All posts tagged: young

Returning to the fold? Some young Spaniards embrace Catholicism and can’t wait for Pope Leo’s visit

Returning to the fold? Some young Spaniards embrace Catholicism and can’t wait for Pope Leo’s visit

Published by Sam Flores

Until three years ago, Sara Cabral’s faith experience was on trend with other Southern European youth — a “Catholic but never practicing” upbringing with little relevance to her life on Spain’s Canary Islands. Then she listened to a song from a faith youth group that felt as if God were speaking to her. She joined the group, and now in addition to its weekly adoration with music sessions, Cabral is excitedly preparing to attend Pope Leo XIV ’s Mass in Gran Canaria with her friends. “You get a restlessness about an emptiness that you don’t know how to fill,” Cabral, 26, says of her embrace of Catholicism. “God is the one looking for you first, but you need to go meet him.” On trips to Spain this month and France in September, Leo will find thousands of young people like her in these traditionally Catholic but now staunchly secular countries, where historic churches are abundant and Mass attendance is sparse. Church leaders and some experts see the success of youth movements and the surge in …

Around 1 in 5 young people use AI chatbots for mental health advice: survey

Around 1 in 5 young people use AI chatbots for mental health advice: survey

Published by Sam Flores

Nearly 1 in 5 adolescents and young adults are turning to AI chatbots for advice when they’re sad, angry, nervous or stressed, according to a new study. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. The findings, from the research institute RAND, represent an increase from early 2025, when the nonprofit conducted a similar survey. At the time, around 13% of respondents said they used chatbots for such advice, but the share rose to 19% in the group’s latest survey in November, the results of which were published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. “It’s a sad number, because you’d hope that young people would have the sorts of supportive relationships that they would feel comfortable and empowered reaching out to those around them,” said Ryan McBain, a senior policy researcher at RAND and the lead author of the study. For the new survey, McBain and his team asked people ages 12 to 21 whether they had used a service like ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Character.AI for mental …

PhotoMel investigates factors increasing melanoma risk in young adults

PhotoMel investigates factors increasing melanoma risk in young adults

Published by skeptic

A major European research project led by the Medical University of Vienna will investigate how environmental factors may increase melanoma risk among young adults. The four-year initiative, known as PhotoMel, has secured more than €5.7m in funding through the Horizon Europe Mission Cancer programme and is scheduled to begin in September 2026. The project will focus on two poorly understood contributors to skin cancer development: exposure to UVA radiation during childhood and adolescence, and interactions between UVA exposure and ingredients commonly found in skincare products. Researchers aim to determine how these factors affect skin biology and potentially contribute to the early stages of melanoma progression. Scientists hope the findings will lead to improved prevention strategies, new biomarkers for identifying high-risk individuals, and predictive tools that could help reduce melanoma risk and improve outcomes for younger patients across Europe. Addressing a persistent cancer threat Malignant melanoma remains one of the deadliest forms of cancer affecting young people in Europe. While public health campaigns have long warned about the dangers of Sun exposure, melanoma rates continue to …

Young first-time buyers face toughest time since financial crisis, says UK housebuilder | First-time buyers

Young first-time buyers face toughest time since financial crisis, says UK housebuilder | First-time buyers

Published by Sam Flores

The boss of Britain’s largest housebuilder has said it is the most challenging time to be a first-time buyer since the financial crisis, as the dream of home ownership moves increasingly out of reach for many young people. A combination of rising interest rates, higher levels of student debt and the squeeze on wages is making it “challenging, very, very difficult” for young people to get on the housing ladder, according to David Thomas, the departing chief executive of Barratt Redrow. “Certainly, it’s going to be close to where we were post the great financial crisis,” Thomas said in an interview with the BBC. “That was probably more to do with lending coming out of 2008-2009, but I think it’s very, very comparable for first-time buyers, particularly when you look at areas like London and the south-east.” Thomas said higher levels of student loan repayments were making it harder for younger people to get a mortgage. “Once people are earning a certain level of salary they have a requirement to repay student debt, and therefore …

We would like to hear from young people in the UK about their job hunting experience | Work & careers

We would like to hear from young people in the UK about their job hunting experience | Work & careers

