What do teenagers need from their parents?

 

Parenting teens requires a careful balance of monitored freedom, according to Professor of Human Development and Family Studies Greg Fosco

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Penn State

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Greg Fosco, professor of human development and family studies and Edna Bennett Pierce Faculty Fellow in Prevention Research at Penn State, has studied adolescents and their roles in their families for almost two decades, and his research has demonstrated how much teens and parents need to trust and support each other.

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Credit: Courtesy of Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Parents say they just want their teenage children to be happy, but often, they struggle to simply get along in the same house, according to Greg Fosco, professor of human development and family studies and Edna Bennett Pierce Faculty Fellow in Prevention Research at Penn State.

Fosco, a parent of two children, has studied adolescents and their roles in families for almost two decades, and his research has demonstrated how much teens and parents need to trust and support each other. He has published more than 100 papers on how families can support or erode an adolescent’s healthy development and sense of well-being, including a recent article in the journal Family Process revealing that when adolescents perceive a less stable relationship with their parents, their well-being suffers.

In this Q&A, Fosco spoke about how parents can best support their teenage child’s growth and well-being.

Q: What are the most important ways to support a teenager’s growing sense of independence?

Fosco: As parents, it is our job to help our children safely grow into independent adults. To facilitate this, talk to your children about where they will be and who they will be with. But when you do this, remember that it is normal for teenagers to sometimes lie as they explore their values and independence.

Another important step is getting to know the parents of your child’s friends. If your son says he is spending the night at his friend’s house, you can call the friend’s parents and ask if you can send snacks with your son. This is a friendly, supportive gesture, and — as a bonus — it helps you confirm whether your son is telling the truth.

You don’t want to stifle your child’s choices or independence, but with a network of parents who know each other’s children and what is going on, you can head off a lot of trouble before it begins.

The research on parental monitoring is crystal clear. Teens engage in fewer unhealthy risks and have better mental health when their parents are regularly aware of the teen’s activity. This is so powerful there is even a halo effect — if you stay aware of your child’s behavior, their closest friends are less likely to engage in negative, risky behavior. In contrast, children who are tightly controlled by their parents during adolescence can struggle to establish healthy romantic relationships and often perform worse in school.

Q: How does encouraging flourishing help teens avoid problems like substance use and depression?

Fosco: If you ask parents what they want for their children, you usually get answers like, ‘I want them to be happy,’ or ‘I want them to lead a full life.’ Yet, for many years, research on adolescence focused on what we don’t want for our children — delinquency, smoking and depression.

But the absence of problems is not the same as thriving. Flourishing — a state of purpose, high-functioning and happiness — gives us a target to strive for. These traits empower a young person’s ability to grow, live independently and pursue their dreams. Preliminary results from a current study indicate that youth with a sense of purpose also have lower suicide rates, higher academic engagement and better relationships.

In a recent study, we found that adolescents who have more life satisfaction or life purpose are less emotionally reactive to daily stressors. In other words, on challenging days, they don’t have strong emotional reactions. On the other hand, kids without this sense of purpose are more dysregulated by the ups and downs of life.

Our medical field gives diagnoses for the presence of problems, but there is no diagnosis for ‘thriving’ or ‘flourishing.’ In a way, this has been a barrier to devoting enough attention to promoting flourishing. Prior research suggests only about 20% of adolescents have a sense of purpose in life, while another 60% are exploring purpose but have not locked in. This means that the vast majority feel lost and without direction to some extent.

Q: How can parents help their teens develop a sense of purpose?

Fosco: Try to practice autonomy-supportive parenting, which involves the balancing act of fostering your teen’s independence by giving them choices in their lives while also maintaining boundaries.

A parent can’t decide their child’s purpose; you can’t tell anyone what matters to them. Instead, a parents’ job is to help their child identify what is personally important. Parents can listen carefully when their children share their interests and support them in learning more or participating in those activities. This might be providing transportation, sharing in children’s excitement or even volunteering to help events occur.

Not every interest will help your child develop a sense of purpose, but parental support provides the foundation a child needs to confidently explore what brings them happiness — even if it’s different from what their parent finds joy in.

What’s more, we need to be supportive even when we do not see the value of a child’s activities. Many parents worry about video games, for example. In moderation, video games can build valuable skills. Occasionally, gaming can even lead to careers, but even when gaming is just for relaxation, a healthy amount of leisure is very important.

