youth

Speaking with a family member or friend triggers hormonal changes in the body that reduce stress, calm nerves and promote social bonding. It is not clear, however, which elements of a verbal exchange — grammar, syntax, tone and/or word choice — are responsible for triggering these neurochemical responses.

Over the past 10 years, school-based initiatives such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have successfully raised the test scores of some lower-performing students. But with most U.S. educational funds directed towards cultivating minimal levels of competency, few federal programs focus on maximizing the potential of higher-achieving students, or “high flyers.”

The cultivation and maintenance of healthy social relationships, a key developmental marker for a teenager, has been linked to positive maturation and well-being throughout adulthood. However, the lasting impact that negative interpersonal histories during this time can have on a young person’s well-being later in life has not been the subject of significant study.

An individual’s capacity to learn is often treated as static across his or her lifetime.  Studies that identify changes in IQ (a widely used, standardized measure of intellectual abilities) are generally unable to attribute that change to a real increase or decrease in intelligence as opposed to measurement error in testing, and much of the variation in IQ remains unexplained.

Twitter saw a surge in its number of users between 2009 and 2010, particularly among teens. Content on the character-limited blogging and social networking ranges from the mundane to important world news, and from personal exchanges to advertisements. This broad range of content leaves open a range of possible explanatory factors driving increased usage.

Whether violent video games are a harmless pastime or a facilitator of aggressive behavior is a subject of continuing public debate and scholarly inquiry.