Nutrition strategies for concussion management

Nutrition strategies for concussion management are being implemented by dietitians to support Australia’s elite collision sport athletes, new Griffith University research has found.

Lead author Dr Nathan Delang interviewed 14 Accredited Sports Dietitians who work across professional AFL, Rugby League, and Rugby Union teams to explore their practices and perspectives relating to concussion management.

“Concussion is so common in contemporary professional collision sports, typically once every three games, so it’s important to ensure optimal support is provided for athletes,” Dr Delang said.

“Most sports dietitians provided nutrition support either before and/or after concussion, with fish oil and creatine monohydrate the most commonly recommended supplements.

“Fish oil and creatine might support concussion recovery through several mechanisms from mitigating excessive neuroinflammation through to enhancing the availability of energy for supporting brain recovery and returning to exercise.

“All dietitians reported a food-first approach as central to recovery with a focus on energy intake, hydration, and healthy eating patterns to help athletes maintain their pre-injury nutrition status.”

Alongside fish oil and creatine, other supplements in use by professional teams included vitamin B2, tart cherry extract, curcumin, and vitamin D.

Professor Ben Desbrow from Griffith’s School of Allied Health, Sport and Social Work said while Australians sports dietitians were already using nutrition as part of concussion care, the practice was advancing faster than the evidence base.

“Practitioners are confident with familiar products, such as creatine, which are often already in use as a physical performance aid,” he said.

“However, they want stronger evidence so they can confidently tailor nutrition advice for complex concussion cases.

“We need stronger clinical research and formal guidelines to support safe, consistent and equitable care for athletes.”

The paper ‘Concussion and nutrition in professional-level collision sports: Perspectives from Australian Sports Dietitians’ has been published in The Journal of Nutrition. 

Strong childhood friendships could be the antidote to lifelong social media harms

 The key to protecting children from social media’s harmful effects may lie not in restrictions alone, but in equipping them with robust real-world friendship skills from an early age.

This is the argument put forward by counsellor and winner of global awards in education and business, a counsellor Madhavi Nawana Parker in her new book, The Friendship Blueprint, who says: “It’s urgent that we act now to nurture our children’s social intelligence and protect their future.”

As Australian legislation to ban social media access for children under 16 takes effect, educators are highlighting how early intervention in social and emotional learning could provide a crucial buffer against its well-documented risks to mental health and self-worth.

The importance of friendship

As the social media ban is enforced, Nawana Parker, who is CEO of Positive Minds Australia and has worked in Australian schools for almost three decades, suggests that restriction alone may not be sufficient.

Instead, Nawana Parker argues that children who develop strong face-to-face relationship skills are better equipped to navigate digital spaces healthily when they eventually gain access.

She suggests teaching children emotional regulation – the ability to notice, understand, and manage feelings – forms the foundation of both healthy friendships and responsible digital citizenship. This means that children who learn these skills early are less likely to base their identity and self-worth on online validation, and instead seek comfort and gain confidence from their friends.

“Delaying device use gives brain more time to develop social skills,” Nawana Parker explains.

“It is my belief, rooted deep in both research and lived experience, that our ability to connect with others is not just nice-to-have, but an essential ingredient for well-being, meaning, and success. In a world that can sometimes feel hurried, uncertain, or even a little lonely, the power of friendship is more important than ever.

“I’ve witnessed countless young people transform, finding confidence, self-awareness, and hope as they overcome loneliness and discover authentic connection.”

Relationship skills as the foundation

At the heart of Nawana Parker’s argument is that the skills needed to build and maintain friendships will not only help children be kinder to each other and navigate disagreements more peacefully, but will also improve their long-term self-worth.

Nawana Parker suggests there is a critical developmental window – even though emotional intelligence continues to develop well into adulthood, the foundations are laid in childhood through real-world social experiences.

The key skills she suggests children need to learn are self-awareness, communication skills, empathy and perspective taking, conflict resolution, inclusion and co-operation.