Parents only need to intervene when video games — or whatever interest — interferes with other important life activities, such as sleep, schoolwork, family responsibilities or relationships. You need to look for signs that an interest is harming your child without assuming harm just because your child is making different choices than you would.

This type of parenting builds stronger relationships and trust with your child. You avoid fighting about things that are innocuous — like normal video gaming that you dislike — so that you have the credibility when you need to address something that harms your child’s well-being.

Q: Why does this trust between teens and parents matter?

Fosco: A few years ago, we conducted a study that I think about all the time. It demonstrated the other side of the same coin we found with our most recent study, where teens with more fragile relationships with their caregivers have a decreased sense of well-being.

In the older study, parents and children recorded how close they felt to one another every day. On days children felt close to their parents, they felt happier and had a stronger sense of meaning and purpose in their lives.

Our findings amazed me because they revealed that the impact of connections with parents — or teens— isn’t just ‘in the eye of the beholder.’ For example, on days when teens felt more connected to their parents, they experienced more well-being, meaning and purpose.

What really struck me is that their parents feelings of connection to the teen added to adolescents’ well-being those days. The same was true for parents: their own feelings and their child’s feelings of connection both contributed to parent’s daily well-being. Close relationships are a shared experience — we are affected by how our relationships feel to others, not just ourselves.

Q: How can parents get closer to their teens?

Fosco: First and foremost, remember that love is an essential nutrient for flourishing. Do not stop demonstrating affection for your child.

In adolescence, children often become less comfortable with displays of affection, especially in front of their peers. Parents sometimes feel rejected and stop, but teens still need to feel love. Find ways — through trial and error — to let your child know they are loved. You can almost certainly find a way that works for you and doesn’t embarrass your child.

Also, look for small opportunities when your child reaches out. Teens spend a lot of time not talking to their parents, so when they bring something up, try to engage with curiosity and not judgment.

Adolescents bring stuff up at weird times, and you might be trying to fix a meal or leave for work. Whenever you can, though, you need to fight the urge to move forward with your task. Pay attention to your child and ask questions like, ‘What was that like?' or ‘How did that feel for you?’ If you are attentive when they give you an opportunity, it might open the door to learning what is really on your child’s mind.

Finally, schedule fun things to do with your child, even if for only 15 minutes every week. Base it on what you both like — maybe playing a game of cards or shooting hoops.

Stopping to have fun matters.

When your child is grown and leaves the house, you will remember these moments with nostalgia, not because you are putting on rose-tinted glasses but because these moments matter in helping your child feel accepted, appreciated and supported.

It’s good for parents, too. Taking delight in your children adds value to your life. My kids are hilarious. We need to create opportunities to create these small treasures. That’s where the action is: the small stuff.

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Journal

Family Process

DOI

Heavy drinking takes toll on college students’ cognition

 When college students drink very heavily or to the point of blacking out, they’re more likely to report poorer cognitive functioning the next day, like forgetting someone’s name or having trouble making decisions, according to new research from the University of Oregon.

The findings, published in Alcohol, Clinical and Experimental Research, are important because heavy drinking is common among young adults, yet many don’t realize its negative effects for both the short- and long-term, said one of the study’s lead authors, Ashley Linden-Carmichael, an associate professor in the Department of Counseling Psychology and Human Services in the UO College of Education.

Young adults who drink heavily often assume that once they sober up, everything returns to normal. It doesn’t, the research shows.

“We’re seeing in this study that heavy drinking can affect functioning the next day,” Linden-Carmichael said. “Students could have a harder time with their schoolwork, going to a job or navigating friendships, and that could have big implications for their mental health.”

Young adults age 18-25 report the highest rates of heavy alcohol use among all age groups, and about 5.1 million young adults in the United States met the criteria for alcohol-use disorder in 2023, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. About half of young adults who drink reported at least one instance when they drank to the point of blacking out, studies show.

“When someone is blacking out, they’re continuing to navigate the world, but they’re not processing information or making and storing memories, which can lead to making decisions they normally wouldn’t, increasing the risk for physical injury and sexual assault,” Linden-Carmichael said.