Published by Sam Flores

The number of young people not in work or education in Britain could rise to 1.25 million by the early 2030s without urgent government action, a landmark report has warned. Alan Milburn, the leader of the review into why so many young people are economically inactive, said the UK risked opening up a “generational fault line” between young and old without urgent steps to overhaul schools, the health service, the welfare system and the jobs market. We would like to speak to young people in the UK who are not in work or education about their efforts to find work. How have you found job hunting? How many applications have you made? What do you feel about the report? Share your experience You can get in touch using the form below or by messaging us.  Your responses, which can be anonymous, are secure as the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to your contributions. We will only use the data you provide us for the purpose of the feature and we will …

High Fitness Doesn’t Raise A-fib Risk In Young Men, Study Finds

High Fitness Doesn’t Raise A-fib Risk In Young Men, Study Finds

Published by Sam Flores

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterWEDNESDAY, May 27, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Being incredibly fit shouldn’t increase a young adult’s risk of dangerous irregular heart rhythm, a new study says. Young male athletes and fitness buffs aren’t more likely to develop atrial fibrillation, despite earlier studies that showed an apparent link, researchers reported May 21 in the journal Circulation. “Our study shows that there are good reasons to nuance and tone down the message, which has been widespread at times, that high levels of fitness or participating in races would pose a big risk to a person’s cardiovascular health,” said lead investigator Marcel Ballin, an associated researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden. “The risk of atrial fibrillation is certainly not zero, but that said, the benefits are significantly greater,” he said in a news release. For the new study, researchers analyzed data for more than 1 million young Swedish men collected between 1972 and 1995 from national service data. Overall, initial results showed that the men with the highest levels of fitness did have a higher …

why young men seeking belonging join gangs

why young men seeking belonging join gangs

Published by Sam Flores

The government has published plans for “once-in-a-generation” reform of youth justice in England and Wales. The reforms are billed as a blueprint for earlier intervention, more targeted support and addressing the root causes of youth crime. It’s welcome that the proposals recognise how many children in the youth justice system have grown up with instability, trauma and neglect – and that those in the system often have increasingly complex needs. They also emphasise the importance of trusted relationships with professionals, stronger families and school attendance. The argument that youth crime is often shaped by complex needs, adversity and missed opportunities for support, maps closely onto what my colleague Jagjit Sandhu and I found in our recent study of young men who have been involved in gangs. Gang involvement is often discussed in terms of violence, drugs, knives and policing. It can be dangerous, harmful and traumatising, both for young people themselves and for the communities around them. But focusing only on crime misses something important: gangs can also offer belonging, a sense of identity and …

In Lebanon, jiu-jitsu gives young women more freedom : NPR

In Lebanon, jiu-jitsu gives young women more freedom : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Palestinian girls train in jiu jitsu in the refugee camp of Bourj el Barajneh in South Beirut. Aline Deschamps for NPR hide caption toggle caption Aline Deschamps for NPR BEIRUT — In a makeshift gym in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp, the participants in this martial arts class are unlearning much of what they have been taught about how girls and women should behave. It’s the end of a two-month course in Brazilian jiu jitsu – a form of the Japanese martial art – and the small space rings out with yells and the sound of shuffling as coach Mirella Atallah drills her students on how to get leverage against a much stronger opponent. Mirella Atallah, Lebanese-Canadian, is a trainer of jiu jitsu and former world champion who now trains women and marginalized communities around the world – in societies where there’s little awareness about gender-based violence and talking about sexual abuse is considered a taboo most of the times.  Aline Deschamps for NPR hide caption toggle caption Aline Deschamps for NPR Atallah, though, doesn’t …

Fossil study finds dinosaur parents fed their young special diets

Fossil study finds dinosaur parents fed their young special diets

Published by Jenni Sidey

Maiasaura dinosaur teeth carry a quiet clue: babies were not eating what adults ate. Tiny wear marks suggest young duck-bills got softer, richer food, adding fresh weight to the idea that some dinosaurs cared for offspring in surprisingly bird-like ways. Tiny scratches on fossilized dinosaur teeth are giving scientists a rare glimpse into family life from nearly 80 million years ago. A new study suggests that baby duck-billed dinosaurs may have eaten softer, richer and more nutritious foods than the adults that cared for them. The findings come from a close examination of Maiasaura peeblesorum, a plant-eating dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. Paleontologists discovered that young Maiasaura had very different tooth wear patterns than adults. Those differences suggest the juveniles likely consumed low-fiber foods such as fruits, buds or other tender plant material, while adults mostly ate tougher vegetation. The study adds new evidence to a long-running idea that Maiasaura were unusually attentive parents. Researchers say the feeding behavior may resemble the way many modern birds feed their young today. “The urge …