Exploring Teens Issue 8 / Feb-Mar 2016 | Page 13

YOUR TEEN'S WORLD

Bite-sized facts and snippets of information to keep you
up to speed with what's happening in your teen's world.

Going to college

BRAVE program

10 things not enough kids know
before going to college

For the full article visit: http://bit.ly/1OE5P2h

BRAVE is an interactive online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program for
young people 8 to 17 years experiencing anxiety, with a supporting program for
their parents. Self-paced and arranged in a series of lessons, each section assists
the participant to understand and identify symptoms of anxiety, and to apply
strategies for reducing anxiety.
Cognitive behavioural therapy is the most widely accepted practice for managing
and reducing anxiety. BRAVE has been developed by a team of researchers and
health professionals from Griffith University, University of Southern Queensland and
the University of Queensland. It is free to use, and is available online in Australia only.
Find out more at brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au

Parental influence can prevent
substance use
Adolescence is a time when many children may consider experimenting
with alcohol or drugs. New research shows parents can reduce that risk by
maintaining a healthy and open relationship with their children. Adolescents
are more likely to drink or use drugs if they hang out with deviant friends or
if they actively seek out peers to facilitate substance use. Parents who know
what's going on with their children and their friends can minimize the impact
of both pathways, according to the study published in the journal Drug and
Alcohol Dependence.
‘Parents don't even have to be 'super parents’,Thomas Schofield, lead author of
the study and an assistant professor of human development and family studies at
Iowa State University said. ‘As long as they're at the 71st percentile, or getting a
C- in parenting, both of these dangerous pathways to drug abuse go away.’
For more info, visit ScienceNewsline at http://bit.ly/1OpMQ5a

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Substance use

1. Try careers on for size. Nothing says your first attempt is
all you get.
2. Develop skills that are hard to get outside university.
This includes mind-expanding subjects like psychology as
well as specialised technical knowledge such as law, etc.
(relative to your goals).
3. Learn how to write well. This skill is needed for almost
every career.
4. Focus on the teacher, not the topic. Choose the majority
of subjects for the content but save some for simply
engaging teachers.
5. When in doubt, choose the path that keeps the most
doors open.
6. Do the minimum foreign language classes as an introduction
and then consider learning by immersion in holidays.
7. Go to places that are unfamiliar to you; live/study abroad.
8. Take some small classes with professors who can write
recommendations if looking at post graduate studies.
9. Unless required to write a thesis, think twice before
committing to one unless dedicated to a question of interest
or gaining specific benefits from research.
10. Blow your mind. At the end of each year of college, you
should look back at your thoughts and opinions 12 months
before and find them quaint. If not, you probably didn't
read or explore or work hard enough. I know I've succeeded
when I change my opinions because the facts I know
changed. Better yet, I really know I've succeeded when
I can see how a handful of new ideas have reshaped the
way I understand the world.

© pzaxe / Stockfresh

Edited highlights from an article written by Christopher Blattman,
Associate Professor of Political Science and International and
Public Affairs at Columbia University.