Rising summer heat linked to higher US youth suicide rates, especially ages 15 to 24. Really!

Why not all day long intense social media consumption on phones? This appears to be junk science to keep up the global warming/climate change hoax!

This study was conducted by researchers from Yale University and Brown University. I suspect this apparently shoddy research article was primarily produced to garner attention and citations. 

The reminder that the golden rule of statistics correlation is not causation may apply here too! Moreover, the higher suicide rates appear to be highly geographically concentrated (see chart below).

Notice also the difference between younger people and to general population is only 0.02 percentage points, i.e. 0.75% v. 0.73%. Even the summer effect difference is only 0.29 percentage points.

"... A recent U.S. study found that higher summer temperatures were strongly associated with increased suicide rates among youth, with the connection appearing specifically in summer. During those months, every 1°C (1.8°F) rise in average monthly temperature was associated with a 2.68% increase in the suicide rate. The summer heat effect was strongest among older teens and young adults ages 15 to 24. ..."

From the abstract:

"Abstract

Objective:

The impact of higher ambient temperature on suicide is well documented in the general population, although it remains unclear in youths despite their particular biosocial vulnerability. In an ecological study, the authors examined this relationship, focusing on seasonal differences.

Methods:

The authors calculated monthly suicide rates in young people (ages 5–24) by county using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Census Bureau from 1980 to 2004 in the contiguous United States.
Fixed-effects regression was used to estimate relative risk of suicide per 1°C change in average monthly temperature overall and by season, accounting for precipitation, region, county, month, and year.
Age-stratified analysis (ages 4 to 65+) assessed whether effects were unique to young people. Heterogeneity models examined the impacts of legal sex, income, race, education, geographic division, and rurality.

Results:

Averaged across seasons, suicide in young people increased 0.75% (95% CI=0.34, 1.16) per 1°C increase, comparable to the general population (0.73%, 95% CI=0.53, 0.93).
This effect was significant only in summer, and it was substantially larger in summer (2.68% per 1°C; 95% CI=1.42, 3.94).
Age stratification showed that 15- to 24-year-olds were uniquely vulnerable compared to other age groups (2.97% per 1°C; 95% CI=1.30, 4.65). Most geographic regions experienced this association, and no sociodemographic differences were identified.

Conclusions:

Summer heat is associated with higher suicide rates among late adolescents and young adults, who appear most at risk. This association likely reflects neurobiological and socioenvironmental conditions of young people that amplify heat-related mental health risk. These data highlight the need to study how ambient temperature impacts youth mental health and develop biosocially informed interventions as temperatures rise."

Rising summer heat linked to higher US youth suicide rates, especially ages 15 to 24

Deadly Heat: The Association Between Ambient Temperature and Suicide in Young People in the United States (open access)

FIGURE 1.  Trends in the effect sizes of the association of summer ambient temperature and suicide in young people (ages 5–24 years) by year and geographic division ... 
In panel B, the geographic divisions are color coded by natural breaks classification (Jenks) for the magnitude of the association.

Teens Highly Skeptical of News Media according to a survey

Bad news for news media! However, this survey appears to have had only 750 respondents!

"A new survey found that 84% of American teenagers ages 13 to 18 describe today’s news media with negative terms like “biased,” “fake,” “boring,” and “depressing,” reflecting their widespread skepticism toward journalism.

More than half say they believe that journalists regularly engage in unethical behaviors, such as fabricating details or quotes, paying sources, taking images out of context, or doing favors for advertisers.

Less than a third of teens believe reporters correct their errors, confirm facts before reporting, gather information from multiple sources, or cover stories in the public interest—practices fundamental to reputable journalism. ..."

"... More teens believe journalists are skilled at lying and deceiving than informing the public. When asked to think of one thing they think journalists are doing well, roughly 1 in 3 teens (37%) offer negative feedback, saying things such as lying and deceiving (81 responses) or that journalists don’t do anything well (66 responses). ..."

"his follow-up survey, which recontacted more than 750 respondents from the News Literacy Project’s 2024 News Literacy in America Report, sought to better understand the nature of teen distrust in news media, including how they conceptualize the practice of journalism. ..."

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - Join The Flyover

“Biased,” “Boring” and “Bad” "Unpacking perceptions of news media and journalism among U.S. teens (2025)"

Are Illegal Chinese Vapes Poisoning America’s Kids? FDA Commissioner Marty Makary | PragerU

Very recommendable! Serious stuff!

How many juvenile tomboys and girly boys are diagnosed with gender dysphoria?

