The hottest Adolescents Substack posts right now

Leisure reading among teens has collapsed in recent years, and that decline is alarming to teachers and parents.
Loving reading matters more than any teaching method or test score; if a child doesn’t develop affection for books, instruction alone won’t stick.
Warm early experiences—like being read to by a caring adult—can create a lasting love of books, so parents and educators should try to recreate those moments.

Social media is not safe for children and adolescents; it causes widespread direct harms like cyberbullying and exposure to harmful content and raises the risk of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
Recent research — including experiments and leaked internal studies from a major platform — provides strong causal evidence that heavy social media use harms young people’s mental health.
Because social media reaches most youth for many hours a day, the harms are large in scale, so parents and policymakers should act now (for example by restricting access or raising the minimum age) to protect children.

Diagnosis culture can lead to over-identification with mental disorders.
Clinicians worry about entrenching a fatalistic story through early diagnosis.
For adolescents, diagnosis can be a way to sound adult and hold problems at arm's length.

Social media can really impact teens' mental health, both positively and negatively. It can create a space for connection but also promote harmful behaviors like bullying and self-harm.
Mental health professionals need to adapt their approaches to include teens' online activities and how these affect their well-being. It's important to discuss what they're doing on social media and how it makes them feel.
Just reducing social media use isn’t enough; it’s also vital to help teens find healthier activities that fulfill their emotional needs. This way, they can still engage with social media positively without letting it control their lives.

Heavy social media use is linked to poor mental health in teens, like depression and anxiety. This effect is often stronger in vulnerable groups, especially girls.
The Bradford Hill criteria help us explore if social media actually causes mental health issues instead of just being correlated. It's a framework to understand more about how risks might affect health.
Not all social media use is harmful; some might even be okay. The key is moderation and understanding the potential risks, especially for those who might be more affected.

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Professionally run weight loss programs for adolescents may not increase depression or anxiety and could even lead to a slight reduction in symptoms, based on the study findings.
The study's short follow-up period of up to 15 months raises concerns about the long-term effects of weight loss programs on mental health, especially considering weight regain patterns.
Authors of the study have potential conflicts of interest, raising questions about their motivations and the credibility of their recommendations.

The study on gastric bypass surgeries in adolescents had limited sample diversity and was done using an original technique which affects the generalizability of the findings.
The follow-up period for surgical outcomes was insufficient considering the lifelong impact of the surgery on adolescents, leading to potential nutritional deficiencies and adverse events.
Short-term and long-term complications post-surgery, including additional surgeries, show the high risk and necessity for ongoing monitoring and support in adolescents who undergo weight loss surgery.

Social media use can impact job performance.
More time spent on social media is linked to lower grades and multitasking.
Excessive social media use can increase ADHD symptoms, especially if it leads to addiction-like behaviors.