Majority of Pregnant Teens Had Sex with Older Men

An Illinois newspaper has reported that more than half of all teen pregnancies are the result of sex between teenage girls and older men.

In an article that appeared in the Oct. 13 edition of Kankakee County's The Daily Journal, staff writer Haley Graham described the prevalence of adult fathers and teen mothers as "a growing national epidemic fueled by insufficient sex education, the sexualization of young women in the media, and ignorance":

Half of the time, a teen pregnancy does not even involve two teens close in age. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy estimates 52 percent of the fathers are three years or more older than the moms; and about two-thirds of the fathers are age 20 and over.

In Illinois, the largest group of fathers involved in fathering a child with a teenage mother were between the ages of 20 and 24 - that age group accounted for 48 percent of teen births during 2006, the latest year available. Only 10 percent of the fathers were under age 18. ...

These relationships are still considered a form of sex abuse whether they are consensual or not, and many occur with a teenager who has had a history of previous abuse.

Graham's article also referred to research by Child Trends (a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that focuses on children and families) that was published in a March 2008 report. The following were among the key findings about age disparities among sexual partners in that report:

• Among middle school and high school students, one in five girls (18%) reported having a sexual relationship with a partner who was three or more years older than they were.
• Female teens who have sex with an older partner are more likely to acquire a sexually transmitted infection (STI) and to give birth in young adulthood than were females with a similar-age partner.
• Ten percent of female teens have had sex before age 16 and with an older sexual partner.

Darkness to Light, an international nonprofit that raises awareness of sex abuse, estimates 60 percent of teens' first pregnancies are preceded by molestation, rape, or attempted rape.

"We ignore the fact that many of these young women are groomed into being sexually abused and are victims of a crime," Pat Patrick, vice president of Darkness to Light, said in Graham's article. "These are still children being victimized."

Adolescent Girls who Use Marijuana at Greater Risk for Brain Impairment

Research that was presented at the 2008 conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics sheds new light on the effect of marijuana on the brains of teens who use the drug, and indicates that girls who smoke pot may be at greater risk for brain damage.

The new information about the relationship between marijuana and the teen brain was uncovered by Krista Lisdahl Medina, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Cincinnati, and Susan Tapert, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. According to an Oct. 14 article on the PhysOrg website, chronic use of marijuana during adolescence has been associated with impairments to attention skills, verbal memory, and the ability to plan:

"Not only are their thinking abilities worse, their brain activation to cognitive tasks is abnormal. The tasks are fairly easy, such as remembering the location of objects, and they may be able to complete the tasks, but what we see is that adolescent marijuana users are using more of their parietal and frontal cortices to complete the tasks. Their brain is working harder than it should," Medina says.

She adds that recent findings suggest females may be at increased risk for the neurocognitive consequences of marijuana use during adolescence, as studies found that teenage girls had marginally larger prefrontal cortex (PFC) volumes compared to girls who did not smoke marijuana.

The larger PFC volumes were associated with poorer executive functions of the brain in these teens, such as planning, decision-making or staying focused on a task.

Though partial recovery was observed within three weeks of abstinence from the drug, the PhysOrg article reported that the researchers observed continued impairment to complex attention skills in adolescents who used large amounts of marijuana.

"Medina says adolescence is a critical time of brain development," the article noted, "and that the findings are yet another warning for adolescents who experiment with drug use."

Author Encourages Adolescent Girls to Resist Media Stereotypes, Pursue Ethical Lives

The author whose work inspired the hit film "Mean Girls" has a message for adolescent and teen girls who may be feeling besieged by media pressure to pursue unattainable levels of "beauty": Resist the hype, educate yourselves, and establish high ethical standards.

Rosalind Wiseman, whose book Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence was the basis for the Tina Fey film, spoke to hundreds of Pennsylvania girls on Oct. 13 during the latest stop in her ongoing effort to prevent violence and promote ethical behavior and social justice.

"My goal is that you are to be taken seriously," Wiseman told a gathering at Pottsville Area High School, according to an Oct. 14 article in the Republican Herald newspaper. "If you have the image that the only way you can be taken seriously is with cars, friends, fame and fake breasts, you have the wrong idea."

According to Republican Herald staff writer Damian Gessel, Wiseman took aim at inappropriate efforts to impose unrealistic and unhealthy ideals upon young consumers, and advised the girls in the audience to equip themselves with education to ward off the effects of the entreaties:

"The message here is that you have to be super sexy, even at 5 years old," Wiseman said, pointing to a projector image of the kid-favorite "Bratz" dolls. Wiseman blamed the media and music for forcing girls to conform to archetypical standards of beauty and popularity.

"If you don't understand the rules that are coming at you from the culture, you won't be in control of your life," Wiseman said.

Wiseman said messages girls receive through pop culture can sometimes have wider implications in their interactions with each other, leading in some cases to bullying. Taking a realistic stance on bullying, [she] told parents to hold their children responsible while at the same time treating them with dignity.

