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Gulf Today
4 days ago
- Health
- Gulf Today
Parent's mistake may cause teens to be anxious and depressed
More and more teens are experiencing anxiety and depression and it may be tied to a surge in overprotective parenting, a new poll found. The University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital conducted the survey, gathering responses from more than 1,000 parents of adolescents ages 13 to 18. The findings revealed that less than 50 percent of parents would allow their teen to stay alone in a hotel room while they went to get breakfast. Around a third of parents polled would let their teen walk alone to a nearby coffee shop, while only 20 percent said they are comfortable with their teen visiting amusement parks or museums without them. One in five parents says they've never let their teen be apart from them during a trip. The results suggest that today's teenagers have less autonomy than previous generations who regularly walked to school, worked part-time, or visited friends without adult supervision. Mental health experts say that this drop in independence may be contributing to the emotional struggles now seen in many young people. "It's absolutely no surprise to me that we are seeing these dramatic rises in anxiety, depression, even suicide among teenagers," Boston College psychologist Peter Gray told Science News. Adults should shift from shielding teens to teaching them real-world skills such as using public transit, handling strangers and ordering food or their own, said Sarah Clark, a public health expert and co-director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. "If we reach some families and just approach this upcoming summer a little differently, I feel like that's a big win," Clark told Science News. Experts recommend involving teens in vacation planning and establishing clear guidelines, which can help families set mutually comfortable boundaries. For example, a majority of parents said they'd feel more comfortable if teens checked in by phone (64 percent), stayed with friends or siblings (62 percent) and stuck to predetermined locations (55 percent), measures that offer peace of mind while giving teens room to grow independently. The Independent
The Independent
5 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Experts warn this worrying parenting mistake may cause teens to be anxious and depressed
More and more teens are experiencing anxiety and depression and it may be tied to a surge in overprotective parenting, a new poll found. The University of Michigan 's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital conducted the survey, gathering responses from more than 1,000 parents of adolescents ages 13 to 18. The findings revealed that less than 50 percent of parents would allow their teen to stay alone in a hotel room while they went to get breakfast. Around a third of parents polled would let their teen walk alone to a nearby coffee shop, while only 20 percent said they are comfortable with their teen visiting amusement parks or museums without them. One in five parents says they've never let their teen be apart from them during a trip. The results suggest that today's teenagers have less autonomy than previous generations who regularly walked to school, worked part-time, or visited friends without adult supervision. Mental health experts say that this drop in independence may be contributing to the emotional struggles now seen in many young people. 'It's absolutely no surprise to me that we are seeing these dramatic rises in anxiety, depression, even suicide among teenagers,' Boston College psychologist Peter Gray told Science News. Adults should shift from shielding teens to teaching them real-world skills such as using public transit, handling strangers and ordering food or their own, said Sarah Clark, a public health expert and co-director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. 'If we reach some families and just approach this upcoming summer a little differently, I feel like that's a big win,' Clark told Science News. Experts recommend involving teens in vacation planning and establishing clear guidelines, which can help families set mutually comfortable boundaries. For example, a majority of parents said they'd feel more comfortable if teens checked in by phone (64 percent), stayed with friends or siblings (62 percent) and stuck to predetermined locations (55 percent), measures that offer peace of mind while giving teens room to grow independently.