“Strong friendships depend on emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills,” Nawana Parker explains. “These competencies help children stay connected to friends, even during disagreements or challenging times.”

Research cited in the book demonstrates that peer relationships significantly influence children’s values, behaviour and sense of belonging. Children who miss out on these formative interactions may be particularly vulnerable when they later encounter the curated, often toxic environment of social media.

Nawana Parker asks: “Would you rather have 500 followers who scroll past your posts, or two friends who notice when you are unusually quiet? The answer reveals what we all know deep down: that authentic friendship is not measured in cursory clicks, but in genuine care.”

Emotional resilience

As well as providing children with connection and confidence, friendships can also teach children how to repair relationships when things go wrong, Nawana Parker explains.

Building and repairing friendships teaches children critical lifelong skills such as conflict resolution and empathy, and how to respectfully communicate differing opinions – key skills for the online world.

“How can adults help children avoid friendship roadblocks? At this age, emotions often override logic, making it hard to process social upsets calmly. Children need support to manage these challenges. Emotional intelligence and healthy boundaries develop over time.

“When handled with self-awareness, compassion, and respect, these moments help build communication, empathy, compromise, and trust,” she explains.

Nawana Parker suggests that the conflicts and disagreements in childhood help children to develop empathy, learn to self-regulate and refine their communication skills – foundations which will help to determine how they engage with digital platforms later in life.

“Going through everyday misunderstandings, occasionally feeling left out, and experiencing changes in friendship dynamics provide perfect opportunities (with our support and guidance) to develop these skills. While these experiences are all painful, and we certainly don’t want them to happen more than the joyful and mutually respectful interactions, early childhood is practice for the very real ups and downs of human relationships,” she explains.

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DOI

10.4324/9781003617570 

Firearm carrying accelerates suicide risk among high school students

Researchers link the behavior to soaring suicide rates among Black and Hispanic youth

Self-reports from more than 23,000 high school students in 15 states for a school-based survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control reveal a strong association between firearm carrying and the risk of suicide by any method, according to a new study by Michael A. Lindsey of New York University and other mental health experts.

Published today in JAMA Network Open, the study finds that adolescents who acknowledged carrying a firearm within the previous 30 days were nearly four – or 3.72 – times as likely as non-carriers to have attempted suicide within the prior 12 months.

The “acquired capability” that comes with carrying a firearm— “including habituation to fear and fearlessness about death” —can be lethal for a teenager, given the typically rapid transition from suicidal thoughts to attempts, which for most individuals can be one hour, the study noted.

“Among adolescents, gun carrying may represent both increased access to lethal means during acute crisis and heightened capability for suicide, accelerating the transition from ideation to attempts," according to the study, which was led by Lindsey, a widely cited scholar on youth suicidality and child and adolescent mental health who is the dean of the NYU Silver School of Social Work and the Paulette Goddard Professor of Social Work.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among high school adolescents (after accidental death), with firearms serving as the primary means of suicide among youth since 2020. However, prior researchers have focused on the risks of suicidality posed by youth access to guns in the home, rather than firearm carrying.

The current study found that more than 35 percent of non-Hispanic Black gun carriers indicated they attempted suicide during the 12 months before they were surveyed, having carried a gun three months prior to their survey response. That compared with 30 percent of Hispanic gun-carrying youth, and 21 percent of White gun-carrying youth. “Given that firearm suicide rates among Black youth have increased by 245% since 2014, these findings take on special urgency,” said Lindsey.

Nationally, youth suicide declined starting in 1981, only to reverse course as of 2015, most rapidly among Black and Latinx youth. White youth, who for decades experienced the highest suicide rates among racial groups, have seen a 6% decrease in suicides since the start of 2015.

Lindsey worked closely with adolescent mental health specialists at NYU, UC Berkeley, and Harvard in analyzing the 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Combined Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The classroom-level survey, done every two years, monitors and compiles data on high-priority health risk behaviors and trends among high school students nationwide.