The founder of the anti-violence "Empower Program" and the ethics-promoting "Owning Up" efforts, Wiseman says on her website that her actions are motivated by a childhood desire "to make the world a more socially just place."

For Girls with ADHD, Stimulant Meds Reduce Odds of Smoking, Drinking, Using Drugs

Substance abuse experts with the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Department of Massachusetts General Hospital have discovered that giving stimulant medications to girls who have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder can drastically reduce the likelihood that the girls will use tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs while still in adolescence.

According to an Oct. 6 post on US News & World Report's "HealthDay" blog, the Massachusetts study - which mirrors previous findings for boys who take the medications - refutes fears that prescribing drugs such as Ritalin would increase substance abuse among the youth who were being treated:

Girls with ADHD actually tend to get into trouble with substance abuse earlier than do boys with the disorder, so confirming those results was not simply academic," lead researcher Timothy Wilens ... said in a hospital news release.

For their study, the researchers examined data from 114 girls with ADHD who had enrolled in a study investigating the impact of ADHD on the risk of substance abuse. The girls were between the ages of six and 18 when the study began. They were assessed for tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use five years after they enrolled in the study. The researchers compared the 94 participants who received stimulant treatment with the 20 who had not been treated.

The girls who had been treated with stimulants had half the risk of smoking, drinking alcohol, and drug abuse as those who had not received treatment. In the participants who did develop substance abuse, stimulant treatment did not affect when they began using substances or the level of dependence.

"We can confidently say that stimulant treatment does not increase the risk of future substance abuse or smoking in girls with ADHD and at least delays the onset of cigarette smoking and substance abuse," said Wilens.

The researchers did not evaluate the effects the medications have on substance use and abuse rates once the patients reach adulthood. The study was published in the October 2008 edition of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Government Website Provides Health, Fitness Info for Adolescent Girls

For the past six years, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has managed a website designed to provide health information for adolescent girls.

In the "About" section of www.girlshealth.gov, the program is described as an effort "to inspire health behaviors" within the target population.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health, our mission is to inspire healthy behaviors using positive, supportive, and non-threatening messages. ... The site gives girls reliable, useful information on the health issues they will face as they become young women, and tips on handling relationships with family and friends, at school and at home.

Our tagline is "Be Happy. Be Healthy. Be You. Beautiful." It focuses on the idea that being yourself—finding what makes you smile and how to live well—is what makes you "you." And that is beautiful!

An online media packet describes the site as being organized in the following 10 categories:

• Body - Covers everything from growth and body hair to acne and hair care.


• Fitness - Stresses that being fit means more than only how you look.


• Nutrition - Addresses a healthy diet for a teenage girl and what to do to improve nutrition.


• Illness & Disability - Shows ways to cope with a chronic illness and how to combat the fears of being sick.


• Drugs, Alcohol, & Smoking - Describes all types of substance abuse and what it does to a girl's body.


• Your Emotions - Talks about relieving stress in healthy ways, depression, and teen suicide prevention.


• Relationships - Talks about the importance of healthy relationships and open communication.


• Bullying - Information for girls, parents, and educators about the issues associated with bullying.


• Safety - Addresses safety issues about the Internet, within relationships, and provides general safety tips.


• Your Future - Helps girls discover their talents and plan for the future.

"Let's face it, today's media-savvy teens rely more heavily on the Internet as a reliable source of information than they rely on their parents, teachers, or friends," wrote the program's project manager, Ann Abercrombie, in a letter on the site. "So, it is critical to give them the most reliable and up-to-date health information available."

Study Links Poverty with Sexual Activity Among Young Girls

A Canadian-American study has discovered that girls in poverty-stricken neighborhoods are more likely to engage in sex at a younger age - and are more likely to have older partners and participate in other inappropriate behaviors - than are girls who are more economically secure.

Researchers from two Canadian universities (the Universite de Montreal and the University of New Brunswick) joined colleagues from Tufts University in Boston, Mass., to analyze statistics that had been collected on nearly 2,600 boys and girls (one-fourth of whom resided in impoverished neighborhoods) during Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.

According to a Sept. 16 article by Marianne White of the Canwest News Service, the researchers reported that girls appear to be influenced more strongly by the socioeconomic status of their neighborhood and peer group than boys are:

"The results suggest that neighbourhoods shape peer groups, which in turn influence when girls become sexually active," said lead author Veronique Dupere, who completed the research at the Universite de Montreal and is now a post-doctoral fellow at Tufts.

Dupere explained that teenaged girls who have shown conduct problems - such as running away, staying out all night or stealing - were more influenced by delinquent friends, who are "thought to provide a pool of willing partners and cultivate a sense that early sexual activity is desirable."

The study found that unlike girls, boys from a disadvantaged background did not become sexually active earlier in their adolescence. "Family and individual risk appeared more influential in boys' timing their first sexual experience," said Dupere.

