“Just over half of U.S. teenagers (51%) report spending at least four hours per day using a variety of social media apps such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X” - Gallup
Teen Mental Health: A Crisis We Can No Longer Ignore
“What the Lancet research study confirms is that adolescent girls and boys today across multiple parts of the world experience earlier onset and a prolonged period of heightened emotional problems than those born previously…. with the greatest emotional risk for girls.” - IFS
Survey: British Gen Z More Likely Than Millennials to Believe in God
Survey: “23 percent of Britons aged 16 to 24 said they believe in God, with an additional 13 percent saying they believe in a ‘higher spiritual power.’ By contrast, only 19 percent of those aged 25-39 said they believe in God, with 16 percent saying they believe in a higher power.” - C.Leaders
Study of youth in Australia & Canada: Gen Z is religiously “complex” and nontraditional
“All that said, teens appear to be very critical of those with strong traditional religious beliefs, with about half of them thinking they are too intolerant of others.” - Church Leaders
Youth camp: It's not about a place
“If it is not about a place, what is it about? That question forces us to consider what ‘it’ is. What is the point, the purpose, of Falls Creek? The purpose is bringing lost teenagers to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ….We don’t have to go to the Arbuckle Mountains to do this work of evangelism.” - BPNews
Vaping among kids has dramatically increased, new evidence of health risks
“The CDC director released a statement just a few days ago in response to the death related to the outbreak of ‘severe lung disease in people who use e-cigarettes or vaping devices’ ” - Church Leaders
6 Ways to Bring Light to Heated Talks with Teenagers
“While there’s no surefire way to guarantee easier, better conversations with your child, there are some things you can do to help them see you as more of an ally than a threat during these defining years.” - TGC
Mental-Health Problems and Suicides Up Among Teens
“Pew released a starting report last week, finding: Anxiety and depression are on the rise among America’s youth and, whether they personally suffer from these conditions or not, seven-in-ten teens today see them as major problems among their peers.” - National Review
Adolescent Marijuana Use Is Linked to Altered Neural Circuitry and Mood Symptoms
“In a recent NIDA-supported study, males from low-income backgrounds who used marijuana in escalating frequency throughout their teen years exhibited disrupted connectivity at age 20 in a brain circuit that links rewarding experiences with motivation and mood.
Adventures in Parenting: Trust
In my experience, one of the most difficult aspects of parenting is teaching my children about sin while not discouraging them.
While our firstborn was growing up, we were in church circles that placed an emphasis on teaching children about their sin nature and the consequences of sin. Sounds biblical and reasonable, right? However, the way this played out was to treat children like they were always being deceitful, always up to something, and couldn’t be trusted. Ever. I can’t tell you how many times I heard Psalm 58:3 quoted:
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.