Stress for teens.

Publication: Newsday (Melville, NY)

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Newsday

Byline: Christine Armario

Mar. 31--Long Island high schoolers are worried about their families' safety, think war and the environment will get worse in the next decade, and generally don't identify themselves as "Long Islanders," according to a mental health survey released today that polled more than a thousand area teens. The North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center's data will be presented this morning at a conference in Roslyn Heights, where parents, students and educators will gather to discuss the results. The mental health agency questioned 1,045 students in seven Suffolk and Nassau schools last year. Andrew Malekoff, project coordinator of the study, said the data indicates today's teens face a higher level of anxiety than teens did decades ago, a by-product of multiple factors, including increased pressure on grades and standardized tests, the aftermath of Sept. 11th and the war on terror. Comparing the results to a similar poll taken in 1984 by the agency, a non-profit founded by a group of parents more than five decades ago, Malekoff said: "Kids [then] were fearful about nuclear war ... but they hadn't experienced anything like 9/11, anything like Columbine. It...

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