Teens in Balance - Tara Cousineau, PhD

Desktop and Dashboard Dining

 I'€™m sitting in a coffee shop with my 11-year old enjoying hot cocoas with whipped cream in a frigid day in New England. Upon reading this, one might think we are engaged in a quaint mother-daughter moment. But the actual observer would see me with my laptop and she with her little sister'€™s Nintendo DS. The intention was for us to read for a bit, but technology has grabbed a hold of both of us. At least we are cozied up elbow to elbow. The book beside me is Brain Wansink'€™s Mindless Eating. I'€m in the middle of chapter 5, on Mindless Eating Scripts. It'€™s a thoroughly entertaining but sobering book.   Of course, I realized that my daughter and I are currently engaged in "€œdesktop dining,"€ what Wansink refers to as multitasking while eating (e.g., reading, working, watching TV, etc.) -- hence my inclination to write about it. The consequence of desktop dining: consuming more calories than one would when paying attention to a meal. And here'€™s a thought provoking statement: €œDashboard diners and desktop diners are less likely to be overachievers than they are to be overeaters.€ (Pg. 104, paperback edition). 

We are blessed with the skinny gene, or so it seems. But we are not immune to the overscheduled, overly demanding nature of modern culture requiring us all to be supermoms and superkids. This is the first year our family is really struggling to find evenings to sit down and have dinner together. The activity, sports and work-related demands have entered a new phase of scalability. Both my daughters are in an individual sport. One is in gymnastics and the other in figure skating -- sports in which weight and body shape may be a factor as they grow up and their bodies mature. (I secretly hope they will prefer the more team-focused sport of soccer where size and ability can take many forms.) This brings to mind research by a well-regarded public health scientist, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer. In an article on how parents can help teens achieve a healthy weight and positive body image, she notes two key influencing factors in teens with weight-related problems (i.e., the spectrum of under eating to overeating):

(1) Family weight concerns, or the emphasis on body weight, shape and size as expressed by parents through poor role modeling or derogatory comments -- even if unintentional, and

(2) Family meal patterns such as low meal structure (eating on the run or while multitasking) vs. high meal structure (sitting together). Both of these familial influences are modifiable -- that is, parents can change how they talk about body weight using more positive or supportive messages about their child'€™s body relative to the more harmful messages from the media and external sources (I include sport coaches and teammates in this); and families can try to have more meals together or work to enlist support from schools and communities to achieve this.

Which brings me back to Wansink€'s book -- we all need to pay more attention and it starts with small steps. Fortunately, one simple tip is to enjoy food. That'€s exactly what my daughter and I are doing now with these delightful hot cocoas.

Great American Smokeout

 Today is the Great American Smokeout. It'€™s a good notion; pick a day when tobacco smokers can quit all together in a spirit of community. If it were only that easy.

My father is a smoker. He'€™s been a smoker for over 60 years.He picked up the habit around age 14 in the mid 1940s when smoking was oh so cool.Later in his twenties he was a model on one of those big billboards, for Benson & Hedges.As a kid I remember him smoking Marlboros, which was fitting for him. He was born in Dallas, raised in Colorado, and had that mischievous Midwestern cowboy air about him.He really was a poster boy. 

My sister and I tried all sorts of tricks to get him to quit smoking. The most effective ruse almost gave him a heart attack while driving on the freeway.We were on a road trip one summer, camping throughout New England.We stopped at a trading post up by Moosehead Lake in Maine.We could each spend 50 cents and I bought small red canister, about the size of a quarter, with the label "€œCigarette Loads!"shouting out in white type. It was filled with about 20 thin and narrow white sticks that plug in to the end of a cigarette. Once a loaded cigarette was lit, the tail end exploded. Kind of like dynamite. Needless to say, there was danger involved. One time when my father lit up and the cigarette burst into white and brown petals, we were going a good 80 miles an hour along the interstate in an orange VW bus.No seat belts back then. Well, let'€™s just say we kids got chewed out. "€œGod Dammit!€" he stammered. We couldn'€™t help giggle under our breath, like we did in church on Sundays with our mom, and that made matters worse. 

But it didn'€™t stop us from trying. The real trick was to only load a few cigarettes in a pack, make sure to cover the white end with tobacco grounds, and watch in suspense every time Dad went for one (which was about 40 times a day). But it didn'€™t stop my father from smoking, either. Nothing would. He's suffered several strokes, endured quadruple bypass surgery and angioplasties, and has emphysema.I'€™m surprised he'€™s still alive. He'€™s the great American Smoker. I'€™m astonished to learn that one can still buy Cigarette Loads for about $2.95. The packaging isn'€™t as cool -- and it turns out that minors aren't allowed to buy them.

And here'€™s the thing. Teens are particularly vulnerable to nicotine. Each year there are 700,000 new smokers and they are mostly youth. Research shows that only a few drags results in addictive symptoms. The adolescent brain gets marinated in the awful stuff just at the time when the neural pathways are growing and making new connections and fine-tuning cognitive functions, like decision-making and problem solving.In a study of 30,000 teen smokers in New Zealand results indicate that by the time one smokes 100 cigarettes (just a few packs), 95% report addictive symptoms.This is because nicotine has a calming effect on the brain, and the brain becomes accustomed to craving it. The real trick is to not start in the first place.