Among the concerns raised by this study, Dupere said in the Canwest article, is that the impoverished girls may be putting themselves at risk for a range of problems. "Other studies show that early initiators are more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases, undergo unwanted teen pregnancy and to report involuntary sexual experiences," she said.

The study was published in the Sept./Oct. 2008 issue of the journal Child Development.

Teen Author Teaches Fellow Students to Resist Peer Pressure, Develop Self-Confidence

In addition to being a published author, a 16-year-old high school junior from New Jersey has also developed a self-confidence workshop that she presents to groups of elementary and middle-school students.

According to an Oct. 6 article in the Burlington County Times, Kristina Coia started writing at age 11, and quickly expanded her efforts to encourage healthy self-image among fellow students:

Her stories eventually evolved into a program, "Shine Through," which was formed as a group to provide middle school girls with self confidence. The program has since been expanded to include boys and she has developed another program, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall," for children in first- through fifth-grade.

In addition to presenting two to three programs a month, Coia is working on new books. She's planning a workbook for her "Shine Through" program that could also serve as a journal for participants.

She's planning a series of books for grammar schoolchildren. Each book would focus on a different virtue, she said.

A release posted on Coia's website describes "Shine Through" as a three-part program that teaches young students how to address personal fears and develop both confidence and self-reliance:

Stage One - Discovery. This stage deals with the questions of self doubt, self-consciousness, peer pressure, and idealization. ... In this stage, Kristina teaches that one must take the initiative to find the real you rather then create a façade.

Stage Two - Experimentation. In this stage, Kristina teaches that you must determine who you want to be and what you need to do to become that person.

Stage Three - Be Comfortable With Who You Are. In this stage, Kristina teaches participants not to worry about what others think, be yourself and let yourself shine through.

"The goal of 'Shine Through' is to let each person shine through as the person they really are," Coia said in the release. "It's important to be able to stand up to peer pressure and have the self-esteem to do that. If all of us can do that, we will each shine through in our individual way."

Are Personal Care Products Putting Chemicals into Young Girls' Bodies?

The sample was small, but the findings were nonetheless alarming: A study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found 16 chemicals from four chemical families in the blood and urine of 20 girls aged 14 to 19.

In a Sept. 24 article on the daily green website, Dan Shapley noted that experts are investigating the effect that these chemicals may be having on the hormone systems of young girls:

These endocrine disruptors -- phthalates, triclosan, parabens and musks -- are associated with cosmetics and body care products, which teen girls use in higher doses than other segments of the population, according to the Environmental Working Group, which conducted the study. Further, because young women are going through rapid development, their long-term health, particularly their reproductive health, could be at risk.

The health risks of the chemicals is not definitively understood, but each has been the target of efforts by consumer, health, and environmental advocates who view independent scientific findings as justification for limiting or eliminating exposure.

Because these chemicals mimic hormones, they may cause effects at very low levels, just as hormones act naturally as chemical messengers to cause changes in the body at low concentrations.

The 20 teens tested - a small sample that can only raise more questions, rather than definitively describe exposure rates - used an average of more than 16 personal care products daily.

In a Sept. 25 article in USA Today, writer Liz Szabo quoted the study's author, Rebecca Sutton, as noting that although the average teen girl uses more personal care products than do adult women, the chemical levels suggest that other sources are also responsible.

"The teens in the study used 17 personal care products a day, with a total of 174 ingredients. In comparison, adult women use an average of 12 personal products a day, the report says," Szabo wrote. "But the report notes that levels of these chemicals in the girls' bodies didn't necessarily match the amount of the chemicals they consumed through cosmetics. That suggests that girls are being exposed through other products, the report says."

Survey Finds Young Girls Are Sexually Bolder When Online

A survey sponsored by the British magazine FYI: Fun Young & Independent has documented that teen girls are more likely to be flirtatious and sexually forward on social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo than they are during face-to-face encounters.

"This is a far cry from the traditional view of teenagers being awkward, shy and ill-informed about sex," Tracy Cox, FYI's sex and relationship expert, said in an article on the magazine's website.

"On the positive side, it means teens are much better informed about sex and almost all research suggests access to good, non-judgmental information about sex decreases the incidence of pregnancy and [sexually transmitted infections]" Cox said. "The negative is that some teens lack the maturity and judgment to deal with a lot of the information they're now exposed to."

The following statistics were compiled from the FYI survey:

• 93 percent of 16- to 21-year-olds and 88 percent of 22- to 24-year-olds use social networking sites.


• 16- to 18-year-olds are much more likely to use social networking sites to contact new friends and flirt (42 percent).


• 16- to 21-year-olds place importance on using the most attractive pictures of themselves (51 percent).


• 41 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds are bolder online.


• 42 percent of 16- to 18-year-olds find it easier to express themselves sexually online.


• 68 percent of 16- to18-year-olds said it was less embarrassing to find out about sex online.