I am afraid too many! Many of them do not require a gender transition!

How many have been transitioned by doctors? How many cases were quackery and malpractice!

Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Government Support for Irreversible Child Sex Changes

Bravo President Trump! This horrific practice has to end! 

Many doctors involved in this mostly quackery are comparable to Dr. Josef Mengele!

Most likely there are very few, rare cases where this kind of sex change is justified and necessary!

How many teenagers want to transition because it is cool? How many reckless adults are tempting or seducing children to have a sex change?

"“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order says. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.

The order says children will “regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding.” ..."

Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Government Support for Irreversible Child Sex Changes

Substance use among US teenagers continued to decline in 2024

Good news!

"New survey results show that substance use among US teenagers continued to decline in 2024. The drop in alcohol consumption was particularly large; just 42 percent of twelfth graders reported drinking alcohol in 2024, down from close to 90 percent in the 1970s. Nicotine, marijuana, and amphetamines show similar, though less drastic, declines."

"... Nicotine pouch use was an exception. About 6% of 12th graders saying they've used them, up from about 3% in 2023. ...

Marijuana: Levels were the lowest they've been in the past three decades, at 26% for 12th graders and 16% for 10th graders. ..."

"... “Many experts in the field had anticipated that drug use would resurge as the pandemic receded and social distancing restrictions were lifted. As it turns out, the declines have not only lasted but have dropped further.” ..."

Weekly Progress Roundup - by Malcolm Cochran - Doomslayer

Teen alcohol and drug use keeps declining

Missing rebound: Youth drug use defies expectations, continues historic decline

Guns remain leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens according to an elite university. Really!

How often has this propaganda and demagoguery been repeated over the decades!

First of all, guns do not kill, but humans, who pull the trigger, do!

Very conspicuous as usual:

1. No distinction between crime or criminal related deaths and other deaths
2. To count suicides among among gun deaths is very dubious
3. Why there is a "disproportionate impact" on black children also deserves to be separately analyzed more carefully and ought to be addressed

"... The annual report's major focus this year is on gun deaths among children ages 1 to 17. In the U.S., gun death rates in this age group have increased by 106% since 2013 and have been the leading cause of death among this group since 2020. ...

The report also illuminates the disproportionate impact of gun deaths among Black children and teens. In 2022, in the 1 to 17 age group, Black children and teens had a gun death rate 18 times higher than that of white children in the same age group. The gun homicide rate among Black children and teens rose 5.6% from 2021 to 2022. The rate of gun suicide among Black older teens and emerging adults, ages 15 to 19, rose sharply—24% year-over-year—surpassing the gun suicide rate among white teens in that age range for the first time. ..."

Guns remain leading cause of death for U.S. children and teens | Hub "For the third consecutive year, firearms killed more young people than any other cause, including car crashes and cancer, and disproportionately affected people of color"

Fast facts indeed! Maybe too fast!

Australia Plans to Ban Children from Social Media. Will It Work? with Palki Sharma

Lot's of alarmism and hysteria! Like when TV sets became cheap and widespread in the 1960s!

Teens’ latest social media trend? Self-diagnosing their mental health issues on their smarphones

How healthy is that? As with most subjects, there are positive and negative things to consider here. There is probably no easy solution.

How much of this turns out to be a fad or a mania we will find out as time goes on.

As a minimum, it probably requires to help young people to find reliable and accurate information and warn them about and help them to identify charlatans etc.

Caveat: I was not able to quickly find this poll on the Education Week Research Center website. 

"Teenagers are increasingly using social media to self-diagnose their mental health issues, alarming parents and advocates who say actual care should be easier to access.  

A poll by EdWeek Research Center released this week found 55 percent of students use social media to self-diagnose, and 65 percent of teachers say they’ve seen the phenomenon in their classrooms. ...

The trend is affecting not only how students view themselves, but also how they view others.  ..."

Teens’ latest social media trend? Self-diagnosing their mental health issues

Smartphones and social media Gigantic Toll on young people. Really

How many times has this kind of scare been repeated since the 1950s? When will we ever run out of alarmism and hysteria?

Here are two famous, historical examples:

1. In the 1960s/70s there was the TV set becoming widespread and very affordable. Many children would sit in front of it every day and for hours and so on.
2. In the 1980s came the Internet!

"... Taking an exhaustive view of the research, ... concludes that this screen-filled adolescence “is making young people sick and blocking their progress to flourishing in adulthood.”