Linden-Carmichael, who is also part of the UO’s Prevention Science Institute, co-authored the study with Jacqueline Mogle of RTI Health Solutions in North Carolina. Other researchers included Jennifer Shipley, also with the Prevention Science Institute, and Sara Miller and Stephen Wilson, both with Penn State University.

The researchers wanted to explore this subject after they saw another research team’s study that included scans showing short-term impacts on the brains of young adults who drank heavily at a 21st birthday event. The effects on the brain were even more pronounced if the person had blacked out.

“We wanted to know whether young people were aware of these effects and if they actually noticed any changes in their cognitive functioning after a night of heavy drinking,” Linden-Carmichael said.

The UO study is the first to track participants over several weeks, surveying them on their cognitive functioning the day after consuming no alcohol, a moderate amount or a large amount. Participants reported their memory lapses, difficulties paying attention or problems making decisions the day after drinking heavily, some to the point of blacking out.

Those moments of self-realization could one day be an ideal time to deliver personalized health education or motivational messages, known as “just-in-time interventions,” through an app to a person’s mobile phone, Linden-Carmichael said. The intervention could provide real-time feedback and help participants connect their current cognitive struggles with yesterday’s heavy drinking, she said.

The researchers appreciated participants’ extensive level of involvement in the study, which set it apart from previous efforts, Linden-Carmichael said.

Prior studies on heavy drinking by young adults tended to follow them for a week or so. The UO study took a longer view, examining drinking on one day and cognitive functioning the next for 304 college students over a 21-day period between November 2023 and May 2024.

To enroll in the study, students had to report a history of heavy drinking at least twice in a typical month and at least one instance in the past year of blackout drinking, defined as not remembering what they did during a drinking episode. Heavy drinking was defined as consuming at least four drinks in a sitting for women and five for men.

The study included both subjective and objective measures of cognition. Each day, researchers texted participants with surveys every two hours between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., asking them to report the previous day’s happenings, and their current temperament and cognition. They had an hour to complete each survey plus a “brain game,” or cognitive task. In one task, participants tried to recall increasingly longer strings of numbers in the reverse order that they had been presented. Participants were scored based on how many numbers they recalled correctly.

The researchers found that any alcohol consumption was linked to a 14% greater likelihood of cognitive lapses the next day compared with no drinking, and each additional drink on a given day was associated with a 5% increase in likelihood of cognitive lapses the next day.

“But the biggest effects were when they drank at very high levels, or when they were blacking out,” Linden-Carmichael said.

High-intensity drinking, more than eight drinks in a sitting for women, or 10 for men, was associated with twice the likelihood of reporting cognitive lapses the next day. Blackout drinking was linked to a 40% greater likelihood of cognitive lapses the next day.

Linden-Carmichael next hopes to examine the role of sleep as a protective factor for young adults who drink heavily or black out and to explore the cognitive effects after consecutive days of heavy drinking or blacking out. She also is conducting research on the effects on young adults of using alcohol and cannabis together.

Georgia Becomes First Universal Pre-K State to Meet 10-of-10 Preschool Quality Benchmarks

States looking to address the child care crisis are expanding access to free pre-k for 3- and 4-year-olds. However, researchers warn that access without quality isn't enough to improve student outcomes.

Georgia’s state-funded pre-k program for 4-year-olds was recognized today as the largest state-funded preschool program in the nation to meet all 10 quality benchmarks, and the first universal program to do so. 

Georgia’s recognition is the top finding in the National Institute for Early Education Research’s new 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook. The yearbook provides an annual snapshot of state-funded preschool across the country.

• Check out the 2025 State of Preschool Yearbook here.
  
• See the 2025 Yearbook featured in Good Morning America and AP.

• Check out today's press conference announcing NIEER's 2025 Yearbook with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.

Only five additional states meet all 10 of NIEER’s research-based benchmarks for quality —Alabama, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi, and Rhode Island—in this year’s report. None of those programs have the reach of Georgia Pre-K. NIEER’s benchmarks measure essential preschool quality indicators, including teacher qualifications, class sizes, early learning standards, and program assessments.

“Other states should take note: Georgia proves that state-funded preschool with well-qualified teachers, pay parity with K-12, small classes, and strong continuous improvement systems can be scaled as a universal program,” said NIEER director Steve Barnett. “With new initiatives to support quality, Georgia can expect increased enrollment, but leaders should also actively promote increased enrollment."

