This spring a presidential panel of the American Psychological Association (APA) has produced recommendations for the use of social media by adolescents. The advisory panel was formed to provide recommendations grounded in research to ensure that adolescents develop healthy social media practices. The result is the American Psychological Association Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence. 

The report notes that while these platforms can promote healthy socialization, their use should be preceded by training in social media literacy to ensure that children and teens have skills that will maximize the chances for balanced, safe and meaningful experiences.

This report notes that social media use is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people. The effects of social media depend on adolescents' personal and psychological characteristics, social circumstances, and the specific content, features, or functions they encounter on social media platforms. 

The report emphasizes that not all findings apply equally to all children and teens. Scientific findings should be used in conjunction with knowledge of specific kids’ strengths, weaknesses, developmental maturity, and contexts to make decisions tailored to each individual. 

​In addition to the new report, the APA's chief science officer, Dr. Mitch Prinstein, provides Q&A and recommendations for parents on how to help teens develop social media literacy skills. Dr. Prinstein specifically advises parents to:

• Monitor and discuss social media use. Take a multipronged approach to social media management by setting time limits, monitoring your child's online activities, and engaging in ongoing discussions about social media. Limit chat functions and exposure to adult content, and consider allowing social media use only when children are at home.
• Model healthy social media use. Be a positive role model by demonstrating healthy social media behavior. Avoid using social media during family time and set limits on your own social media use. Discuss your own social media use with your children and take social media holidays together as a family.
• Watch for problematic social media use. Be vigilant for signs that your child may be using social media in unhealthy ways. Look for interference with daily routines, excessive use over in-person interactions, lack of sleep or physical activity, inability to stop using social media, and deceptive behavior. If necessary, enforce new limits or seek help from a mental health professional.
• Teach social media literacy. Recognize that social media literacy is essential for adolescents. Work with social media platforms, schools, and your teen to promote social media literacy skills. Discuss topics like recognizing false information, understanding the meaning behind likes, preventing conflicts, promoting positive body image, addressing discrimination, and seeking reliable mental health information.

 
You can read the APA's recommendations in full here, and Dr. Prinstein's Q&A here.

Dr. Dara Greenwood, social psychologist and associate professor of Psychology at Vassar College, provides a thoughtful and engaging article interweaving psychological research with powerful messages from Disney's Encanto that are resonating with children and adults. Greenwood's key take-aways:

Check out the full article here.

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As psychologist Guy Winch explains, "Much as accountants' busiest time of year is tax season in April, we therapists see our practices overflow in November and December. Why? ‘Tis the season of family gatherings."

Family gatherings have the potential to help us feel connected and loved, but even within the best of family dynamics, cooking, cleaning, and coordinating schedules can be stressful. And the fact of the matter is that not every family shares the best dynamics on display in Hallmark Holiday Specials. Family gatherings can bring old wounds to the surface, and leave many feeling less connected, less understood, and alone despite the holiday crowds. For those who live far from family and friends, singles, and those who are newly separated, divorced or grieving, the family-focused holidays can be a painful and lonely time. Add these factors to the days getting shorter, the weather colder, spending less time outdoors in the sun, and it is easy to understand how the holidays can leave us feeling stressed out and blue. 

​The following resources can help you survive and thrive through this holiday season:

• Psychologist Guy Winch writes a thoughtful column on dealing with loneliness at the holidays, including suggestions on developing your own traditions and tribe. (Guy also has much-loved TED Talks on the importance of emotional first aid and healing a broken heart.)
• PsychCentral has compiled a master list of resources to help you navigate the holidays. Find help with everything from reducing holiday stress, maintaining healthy boundaries through the holidays, navigating the holidays when you struggle with depression, and much more.
• The Mindfulness and Grief Institute compiles resources to help in managing grief during the holidays.
  
• The American Psychological Association (APA) hosts a Holiday Stress Resource Center covering topics such as managing difficult family conversations (including politics) and dealing with financial stress during the holidays.
• Finally, this Psychology Today blog post by Dr. Michelle McQuaid is an oldie-but-goodie, describing small (research-based) changes you can make to help you flourish during the holiday season and throughout the upcoming year.

If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed with stress or sadness, know that you are not alone. Talking with a therapist about coping with the holidays specifically, or untangling long-standing relationship patterns, can be useful and help you move through the holidays and into the new year with less stress, more understanding of yourself and others, and more skills to navigate this time of year with more grace and less stress in the future.

The Heads Together campaign has partnered with this weekend's London Marathon to help raise awareness and encourage people to speak up about and prioritize their mental health (all the runners will be given Heads Together headbands, modeled by the Royal Family above). ​

With the holidays fast approaching, this can be a good time to pause and reflect on why this season of thanksgiving and joy can often be so stressful. Do you find yourself anxiously working to anticipate every detail or need in attempt to orchestrate the perfect holiday, the perfect family get together, the perfect scrapbook moment? Or are you pulled by the gnawing suspicion that no matter how hard you try, how badly you want this year to be different, that things will go wrong. Again. Just as they have so many times before?

When you find yourself pulled between these two intense emotional states and expectations, it can be easy to blame yourself for what has or what will go wrong, to feel or anticipate feeling blamed by others, or to blame others for behaving in what feels like a predictable destructive pattern. 

Author researcher and storyteller Brené Brown offers wise words on the underlying meaning and fallout of this tendency to rush to blame. By blaming ourselves or others we attempt to regain a sense of control, but we also lose out on opportunities and relationships in the process.