Parenting Role in Teen Use, Video Games/Mental Health,College Fresh

Welcome to February 2011 'News of Hope'!
HOPE springs from the smallest of miracles!

This month includes the National School Counseling Week celebrated from Feb. 7-11, 2011, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of professional school counselors within U.S. school systems.

National School Counseling Week is sponsored by the American School Counselors Association and, according to ASCA, "highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career."

We at LEGACY add our acknowledgement and appreciation to school counselors all across the country. It is school counselors who we see recognize students with social and emotional concerns that interfere with academic and life success. It is school counselors that utilize our Survey of Hope after assemblies to identify students in need of counseling and support groups. It is school counselors, through experience and training, that recognize and reach out to the children who bring domestic violence, neglect, familial addiction and abuse baggage to school everyday.

LEGACY has been privileged to work extensively with middle school and high school counselors for over 19 years and can say, unequivocally, that school counselors are some of the most compassionate, self-sacrificing, caring and under-appreciated youth resources on the planet!

GIVE SCHOOL COUNSELORS A HIGH-FIVE AND THANK YOU this month!

CONTENTS of February NEWS OF HOPE:
• Parenting Styles Play a Role in Teen Drinking
• Mental health low in College Freshmen
• FREE Subscription online to GRAND MAGAZINE – for grandparents – share with friends, family and associates!
• Video Games May Contribute to Mental Illness
• Dramatic Decline in Teen Exposure to Anti-Drug Messages

Pictured Above:
Pics 1,2 &3 - Winter Counselors'' In-Service in Daphne, Alabama - Susie shared LEGACY OF HOPE® and together, Dr. Ken and Susie shared DE-STRESS FOR SUCCESS® with 85 school counselors and social workers.
According to Patrice Harris, Intervention Supervisor in Pic 2,
"The BEST in-service that we’ve ever had during my tenure as the Intervention Supervisor. Both of your presentations were simply DYNAMIC, and the counselors and social workers have raved about them continuously."

Pic 4 - LEGACY is now offering live BUTTERFLIES OF HOPE presentations for 2nd grade classrooms! Program includes sharing the The Story of Chester, the Monarch Caterpillar video about the larvae "on a mission to find his life's plan!"
As 2nd grade teacher Peggy Cohen shared, "I thought your presentation was excellent and most definitely an enrichment to our Science unit. You presented your topic in a way that helped the children make a connection and at their interest level."
Visit our store for more info on Caterpillar DVD and Butterflies of Hope products.

Access 12 years of newsletter articles on our website!

Parenting Style Plays a Role in Teen Drinking
Jan 06, 2011 - CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coaltions of America) article

Researchers at Brigham Young University have found that teenagers who grow up with parents who are either too strict or too permissive tend to binge drink more than their peers. The study was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

"While parents didn't have much of an effect on whether their teens tried alcohol, they can have a significant impact on the more dangerous type of drinking," study author Stephen Bahr, a professor of sociology at BYU, told National Public Radio.

As part of the survey of 5,000 teens, researchers asked 7th- to 12th-grade students a series of questions about their alcohol such as how frequently they binge drink, how often they communicated, in general, with their parents, and what kind of parenting style did they think their parents possessed.

The teens being raised by “indulgent” parents who tend to give their children praise and warmth, but who don’t monitor bad behavior were among the biggest alcohol abusers.

"They were about three times more likely to participate in heavy drinking," Bahr said.

This was also true for teens whose parents were strict.

"Kids in that environment tend not to internalize the values and understand why they shouldn't drink," Bahr said. They were more than twice as likely to binge drink.

The parenting style that led to the lowest levels of problem drinking struck a balance between both styles: accountability and support.

Parent Education programs from LEGACY promote parental support and accountability

Mental Health Low In College Freshman
"Mental health low in college freshman" by Janice Lloyd in USA Today, Thursday, January 27, 2011 stated that college freshmen's emotional health "hit an all-time low this academic year."

This observation comes as aresult of the stress on college students due to ever increasing cost of a college education in the midst of a troubled economy, according to UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute survey.

The Institute surveyd more than 200,000 college freshmen at 279 colleges. The result was clear - "only 52% rated their emotional health high or above average, a drop from 64% in 1985 and down 3.4% from 2009."

The survey alerts administrators and faculty alike that they can not only focus on the cognitive development of students. It is a time when it is important for college personnel at all levels to be aware and ready to identify and assist students having emotional problems and/or psychological disorders.
We help develop heatlhy Emotional Coping Skills on college campuses

FREE Subscription to GRAND Magazine!

Here is a link that you and your friends, family and associates can click on to receive a free subscription to the premiere online magazine for grandparents!

LEGACY is honored to have had several articles published in GRAND Magazine to help grandparents support their grand teens and help them be alcohol and drug-free.

Get your FREE subscription here! Pass it on to others!

and don''t forget Susie''s insights into teen choice:
52 WAYS TO PROTECT YOUR TEEN - Guiding Teens to Good Choices
www.waystoprotect.com

For more info on GARY UNRUH'S new book!

Video Games May Contribute to Mental Illness

According to "How Video Games May Contribute to Mental Illness" in Time Magazine, January 31, 2011, "new research suggests that parents of ''addicted'' gamers may now have a more long-term concern: mental illness."