Nationally, state support for preschool education hit record highs in enrollment and funding in 2024-2025. The pace of growth slowed, however, compared to the prior year, and many states continue to lag behind pre-pandemic enrollment levels.

Preschool enrollment increased by 44,000 children nationally, reaching almost 1.8 million, including 37% of U.S. 4-year-olds and 9% of 3-year-olds. California, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri contributed the most to increased enrollment, adding more than 52,000 new seats.

States spent $14.4 billion on preschool in 2024-2025. Including federal and local dollars, total spending was nearly $17.7 billion. Three states each spent more than $1 billion last year: California ($4.1 billion), New Jersey ($1.2 billion), and New York ($1 billion). Together, these three states account for 45% of all state preschool spending. Texas adds almost another $1 billion.



Spending increased by $434 million, or 3%, adjusted for inflation. Twenty-eight states increased preschool funding, including Michigan and New Jersey, which each added more than $100 million.

“Not only does preschool access vary by which state a child happens to live in, but so does the quality of that preschool experience,” said Allison Friedman-Krauss, lead author of the report. “Only high-quality early care and education programs support children’s development enough to result in lasting academic and other gains that ultimately deliver savings for taxpayers.”

A record six states met all 10 of NIEER’s recommended quality standards, with Alabama doing so for the 20th consecutive year.

Georgia joined this list this year after improving its teacher-to-child ratio from 1:11 to 1:10 and lowering maximum class sizes to 20. Several states met 9 of 10 benchmarks, including New Mexico, which is working toward universal access for both three- and four-year-olds. Once New Mexico requires all lead teachers to have a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, it will be on par with Georgia in terms of both quality and quantity.

Not all states moved forward. Twenty states enrolled fewer preschoolers in 2024-2025 than the prior year, with enrollment dropping by more than 1,000 children in Arizona, Florida, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. Seventeen states spent less on preschool than the prior year, adjusted for inflation, with Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas seeing the largest percentage declines.

 

Additional information about the State of Preschool Yearbook, including individual state profiles and maps, graphs, and state rankings, can be found at www.nieer.org.

Low screen time alone not associated with better language skills without active conversation

 

Young children who spend more time on screen-based activities and less time talking with adults tend to have weaker language skills, according to a recent study from the University of Tartu. The findings highlight that daily interaction – rather than screen limits alone – plays a key role in early language development. 

The result may seem intuitive, yet the data reveal a more nuanced pattern. Children growing up in families where conversation is frequent show stronger language abilities, even when parents themselves use screens regularly. This suggests that it is not only about reducing screen time, but also about what replaces it. 

This issue is becoming increasingly relevant, as previous studies have shown that most children aged two to five already exceed the widely recommended limit of one hour of screen time per day. Early language skills, in turn, are closely tied to later academic success, social development, and overall wellbeing, making everyday home environments a critical factor in shaping long-term outcomes. 

The study analysed data from 448 Estonian children aged 30 to 48 months. The researchers examined associations between children’s and parents’ screen use, time spent in child-adult face-to-face conversations, and early language skills. Language skills were assessed using a standardised parental questionnaire measuring vocabulary, grammar, and communication complexity. 

Results showed a consistent pattern: higher screen time was associated with lower language scores, whereas greater child-adult conversational engagement was associated with higher language outcomes. These associations remained significant even when both factors were included in the same model. The leading author of the study, Research Fellow in Developmental Psychology Jaan Tulviste noted that screen use and face-to-face conversation represent related but distinct correlates of early language development. 

To better understand family dynamics, the researchers identified three typical behavioural profiles. In “Screen-Saturated, Somewhat Talkative Families,” both parents and children used screens frequently and children showed lower language scores. In “Low-Screen, Quiet Families,” screen use was limited but conversation was also sparse – and language outcomes were not better. The strongest results appeared in “Parent-Screen, Talk-Rich Families,” where children experienced frequent face-to-face conversations, alongside moderate parental screen use. 

This suggests that simply cutting screen time may not be enough. “Low screen exposure alone was not linked to stronger language skills unless it was paired with active child-adult conversation,” Tulviste emphasised. 

The researchers point out that the study is based on parent-reported data and captures associations, not causality. This means that it cannot establish cause and effect. It remains possible that children with weaker language skills are more drawn to screens, rather than screen use directly leading to poorer outcomes.  