Data points: 

• Rates of teen depression and anxiety in the U.S. rose by more than 50% in many studies from 2010 to 2019. 
• The suicide rate among adolescents rose 48%. 
• Loneliness among American teens began to surge around 2012.
• Adolescents’ sleeping and exercising declined in the early 2010s.
• Members of Gen Z are dating less, having less sex, and showing less interest in having children than prior generations. 

 ..."

Global Health NOW: A ‘Darker Future’ for Human Development?; Phones’ Gigantic Toll on Gen Z; and Interrupting Parental Poverty

About 11% of U.S. high school seniors have used a psychoactive version of cannabis in the past year. Really!

Sure sounds scary! A public health concern? The U.S., a nation of young  junkies?

However, only about 35% of those users seem to be regular and frequent users. This translates into about 4.8% of all surveyed students. This is still a high number, but as much as roughly 30% might be for medicial purposes.

This is about self reported! How honest were the respondents or were a significant number just bragging? Did the respondents know exactly they were using cannabis? How fashionable or en vogue is cannabis use among teenagers?

The survey did apparently not carefully distinguish between e.g. one time and habitual use of cannabis. Teenagers tend to be curious and try many things!

Then, there is the issue of medical use of cannabis. The survey is silent on this critical subject! What an omission! Very amateurish for the American Medical Association! The medical use could be as high as 27% or perhaps even higher (Source).

"~11% of U.S. high school seniors have used Delta 8 THC—a quasi-legal psychoactive version of cannabis—per a new survey in JAMA; a legal loophole allows the products to be sold online, at gas stations and smoke shops, and in many states where traditional marijuana is fully illegal—with no federal minimum age to purchase."

From the key points and abstract:

"Key Points

Question  What is the prevalence of self-reported Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and marijuana use among 12th-grade students in the US and its distribution across sociodemographic factors and state cannabis policies?

Findings

In this nationally representative 2023 survey, 11.4% of 2186 US 12th-grade students self-reported Δ8-THC use and 30.4% self-reported marijuana use in the past year. Δ8-THC use prevalence was higher in the South and Midwest US and in states without legal adult-use marijuana or Δ8-THC regulations. Marijuana use prevalence did not differ by cannabis policies.

Meaning 

Δ8-THC use prevalence is appreciable among US adolescents and is a potential public health concern.

Abstract

Importance

Gummies, flavored vaping devices, and other cannabis products containing psychoactive hemp-derived Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are increasingly marketed in the US with claims of being federally legal and comparable to marijuana. National data on prevalence and correlates of Δ8-THC use and comparisons to marijuana use among adolescents in the US are lacking.

Objective

To estimate the self-reported prevalence of and sociodemographic and policy factors associated with Δ8-THC and marijuana use among US adolescents in the past 12 months.

Design, Setting, and Participants

This nationally representative cross-sectional analysis included a randomly selected subset of 12th-grade students in 27 US states who participated in the Monitoring the Future Study in-school survey during February to June 2023.

Exposures

Self-reported sex, race, ethnicity, and parental education; census region; state-level adult-use (ie, recreational) marijuana legalization (yes vs no); and state-level Δ8-THC policies (regulated vs not regulated).

Main Outcomes and Measures

The primary outcome was self-reported Δ8-THC and marijuana use in the past 12 months (any vs no use and number of occasions used).

Results

In the sample of 2186 12th-grade students (mean age, 17.7 years; 1054 [48.9% weighted] were female; 232 [11.1%] were Black, 411 [23.5%] were Hispanic, 1113 [46.1%] were White, and 328 [14.2%] were multiracial), prevalence of self-reported use in the past 12 months was 11.4% (95% CI, 8.6%-14.2%) for Δ8-THC and 30.4% (95% CI, 26.5%-34.4%) for marijuana. Of those 295 participants reporting Δ8-THC use, 35.4% used it at least 10 times in the past 12 months. Prevalence of Δ8-THC use was lower in Western vs Southern census regions (5.0% vs 14.3%; risk difference [RD], −9.4% [95% CI, −15.2% to −3.5%]; adjusted risk ratio [aRR], 0.35 [95% CI, 0.16-0.77]), states in which Δ8-THC was regulated vs not regulated (5.7% vs 14.4%; RD, −8.6% [95% CI, −12.9% to −4.4%]; aRR, 0.42 [95% CI, 0.23-0.74]), and states with vs without legal adult-use marijuana (8.0% vs 14.0%; RD, −6.0% [95% CI, −10.8% to −1.2%]; aRR, 0.56 [95% CI, 0.35-0.91]). Use in the past 12 months was lower among Hispanic than White participants for Δ8-THC (7.3% vs 14.4%; RD, −7.2% [95% CI, −12.2% to −2.1%]; aRR, 0.54 [95% CI, 0.34-0.87]) and marijuana (24.5% vs 33.0%; RD, −8.5% [95% CI, −14.9% to −2.1%]; aRR, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.59-0.94]). Δ8-THC and marijuana use prevalence did not differ by sex or parental education.