Among the findings of Lindsey and his coinvestigators is that heightened risk of a suicide attempt is not only strongly linked with firearm carrying but is independent of a gun-carrying adolescent’s grade, race, ethnicity, or sex.

The researchers looked into whether states with strict gun laws reduced suicides and suicide attempts, but a clear picture was not readily determinable. Using Everytown for Gun Safety’s 2023 measure of the strength of firearm laws state-by-state, the researchers found only that stronger laws appeared to be “modestly protective” for youth, which aligns with past research.

No matter how, or in what state, teenagers may procure a gun, toting it with them signals “a salient marker of risk,” with a higher chance that a troubled adolescent will feel emboldened to cut their life short by any means (not necessarily with a firearm), the researchers wrote.

“Gun carrying may confer suicide risk not primarily as the method of attempt, but because it: (1) provides immediate access to lethal means during acute crises; (2) serves as an indicator of broader risk-taking and externalizing behaviors; and (3) signals heightened exposure to violence and trauma,” according to the study.

They pointed to a “robustness of the association across demographic groups and policy environments” as evidence of the personal danger represented by firearm carrying among teenagers.

Describing multilevel suicide-prevention measures, the study recommended that mental health practitioners incorporate assessments of gun carrying into routine suicide risk screenings in pediatric and school-based settings, alongside lethal-means counseling for families in firearm-owning households, an evidence-based suicide prevention strategy.

The study also recommended comprehensive firearm legislation to prevent child access to firearms, safe storage, and age restrictions, with a particular emphasis on keeping adolescents from accessing firearms. Addressing youth suicide also requires measures to reduce racially/ethnically marginalized adolescents’ exposure to violence, economic precarity, and unequal access to mental health care.

Along with Lindsey, the research investigation was conducted by Jasmin Brooks Stephens of UC Berkeley, Department of Psychology; Brittney Singletary of NYU Silver; Taylor McGuire of Harvard, Department of Psychology; and John Dixon of the NOXID Group.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.26924 

Inflated confidence may not give children a learning advantage after all

 

Young children often overestimate what they can do. That overconfidence may help them approach challenges without fear, but it can also get them into trouble. Children who overestimate their physical abilities, for example, may take risks that make accidental injuries more likely.

Previous research has suggested that overconfidence may also help children learn. Believing they can succeed, the theory goes, might encourage them to persist longer at difficult tasks and eventually see performance improvements.

New research, however, suggests that this apparent learning advantage may be a statistical illusion. In a study published in Psychological Science, a team led by researchers at Beijing Normal University found that the reported benefit could be explained by how children were sorted into groups and by a common statistical pattern called regression to the mean. When the researchers experimentally increased or decreased children’s confidence, they found no difference in performance changes between the two groups.

“Parents and educators should be cautious about assuming that inflated confidence will improve children’s learning,” said lead author Mengqi Hu of Beijing Normal University. “Encouraging children to believe they are more capable than they actually are may create positive feelings, but our results indicate that such illusory beliefs do not necessarily translate into better performance.”

The idea that overconfidence might aid learning gained traction after a 2007 study found that highly overconfident children showed more favorable performance changes during a memory task. Children predicted how many words they would remember before studying and recalling each list. Although most overestimated their recall, those classified as highly overconfident appeared to improve more, or decline less, than their less-overconfident peers. The researchers suggested that inflated confidence might promote persistence and engagement, making it potentially adaptive.

Despite being widely cited, the 2007 study’s findings have never been replicated. Hu and her colleagues set out to replicate the earlier findings and determine whether overconfidence actually causes children’s performance to improve. Their investigation unfolded in three stages.

First, the researchers replicated the 2007 study with 30 children, between 6 and 8 years old. On the surface, the highly overconfident group appeared to fare better, showing a smaller decline in recall than the less-overconfident group.

But a closer look showed that the apparent advantage did not reflect better learning. Instead, it arose from differences between the groups at the start of the task.

“The highly overconfident group started with lower recall, whereas the two groups did not differ in their later recall performance,” Hu said.