Nevertheless, the findings suggest that focusing solely on reducing screen time may be insufficient. What appears to matter more is whether screen use is accompanied by, or replaced with, opportunities for meaningful interaction. Activities such as talking, reading, and shared play provide important language input in early childhood. As Tulviste explained: “Children benefit most from sustained, back-and-forth interaction with adults.” 

The study “High screen time and low child-adult talk associated with poorer language development in early childhood” was published in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.

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Journal

Frontiers in Developmental Psychology

DOI

10.3389/fdpys.2026.1787710 

Teachers warn of changes in pupils' attention and thinking when learning with screen

In the 2022/2023 academic year, according to figures from the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, 92% of public secondary schools in Spain had virtual learning environments that students could access with devices such as computers and tablets. Digitalization opens up countless opportunities in the classroom, linked to the acquisition of the new skills and competencies needed to meet the challenges of the 21st century, but it also entails a rethinking of learning methods, which requires careful attention.

A study organized by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) analysed this phenomenon, focusing on the experiences of teaching staff. It conducted interviews with thirty secondary school teachers in Catalonia to examine in depth how the intensive use of digital platforms is influencing students' attention, reading, writing and autonomy.

The study, carried out by Jordi Solé and Raúl Navarro, researchers at the Laboratory of Social Education (LES) and members of the teaching staff in the UOC's Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, together with Dr Marta Venceslao Pueyo, from the University of Barcelona, is presented in the open-access article Learning with screens? Teachers' voices on the effects of platformization in secondary education. The results reveal largely critical perceptions and point to profound transformations in learning processes.

 

Evaluating the impact of digital technology on secondary education

"The main motivation for conducting this study was to critically rethink what learning with screens means in secondary education today," said co-author Raúl Navarro. "We observed that digitalization has been implemented at an accelerated pace, driven by institutional policies and pressure from the technology sector, but without sufficiently considering its real effects on learning. We also found that the experience of teachers, despite being central to these processes, is often sidelined in the public debate, which is dominated by techno-optimistic discourse. Our study stems precisely from a desire to place the voice and experience of teachers at the centre of the analysis."

According to the authors, digital platforms are not neutral tools: they reorganize school schedules, teaching practice and the very ways pupils learn. Hence the need to assess their impact on secondary education, a crucial stage in pupils' development and learning, and to do so through interviews with teachers.

The article also seeks to expand upon and refine the results obtained by previous studies which have analysed the impact of digital platforms on school organization. The articleis part of the Socio TechED (Socio-technical imaginaries in education: political networks of governance and digital sovereignty) research project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

 

The consequences of learning with screens

The study's results associate digital platformization with a fragmentation of pupils' knowledge, an alteration of their socio-cognitive conditions, disruptions in learning times and a shift in cognitive effort towards technologies such as artificial intelligence.

"According to the teachers interviewed, platforms encourage superficial and fragmented reading, hinder in-depth understanding, and interrupt didactic continuity through short and disconnected tasks. They also impose accelerated rhythms and multitasking logic that affect concentration," said Navarro, who is attached to the UOC-FuturEd centre.

"Then there is the use of generative artificial intelligence tools, which facilitates cognitive delegation and reduces students' personal involvement in basic processes such as writing, synthesis or presenting arguments." As a result, respondents have observed a loss of depth in learning, an impoverishment in written language and a decrease in the intellectual autonomy of pupils.

"The educational value of many traditional school assignments and of the current assessment model is also being questioned. And we see increasing saturation and digital fatigue, together with changes to pupils' subjectivity, as they are increasingly conditioned by the logic of immediacy and instant gratification," Navarro adds. "All of this leads us to emphasize the urgency of rethinking the meaning of learning in a context marked by automation and the attention economy."

 

Mostly critical teaching staff

The results of the study carried out in Catalonia show that the views of the teachers interviewed are mostly critical, although not uniformly so. "The main concerns are the fragmentation of learning, the accelerated pace of school work and the cognitive delegation associated with the use of artificial intelligence. However, ambivalent voices are also emerging, recognizing technology's pedagogical potential when used selectively, with regulation and critical mediation," said Navarro.

He added that in many cases teachers assert their professional autonomy to decide when and how to use these resources. Paying attention to the experience of teachers is fundamental to evaluating the impact of digitalization in classrooms, since it is they who observe first-hand how digital platforms and technologies influence attention, effort, assessment and the pedagogical bond.

