Wood County Prevention
Eastwood Local Schools- November 2017
Thankful Tree- Ashley Hodulik
One Step Ahead (OSA)
One Step Ahead (OSA) is a drug free leadership program for high school students. Through the program, students develop the skills to become a positive leader within their schools and communities. Students are also equipped with the knowledge and abilities to not only make positive choices for themselves, but also to encourage their peers to make healthy decisions.
If you are in middle school the group is called Junior Teen Institute. Same concept different name.
Our meeting times for One Step Ahead will be the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month at 7:20am in the Eagles Nest.
Our meeting times for JTI in December will be:
December 12th during AA
December 22nd during AA
Start Talking: Know! The Effect of Peer Presence
Psychologists from Temple University were curious to know why it is that otherwise good kids seem to make poor decisions when they are among their peers. In seeking an answer to this question, they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans on teens, college students and adults to determine if there are differences in brain activity when making decisions alone versus with their friends. What they found is that, “teen peer pressure has a distinct effect on brain signals involving risk and reward,” which may explain in part why youth are at greater risk for bad behavior when their friends are watching.
To test how the presence of peers influences risk-taking, the researchers had the various age groups individually engage in a simulated driving game, where the goal was to reach the finish line as quickly as possible, offering cash prizes as incentive. The participants had to make decisions about obeying traffic signals; they could, for instance, slow down as they approached a yellow light and get delayed, or race through it and risk crashing, which would cause an even longer delay. The youth and adults each played four rounds, half of which they played alone. For the other two rounds, they were told their same-sex friends who accompanied them to the study, were watching them play in the other room.
Among the adults and college students, there was no significant difference in the decisions they made regardless of friends watching or not. However, the teens ran about 40 percent more yellow lights and had 60 percent more crashes when they knew their friends were watching. The part of the brain that is associated with reward activity also increased in teens when they knew their friends were watching. In other words, the typical teenage brain seems to view it as high risk = high reward.
Laurence Steinberg Ph.D, an author of the study and psychology professor at Temple University says these findings give a new view on peer pressure, since their peers were not even in the same room as the participants. Simply knowing their friends were watching caused the teens to take risks they otherwise would not have taken on their own.
It is important to know that while the brain reaches maximum size between ages 12 – 14, it continues to grow and develop through a person’s early 20’s. One of the last brain regions to mature is the prefrontal cortex; the control center for looking ahead and sizing up risks and rewards. The limbic system (which is responsible for emotional responses) however, develops earlier. The relationship between the already developed emotional center alongside the under-developed self-control center sheds light on why teens act on emotion before thinking it through.
While this study was only virtual, it falls in line with real-world data that shows that car accidents among young drivers increase when other teens are in the car. But this study is not just about teens making decisions behind the wheel. Dr. Steinberg says it is about parents needing to be aware that groups of teens need close supervision.
“All of us who have very good kids know they’ve done really dumb things when they’ve been with their friends,” Dr. Steinberg said. “The lesson is that if you have a kid whom you think of as very mature and able to exercise good judgment, based on your observations when he or she is alone or with you, that doesn’t necessarily generalize to how he or she will behave in a group of friends without adults around. Parents should be aware of that.”
In the Media
Here are a couple of news articles to keep you updated of what is going on in our society. It is important to know this type of information when it comes to educating your youth.
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20171121/suicide-alcohol-drug-deaths-projected-to-soar-in-ohio
On-Site Prevention Specialist: Hannah Madaras
I am the On-Site Prevention Specialist for Eastwood Local Schools. I am in the district every Tuesday and Friday.
My responsibilities:
- Problem Identification (Referrals: Behavior, ATOD use, social support)
- Life Skills Education Classes in HS
- Class Action Education Classes in HS
- Youth Mental Health First Aid Trainer
- One Step Ahead Advisor
- Junior Teen Institute Advisor
Email: hmadaras@eastwoodschools.org
Website: wcesc.org/atod
Location: Eastwood High School, Sugar Ridge Road, Pemberville, OH, United States
Phone: 4198336411
Twitter: @ewprevention