The growing propensity of young people to share personal information in online forums has prompted considerable concern - an issue that reporter Matt Hartley addressed in a Sept. 12 article in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper:

While our digital footprint expands, privacy erodes. More and more, social networkers who are not obsessively careful face the prospect of identity theft, inadvertently marring their own reputation or even inviting the threat of physical harm. As the dangers broaden so too do the reactions: provincial and federal governments are taking the lead in educating users and probing whether social networks are really doing all they can to protect privacy.

While all of these social networking sites offer varying degrees of security and privacy protection — such as restricting who can view certain parts or the entirety of their profile — many users leave the drapes wide open. Whether it's by ignorance or simply a willingness to trust their private details to the public, they leave their photos, their blog postings and their personal information freely available for anyone to discover.

Experts Advise: Teach Young Girls about Breast Health

A concerted effort in recent decades has led to a considerable increase in breast cancer awareness in the United States. But in her Sept. 22 article in the Wall Street Journal, writer Elizabeth Bernstein indicates that this effort has resulted in at least one unintended consequence: heightened fear among young girls who don't understand the true nature and risks of the disease:

Marisa Weiss says she has witnessed a growing fear of breast cancer among young girls, as information about the disease permeates the media. She also has noticed that girls are either uninformed or misinformed about breast health.

"They are still young girls, without the dialogue skills to ask the questions, air their concerns and replace the myths with facts," says Weiss, director of breast radiation oncology at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pa., and founder of Breastcancer.org, a nonprofit educational organization.

Dr. Miriam Schechter, a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center in New York, says she's seeing more awareness of breast cancer among teens and their mothers.

"It's not just that there is breast cancer in their families, but you hear about it in the press and among Hollywood stars," she says, adding that it's important to discuss the topic with girls when they begin to form breasts, to allay their fears.

To help ensure that young girls are getting all the information they need, Weiss and her daughter, Isabel Friedman, have written a book that includes "information on topics such as breast development and size, choosing a bra, how to stand up to teasing, and what healthy foods to eat during this time of growth," Bernstein wrote. "Throughout the book, Friedman, who is 18, gives advice and tells stories from a peer-to-peer perspective."

Weiss and Friedman also visit schools to help teach young girls and their mothers about their breast development and health. Educating adolescent girls is essential, Weiss told Bernstein, because "that's when they are using food, water, beverages and the air they breathe as building blocks for breast tissue. They are laying down the foundation for future breast health."

Ignoring Experts, Parents Delay Daughters' Vaccinations Against HPV

In spite of recommendations from a wide range of health experts, including those at the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, parents appear to be hesitant about having their daughters inoculated with Gardasil, a vaccine that promises to protect girls and women against several types of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that can lead to cervical cancer.

According to a Sept. 18 story by National Public Radio reporter Brenda Wilson, the CDC says only 20 percent of girls under the age of 18 had received the vaccination by the end of 2007, the most recent period for which statistics are available.

Experts believe that one reason for parents' reluctance to have their daughters vaccinated is concern about Gardasil's potentially severe side effects. Though these fears have received considerable media attention, pediatricians Dr. Jessica Kahn and Dr. Neal Halsey told Wilson that the science doesn't support the decision to delay vaccination:

Since 2006, there have been 21 HPV-vaccine-related deaths reported to the CDC. The reports require no absolute proof of a link, only a suspicion of one. Researchers were able to investigate only 12 of the deaths.

At Johns Hopkins, Halsey says the evidence doesn't hold up. The rate of serious allergic reactions to the HPV vaccine, he said, appears to be about one in a million.

"To date, my knowledge of the investigations of those rare cases that have occurred have not led to any evidence to suggest that the vaccine was causally related to those," Halsey said.

"There has been quite a bit of coverage in the media related to adverse events caused by HPV vaccines," Kahn said. "And in my practice, I've noticed that that has impacted parents' willingness to vaccinate daughters."

Because the vaccine is of no use once an individual has contracted HPV, Halsey stressed the importance of getting the shot even though parents may think it's "too early" for them or their daughters to be concerned about the virus.

"It is almost universal that children are sexually active - sometimes frequently - before the parents know they are sexually active," he told NPR. "So I wouldn't encourage parents to wait until they are suspicious that their child may be sexually active."

Teen Smoking Linked to Parents and Friends Who Smoke

If you do not want your teens to smoke, a new study from the University of Wisconsin advises that you shouldn't smoke yourself - nor should you allow your children to have smokers as friends.

Among the teen smokers in the study, 73 percent had four or more friends who smoked, and 27 percent said one or both parents were smokers. Half believed that smoking for a year or two was safe.

About 20 percent of American teens are smokers, a rate that has held steady for the past five years even as adult smoking rates declined.

Pre-teens Watch R-Rated and Violent Movies

About 12 percent of children ages 10 to 14 watch extremely violent R-rated movies, according to a new study from Dartmouth University.

The Motion Picture Association allows children under 17 to see such movies only if their parents accompany them.