The research was based on a two-year study of over 3,000 elementary and middle-school students. The results indicated that pathological gamers were likely to be students with impulsive personalities, have less empathy and less competent social skills. This level of gamer is likely to play an average of 31 hours a week, compared with 19 hours of average students. The research found that "addicted gamers also tended to be more aggressive and anti-social."

The critical finding was that these pathological gamers were also at higher risk of developing depression, anxiety and social phobia two years later.

"The study''s results highlight the long-lasting influence of excessive video-game playing." This conflicts with a prior belief that "teens play as a way to cope." Instead, mental disorders may be a contributor, but also a consequence of video-game dependence.

LEGACY OF HOPE® - break through denial, create awareness, spawn HOPE!

This is no ordinary message - it is a life-saving, life-changing message. And IT IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY!

It is not for your school or conference if you want facts and figures but do not want active engagement. It is not for your school if you are not ready to deal with deep and legitimate issues that teens bring to campus everyday. But IT IS FOR YOU if you are ready to deal with the tough realities that make or break academic and life success for youth.

Dramatic Decline in Teen Exposure to Anti-Drug Messages
Excerpts from artcle on January 13, 2011 from The Partnership at Drugfree.org

New York, NY -- The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study (MTF) -- the largest survey on teen drug abuse tracking over 46,000 8th, 10th and 12th graders -- found a huge falloff in teens' recalled exposure to drug abuse prevention messages over the past seven years. The new data from the MTF study have been released at a time when teens themselves report finding the drug-prevention messages to be effective.

Comparing 2003, the year in which kids and teens' recalled exposure to drug prevention messages from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)'s National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (NYADMC) peaked, to today, the proportion of 8th graders that reported daily/or more often exposure dropped from 54 percent to 18 percent, a dramatic decrease of two-thirds among the youngest group surveyed.

Similar declines occurred among 10th graders (50 percent in 2003 to 17 percent in 2010) and 12th graders (32 percent to 10 percent). According to Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator of the study, the rates of teens' recalled exposure of drug abuse prevention messages are lower in 2010 than they have been since his research team began tracking all three grades nearly two decades ago (view chart).

"At a time when teen drug use is at relatively low levels, historically, and children are not learning as much through the news media about the health consequences of using many dangerous drugs, it is important that we get that information to them by other means - through prevention ads, in schools and through their families," said Johnston.

"If they don't get those messages, teens will come to view drug use as less dangerous than their predecessors did and that misconception will leave them vulnerable to having their own epidemics of drug abuse. In fact, we are already seeing these signs beginning to happen now for teen use of drugs like marijuana, Ecstasy and LSD."

Support for prevention programs like the state grants portion of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program, which was zeroed out in the 2011 budget, and the federal NYADMC, has dwindled significantly over the past decade.

In fiscal year 2003, which marked the peak year for recalled exposure of drug abuse prevention messages among teens, federal support of the NYADMC was $145 million, compared to only $45 million for fiscal year 2010. The kinds of extracurricular activities -- programs in sports, civics and the arts -- that states and localities have funded to engage kids' positive energies and help prevent substance abuse continue to collapse under relentless budgetary pressure.

"Our prevention infrastructure is disappearing before our eyes and the result of all this is not fair, but it's undeniable: the additional burden is increasingly falling on the shoulders of parents and caregivers," said Steve Pasierb, President of The Partnership at Drugfree.org. "The slashing of funds and lack of support, coupled with the discussion of further cuts for effective prevention programs, are going to have a direct impact on the 35 million American families with children at risk of abusing drugs or alcohol."

Teens Seeing/Hearing Less Drug-Prevention Messages, But Find Them Effective
...the percentage of teens who agreed that drug-prevention messages made them less likely to use drugs in the future also remained stable, although they reported they are exposed to fewer messages.

"There is evidence of a correlation between decreased drug use among teens and their exposure to drug abuse prevention messages," said Pasierb. "The alarming drops in the number of messages teens are seeing or hearing today is especially disturbing because the kids themselves report these messages are effective in keeping them from using drugs."

Increases in Teen Use of Illicit Drugs Correlate with Decreased Support for Anti-Drug Messages
The MTF survey also measures teen attitudes about drug and alcohol use, including perceived harmfulness and disapproval, factors that can predict future substance abuse.

The perception among teens that regular marijuana use is harmful decreased among 10th and 12th graders, but declined the most among the youngest group of 8th graders.

The study also confirmed a new uptick in teen Ecstasy use, especially, among 8th and 10th graders, following drastic declines of this drug of abuse over the past decade.

As teen anti-drug attitudes erode and move in the wrong direction, increases in drug use are sure to follow.

"While we recognize the current constraints on the federal budget, we urge Congress to fund ONDCP's National Youth Media Campaign at the highest possible level and restore the funding cuts that have eroded the impact of this program and have most likely contributed to increases in teen drug abuse," said Pasierb.

To learn more about how to help parents prevent, intervene in and find treatment for drug and alcohol use by their children, please visit drugfree.org.

Full article and more from Partnership at Drugfree America

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Skills that everyone can learn and simple tools that really work.

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