College Students Turn To E-Communities For Mental Health Support

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About 26% of young adults 18-25 years old have a mental health issue, but only 38% of those affected actually receive treatment, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Colleges across the U.S. have felt the weight of the statistics.  Counseling centers are flooded by an increasing demand for a limited amount of mental health resources, resulting in students getting placed on waitlists. At times, students are turning toward e-communities, particularly ones on Instagram, for support and recovery. Many accounts are dedicated to raising awareness and offering support for eating disorders, anxiety, and depression. Instagram users communicate and bond through their captions, stories, and private messages on their mental battles and physical struggles.

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Video: A Look At Storrs Center

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Located a short walk from the University of Connecticut, Storrs Center is a mixed-use town center that includes residences, restaurants, shops, businesses and educational, recreational, and cultural offerings. — Video package by Quentin Leahy, Danny Ruiz, Maeve Cox and Cristina Huisha

 

The video team: Maeve Cox attends Cheshire High School, Danny Ruiz attends John F. Kennedy High School, Waterbury; Cristina Huisha is a student from Riobamba, Educador and Quentin Leahy of Southington attends Conn. River Academy in East Hartford.

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Corporal Punishment Still Practiced In Some States

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Corporal punishment is practiced in 19 states, mostly in the south, and African American students are more likely to be disciplined with a type of physical punishment than whites, according to recent studies. On average, 160,000 students are disciplined by corporal punishment a year, reported the National Institutes of Health in its study of the prevalence of this form of discipline in 2016. Black children in Mississippi and Alabama are at least 51% more likely to be corporally punished than whites; and in one fifth of the states’ school districts, black children are over 5 times (500%) more likely to be corporally punished, the NIH reported. Corporal punishment is a discipline method in which a supervising adult purposely inflicts pain on a child in response to a child’s misbehavior. In schools where physical punishment is used, common tactics include, paddling, and spanking by hand or wooden stick.

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UConn Teams Exceed NCAA Academic Requirements

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The University of Connecticut’s football and men’s basketball and women’s basketball teams are among many teams at the university that have performed above the required NCAA Academic Progress Rate. The football and men’s basketball teams both have improved their APR scores in recent years. The women’s team has repeatedly scored well off the court while also winning national championships. The men’s basketball team earned an NCAA Public Recognition Award for posting a perfect 1000 single year APR score in the 2017-2018 year, UConn Today reported. The football team has had a steady improvement in the last five years in its multi-year APR score, with it starting at 960 in 2013-2014 and increasing to 981 for 2017-2018, according to The New Haven Register.

cyberbullying

Social Media’s Role In Cyberbullying

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All over the world, teens are constantly refreshing their social media feeds, liking new posts on Instagram and sending Snapchats to their friends. However, social media can also negatively affect one’s social life and well-being, according to Smart Social, a website that helps parents and kids keep a positive attitude on social media.  

Cyberbullying is becoming a serious issue on social media, according to the Associated Press news organization. Teens have been harassed, threatened or embarrassed on popular platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. The average age of social media users is 18-24, according to Statista, a statistics website.

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Local Stores Thrive Despite Online Competition

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In the past decade, online retailers have grown more and more popular, with some earning millions of dollars in revenue each year. Consumers can access products on the internet in a matter of seconds these days, whether it be through a computer, laptop, or mobile device. According to Tinuiti, a website that tracks online retail, 96% of American consumers shop online, but 65% of shopping is still done in stores. The gap between the percentage of online shoppers versus in-store shoppers is rapidly increasing, with millennials spending 67% of their spending budget on the internet. With said gap growing larger and larger, local businesses are slowly declining — but they’re not disappearing.

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College Athletes And Mental Health

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Jake Roberts of Danbury was highly recruited to run track in college. He decided to run track at the University of Connecticut, but during his freshman year, his plans took a wrong turn. He said he began to feel depressed, anxious and overwhelmed at having to perform well at both his meets and in the classroom. He said he “buckled under the pressure.”

After one year, he made a tough life decision and quit the track team to focus more on his journalism and political science studies. This is not a unique situation.

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Tennis Surfaces Affect Injuries

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The type of surface a tennis player plays on affects the chances and types of injury or lingering pain. Out of the three, hard court surface could cause the most damage to your body. “My personal experience has shown that hard courts are tough on the joints, just from the lack of give,” said Donna Doherty, the former editor in chief and vice president of Tennis Magazine. There are three main playing surfaces in tennis — clay, hard court, and grass. Clay courts are made from crushed brick.

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Implications Of The $15 Minimum Wage In Connecticut

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Jan Stone, who works at The Flower Pot in Storrs Center, said she is happy that she will see her pay increase thanks to a bill passed in May by the state legislature. That’s because Connecticut became the seventh state to pass a bill that would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next four and a half years. “It’s good for me,” Stone, a Storrs resident who has worked at the shop for the past two years, said. Before the bill passed, it was debated for months at the State Capitol. For minimum wage workers across the state, earning a higher wage will bring a sense of financial relief.

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Social Media’s Impact On Teen Health

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One day Kamar Rhoden, 15, of Hartford, was scrolling through Instagram when he received a notification that someone had left him a comment. When Kamar clicked on the comment, he saw that it was mean, and he said he was immediately overwhelmed with sadness. Seeing that someone could say such mean things, he said he became depressed and wanted to change everything about himself. Kamar said he has since been able to overcome his sadness, that may not be the case for other teens. In fact, The Crime Report reported that an article in the Journal of School Violence has found that “Students who experienced bullying or cyberbullying are nearly two times more likely to attempt suicide.” Twenty percent of students, ages 12-18, were bullied during the 2016-2017 school year, TCR reports.