Health and Risk Communication

Contrary to a 2019 study, a data reanalysis found no evidence of an increase in adolescent suicide rates after the release of Netflix's "13 Reasons Why."

Two-thirds of the news stories analyzed last year debunked the holiday-suicide myth, the false claim that suicides increase over the holidays, according to new research from the Annenberg Public Policy Center.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania find that scenes of unjustified and justified violence in movies activate different parts of the adolescent brain. When movie characters engage in violence that is seen as justified, there is a synchronized response among viewers in a part of the brain involved in moral evaluation, suggesting that viewers see it as acceptable for protection.

Although some researchers have attributed the rise in adolescent suicide to social media and smart phone use, researcher Dan Romer says economic and parental pressures are as likely to blame.

A recent study estimated that an additional 195 suicide deaths among young people occurred after the release of the TV series “13 Reasons Why.” A commentary co-authored by APPC's Dan Romer asks how to interpret that number and whether it obscures a complex set of media effects.

A new study from APPC and CHOP suggests that relatively slower growth of working memory is linked with teen driving crashes.