That pattern raised a critical question: Could the original study’s methods make overconfidence appear beneficial even when it had no effect on learning?

To find out, the researchers turned to computer simulations. They created four models, each simulating data from 1,000 children under different assumptions. In one model, overconfidence had no effect on learning. Even so, when the researchers analyzed the simulated data using the 2007 study’s methods, the apparent advantage reappeared. The simulation showed that the analysis itself could create the impression that overconfidence helped children learn.

The simulations demonstrated how the apparent advantage could arise, but they did not establish whether overconfidence itself affected performance. To test that question experimentally, the researchers randomly assigned 64 children to receive feedback intended to make them more or less overconfident. The children wore what they were told was an EEG-based device for assessing their memory. Before each task, half were falsely told that the assessment showed they had excellent memory; the others were told that their memory was poor.

The feedback successfully changed the children’s confidence, but it did not change how their recall changed over the course of the task. The two groups performed similarly. Yet when the researchers analyzed the results using the 2007 study’s grouping method, the apparent advantage of overconfidence returned.

The researchers found that the problem lays in how children were assigned to the groups. They measured overconfidence by subtracting a child’s actual recall score from the number of words the child predicted they would remember. As a result, children with unusually low initial recall scores were more likely to be classified as highly overconfident. Those with unusually high scores were more likely to be classified as less overconfident.

The researchers then used those same initial recall scores to measure how much the children’s performance changed. But unusually low or high scores often move closer to the average when measured again, simply because of natural variation. This pattern, known as regression to the mean, made children who started with low scores appear to improve more, or decline less, even when overconfidence had no effect.

“Taken together, these findings suggest that the previously reported learning advantage reflected a methodological artifact rather than a genuine benefit of childhood overconfidence,” Hu said.

She emphasized, however, that the findings do not diminish the value of optimism or encouragement.

“The key is to distinguish supportive encouragement from exaggerating a child’s competence,” she said. “In practice, feedback may be more useful when it is grounded in children’s actual effort, strategies, and progress, while also helping them recognize where improvement is needed.”

Reference

Hu, M., Zhao, W., Cao, M., Shanks, D.R., Hu, X., Luo, L., Yang, C. (2026). Does Overconfidence Really Confer Adaptive Benefits to Children’s Learning? Psychological Science.

Cat training program helps children with developmental disabilities

A cat-training program for children with developmental disabilities fostered healthy child behaviors, strengthened relationships between children and their family cats and improved cats’ social behavior, a new study found.

“People often underestimate what cats can contribute to human-animal interventions,” said Monique Udell, a professor at Oregon State University who studies human-animal interactions. “This study shows that cats can be active participants rather than passive companions. When children and their cats work together through training, it can strengthen their bond while supporting positive outcomes for both the child and the cat.”

The study builds on growing interest in animal-assisted interventions to promote physical, psychological and social well-being of people. The interventions are increasingly recognized as a promising approach to help children, including those with physical or learning disabilities or social, emotional or behavioral challenges.

Dogs and horses have received most of the attention. Udell wanted to explore whether cats could play a similar role. She has studied the human-cat bond for more than a decade and has found that cats, like dogs, are a social species and possess many of the same traits, such as the ability to form attachment bonds with humans and the ability to be trained.

The study also arrives at a time that Udell called a “cultural shift” involving cats. She mentioned people wanting to train their cats and the adventure cats movement, in which people increasingly want to take their cats on walks, camping or even kayaking.

The researchers also examined cat attachment to the child and cat sociability in the presence of the child by videotaping the standardized training sessions and assessing the video for certain behaviors. For example, sociability was measured by how much time a cat had at least one paw within a taped semi-circle encompassing a 1-meter radius around the child.

Findings included:

• Children in the training group demonstrated a significant increase in a cat care responsibility survey while those in the control group reported a decrease.
• Children in the training group who reported teaching their cats new things increased from 44% before the training sessions to 94% post-training, and the proportion who walked their cats increased from 28% to 78%.
• Children consistently attended the training sessions and completed the homework, both signs of the program having a stronger impact, the researchers noted. All participants attended all six training sessions, and there was a mean homework completion rate of 81%.

