APA SURVEY RAISES CONCERN ABOUT PARENT PERCEPTIONS OF CHILDREN'S STRESS

Psychologists say Americans' Stress Levels Too High; Few Receive Support to Make Lasting Lifestyle Changes

Stress related to school pressure and family finances has a greater impact on young people than parents believe, according to a new national survey released today by the American Psychological Association (APA). Building on past research indicating that stress is a top health concern for U.S. teens between 9th and 12th grade, psychologists say that if they don't learn healthy ways to manage that stress now, it could have serious long-term health implications.

Teens and tweens were more likely than parents to say that their stress had increased in the last year. Nearly half (45 percent) of teens ages 13-17 said that they worried more this year, but only 28 percent of parents think their teen's stress increased, and while a quarter (26 percent) of tweens ages 8-12 said they worried more this year, only 17 percent of parents believed their tween's stress had increased. Similarly, only 2-5 percent of parents rate their child's stress as extreme (an 8, 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale) when 14 percent of tweens and 28 percent of teens say they worry a lot or a great deal.

"It's clear that parents do not fully appreciate the impact that stress is having on their kids," says psychologist Katherine C. Nordal, PhD, APA's executive director for professional practice. "What we're seeing with stress is in line with existing research about parents' perception of their kids' engagement in risky behaviors.

 Parents'…

Students link yoga with service for stress relief

Source: Seattle University

Seattle Schools return to neighborhood-based system

Source: Seattle Times

Verizon doubling early termination fees

It's called lock-in, folks: The tactic that works by ensuring that once you sign on with a product or a company, you have virtually no way to escape. You're stuck for life. Apple does this with the iPod by locking iTunes to its music player. Online e-mail providers do this regularly by making it impossible to get your email out of their system and onto another.

But perhaps the most notorious example of electronics lock-in is the good-old cell phone contract early termination fee. Every carrier has one: If you want to get out of your contract early, you'll pay at least $100 for the privilege. The carriers justify it by saying you get a better deal on your cell phone when you make the initial purchase, but for many, hanging on to a phone for two years just isn't worth it, and many people find that after the first year has passed, they want out of the deal (usually so they can get an iPhone).

And that termination fee is always painful.

Well, if you sign up for new service with Verizon beginning November 15 or later, that early termination fee is about to start hurting much worse. According to Boy Genius Report, Verizon is preparing to double its ETF to a whopping $350 if you cancel your service before your contract is up. For users with a simple calling plan, that amount of money can be close to the fees for a year's worth of service.

Oh, there's a little bone thrown in there for you: For every month of your contract fulfilled,…

Fourth Grader asks Obama - "Why do people hate you?"

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: President Obama, like any other President, has his fair share of critics. Even fourth-graders have noticed.

"Why do people hate you?", a fourth-grade boy asked Obama at a town hall event in New Orleans today. "They're supposed to love you. And God is love."

"That's what I'm talking about," replied the President.

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"First of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me," Obama noted, before adding, "What is true is if you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time. And I -- you know, I think that you've got to take it with a grain of salt. Some of it is just what's called politics where, you know, once one party wins, then the other party kind of gets -- feels like it needs to poke you a little bit to keep you on your toes."

"And so you shouldn't take it too seriously," Obama told the boy. "And then, sometimes, as I said before, people just -- I think they're worried about their own lives. A lot of people are losing their jobs right now. A lot of people are losing their health care or they've lost their homes to foreclosure, and they're feeling frustrated. And when you're president of the United States, you know, you've got to deal with all of…

Get mentored by IIT-grads and industry experts
Mentoring students online

If collegemates meet up, they would probably discuss favourite spots on campus, or talk about their professors, or possibly recall funny anecdotes that their batch witnessed. But this four, who are alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi, went beyond.

Anshuman Chaudhary, Avijit Sharma, Anshul Aggarwal and Pratik Aggarwal of IIT-Delhi, who were lucky to have very helpful seniors, realised that not all students had mentors to help them through the challenging decision-making phase that is part of college life.

“While most students follow what others around them are doing, they may be unaware of their true potential and opportunities that exist in the outside world,” says Anshuman, who works from Mumbai, with his other three Delhi-based colleagues.

Thus was born www.mentorpolis.com — a portal that seeks to help students and professionals looking for advice on higher education or career. “Mentors not only help people in identifying the most suitable places for them, they also guide them to reach those places.”