New York Post
6 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
Parents cause teens to be anxious and depressed by making this one common mistake, experts warn
Don't be a worrying helicopter parent. A new poll revealed that most U.S. parents are wary of letting their teenagers venture out on their own — despite it possibly being detrimental to their personal growth and development. The team at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor surveyed over 1,000 parents across the country with children ages 13 to 18, originally reported on by Science News. Advertisement The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health found that fewer than half of parents would allow their teen to stay alone in a hotel room while they stepped out for breakfast. Even fewer — about one-third — would permit their teen to walk alone to a nearby coffee shop, and only one in five parents said they'd be comfortable with their teen exploring an amusement park or museum solo. Not allowing your kid to have any independence will hurt their personal growth. Halfpoint – Advertisement More drastically, one in five parents say they have never allowed their teen to be away from them while on a trip. Experts say teens need opportunities to build confidence and independence. JackF – Experts have long warned that today's children are growing up with fewer chances for independent play and exploration. Advertisement Compared to previous generations, teens today are less likely to walk or bike to school alone or even hold part-time jobs, thanks to their paranoid parents. This drop in autonomy comes alongside a worrying rise in mental health issues among teens, including anxiety and depression. While some researchers caution against drawing direct connections between the mental health crisis and parents' protectiveness, others are more certain of the correlation. 'It's absolutely no surprise to me that we are seeing these dramatic rises in anxiety, depression, even suicide among teenagers,' Boston College psychologist Peter Gray told Science News. Advertisement However, he noted there's still hope. 'If we reach some families and just approach this upcoming summer a little differently, I feel like that's a big win,' Gray said. Experts suggest that allowing your child to give input on where you vacation and setting rules allows parents and teens to set boundaries that both are comfortable with. For example, most parents agreed that having teens check in by phone (64%), asking them to stay with friends or siblings (62%), and telling them to stay in agreed-upon locations (55%) would bring them comfort while allowing kids to find their independence
ABC News
11-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Look back on memorable moments from Q+A's 18 years
Q+A was a rarity in Australian television news history — a show led in part by its audience where anything could happen, live on air. The panel show, which the ABC has announced is being discontinued, regularly set the agenda and made headlines. Here are just some of the memorable moments from its 18 years on the ABC. When John Howard was on the panel in October 2010, an audience member hurled a pair of shoes in his direction in protest against the former PM's stance on the Iraq War. "I remember jumping up and I tried to catch the shoes," host Tony Jones said in an interview on Conversations with Richard Fidler in 2019. "And John Howard in the most brilliant way, so calm, grabbed my elbow and said, 'Just calm down, Tony. It's alright,' and pulled me back down and we went on with the show. "Later we learnt that [the man who threw the shoes], Peter Gray, had terminal cancer and was in hospital close to death. "We heard he'd like to auction them off and give the money to charity and we did that with John Howard's agreement. "He actually signed a document certifying that these were the shoes that were thrown at him by Peter Gray from Newcastle and many thousands of dollars ended up going to the Red Crescent, which is the Islamic version of the Red Cross." In May last year, Vincent Hurley was listening to politicians debate family violence after a series of deaths that shocked him and the nation. And he couldn't stay silent. "How dare you go into politics, in an environment like this, when one woman is murdered every four days, and all you … can do is immediately talk about politics? That is just disgraceful," he said, in a plea that went viral. In 2016 Victorian man Duncan Storrar found himself on the receiving end of a media barrage when he appeared on Q&A to ask politicians why he wasn't getting a tax cut. The Geelong man asked the election panel why Australians earning more than $80,000 got a tax cut while low-income workers received nothing. "If you lift my tax-free threshold, that changes my life," he said to applause. "That means I get to say to my little girls, 'Daddy's not broke this weekend. We can go to the pictures.' "Rich people don't even notice their tax-free threshold lift. Why don't I get it? Why do they get it?" In her reply, then-Liberal minister Kelly O'Dwyer said company tax cuts would help businesses, like a cafe whose owner she spoke to who needed to buy a $6,000 toaster to boost business. Storrar later received $60,000 in donations via a GoFundMe campaign. But within days of appearing on the show he was attacked by various media outlets, who commented on his criminal history and revealed he paid no net tax. The media's treatment of him was questioned given he had raised his mental health concerns. Q+A courted controversy by inviting former terror suspect Zaky Mallah on to ask a question in 2015. Mallah was the first man charged with terrorism under laws introduced by the Howard government. He was found not guilty of preparing a 2003 suicide attack on a Sydney Commonwealth building after being held for two years in Goulburn jail, but was acquitted two years later. He asked then-parliamentary secretary to the minister for foreign affairs, Steve Ciobo, a pre-approved question regarding his detention. "I had done and said some stupid things, including threatening to kidnap and kill, but in 2005 I was acquitted of those terrorism charges," Mallah said from the live audience. "What would have happened if my case had been decided by the minister himself and not the courts?" Ciobo said he thought Mallah was acquitted on a technicality and would be happy if he was removed from the country. Mallah later responded: "The Liberals now have just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join ISIS because of ministers like him". Host Tony Jones said the comments were completely out of order. Prime minister Tony Abbott banned his frontbench from appearing on the show over the incident. ABC management later made a statement that it was wrong to allow Mallah onto the program. The Q&A executive producer was given a formal warning and the program was moved into the News division. When Simon Sheikh, then national director of the lobbyist group GetUp!, collapsed at the desk mid-show in July 2012, his fellow panellists rushed to help him — except one. Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella was sitting next to Sheikh on the show but looked on in surprise as panellist climate change minister Greg Combet rushed over to help. Mirabella was criticised on social media for her reaction to her co-panellist's collapse. She later said she was taken by complete surprise. "I didn't know what it was," she said. "I thought initially he was just bent over laughing because that's what you see, and [I] turned around to try and get a better look and I — like everyone else on the panel — was just stunned." GetUp! took to Twitter to defend Mirabella, urging people to go easy on the Liberal MP. "Folks, please don't criticise @SMirabellaMP — it was an extraordinary circumstance and everyone was shocked," it tweeted. Sheikh was taken to hospital and fully recovered. In an emotional final appearance in May 2023, Q+A host Stan Grant spoke directly to the people who sent him hateful messages during his time in the chair. "To those who have abused me and my family, I would just say — if your aim was to hurt me, well, you've succeeded," he said. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I must have given you so much cause to hate me," he said. Grant had announced the week before that he was stepping away from Q+A, and he accused the ABC of "institutional failure", saying the organisation did not publicly defend him amid a storm of racist abuse. Grant said he feared the media did not have the love or the language "to speak to the gentle spirits of our land". Yassmin Abdel-Magied appeared on Q&A in 2017 and was involved in a heated exchange with senator Jacqui Lambie over sharia law. The pair was asked by an audience member if it was time to define new rules surrounding migration to avoid community conflict, to which Lambie replied: "Anyone that supports sharia law should be deported." Abdel-Magied questioned if she even knew what that meant before getting into a heated defence of feminism and Islam. "My frustration is that people talk about Islam without knowing anything about it and they're willing to completely negate any of my rights as a human being," Abdel-Magied said. "Islam to me is the most feminist religion. We got equal rights well before the Europeans. We don't take our husbands' last names because we ain't their property." One of Q+A's real strengths every week was everyday Australians showing the human side of government policies. In March last year, Charlotte Kaye told her personal story of trying to survive on Jobseeker and pension payments and facing ageism in the workforce, which touched a nerve with the panel and Australians alike. Conservative independent Bob Katter and comedian Josh Thomas must have been one of the show's most unlikely double acts. But when they were sitting together on an October 2014 episode about mental health, sparks flew. When Katter was asked by an audience member about how his public statements on homosexuality impacted mental health, he tried to change the topic to mental health in his electorate, and Thomas couldn't take his comments sitting down. He said it was clear Katter cared about his community. "But then you go out and you deny the existence of homosexuals in north Queensland. They exist. There's an app called Grindr. I'll put it on your phone." Dylan Storer was just 15 when he appeared on the program in 2018, and blew Australia away with his take on the Voice to Parliament. The West Australian appeared on the panel alongside other high schoolers who were invited to speak about issues affecting their communities. He revealed how he came from a school with a majority Indigenous population and questioned the lack of focus on Australia's black history. "We had eight weeks of term focused on the American civil rights movement, and in the last two weeks, we crammed in Australian Aboriginal history," he told the panel. "We have the opportunity to be a part — and be a good part — and acknowledge cultures that have been in this country, on this land, for 65,000 years. "It could be such a large part of our country and such a large part of our identity." Storer, who is now a journalist, went on to say he believed more education about our First Nations people could not only help address racism but also misunderstanding, which came from a lack of education. Only comedian Barry Humphries would answer a call on air and tell host Tony Jones to "shoosh".
BBC News
04-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Eel project sees nearly 23,000 released into river
Environment Agency Nearly 23,000 glass eels have been released into a chalk stream for a research project to see if their numbers can be increased. The eels, originally from the River Severn, have been put in at nine points on the River Kennet in Berkshire by Environment Agency (EA) fisheries specialists where their health and growth will be closely monitored. It is hoped restocking them in the river will result in more eels navigating their way back out to sea to breed. The EA said the project was being carried out to "safeguard this critically endangered species" after numbers of the once-common eel declined sharply in the 1980s. The EA said: "The numbers of new, young eels arriving at our shores are now a tiny percentage of those that arrived in the 1960s and 1970s." It added the reasons for the sharp drop in numbers were "unclear but may be due to over-fishing, habitat loss and fragmentation, parasites or climate change". Peter Gray, EA fisheries team leader, said: "We are working hard to address the many struggles that eels face and are taking action to safeguard this critically endangered species. "Over the coming months and years, we will closely monitor the released eels to see how they are surviving and growing. Eventually we want to discover whether this type of management produces more eels going out to sea to breed." European eels hatch 4,000 miles (6,500km) away in the Atlantic's Sargasso Sea before crossing the ocean and migrating up UK estuaries and rivers. The eels need to swim freely up and downstream along rivers to find places to hide and food to eat in order to successfully grow. Mature eels then make the journey back to the Sargasso Sea to breed. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Berkshire Newbury Environment Agency
