ARTICLES RELATED TO:
Emotional & Mental Wellness

For several decades, much of the focus on body image disorders has focused on females. In American society, the feminine ideal is to appear thin. Males, however, are encouraged to be muscular. Lately, we are witnessing a shift in how males perceive their bodies. Boys Feel the Pressure Too Many of today’s young males want a strong body; specifically, they want more muscles. With action figures such as Batman, Captain America, and Superman to magazine covers boasting “Double your muscle!” and “Bigger arms now!” it’s no wonder that teens view being chiseled and ripped as the ideal male body image. It’s one thing to play with an action figure or peruse a magazine, but it’s quite another to think obsessively about becoming muscle-bound and to diet and exercise compulsively to look this way. Sound like obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)? Yes. Sound like an eating disorder? Yes. What Is Muscle Dysmorphic […]

In a perfect world, every kid would grow up in a safe, carefree environment. But many kids endure adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). These traumatic events can cause psychological problems and health problems down the road. Upsetting events can affect kids in different ways: One-time events include things such as a car accident or the death of a grandparent. As scary and difficult as these can be, kids usually recover relatively quickly with healthy doses of love, support, and understanding. Ongoing experiences are things that create layer upon layer of trauma, wearing down kids’ resilience. These can include living in a neighborhood with gun violence, sexual abuse, a parent who uses drugs, being bullied at school, and not having enough food. What Problems Can ACEs Cause? Research at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard shows that chronic adverse experiences in childhood may impair brain development. This can have a negative effect […]

Social media is a widespread way for teens and tweens to communicate. A recent survey on teen media use revealed that 39% of teens prefer Snapchat as their preferred social media channel, with Instagram a close second at 23%. Teens are spending more and more time being inundated with images, ads, and thoughts from not only their peers, but celebrities and other teens they may not even know. Social media surely has its positive aspects. There’s no doubt it has helped raise money for good causes, and makes connecting easier. But teens and tweens can fall into traps that bring out the negatives of scrolling through pictures on Instagram or watching Snapchat stories. As we close out Mental Health Awareness Month, let’s take a look at how social media impacts kids’ mental health. Studies Show… The Royal Society for Public Health, based in the United Kingdom, looked at social media and […]

As adults, we’ve all had to handle some amount of stress in our lives. Stress is our body’s way of rising to a challenge and preparing to meet a tough situation with focus, strength, stamina, and heightened alertness. But we often believe kids are happy and carefree – that their lives are simpler than ours. We find ourselves telling them how much harder it will be when they grow up and face the “real world.” The reality is, though, kids are facing their own “real world” every day. Stressors for kids can include issues with family or friends, ongoing challenges with school, or crammed schedules that don’t allow any downtime. And while they may not initiate a conversation about what’s bothering them, kids do want their parents to reach out and help them cope with their troubles. Signs and Symptoms For kids with chronic conditions like migraines or sickle cell […]

Many parents wonder: “Is my child’s anxiety normal? Should I be worried?” While anxiety in young kids can be nerve-wracking for parents, it has a lot to do with age and development. Anxiety about a certain trigger can be completely appropriate at one stage and inappropriate at another. For example, it’s entirely normal for children up to age 2 to have some degree of separation anxiety, but we hope that kids are able to separate without too many tears around ages 3 or 4. Being worried about dogs, bees, storms and sudden loud noises is totally understandable for 3- and 4-year-olds because they’re starting to understand that the world can be scary sometimes. It’s also expected that kids of this age will go through a phase when they’re exercising mastery of their environment – when it’s “my way or the highway,” which can often be mistaken for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For […]

A hospital stay can be a challenging experience for patients and their families. For children used to the comforts of their home and bedroom, the environment in a hospital can feel strange or foreign. Often, the arts can help make time in the hospital less stressful. So the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children’s Creative Arts Therapy team developed an Arts in Medicine program as a way to help patients and families feel more at ease while they visit and/or stay at the hospital. This spring, the Arts in Medicine program welcomed visiting artist Catherine Czerwinski to work with patients and families in our Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Catherine’s project focused on the installation of a mural in the PICU solarium. The mural project was inspired by the experiences of patients, families and staff from the PICU. Together, they were involved in the creation of the mural. The process […]