Price, Michael. Against doctor's orders: New research reveals why smoking is so easy to start and so hard to quit. APA Monitor, November 2008.

Millennials: Describing Our Techno-savvy Teens

I attended at the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup East, held at Boston University, and became immersed in the Gen Y teenspeak. I was enlightened one of the keynote speakers, Gary Rudman, who is a teen consulting expert. He offered up a series of adjectives describing today's young people and their engagement with technology -- and it seems there is a dictionary in the making. Most of the information offered by Rudman was based on qualitative research, such as focus groups and interviews with to thousands of teens.

For any educator, marketer and parents it'€™s worth listening to the recorded conference sessions. I learned a bit of what to expect in the next few years with my tweens. And it is all the more apropos since my daughter received her first iPod for her 11^th birthday this week. Euphoria doesn'€™t quite capture her reaction -- her happiness was beyond her own ability to express it. It was truly a coming of age moment when she unwrapped the gift. Here'€™s some of the terminology:

• iJunkies -- are gadget-bound teens. Teens expect technical gadgets to be super easy and provide instant gratification.
• Technocrats -- there is nothing teens can'€™t take with them that doesn't fit in a backpack. If it's not portable it'€™s not cool.
• Techno bling -- Teens are just as vested in personal style as they are invested in technology. So if the technology doesn'€™t look cool and offer a means to personalize it, it will fail.
• Neighborhood net  -- Today'€™s reality is that once school is over teens go online; they see the virtual world as social. Although online friends maybe different that offline friends, the online world allows teens to create an ideal self or alter ego, or digital disguises.
• IM -- Instant messaging allows teens to be clever, different, and run commentary through internal editorial process (useful in pre-dating or flirtation); this allows teens to avoid saying something awkward in person and offers a comfortable way to test the interpersonal waters.
• Chill challenged -- Teens don'€™t have time to relax and are rarely disconnected from their gadgets outside of school; they have less real world conversation with parents although today'€™s teens are much more "€connected"€ to them than previous generations (Gen Xers, Boomers) were with their parents. The one way many teens seem to relax is listening to music, something they hold as highly personal.
• Mock maturity -- Teens have a sense they can purchase just about anything given how influential they are about product purchases in the home, but are limited by parent'€™s control over credit cards. Teens think they "€œknow"€ things, but teens are teens -- and still do the impulsive, idiosyncratic and silly things that adolescents have also done as they test their ability to control the world.
• Brain blur -- Teens have difficulty focusing their minds on one thing. Today's children are growing up with unique neural networks; they are forced to respond to technology and adapt to it. They are physically connected to cell phone and MP3 players.  One consequence is that teens need not memorize; information is so vast, it is impossible to take it all in. If one doesn'€™t know something, it's easy enough to "€œgoogle"€ or go to Wikipedia.com. Another consequence is that teens are so used to studying while listening to music or texting, that when it comes to in-classroom tests or assignments, they can be at a disadvantage. They are the ultimate multi-taskers.

When I came home that day I laid a few rules down about the iPod, as glorious a gadget it is to my daughter. Not to burst her bubble, but I told her no iPod at the dinner table or while studying. Later, she Skyped me a smiley face and a thank you. 

I was in the next room.

Teens in Translation

She was about 15 years old, standing in the soup & salad line. Her mother was deep in conversation with her, perhaps about the sports game they just came from seeing that the girl was in an athletic uniform. The daughter was talking jovially.  Then I noticed something that truly surprised me.  The girl was also texting on her cell phone, barely glancing at it.  It was a subtle movement. This went on for a good ten minutes and I was captivated by it.

Two conversations at one time.Is it possible? Surely this is an emerging skill of these "€œmillennials"€. These kids'€™ neurons must be forming in ways that the human brain never has done before, a new kind of fluency and dexterity that intelligence and verbal skills tests don'€™t yet capture.

 I may be a bit behind the times since my girls have yet to reach the modern right of passage of owning a cell phone. So I consulted with a friend. She laughed when I told her the story and followed up with a "€œWait '€˜til you hear this."€ Her son'€™s middle school recently banned cell phone use during the day because the kids would text with cell phones tucked deep in jeans pockets -- so automatic is this thumbing of minuscule keyboards -- that it became an impediment to school work. €œ"But there'€'s more!"€ my friend exclaimed.

Apparently, one story that hit the newspapers in her area centered around unintentional and underage pornography. A girl bared her breasts to her cell phone camera with a suggestive comment and sent it to a boy, who then sent it on to his buddies. (Of course, what pubescent boy could resist?) The recipient boy, however, was found out -- in a likely uproar of shame and drama by the girl'€™s parents.  He was then arrested for delivering porn to underage teens -- his friends.

Upon hearing about this my friend disabled her son’s cell phone feature for sending photos. (I didn't know you could do that.)

"Well, boys will be boys,"€ she commented.