"In contrast to normative or technocratic discourse that tends to idealize innovation, teachers' voices highlight the pedagogical, cognitive and symbolic consequences that these changes bring about in day-to-day practice," Navarro said. "Teachers' opinions have traditionally been marginalized in these developments, and our goal is to contribute to the public debate by providing empirical evidence on the effects of digitalization, which are often left out of political agendas."

Navarro and Solé therefore propose to further examine the relationship between digital platforms, artificial intelligence and educational subjectivity, and to analyse what type of students digital schooling produces, what discourses are vying for dominance in education and what the value of teaching and learning is in today's society.

High school journalism leading the way in financial literacy, even if business isn't part of curriculum

 

 Journalism classes usually are not paired with business lessons. While there have been calls for increasing business knowledge in journalism, research from the University of Kansas has found that high school journalists are learning business skills even though they are not a core part of the curriculum. 

To better understand how high school media advisers address business challenges, researchers conducted interviews with 29 such educators from across the country. Findings showed that while the programs rarely addressed business concepts and skills directly, students did learn about the business side of the trade through practice and experiential learning.

“The reality is high school journalism has been leading financial literacy education for decades out of necessity,” said Sarah Cavanah, assistant professor of journalism at KU and the study’s lead author. “There has often been intense pressure on school publications to pay for themselves. They have been at the forefront, these publications, but we rarely talk about it.”

In detailed interviews, the journalism advisers told researchers about how their publications operated. While the majority said they did not include information on financial topics like budgets, payroll or operating costs, students still learned about the business side of media. Many students were required to sell advertisements to local businesses to fund their publications such as newspapers and yearbooks. Others held fundraisers or took part in events like running concession stands at school events to raise money.

Just as financial strains are real in the media industry, the researchers found the financial pressures of leading student media are a concern for those charged with the task.

“Finances are a gigantic source of stress for educators,” Cavanah said.

Several respondents reported their publications were routinely run at a deficit or told they would be responsible for making sure their operations broke even or turned a profit. Several educators reported writing grants to fund their operations.

For example, one adviser in the study admitted to crying when her administration asked her to take over the yearbook program because she knew the financial stress would be huge.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but when I took over the program, it was almost $30,000 in debt,” the adviser told the researcher team. “And so, the activities director at the time, he … bailed us out for two years in a row there, because we couldn’t come up with the money to make the payment for the yearbook. And that’s when I vowed, I was not going to, I wasn’t going to be in the red ever again. It was too stressful.”

The study, written with Peter Bobkowski of Kent State University, Leslie Klein of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Marina Hendricks of South Dakota State University and Monica Hill of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was published in the journal Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.

The authors wrote that student media in general is overlooked, especially the financial side. To their knowledge, the study is the first in the last 50 years to examine the business side of high school journalism education.

While the study’s findings revealed that high school students are getting financial lessons, even if indirectly, they also show there is a real opportunity to improve financial literacy and business of media education. To that end, the authors make three practical recommendations for improving the state of business and journalism education.

First, journalism educators at the university level could better prepare future journalism teachers to teach the topic. While some curricular materials related to business are available to high school teachers through organizations like the Journalism Education Association or offered through sessions at state organizations like the Kansas Student Press Association, they are a tiny fraction compared to curricular materials focused on reporting, writing, editing and shooting news. High school advisers are stretched thin, and making these materials available for their use could ease the teaching burden and enhance student learning outcomes, the authors wrote.

Second, journalism advisers could take full advantage of their experiential learning environment by more fully involving students in financial planning and business strategy for their publications. The best practice in student media has been to let students take control over news decisions as much as possible. This recommendation pushes advisers to consider extending that to the financial operations of the publications as well. Making lessons a more formalized part of curriculum could also enhance lessons students learn through experiential practices like selling ads, the authors wrote.

Finally, journalism educators and school leaders could help their cause by formalizing pedagogy and accurately expressing the value student media provides to its practitioners. While student media provides real-world lessons in sales, budgeting and other business concepts, communicating that value to policymakers and communities would be beneficial, as those skills are highly transferrable, Cavanah said, pointing out that the majority of student journalists do not go on to careers in media but do take those acquired skills with them.

