Strollerderby : adolescents

Girls More Confident Since Presidential Election

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:35:00 GMT

50 percent of girls ages 12 to 17 have more confidence since the presidential election, according to a study by the Girl Scout Research Foundation. The study of 3,284 adolescent girls also found that half of young women now believe they will be able to achieve their goals, and 55 percent feel more comfortable speaking their minds.

The Girl Scout Research Foundation speculates (unsurprisingly) that the inclusion of two female candidates—Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin—drastically affected young girls for the better.

I would guess that the election of the nation’s first black president has also increased girls’ confidence in their chances for success. Seeing an African-American family in the White House is a wonderfully concrete demonstration that glass ceilings can be shattered to smithereens.

Photo: Jezebel

Teaching Teens to Recognize Abusive Relationships

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:49:00 GMT

A recent study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that a full third of college students were involved in an abusive relationship at some point before they started college. And a survey of 1,000 children found that 25 percent of kids aged 11 to 14 had been harassed and verbally degraded by their boyfriend or girlfriend through phone calls or text messages, often late at night when their parents were sleeping.

One of the main reasons for these alarmingly high numbers is that teenage romance is bound to be sticky and confusing, so youth are often blind to behaviors that could be a harbinger of violence. High school boys are often so shy or wary of commitment that a boy who calls all the time or is possessive can be seen as confident and romantic, not dangerous. “Few adolescents understand what a healthy relationship looks like,” according to Dr. Elizabeth Miller, who has been studying teen dating violence for a decade.

Fortunately, many states are implementing programs to help teach teens about healthy dating, and to help parents, educators, and police officers recognize the signs of dating violence or verbal abuse. Texas has started requiring schools to include prohibitions against dating violence in school safety codes, and Rhode Island requires schools to teach grades 7 through 12 about dating violence and abuse. Indianapolis has started training police officers in public schools to recognize the early signs of abusive dating.

Deborah Norris (pictured), the mother of a teenager killed by her boyfriend, has started heathersvoice.net in an effort to teach teen girls about healthy romantic relationships. Loveisrespect.org is another widely utilized resource for teens seeking a way out of an abusive relationship.

These programs are a great start, but I would argue that we shouldn't focus only on teaching teen girls (who are overwhelmingly the victimes, not the perpetrators, of violence) to recognize an abusive relationship; we should also be teaching teenage boys how to be in a respectful, healthy relationship. As Harvard psychologist William S. Pollack puts it, "Usually when adolescent boys get involved with girls, they fall into the societal model which we call ‘macho,’ where they need to show they are the ones in control." It's way past time we offered these boys a different model.

Photo: New York Times

They Say: The IVF Kids Are All Right

Amy Kuras — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:06:00 GMT

Here’s some good news for families with kids conceived through IVF – at adolescence, they show no differences with families with children conceived “naturally.”

A study from the University of Leuven in Belgium, published in the journal Human Reproduction, looked at families with 15 and 16 year old children who had participated in a similar study when their children were two years old. Both parents and children of IVF families and non-IVF families filled out questionnaires assessing the parents’ parenting style and stress, and the teens’ psychosocial adjustment. Both teens and parents filled out both surveys.

The sample size was small; only 24 families in the study group and 21 in the control group.

The study found no significant differences in parenting style or in parenting stress between IVF mothers and fathers and mothers and fathers in the control group. There was also no significant difference between the groups in self- or parent-reported behavioral problems. Interestingly, a comparison of behavioral problems between IVF adolescents informed or not informed about the IVF conception did not reveal significant differences. That surprised me – I always thought the conventional wisdom that telling children is much more healthy that not would be borne out by research.

According to the research team, the study is the first psychosocial follow-up of IVF parents and children in mid-adolescence, and adds to the evidence that IVF children and their parents are well-adjusted.

Evangelical Teens' Very Active Sex Lives

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

In this week's issue of The New Yorker, there's a cartoon that made me laugh so hard I spit out my tea. Although it's not technically Bristol Palin's unborn child speaking, it easily could be. Two kids are sitting on a stoop and one says to the other, "I was an abstinence-only baby."

An article by Margarot Talbot in this same New Yorker tackles the issue of evangelical teen pregnancy in a more serious vein. Even for someone who is already convinced that abstinence-only sex education doesn’t work, these statistics are shocking.

Although 74 percent of white evangelical teenagers are opposed to premarital sex, more evangelical teens are sexually active than almost any other major religious group, including mainline Protestants, Jews, and Mormons. The average age for an evangelical to lose her virginity is 16. And half of these kids are not using protection. Compare that with 69 percent of non-evangelical teens who report using contraception every time they have sex.

The reason for this high percentage of unsafe sex among evangelical teens likely stems from shame at being sexually active—if you carry around condoms or suggest using one, you could give the impression that you are looking for sex. Furthermore, abstinence-only sex ed. teaches that condoms are not effective protection against STDs and pregnancy.