Conclusions and Relevance  Δ8-THC use prevalence is appreciable among US adolescents and is higher in states without marijuana legalization or existing Δ8-THC regulations. Prioritizing surveillance, policy, and public health efforts addressing adolescent Δ8-THC use may be warranted."

Global Health NOW: Early Childhood Deaths Drop—But Not Fast Enough; The Years COVID-19 Cut Short; and HIV Status: Criminal

Adolescent Δ8-THC and Marijuana Use in the US

More than half of Utah's teens, 16-19, have jobs

Good news! I liked working as a teen!

Why more than half of Utah's teens, 16-19, have jobs Utahns in that age group make up 7% of the state’s workforce — the highest rate in the nation.

Study: Kids have stronger COVID-19 antibody response than adults

More evidence that it is absolutely insane, irresponsible, and reckless that Western countries, in particular also the U.S., want to mass vaccinate children as young as 6 months. Children as guinea pigs for big business?

We know latest since mid 2020 that most children have little to fear from Covid-19!

What we put into adult bodies is one thing, what we put into children bodies is an entirely different issue! Maybe we should not mass vaccinate children, but instead focus on those children with compromised immune system etc. that might really benefit from vaccination.

"A new prospective study of 252 families with members diagnosed as having mild COVID-19 in Italy finds that, while all age-groups had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies up to 1 year after infection, children—especially those younger than 3 years—had higher antibody levels than adults at all intervals tested."

From the abstract:

"... Conclusions and Relevance  In this cohort study of Italian children and adults following SARS-CoV-2 infection different kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were found across several age classes of individuals with asymptomatic or mild COVID-19, which could help in optimizing COVID-19 vaccination strategies and prevention policies. This work provides further evidence of sustained immune response in children up to 1 year after primary SARS-CoV-2 infection."

Study: Kids have stronger COVID-19 antibody response than adults | CIDRAP

Long-term Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Children and Adults After Mild Infection (open access)

An algorithm used by various U.S. jurisdictions that screens for child neglect raises concerns. Really!

What matters more? How many children can be saved? It is a basic fact that most children can not protect themselves from prolonged neglect. They are dependent on adults to report or to intervene.

Congratulations to AP  (non-profit Associated Press news agency) for such an extensive, comprehensive article on this subject!

Again so called "racial disparities" are used to demonize a possibly useful decision support tool! Of course, such tools should be used with caution and humans need to be in the loop. However, most of these concerns stressed by the article below can be handled easily, I suspect. I bet, these cited comparisons with white children are flawed as is so often the case!

What if there are peculiar reasons why black American children are more often reported than white children? Instead of pointing to the always convenient and easy demagoguery of systemic racism and the like perhaps the reasons should be researched!

"... From Los Angeles to Colorado and throughout Oregon, as child welfare agencies use or consider tools similar to the one in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, an Associated Press review has identified a number of concerns about the technology, including questions about its reliability and its potential to harden racial disparities in the child welfare system. Related issues have already torpedoed some jurisdictions’ plans to use predictive models, such as the tool notably dropped by the state of Illinois.

According to new research from a Carnegie Mellon University team obtained exclusively by AP, Allegheny’s algorithm in its first years of operation showed a pattern of flagging a disproportionate number of Black children for a “mandatory” neglect investigation, when compared with white children. ...
Child welfare officials in Allegheny County ... the icon’s child-centric innovations, say the cutting-edge tool – which is capturing attention around the country – uses data to support agency workers as they try to protect children from neglect. That nuanced term can include everything from inadequate housing to poor hygiene, but is a different category from physical or sexual abuse, which is investigated separately in Pennsylvania and is not subject to the algorithm.
“Workers, whoever they are, shouldn’t be asked to make, in a given year, 14, 15, 16,000 of these kinds of decisions with incredibly imperfect information,” said Erin Dalton, director of the county’s Department of Human Services and a pioneer in implementing the predictive child welfare algorithm. ...

