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The Center for Adolescent Research and Education (CARE) and Total Brain, a mental health and brain performance self-monitoring and self-care platform, have released the results of a study of youth mental health and cognition. The Total Brain assessment was completed by more than 1,100 high school and college students, the results pointing to the effects of the Coronavirus on America’s…

Dear Camp Counselor: This summer you will join, figuratively, with more than 320,000 staff working at some 2,400 accredited camps serving more than 7.4 million children nationwide (ACA, 2013). And, suffice it to say, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Why? Because you will greatly influence young lives. And, in my opinion, there’s no…

With March upon us and Valentine’s Day, when we celebrate love of others, behind us, perhaps it makes sense to take note of a similarly powerful kind of love: leadership. When you love to lead, great accomplishment probably lies ahead. If nothing else, as the saying goes, “If you love what you do, you never…

My congratulatory handshake to colleague Jake Labovitz, who along with his wife, Kerry, owns Windsor Mountain Summer Camp in Windsor, New Hampshire, was commentary on a highly successful season. Jake’s reply? “Thanks, but you’re only as good as your last batch of muffins.” What Jake was referring to is called “recency” — most recent —…

As we round out National Mentoring Month, it’s a good time to take stock of the many positive outcomes of these important relationships, maybe especially those of the peer-to-peer variety. During my fifteen-plus years at the helm of, arguably, America’s largest youth peer-to-peer education, prevention, and activism organization, I saw firsthand the remarkable capacity young people have…

Stephen Gray Wallace, MS Ed, and Leann Mischel, PhDJanuary 2019 In a world filled with out-of-school time options for young adults, new research from the Center for Adolescent Research and Education (CARE) in collaboration with Coastal Carolina University points to the enduring, and positive, outcomes of leadership training for teens in both traditional and specialty…

In my preceding Psychology Today pieces, “Let the Kids Sleep” (February 2016) and “Let the Kids Sleep, Part II” (March 2017), I pointed out what may be obvious for parents of teens: along with anticipated biological changes of adolescence affecting mood and emotions comes a rather dramatic, and for some surprising, change in sleep patterns. Bottom line: teens need more sleep…

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste” marks the beginning of a 1927 prose poem, “Desiderata,” by American writer Max Ehrmann. A copy of this well-known piece, the Latin translation of which is “things wanted or needed,” hangs in the reception area at Cape Cod Sea Camps and amplifies not only the sometimes-tumultuous nature of…

Twenty years ago last month, I published an opinion editorial in the Cape Cod Times titled “Tell Teens: Character Does Count.” It was in response to a plethora of content in the media advising parents on how best to counsel their children on information recently made public in what has become known as the Starr Report. That…

The current hit song “I Like Me Better” by Lauv highlights the powerful nature of connection with others. Perhaps it’s those relationships that hold the key to addressing the epidemic that is youth suicide. September marks National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, an important time to re-educate ourselves as to how best we can keep those we…