youth reporting Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

High School Journalists Examine How Social Media Contributes to Anxiety in Teens

**This story is part of a youth reporting project between the Fayette Institute of Technology and West Virginia Public Broadcasting. It was written by high school seniors Chloe Perdue and Keesha Moore with support from health reporter Kara Lofton.**

In today’s technology-centric society, smartphone use, especially among American teenagers, is ubiquitous.

Although experts caution limiting how much time teens are spending on social media, and instead encourage people to socialize in person, the draw to and obsession with social media doesn’t look like it’s going to go away any time soon.

A 2014 study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggests that social media is helping kids feel less lonely. But near-constant phone use can also border on addiction: some teenagers say they feel pressured to get likes on their posts or are drawn to pick up their phone every second.

“I’m on it unless I’m sleeping, or unless I’m doing some kind of work, or eating and sometimes I’m on it when I’m eating as well,” said Lillian McMillion, a senior at Midland Trail High School in [add location here]. “So, like 23, 22 hours a day. Maybe 20,”

A 2016 study from the Pew Research Center found that half of teenage girls and 39 percent of teenage boys are “near-constant online users.”

Social media is an easy source of communication, said Hamlet Smith a psychotherapist in Beckley, West Virginia. He said because of that it can be easy for people to take advantage of others in negative ways.

“You know, just gossiping about somebody, the ability to injure people emotionally, technology just improves that,” he said.

In 2018, 59 percent of American teens reported some form of cyberbullying or internet harassment. Students interviewed for this story said for them, the comparison game is the biggest issue.

Fear of Missing Out

Midland Trail High School senior Erin Crosier said that scrolling through social media can make her anxious — like everyone’s living a better life. She said as an introvert, it can be hard to see her friends posting about the fun things they’re doing.

“I sit in my house and I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t have that,’ and it’s pretty depressing and it makes me anxious that I’m not living that too, I think,” she said.

Crosier said when she does get positive reinforcement on social media, getting a lot of “likes” for example, it also influences her mood.

“When I get tons of likes, I feel great about myself,” she said. “When I don’t, I sort of use that as a way to, for acceptance almost, you know?”

She said she feels like a lot of people her age feel the same way.

“But within a day or two I mean, it’s temporary,” she adds.

A2012 study from Harvard University, suggests that when sharing personal information through mediums like social media, causes dopamine levels to rise. Dopamine is commonly known as the “feel good” hormones. Other research suggests that getting “likes” on social media gives a boost of dopamine — which the students say is true for them.

For McMillion, the number of “likes” she receives on a post can directly influence her self-worth.

“Mostly, if I don’t get like over 100 likes on something, or at least 150, then I delete it,” she said. “The most I’ve gotten is like 400, so I try to keep it like up there, 200, 300 likes. But if it doesn’t, then I delete it because I don’t think I look good enough.”

Community Building

Studies from the Pew Research Center found that nearly two-thirds of teenagers report that they make new friends through social media, and 90 percent use social media to connect with existing offline friends every day.

Smith, the psychotherapist from Beckley, said social media if used well it can build community.

“So, if you are in a closed group with a group of people who really are intent on supporting each other, it can be a wonderful thing,” he said.

He cautioned social networks can also also be more of a “mixed bag” depending on the community one is interacting with.

“The problem with social media is not just what your intentions are, it’s what the intentions of your network in social media, too,” he said.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health and Charleston Area Medical Center.

High School Journalists Find No Regulation of Sugar in School Breakfast

**This story is part of a youth reporting project between the Fayette Institute of Technology and West Virginia Public Broadcasting. It was written by high school seniors Katie Cameron and Tabitha Gill with support from health reporter Kara Lofton.**

A lot of research says sugar is bad for us, but federal nutritional standards for school meals don’t regulate sugar consumption. And this means some elementary school students in West Virginia are eating a lot of it — especially for breakfast.