“This helps demonstrate that when we provide the right opportunities and guidance on how children and adolescents can improve their relationships with their cats, we can see positive changes happen,” Udell said. “The cats are becoming more confident. They're becoming more social. And they're developing stronger bonds that the children are benefiting from too. They're seeing these cats now as partners; a source of motivation to take on more responsibility and engage in healthy behaviors. 

All 50 states have introduced bills to regulate digital media for kids

 

 — a new database tracks them

As of March 2026, every U.S. state had introduced at least one bill seeking to regulate social media or other digital platforms for people younger than 18. The wave of legislation would be difficult for anyone to keep track of, whether they’re a researcher, parent or policymaker. Researchers at the University of California, Davis have built a public database to help. 

The Youth Digital Policy Repository categorizes state legislation by location, year and topic, including age verification, parental consent and targeted ads. The database, available to the public, lists researchers who can provide expertise to policymakers working on future legislation. 

“Adolescent mental health and well-being is such an important outcome,” said Samantha Vigil, the database project lead and a Ph.D. candidate in communication at UC Davis. “This repository provides a centralized source of regulations, both attempted and passed, to inform future legislation.”

Vigil developed the tool in the UC Davis Human Development and Media Lab with primary investigator Drew Cingel, an associate professor of communication. The researchers describe the database and the legislative landscape behind it in Journal of Children and Media. 

Supporting action on social media risks

The database compiles introduced, passed, failed and enacted legislation. It currently includes 379 pieces of U.S. legislation that date back to 2022, and the research team plans to expand its coverage globally. 

Undergraduate research assistants helped compile the repository’s contents by identifying, reading and coding all digital-media related legislative bills at each step of the lawmaking process from introduction to passage or failure. The repository will be updated twice yearly in June and November. 

“We hope that it helps politicians and policymakers in state governments across the United States to be aware of what other states are doing to help shape our own local and state laws,” Cingel said.

The social media regulation landscape

The growth in proposed U.S. social media regulations reflects concerns from both teens and parents about the technology’s risks. A 2025 Pew Research Center survey found that 48% of American 13- to 17-year-olds called social media harmful to people their age and 44% of parents identified social media as the leading harm to their child’s mental health. 

Cingel said that research has implicated social media in poor mental health among U.S. children and teens, driven in part by platform features such as infinite scrolling and content-recommending algorithms.

Other countries have already enacted legislation to curb access to social media for minors. In 2024, Australia passed a law banning access to social media for those 16 years and younger. It took effect in December of 2025. This June, the U.K. government announced a similar ban to begin in 2027.

Vigil said that U.S. social media regulation is more fragmented, which is partly why a tracking tool is needed. U.S. lawmakers, she said, are more hesitant to propose outright bans for children and teens. Other advocates seek to increase media literacy so young people can be safer online.

Instead of bans or placing the burden of safety on children and parents, Vigil said the platforms themselves should be designed in a way that makes them safer to use.

“Social media and AI and other technologies are so ingrained in the world that children are growing up in, so to close the door and say you don't get to use this because it's not safe takes away a lot of opportunities and some of the potential benefits,” said Vigil.

Co-authors include Matthew Shawcroft with UC Davis; Sarah Coyne with Brigham Young University; Sonia Livingstone with the London School of Economics and Political Science and Jane Shawcroft with The Ohio State University. 

Visit the Youth Digital Policy Repository.

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Journal

Journal of Children and Media

DOI

10.1080/17482798.2026.2698291 

Social bonds, recognition linked to reduced suicidal thoughts in teens

 

Actions taken by parents, schools and neighbors can reduce suicidal thoughts and behavior among Pennsylvania teens, according to a new study by Penn State researchers

Nearly one in five teenagers has suicidal thoughts, and suicide is the second most common cause of death for that age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Social bonds and social recognition, however, could reduce the risk of adolescent suicide, according to a new study by researchers in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development.