Incidents of potential neglect are reported to Allegheny County’s child protection hotline. The reports go through a screening process where the algorithm calculates the child’s potential risk and assigns a score. Social workers then use their discretion to decide whether to investigate.

The Allegheny Family Screening Tool is specifically designed to predict the risk that a child will be placed in foster care in the two years after they are investigated. Using a trove of detailed personal data collected from birth, Medicaid, substance abuse, mental health, jail and probation records, among other government data sets, the algorithm calculates a risk score of 1 to 20: The higher the number, the greater the risk. ..."

An algorithm that screens for child neglect raises concerns | AP News

Deadlier Drugs Fuel Teen Overdose Spike in the U.S.

Serious negative side effects of the global SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 pandemic caused primarily by wrong government paternalistic measures like lockdowns, school closures, mandated mask wearing etc.!

It also reaffirms the long known fact that the drugs obtained on black markets are dangerous, because the ingredients and their dosage are unknown to the user.

"Research published yesterday showed an “unprecedented” spike in US teen overdose deaths in 2020, largely driven by fentanyl, the AP reports. 

Over the first 6 months of 2021, the rate of teen overdose rose 20% from 2020, reaching 5.49 per 100,000.

The research shows that drugs are getting deadlier, not that more teens are using them.

“What teens may think is an opioid painkiller or Xanax diverted from the legal supply is now more likely to be a counterfeit tablet containing fentanyl or similar synthetic opioids,” STAT explains.  

Pandemic isolation may be driving more frequent use among teens who do use drugs—but US teens’ mental health is deteriorating more generally.

The number of American high schoolers who report feeling “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” shot up from 26% to 44% from 2009–2021, a recent CDC study found.

It’s the highest level of teenage sadness on record, and it cuts across every demographic. ...

The Atlantic dissected a range of key contributors to the teen mental health crisis, including: 

Social media use, which is strongly linked to negative effects at “sensitive life periods” 

Isolation: teens are less likely to play youth sports or go out with friends

A 24-hour news cycle fueling anxiety about issues like climate change, the pandemic, and gun violence

Protective, pressure-filled parenting approaches"

From the abstract (the abstract is very poor in its information content):

"The illicit drug supply has increasingly become contaminated with illicitly manufactured fentanyls and other synthetic opioid and benzodiazepine analogues. Adolescent drug use rates remained generally stable between 2010 and 2020, with 30.2% and 30.4%, respectively, of 10th-graders reporting any illicit drug use in the past 12 months, which declined to 18.7% of 10th-graders in 2021. However, given the increase in illicit fentanyls and potential associated risks, we assessed shifts in overdose deaths among adolescents."

Global Health NOW: Deadlier Drugs Fuel Teen Overdose Spike; Substance Use Therapy in Wartorn Ukraine; and Insulin Cost Declared a Human Rights Abuse

Trends in Drug Overdose Deaths Among US Adolescents, January 2010 to June 2021 (no public access)

Three Globe Sailing Teenage Girls Rewrite Maritime History

Sweet 16

In January of 2012, recently the 16 year old Dutch teenager Laura Dekker finished successfully her 500 plus days sailing trip of 27,000 nautical miles circumnavigating the world. Not long before Laura there, were two other teenage girls who attempted similar feats.

Some Ramifications Of Daring Teenagers

This feat also reminds all humans that teenagers are not children anymore. For too long, in western Societies there was a popular belief that children should enjoy the blessings of childhood for as long as possible, because life as an adult is not desirable or just tough or so the argument went.

Does this not also fly in the face of juvenile crime adjudication in the western world? Adolescent teenagers are believed to be less culpable than adults.

In western societies, the pendulum with respect to teenagers has swung from forced child labor in the opposite direction. Will the pendulum swing back towards the center?

Remember Thor Heyerdahl And The Kon-Tiki Expedition

Heyerdahl is not only remembered for the Kon-Tiki but also for the Ra and Ra II expeditions. With the former one he tried to prove that people from Polynesia long ago could have reached the shores of South America with a raft made from balsa wood and other native materials. With the Ra and Ra II expeditions, Heyerdahl demonstrated that the ancient Egyptians could have used a typical boat made of papyrus to reach North America.

To The Many Unknown Maritime Explorers And Merchants In History

What Laura Dekker and the other girls as well as researchers like Thor Heyerdahl have shown is that there probably were many more explorers and cross ocean contacts between humans on all continents than we know about.

Perhaps one day genetic analysis will tell us more about long distance contacts between people in ancient times.