Katie Johnson, a health educator for several Fayette County schools, said one of her goals is to have quality protein at every breakfast because it slows down how quickly the body absorbs sugar.

“My long-term goal in the elementary schools is to have all fresh food. Either made-from-scratch or fresh fruits and vegetables, and maybe eggs and sausage,” she said.

Part of the problem is that some schools in Fayette County share kitchens, which means they don’t always have hot meals for breakfast. And the pre-prepared foods considered a “protein” in school breakfasts, such as yogurt, can have a lot of sugar in them.

For instance, Trix yogurt, one of the breakfast items served, has 14 grams of sugar per serving — or about half of the daily amount of sugar the American Heart Association recommends for kids under the age of 18.

“The elementary kids at one of the schools I’m at are getting about 52 grams of sugar a day, and that’s about three days a week,” said Johnson.

Two days a week, she said, kids can get a hot meal that’s cooked at a school with a kitchen and then taken to Valley Elementary.

Eating breakfast in the morning has a positive impact on children’s behavior and academic performance, according to a 2013 article published in The Frontiers of Human Neuroscience. But we also know that eating lots of added sugar leads to tooth decay and is related to developing diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure later in life.

Yet federal regulations for school breakfast don’t mention sugar.

Kristy Blower is the State Coordinator of the West Virginia Office of Child Nutrition. She said that federal regulations require that all state schools offer a breakfast with at least one grain, a fruit or vegetable, and 1 percent milk or fat-free milk.

All Fayette County schools comply with those regulations and serve the lowest amount of sugar recommended, said Joseph Dooley, the Fayette County schools nutrition director. But for him, sugar isn’t as serious as fat and sodium.

And he bigger issue, he said, is that kids aren’t guaranteed to actually eat the healthier food options they provide.

“It may take a little while for that child to acquire that taste and that desire to choose a better item, ” he said.

Valley Elementary School cook, Kelsey Critchley, also had her doubts about if kids would actually eat healthier food.

“They won’t even eat the corn we put on their trays,” she said.

But some counties like Cabell are moving toward an initiative called “from-scratch cooking.”

Cabell County Schools nutrition director Rhonda McCoy said when they first started, kids struggled to accept the new menus. For her, it was all about consistency.

“As we continued to stick to the course of preparing our meals from scratch, students began accepting the food,” she said.

Blower said the state is encouraging all schools to make their meals from scratch. The idea is to train cooks from around the state to create healthy meals with recipes that follow USDA standards. McCoy said the initiative has helped make food more nutritious for students in Cabell County.

Johnson said she hopes the from-scratch initiative becomes Fayette County’s normal routine as well. But in order for Fayette County to adopt all from scratch cooking, she says the mindset about food needs to change. Starting that change may begin with getting back to basics.

“I think one of the best things that we can do is to start gardening at school,” so kids can know where their food comes from, Johnson said. “We have a small garden at school and the kids love to work on it.”

And as kids become familiar with where their food comes from, she said she hopes that eating healthy, including eating less sugar throughout the day, will become the new norm.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health and Charleston Area Medical Center..

Fifth-Grade Students Reflect on Holiday Traditions in Youth Reporting Project

A dozen fifth-graders from Valley Elementary School in Fayette County have been exploring radio in a youth reporting project with health reporter Kara Lofton this semester.

The idea was to help kids learn how to ask questions about health issues in their community, while also teaching interview and reporting skills. At the end of the semester, students interviewed one another about their favorite holiday traditions. The result can be heard in the following two audio postcards.

To make the postcards, the students were asked to write about holiday traditions using the prompts: “I feel connected to my family when…” “My favorite holiday foods are….” “My favorite holiday traditions are…” and “I feel loved or a part of my family when…”

xxfifthgradeChristmaspostard2.mp3

During the semester, students also interviewed their parents, researched how to make their favorite holiday meals and practiced how to use recorders and microphones.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.