Researchers asked 6,500 children if they had watched any of 40 violent movies that came out between 1998 and 2002. Boys, minorities, and children whose parents did not restrict their movie choices were the most likely to have seen films in the study, such as "Training Day" (27% of respondents) and "Blade" (33%). This study did not address how children were able to see the films; however, previous studies have found that children most commonly watch them at home on DVD. In one study, 40 percent of under-aged children were able to buy movie tickets to R-rated films without adults present.

"It is quite striking that ten year olds are watching these movies," said lead author Keilah Worth. "Ten years old is not that far away from believing in Santa Claus."

This study appears in the journal Pediatrics.

Peer Victimization in Pre-teen Years Carries Over into Adolescence

Obese adolescents who are victimized by their peers suffer increased depression and negative feelings about their bodies. Victimized girls gained more weight as they got older, while the opposite was true for boys.

Dr. Ryan Adams of the University of Cincinnati and Dr. William Bukowski of Concordia University studied the effect of victimization on obese teenagers. Victimization comes from the peer group in general, whereas bullying tends to be one-on-one. Professors Adams and Bukowski used data on 1,287 teenagers at different points in their teen years.

The obese victimized girls suffered from lowered self-esteem and depression, and tended to increase their BMIs as they grew older. The obese victimized males also suffered depression but they tended to decrease their BMIs as they grew older.

This study appears in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Teen Suicides Decline, but Rate Remains High

About forty American teens end their lives every week, according to a study from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio.

The suicide rate for individuals between the ages 10 to 19 years declined steadily between 1996 and 2005, when it suddenly spiked by 18 percent. The actual number of suicides declined from 1,983 in 2004 to 1,883 in 2005, but if the downward trend continued the 2005 total would have been just under 1,300.

Psychiatrists including Dr. David Fassler of the University of Vermont believe that the suicide rate correlates with teenagers' using fewer anti-depressant drugs.

The Nationwide study found no differences in suicide rates between boys and girls, or younger and older teens. All were equally at risk.

Female Alcoholics Less Likely to Have Children

A study of female alcoholics found that more women are developing the disorder, which may affect a woman's chances of motherhood.

Researchers at Washington University looked at Australian female twins born before and after 1964. In the group born before 1964, only 4 percent were alcoholics - in the post-1964 group, the rate rose to 15 percent. In the older group, 64 percent of alcoholic women had children, compared to 78 percent of the non-alcoholics. In the after-1964 group, only 38 percent of the alcoholics were mothers, compared to 49 percent of the non-alcoholics.

"This study was about women with persistent drinking problems," said Professor Nick Martin, chief author. "The observation is that they will have less reproduction and delayed reproduction."

The study appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Cultural Attitudes Affect Academic Achievement of Obese Girls

Attending a good school and working to maximize one's potential are important factors in a high school student's pursuit of academic success - but for marginalized individuals such as teenagers who are severely overweight, the support they get (or don't get) from their peers has a significant impact on their classroom performance.

Robert Crosnoe, a social psychologist with the University of Texas, has determined that overweight students are at a distinct disadvantage in cultures where excess weight is seen as a handicap.

"You can have the best curriculum and funding in the world, and if there's something messed up in the culture, then you set out to fail,” Crosnoe told New Jersey newspaper The Star-Ledger. "And anytime you put 1,000 kids together, you're creating a culture.”

In her Sept. 2, 2008, article, Star-Ledger staff writer Peggy O'Crowley reported that overweight girls appear to be particularly affected by discriminatory attitudes:

A review of more than 8,000 teenagers from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health found that obese girls were less likely to attend college than thin girls. That's reflective of a culture that rejects obesity in general.

But individual school cultures played a critical role: In a school where obesity is uncommon, 61 percent of obese girls didn't continue in school. In a school where at least one-third of students were obese, only 17 percent did not go on.

How kids react also differs by gender. Girls are much more likely to compare themselves to the people around them, such as other female classmates, to determine if they measure up. Boys rate themselves by overall rank in society instead of how they stack up with parents or best friends, Crosnoe said.

"Many of the kids said it's hard to sit and do your homework when you're worried about what will happen in school the next day,” Crosnoe told O'Crowley.

Formula for Academic Success: Plenty of Sleep and Healthy Foods

If you want your children to do well in school, make sure they eat healthy foods and get enough sleep, according to studies from the University of Bristol and University of Flinders.

A study of 14,000 British children found a link between eating junk food and doing poorly in school. Researchers considered factors such as low income or poor housing in their analysis.

Dr. Pauline Emmett, of the Department of Nutrition at the University of Bristol, used statistics from the Children of the 90s study. The children in the study were ages 6 to 10 years old. She found that the children who ate sweets, fried foods, and other junk foods were 10 percent more likely to be failing in school, calling this "a robust association."

"It indicates that early eating patterns have effects that persist over time," she said.

The second study found that if teenagers get eight or more hours of sleep a night, they perform better academically. Australian high school students in the study who slept at least eight hours a night were able to perform 80 percent of memory tasks involving dictation and mathematics. Those who got less sleep only completed 66 percent.