The multi-university research team Cavanah is a part of is currently conducting research into how high school educators are teaching about the role of objective facts in their classrooms, how high school journalism education aligns with federal requirements for what all students should achieve in high school and on how former high school journalists have applied their skills in their careers 10 years after graduating.

“I’ve seen that student media is under-researched and underwritten about, even though it is very beneficial to students,” Cavanah said. “But it can be difficult to show that benefit without empirical evidence and studies. That got me motivated in doing more of this research.”

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Journal

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator

DOI

10.1177/10776958261428535 

Bullying and adverse social climate take measurable toll on mental health of gender-diverse youth

 

Large national study finds social and political stressors drive rising rates of psychological distress, risk for serious mental health disorders

Gender-diverse adolescents who experience bullying and live in states with persistently unsupportive gender identity laws are significantly more likely to suffer escalating psychological distress compared to their peers, according to new research by UCLA Health.

The findings, published in JAMA Network, draw on one of the largest, most comprehensive adolescent brain development studies in the U.S. The study results suggest that the mental health burden carried by gender-diverse youth is not an inherent consequence of gender diversity but rather is shaped by the social and political environments in which these young people live.

“What we're seeing is that stigma has measurable neuropsychiatric consequences,” said the study’s senior author Carrie Bearden, a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the UCLA Brain Research Institute. “Bullying and unsupportive legislation are not abstract policy concerns; they translate into real and serious symptoms in adolescents' day-to-day lives.”

Specifically, researchers found that gender-diverse teens reported higher rates of subtle but clinically meaningful warning signs of psychological stress. These experiences, known clinically as psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), are subtle, distressing internal experiences such as feeling unusually suspicious of others, thinking others are talking or laughing at them, feeling threatened or hearing sounds others do not. PLEs are not clinical psychosis. However, if untreated, these experiences can lead to increased risk of developing mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, self-harming behavior and psychotic disorder.

About the study

UCLA researchers analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, a large, population-based longitudinal study that has tracked adolescents across 21 sites in 17 U.S. states since they were 9 years old. Researchers used the data to perform both a point-in-time analysis of 8,463 participants with an average age of 13, and a longitudinal analysis followed 4,200 participants across five data collection waves between 2017 and 2022.

Participants were assessed for gender diversity, bullying victimization and PLEs. Gender diversity was measured dimensionally by capturing how congruent or incongruent each adolescent's sense of gender was with their birth-assigned sex, rather than relying solely on whether a participant self-identified as transgender or gender nonconforming. Bullying victimization was captured through self-reported frequency of bullying experiences. Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) were measured using the Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief Child Version, a validated screening tool that asks adolescents about the presence and associated distress of subtle psychological symptoms.

Researchers also used state-level policy data from the Movement Advance Project (MAP) nonprofit group to determine whether the participant’s state maintained supportive or unsupportive legislation related to gender identity in a given year.

What the research found

Gender-diverse youth reported significantly higher rates of both bullying victimization and PLEs than their peers. Bullying acted as a mediator between gender-diversity and PLEs and accounted for 18% of that difference.

State policy told a more gradual story. No differences emerged at any single point in time, but adolescents in states that consistently lacked supportive gender identity legislation showed significantly greater increases in PLEs over four years. In all other groups, regardless of gender diversity, PLEs declined or held steady.

The proportion of U.S. adolescents ages 13 to 17 identifying as transgender or gender diverse doubled from 0.73% to 1.43% between 2017 and 2022, according to a UCLA study in 2022. Separate research cited by the authors found that the passage of unsupportive laws between 2018 and 2020 was associated with a 7% to 72% increase in suicide attempt rates among transgender and gender-diverse youth. In 2025, more than 600 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced throughout the U.S., which was double that of 2022, according to ACLU data cited in the study.

Researchers hypothesize that chronic exposure to bullying and an unsupportive political climate may foster hypervigilance in gender-diverse teens, which is a core feature of psychotic-spectrum symptoms.

“Without clinicians asking the right questions about a patient’s social environment, we may miss out on robust treatment targets,” said the study’s first author Dylan Hughes, a clinical psychology graduate student at UCLA. “At the same time, policy makers – and voters – also play an important role. Voting on a policy with the intention of helping our youth should include consideration of the policy’s downstream effects on these kids’ mental health.”

Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute of Mental Health, NIH.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.8104