The portal enables visitors to obtain guidance from experts in different fields. Course-specific mentoring as well strategy-based mentoring is provided by a panel of mentors representing different academic disciplines and professions.

“When we started, our own IIT seniors and their secondary contacts were the first buyers of idea and were enrolled as mentors. Hence, the starting point was engineering and management,” says Anshuman.

How it works

MentorPolis boasts of mentors from…

Movies for Kids with an Adult Twist

Max's wolf suit is being sold in adult sizes. Mr. Fox dances to a soundtrack that features the Rolling Stones and British rocker Jarvis Cocker. And Alice has blossomed from a 7-year-old girl into a 19-year-old woman.

In the coming months, Hollywood will unveil a series of films based on classic children's books and made by leading art-house directors who have reworked the tales for the 21st century. The result: a slate of big-budget movies sewn from the fabric of children's literature but tailored to look edgier, hipper and more appealing to adults.

Tim Burton transforms the lead character of Lewis Carroll's books into a young woman escaping an unwanted wedding proposal in Walt Disney's "Alice in Wonderland," due out next year. (Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter.) Wes Anderson reinvents Roald Dahl's tale, "Fantastic Mr. Fox," in stop-motion animation, filling the film with ironic twists and quick-witted dialogue about marriage and mortgages (George Clooney provides the voice of Mr. Fox, and Meryl Streep plays his wife). And Spike Jonze—the indie filmmaker who made his name with the high-concept film "Being John Malkovich"—signed on acclaimed author Dave Eggers to help adapt Maurice Sendak's storybook "Where the Wild Things Are."

The new films feature jokes that may go over the heads of some children and music that's more likely to be on adult iPods than on the playlists of 7-year-olds. Singer Karen O of the rock band Yeah Yeah Yeahs penned and performed original songs for the soundtrack of "Where the Wild Things Are." "It was about getting the right sentiment," she says.

Read more...

Web Ads Hidden Under Cloak of Invisibility

Wall Street journal reports that Kraft Foods, Greyhound Lines and Capital One Financial have bought some strange ads on the Internet lately. What's so strange about them is that they're invisible.

The companies might not have known about their invisible display ads—the kind that are supposed to appear alongside content on Web pages—if not for Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who studies Internet advertising.

Mr. Edelman says his research shows that all three marketers, and many others, have fallen victim to Web sites that use such ads as a way to sell more ad space than they have.

Calories on Fast-Food Menus Don't Change Choices

Oops.

Remember how requiring fast-food chain restaurants to post calorie counts for food items on their menu boards was supposed to help people make better food choices? If the results of the first study to measure the impact of that initiative are any indication, we might want to rethink the premise.

Researchers reporting in the journal Health Affairs yesterday looked at fast-food purchases made in low-income areas of New York City -- where a menu-labeling law took effect July 18, 2008 -- and, as a control, in nearby Newark, New Jersey, where no such requirement exists.

Comparing purchase receipts and data collected through brief interviews with customers before and after that date, they found that while a little more than half the customers reported they'd noticed the calorie listings, just under 28 percent said the information had influenced their purchase.

The researchers found little difference between the number of calories purchased before and after the law took effect. Actually, the mean number of calories purchased in New York increased slightly, from 825 to 846. Nor did the amounts of saturated fat, sodium or sugar purchased change appreciably after labels were posted.

But that doesn't mean posting calorie totals is worthless, the authors say:

.... our study does not necessarily imply that labeling is an ineffective policy. On the contrary, we found that some subset of consumers used the information to eat more healthfully. Calorie labeling could result in…

Using the Web to Diagnose Swine Flu

Are you wondering whether you or your kid is sick enough to see a doctor to get treated for swine flu?

There are two web sites available to help you out -- one from the federal government and one developed by Microsoft Corp. and doctors at Emory University.

If you click on either the federal government's site or site from Microsoft and Emory, you'll see they ask a series of questions about whether you or your child is suffering from a fever or other symptoms or has any other health problems.

It may tell you that it is indeed swine flu, known officially as the 2009 H1N1 virus, but that all you need to do is rest and get plenty of fluids. Or it may say you should seek immediate medical attention because you may be more seriously ill.

The sites are part of a broader effort to minimize the number of people who are running to the doctor or the local emergency room because they are worried about swine flu. Officials are concerned that the health system could get overwhelmed if that happens. Most people who get the virus will suffer relatively mild symptoms and recover without needing to see a doctor. But there are some people who are at risk, such as pregnant women and people with other health problems, including asthma, diabetes and obesity.