Suicide and suicidality are complex. To determine how young people’s interactions with others connected to higher or lower suicidal thoughts, actions or risk factors, the researchers examined data from nearly 200,000 Pennsylvania teenagers.

Overall, the team found that personal connections and public recognition for achievements at the family, school and community levels were related to reduced suicide risk, either directly or through lower levels of depression, substance use or bullying. They also found that rural students face greater risk than urban students. Published online in Journal of Adolescent Health, study results indicate how parents, schools and neighbors can help reduce suicide risk in their families and communities.

“We found that strong social bonds help decrease teen suicide risk in every circumstance,” said Xue Zhang, assistant professor of biobehavioral health and lead author of the study. “While there is no single solution to preventing adolescent suicide, strengthening social bonds is a strategy that can benefit all young people.”

The researchers analyzed data from 190,151 students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 who participated in the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS), a long-running survey of behavior and attitudes related to violence and the use of intoxicating or addictive substances. PAYS includes questions about substance use, depression and experiences of being bullied, factors shown to increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Students also answer questions about several factors that are known to reduce suicide risk, including their relationship with parents or caregivers, their engagement in and perceived value of school and how much they want to leave their community.

“At the highest level, these results are clear: strong relationships are key protective factors in youth suicide prevention,” said Jonathan Wright, assistant research professor in the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center and co-author of the study. “And when you dig into the data a little deeper, there are nuanced results that might help parents, towns and school districts keep their children safe.”

Teenagers who reported a stronger attachment to their immediate family demonstrated the greatest reduction in suicide risk. In the survey, study participants indicated whether they felt low, moderate or high attachment to their families. Those who reported one higher level of attachment — from low to moderate or from moderate to high — had one-third less suicide risk than peers.

“This is great news because it means there is something families can do,” said Zhang, a Penn State Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member. “Building a closer relationship with a teenager may not always feel easy, but it is possible. Research has identified many ways that parents can connect with their adolescent children. Listening to teens without judgment, taking an interest in topics that matter to them, and doing fun things together are great places for parents to start.”

Other results indicated that engagement in school decreased not only suicide risk but also depression, substance misuse and bully victimization, which are independent risks for suicide.

“This study and other research have shown that after-school programs are extremely valuable to both a child’s education and their mental health,” Wright said. “These programs help adolescents get involved and interact more with other youth, faculty and staff. This builds a sense of belonging and commitment, which reduces suicidal thoughts and behaviors.”

At the community level, recognition of accomplishments — like newspaper stories about academic achievements or sports successes — can increase both teens’ familial bonds and their commitment to school, bolstering the effects of those protective factors.

“Preventing adolescent suicide is a shared responsibility, and adults at home, in schools, and across communities all have an important role to play,” Zhang said.

The researchers identified one risk factor that cannot easily be modified — rurality. In the study, teens in rural counties were 7% more likely than their urban counterparts to have a plan for or to attempt suicide. Though the researchers said this was troubling, they noted that rural communities also had higher levels of community recognition for teens, which is protective.

“Rural communities face unique challenges, in part because there are fewer opportunities to participate in programs that engage — and therefore protect — adolescents,” Wright said. “The suicide risks faced by rural teens differ in small but important ways from the risks faced by urban teens. Schools and communities in any location should be acutely aware of what opportunities and programs youth can access and what may be missing from their teens’ lives.”

To illustrate risk, Wright used the metaphor of a stream, which carries a risk of drowning, flowing through the middle of a town. Even though the stream cannot be removed, people’s risk of drowning can be changed. The community could erect fences where people often fall in, and they could identify the best places along the river to pull people out before they drown.

“We can erect upstream protective ‘fences’ that keep people from falling into the river of suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” Wright said. “This study identified social connections and forms of recognition that could serve as fences to make youth safer. Other programs — like the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and local community-based programs — are designed to pull people out of that river. Together, we can help adolescents thrive and grow into a safe, healthy future.”

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Journal

Journal of Adolescent Health

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2026.06.005