"It's almost as if kids without enough sleep do not have enough memory capacity to store that much information," said Michael Gradisar of the University of Flinders Child and Adolescent Sleep Clinic in South Australia.

Girls in Detention Facilities Suffer Higher Rates of Depression, Other Mental Disorders

European researchers have discovered significantly higher-than-average rates of depression and other mental health disorders among adolescent girls who are incarcerated in juvenile detention centers.

Personnel from Oxford University in the United Kingdom and Sweden's Karolinska Institutet analyzed data that had been collected during 25 separate studies involving 16,750 teens and adolescents who were confined in detention facilities around the world.

According to a Sept. 3, 2008 article on the PhysOrg website, both boys and girls who were locked up were found to be at greater risk for mental problems:

By putting all this data together, we can say with some confidence that the adequate provision of psychiatric care for adolescents in detention should be a key priority for prison services worldwide,' says Dr Seena Fazel of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford.

For the first time, the researchers have shown adolescent girls in detention are at particular risk of depression. 29% of girls aged 10-19 were diagnosed with major depression, considerably higher than the 12% of adult women in prison reported to suffer from depression and four to five times higher than in the general youth population. 10.6% of boys suffer from major depression.

Cases of psychosis in boys and girls - severe mental illness involving loss of connection with reality - are also much more common in young offender institutions than would be expected, with rates around ten times higher than in the general population.

Dr. Seena Fazel, one of the leaders of the Oxford/Karolinska study, said in a release that the team's findings indicate changes are needed in the manner in which young detainees are screened and evaluated.

"As well as assessing suicide risk and substance abuse, prisons should consider specific screening for mood disorders especially in girls," Fazel said. "Justice systems for juveniles offer the opportunity to pick up mental disorders and make a significant impact on public health. This is a chance to catch many vulnerable people who otherwise fall through the cracks."

The study was published in the September 2008 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

U.S. Girls Report 'Pervasive' Levels of Harassment, Abuse

A survey by researchers with the University of Kentucky and University of California at Santa Cruz has revealed that as many as 90 percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 18 have been subjected to sexual harassment or abuse.

Six hundred girls were interviewed by UCSC psychology professor Campbell Leaper and Christia Sears Brown, an assistant professor of psychology at UK. According to a May 19, 2008 article on the University of California's Science Today website, the researchers concluded that sexist incidents remain both prevalent and varied:

"Sexism remains pervasive in the lives of adolescent girls," said Leaper. "Most girls have experienced all three types of sexism - sexual harassment, sexist comments about their academic abilities, and sexist comments about their athletic abilities."

Sexual harassment included receiving inappropriate and unwanted romantic attention, hearing demeaning gender-related comments, being teased about their appearance, receiving unwanted physical contact, and being teased, bullied, or threatened with harm by a male. "Our findings on sexual harassment are, sadly, consistent with previous research," said Leaper. "But on the other hand, most girls said they'd experienced sexual harassment at least once, as opposed to several times."

Girls also commonly reported having received discouraging comments about their abilities because of their gender. In particular, 76 percent of girls said they had received discouraging comments about their abilities in sports, and 52 percent said they'd received discouraging comments related to their abilities in science, math, or computers - three areas Leaper focused on because of the persistent gender gap in academics.

The UC article ended with a call for increased awareness of the pressures and abuses that girls continue to contend with in the United States. "If anything, sexism is probably occurring more than the girls in this study are saying it is," Leaper said. "Our research suggests that parents, teachers, and the media can help girls to learn about discrimination and recognize when it occurs."

More Children Willing to Report Abuse

An article in the Aug. 28, 2008, edition of Wilmington, North Carolina's, StarNewsOnline website indicates that a recent rise in sexual abuse cases in the area is not evidence of increased illegal activity, but rather a growing willingness among children to report their victimization to the proper authorities.

According to staff writer David Reynolds, experts advise parents that communicating with children can be the key component of stopping abusive situations and ensuring that the children get the help they need:

"Unfortunately, I believe this type of behavior is part of our society," said Detective Sgt. Scott Lawson of the Pender County Sheriff's Office Special Victims Unit.

But as people become more willing to discuss sexual abuse, kids are gaining the courage they need to report it, Lawson said. "They are not considering it such a taboo topic. They're realizing, 'I don't have to take this anymore.'" ...

Lawson said it's important for parents to be open with their kids to reduce the risk children will be abused. And talking to kids is the first step to stopping abuse that already has happened, Lawson said. If they have no one to tell, it may never stop.

"The kids I talk to have said something to their parents," he said. "I've never had a kid in here whose parents didn't know anything."

Michelle Hughes, vice president of programs for the nonprofit organization Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina, told Reynolds that the prevalence of child abuse in the United States may approach 25 percent for girls and just over 16 percent for boys - a rate that is maintained in part by abusers' abilities to silence their victims.

"A lot of children will never tell anyone what's happened to them," Hughes said. "They're scared, they're embarrassed."