As we’ve seen in the widespread conservative support for Bristol Palin’s plans to get married and have a baby at age 17, for many evangelical parents, a teen daughter becoming pregnant is not a problem—so long as she keeps the baby and marries the father. This is a perfectly valid attitude based on a personal moral belief. The problem is that this retroactive problem solving often does not lead to happy families.

The states with the highest divorce rates and the highest teen pregnancy rates are all red (where people are, obviously, more likely to be evangelical conservatives than social liberals). The states with the lowest divorce and teen-pregnancy rates are all blue.

Many are arguing, even within the evangelical community, that if Christians want to preserve a commitment to abstinence until marriage, they must do more to encourage happier, younger marriages, since delaying sex until age 25 or 30 is just not realistic.

A large part of encouraging young Christians to have happier relationships is offering them more realistic attitudes toward sex. If hormonal teenagers are taught, for instance, that masturbation is sinful, they are more likely to have less engagement with and control over their bodies. Similarly, teen girls who are taught that they can always become "born-again virgins" if they "accidentally" have sex before marriage are not likely to embark on a responsible sex life. And such guilt-addled, unrealistic attitudes toward sex are likely to cause problems for couples well into marriage.

Photo: Mary Ellen Mark/The New Yorker

Could Sex on TV Lead to Teen Pregnancy?

Tyra Banks Talks to Wanna-be Teen Moms

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Guests on last night’s Tyra Banks Show included a pregnant 13-year-old who used to want to be a lawyer, but who now says, without a tone of regret, that she doesn’t think she’ll make it to college. A 14-year-old who is actively trying to get pregnant said that she believes that her boyfriend would “probably marry” her if she got pregnant—unless he decides he doesn’t want to be with her anymore “for some reason.” Perhaps that reason could be going to college instead of continuing to mow lawns to support his family? This teenager also said that she wants a baby because she thinks baby showers are just so “fun and adorable!” Tyra wisely reminded her that a baby shower lasts for two hours.

I’d like to pass the topic of this show off as one of those sensational trends that gets a lot of media coverage but doesn’t necessarily reflect real life. But the fact is, one in three teenage girls will become pregnant before she turns 20—that’s the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the industrialized world. And teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. are on the rise for the first time in 15 years.

It’s clear from listening to these girls talk that they are lacking something fundamental—a sense of control over their lives or the experience of unconditional love, to put it broadly. Adolescence is such a difficult time of life and the thought that one could have a tiny, adorable being to devote one’s self to—rather than having to work to forge a life for one’s self—could be appealing to some youth. But, naturally, this fantasy is nothing like the reality of being a teen mom.

Young men and women need not only comprehensive sex education, but parenting and marriage education that explains that these are not states into which one enters lightly. And almost all of the media hubbub over teen pregnancy has focused on girls. What about the boys who are getting these girls pregnant? They need to understand the consequences of their actions just as much as girls do, including the risk that having sex at such a young age will make their partners long for, and perhaps seek, more commitment than they can handle.

Thanks to Jezebel, you can watch a clip of the last night’s show here.

Photo: informedvoters.wordpress.com

Are Shotgun Weddings the Best Answer to Teen Pregnancy?

How Much Would You Pay to Clear Up Your Teen’s Skin?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:00:00 GMT

A dermatologists' study seeks to put a price on age-old teenage angst. 266 teens and their parents were asked how much they would pay to get rid of zits. On average, teens would pay $275 to have never had acne, $100 to be acne-free, and $10 to have 50 percent of their acne cleared up. They wouldn’t pay anything to have completely clear skin with scars. Parents responses were almost equivalent to those of their children, except that they would be willing to pay $100 for 50 percent clearance.

Is it disturbing that dermatologists are figuring out how much teens would be willing to pay for acne treatments before developing these treatments? Yes, although it does make some sense. For instance, this data suggests that there is no reason to work on developing a treatment for acne that leads to scarring.

I wonder how much teens would pay to have acne be considered a normal part of adolescence, not a cause for horror and depression. No point in putting a price on the impossible, I suppose.

How much would you pay to treat your children’s acne?

Photo: Kaboose

MySpace Hoax Mom Indicted

Kelly Mills — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:27:00 GMT

Remember Lori Drew? How about Megan Meier? Megan, a thirteen-year-old, hung herself after her MySpace boyfriend, Josh, cruelly dumped her. This itself would be bad enough, but the real ugly part is that Josh didn't exist. He was the creation of Lori Drew, who was Megan's neighbor and the mother of a girl Megan was once friends with. Drew, with the aid of a nineteen-year-old employee of hers, created Josh, maintained a relationship with Megan, laughed abut it and let her daughter and daughter's friend in on the joke, and then had "Josh" tell Megan the world would be better off without her.

Since being a phenomenally evil creep isn't a crime, investigators didn't charge Drew in the case. But now a federal grand jury has indicted her on one count of conspiracy and three counts of using protected computers without authorization to get information used to harass and torment a teenage girl. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The indictment includes the fact that MySpace users agree to terms forbidding users from promoting information they know to be false, soliciting personal information from anyone under eighteen, and using the site to harass others. Drew of course did all of the above. Too bad there isn't really a punishment that can make up for what she did.

