Youth and Consequences

Adolescent mental health in the new millenium.

by Janis Whitlock, MPH, PhD

Searching for solutions in the wake of suicide

Last week, a student from my home University, Cornell, took their own life. The security guards assigned to walk and watch the bridges since the last student jumped provide an odd sort of comfort but ultimately raise more questions than answers. Read More

Speaking the soul: Why kids cut and what we can do about it

An estimated one in five secondary school and college age youth have intentionally cut, burn, carve, bruise, or otherwise injured their bodies without the intention of committing suicide. But why? Read More

Why teens addict: The elusive search for happiness

Happiness. We all want it. If you were born in America you learned early that happiness is not only your right but a national obsession as well. The problem is this: with the quest for happiness, as it is socially and culturally defined in most western nations, comes heightened risk for addictions of all sorts - particularly for youth. Read More

Mirror, mirror on the wall: Youth narcissism and us

We are home to an increasingly narcissistic generation, it is true. Increasingly prevalent empirical data to back up what we all know and suspect: today's generation of kids are more narcissist than previous generations. However, although the empirical validation is useful, such studies simply quantify the obvious. Read More

Who is to blame when healer turns killer?

People need to know why. Making sense of life events, even events that seem so senseless as that which occurred at Fort Hood, is hardwired into the human psyche. We saw this clearly immediately following the Columbine shootings when theories about why abounded. Competing early explanations left no one, particularly the killers' parents, free of blame. Read More