Girls Get Nose Jobs, Breast Enhancements in Attempt to End Bullying

A British surgeon's admission that he has performed plastic surgery on patients as young as 14 to help them avoid being bullied has ignited a debate over both the appropriateness of altering the appearances of adolescents for non-medical purposes and the implication that victims are somehow at fault for the torment that is directed at them.

Paul Sims summed up the story in an Aug. 29 article on the Daily Mail website:

[Douglas] McGeorge, who specializes in plastic and reconstructive surgery, claimed the bullying is so bad that some children and their parents felt there was no alternative.

He denied it had anything to do with teenagers wanting to look like their idols. "Children are very cruel and there's a lot of stigma attached to appearance," said McGeorge, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.

But anti-bullying charities last night said it is the bullies who need to change, not their victims ... Liz Carnell, director of the charity Bullying UK, said, "I don't think bullying victims should be changing their appearance or anything about themselves to please the bullies. It is the bullies that have got the problem, not the victims."

McGeorge said that the surgeries he has performed on young patients include giving a nose job to a 14-year-old girl and inserting expandable breast implants in teen girls "who were not developing at the same rate as their peers."

Sarah Dyer, spokesperson for the charity Beatbullying, told the Evening Standard that the group was staunchly opposed to medical procedures akin to those McGeorge revealed.

"We don't condone the fact that a young person has resorted to having surgery to change something that is unacceptable as far as her peers are concerned," Dyer told Standard writer Sophie Goodchild. "We believe the only way to deal with incidents like this is through proper preventative work in schools, especially with the new term beginning."

Experts Claim Elite Sports Put Girls' Health at Risk

Motivated by dreams of college scholarships, professional contracts, and Olympic gold, young girls and boys throughout the world are dedicating themselves to sports training regimens with an ever-increasing ferocity. Though some see these sports-obsessed youth as welcome anomalies in a generation that is often derided for its couch-bound masses, more than a few experts have expressed their concerns over the damage being inflicted in the pursuit of athletic excellence.

In his Aug. 17 Baltimore Sun article, writer Mark Harmon reports that "sports" and "health" are often mutually exclusive terms when it comes to young female competitors:

Twice in the past eight years, the [American Academy of Pediatrics], a national organization of 60,000 children's doctors, has issued policy statements warning that sports training that is too intense and comes too soon in a child's development is a growing health problem. The AAP cites a sobering array of physical and emotional problems linked to overindulgence in sports: eating disorders, burnout, repetitive stress injuries ranging from tendonitis to stress fractures, and, in girls, delayed sexual maturation. ...

In her 1995 book, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes, author Joan Ryan writes about the culture of excessive, even abusive, training methods that once dominated the elite levels of gymnastics. Ms. Ryan tells of 14-year-old Kristie Phillips, destined to be the next Mary Lou Retton, practicing with a broken wrist while gulping 12 Advils and six prescription anti-inflammatory pills each day. Betty Okino, then 17, competed for the U.S. women's gymnastics team in the 1992 Olympics with stress fractures in her back and elbow, and a tendon in her shin held in place with a screw.

Things were better for this year's U.S. team, but it hardly was a healthy bunch. Samantha Peszek, 18, turned her ankle badly during warm-ups before the first day of competition, knocking her out of all her events except uneven bar. (What's a swollen ankle when there's a medal to be won?) When the competition was over, teammate Chellsie Memmel, 20, revealed that she had competed on a broken ankle.

Actions such as the International Olympic Committee's decision to bar girls from competition in gymnastics until they turn 16 seem to be steps in a healthier direction, but Harmon's quote from the AAP report indicates that he is less than convinced:

"To be competitive at a high level requires training regimens for children that could be considered extreme even for adults," the sports doctors wrote. "The necessary commitment and intensity of training raises concerns about the sensibility and safety of high-level athletics for any young person."

'Lolita Effect' Author Says Media Promote Unhealthy Attitudes toward Youth Sexuality By Hugh C. McBride

A journalism professor at the University of Iowa has condensed 13 years' worth of research into a book decrying what she describes as the profit-fueled sexualization of "tween" girls between the ages of 8 and 12.

In The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It, author M. Gigi Durham argues that popular culture inundates young boys and girls with images and messages designed to promote the concept of the "sexy little girl" and promulgate five core myths about youth and sexuality:

The sexy little girl is part of a culture where major chain stores sell junior panties emblazoned with slogans like "Eye candy" and "Who needs credit cards?"; where toddlers play with dolls wearing fishnets and miniskirts; and where a toy pole-dancing kit is sold complete with a tiny garter and fake money.

Pop culture - and the advertising that surrounds it - teaches young girls and boys about sexuality, but in ways that foreclose healthy, progressive and accurate understandings of sex in favor of market-driven, and ultimately harmful, myths. ...

These myths include the myth of the "perfect" body (slender yet curvy, and preferably Caucasian); the myth that flaunting such a body is the only way to express sexuality or, indeed, femininity; the myth that girls need to please and attract boys, but that their own pleasure is inconsequential; the myth that the younger the girl is, the sexier she is; and the myth that violence is sexy.