Photo: Tom Gannam / AP

Having "The Talk" Gets Complicated

Amy Kuras — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:33:00 GMT

When we were kids, "the talk" about how babies were made was probably pretty simple. Man, woman, love each other very much, special kind of hug, yadda yadda.

But it was always a more complex world than that. More of us are facing the same kind of talk with our kids that may involve two mommies, two daddies, petri dishes, sperm donors, birth mothers, long plane flights to a foreign land and any combination of the above.

Even those of us whose own stories are pretty straightforward and mainstream want to make sure we're inclusive of all the types of families our child may encounter. My daughter's preschool friends include two kids who were adopted from foreign countries, and one child born through surrogacy -- and that's just the stories I know about.

The Washington Post talked about that in a story this week (which I found through Salon's Broadsheet blog). As people become more open about things that used to be discussed in whispers if at all, it's more important to talk with our kids honestly and most importantly, early, experts interviewed for the story said. "You should start talking to children about sex from the day they can talk," said Maureen Lyon, a clinical psychologist at Children's National Medical Center. "Hopefully, when they reach adolescence there's a little bit of groundwork done."

Studies show adolescents whose parents can talk to them openly about sex – not just biology-class reproductive basics but relationship issues and such – are closer to their parents and most importantly, less apt to engage in risky behavior.

Hoo boy, am I behind. Do they make a board-book version of "Our Bodies, Ourselves"?

Girl Saves Lives, Gets Punished

Kelly Mills — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:03:00 GMT

A fifteen-year-old high school student, Amanda Rouse, stopped an out-of-control school bus by pulling the emergency brake. When the bus driver fell out of her seat, she yelled to Amanda for assistance. The teen quickly put the brake on and the bus hit two parked cars and stopped. She then helped the driver up, who called the school transportation authorities. None of the 40 elementary school kids on the bus were injured, and the driver suffered only minor damage. Kudos to Amanda for her quick action.

So what did Amanda get for her heroism? Saturday school. See, it turns out she wasn't supposed to be on the bus at that point, but she says she felt ill on the ride to school, so she asked the driver if she could stay on for the return trip. I guess she was supposed to notify the school instead, or, as she says, "I should have gotten off the bus and called my grandma." Hmmm, if I was the school, I might consider giving her a one-time pass in light of the fact that she saved the day, but I suppose the quality of mercy is not strained, yo.

Photo: DAVID ROYAL/The Herald

17th Teen Kills Self In Town With Multiple Suicides

Kelly Mills — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:33:00 GMT

A town in Wales is reeling from a wave of teen suicides, and when a 16-year-old girl was found hanging in the woods this week, the total deaths reached 17 in a little over one year. Some media reports have speculated on a possible internet suicide pact among teens in the area, but the police say there is no evidence of this or of any possible criminal causes of the deaths. While many of the victims did use a social networking site, the authorities say this played no part in the deaths, and argue against the more sensational media coverage. The parents of a 15-year-old boy in the same area who killed himself last week ask for more media restraint, and say "their son may have been influenced by media reports they believe glamorized earlier suicides."

Is there an internet connection between the teens who took their own lives? Sadly, "suicide clusters" where several teens in an area kill themselves over a span of a few to many years, are not unheard of, and certainly pre-date social networking sites. There's been many observed suicide clusters around the world and sociologists have even used them as evidence of the profound influence of society on even our own instinct towards self-preservation. Teens and young adults are the most suceptible to clusters, and in many ways we still don't understand mass suicide, let alone have tons of effective means of prevention. And they are profoundly tragic for the parents of the teens who kill themselves, and terrifying to the parents of adolescents in the area.

Parents and Teens Don't Recognize Weight Problem

Kelly Mills — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:32:00 GMT

Yet another study found that parents of overweight teens don't identify the kids as being overweight, and the kids don't see a problem either. There's been a whole slew of these "parents don't know kids are fat" things lately. When both groups were asked if they thought the adolescents, who all have type 2 diabetes, were "very overweight, slightly overweight, about right, slightly thin, or very thin?" only 41 percent of the parents and 35 percent of the kids reported 'very overweight', even though 87 percent were considered overweight by accepted standards. The researchers say this is a problem because recognition of a weight problem is the first step in making lifestyle and diet changes. But, well, I gotta cry "bullshit" on this one.

Frankly, I do still have some trouble accepting the premise that in this weight-obsessed society, the teenagers involved don't have any idea they might be overweight, even if the parents are blind to it. But let's assume this study is valid: Is it in fact necessary for the kids and parents to acknowledge weight problems in order to make changes? Personally I don't think so, and I believe focusing on weight as a measure of health is foolish anyway. After all, this is a group who has type 2 diabetes (linked with being overweight) and you're telling me that explaining diet and exercise are crucial to diabetes management and even reversal is not good enough? These kids have a disease that gives them incentive and reason to make lifestyle changes that would almost certainly result in weight loss. That's more important than highlighting weight, and trust me, they'll get the weight message from many different sources for the rest of their lives.