"Clearly, the world is not an easy place for our teen and tween girls, and the media play an ever-more-present role in shaping their lives, aspirations, and self-image," Dunham wrote on her blog. "The only way for girls to gain critical distance from these pressures and stressors is to recognize that they are being manipulated by for-profit corporations that aren't interested in helping girls ... In today's media-saturated environment, media literacy is as essential as math and reading skills. Maybe more essential."

Young Women Experiencing Dramatic Increases in Skin Cancer

By Hugh C. McBride

Cases of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, have increased dramatically among young women over the past three decades, according to a report by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that was published in the July issue of The Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

The report, which was based on data from 20,000 cases that were gathered from nine NCI-managed tumor registries, noted that incidences of melanoma among young white women have increased at a much higher rate than have occurrences of the same condition among young white men.

In 1973, melanoma was diagnosed an average of 5.5 times per every 100,000 young white women. By 2004, that incidence rate had more than doubled, increasing to 13.9 per 100,000. Among young white men, the increase was far less pronounced, with the rate rising from 4.7 per 100,000 in 1973 to 7.7 in 2004.

A July 11, 2008 article by Washington Post staff writer Rob Stein indicated that researchers are looking at behavior patterns of young women in their search for the cause of this cancer increase:

"One possible explanation is increases among young women of recreational sun exposure or tanning bed use," said Mark Purdue, a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute, who led the analysis. "Both of these things have been identified as risk factors. It's possible [that] increases in these two behaviors may be responsible."

Young women are much more likely than young men to frequent tanning salons, Purdue and others noted.

About 62,000 melanoma cases are diagnosed each year in the United States, and more than 8,400 people die of the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

C. William Hanke, the president of the American Academy of Dermatology, told Stein that the NCI report should reinforce warnings against spending excessive time in the sun or under a tanning lamp.

"The take-home message is [that] unprotected outdoor ultraviolet exposure is dangerous," Hanke said. "Ultraviolet radiation is a carcinogen. If you bathe your skin in the ultraviolet light carcinogen long enough, skin cancer is going to develop."

New Exercise Guidelines Should be One Hour per Day, Not a Half-hour

Overweight women need not only to eat less but also to exercise almost an hour a day in order to lose weight permanently, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. John Jakicc assigned 200 overweight women to one of four groups. Groups 1 and 2 performed moderate or vigorous exercise in order to burn off 1,000 calories a week. Groups 2 and 3 were assigned either moderate or vigorous exercise to burn off 2,000 calories per week. All 200 participants went on 1,200 to 1,500 calorie diets. Within six months, they lost an average of 8 to 10 percent of their body weights.

However, within two years, the majority had gained back half their losses.

However, about 50 participants managed to maintain their losses by exercising an average of 275 minutes per week to burn off 2,000 calories. It did not matter if their exercise was vigorous or moderate.

Dr. Jakicc says his study, which appears in Science Daily, indicates that the United States government should increase its exercise recommendation of 30 minutes a day to 55 minutes.

Are Sports Responsible for Girls' Eating Disorders?

When gymnast Nastia Liukin earned the all-around gold August 15 in Beijing's National Indoor Stadium, she joined legends such as Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton as an idol who will inspire future generations of young girls to nurture their own Olympic dreams.
But for some girls, Liukin's success may be seen as motivation to starve themselves.

In a Feb. 2, 2006 USA Today article, writer Nanci Hellmich noted that anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders are among a wide range of health problems faced by young female athletes.

At least one-third of female athletes have some type of disordered eating, according to two studies of college athletes done by eating disorder experts, one in 1999 by Craig Johnson of the Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital in Tulsa and another in 2002 by Katherine Beals, now at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

In the 2002 study of 425 female college athletes, 43% said they were terrified of being or becoming too heavy, and 55% reported experiencing pressure to achieve or maintain a certain weight. Most said the pressure was self-imposed, but many also felt pressure from coaches and teammates. ...

Female athletes who seem especially vulnerable to disordered eating and excessive exercise are in either the "thin-build sports" or activities that require a lean body weight, such as long-distance running, gymnastics, swimming, diving, figure skating, dance, cheerleading, wrestling and lightweight rowing, says Beals, author of Disordered Eating Among Athletes.

At least one athlete who once struggled with an eating disorder echoes the assertion that the problem is particularly prevalent among girls who compete in sports in which appearance is emphasized.

"It would be hard to find a female athlete in the aesthetic sports - gymnastics, diving, cheerleading, figure skating, dancing - who isn't preoccupied with body image and somewhat obsessive about what she is eating," former Olympic diver Kimiko Hirai Soldati, herself a recovering bulimic, told Helmich.

Report Counters Claims of Increased Violence by Teen Girls

A report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice calls into question the "conventional wisdom" that says modern American girls are becoming more violent.

According to Violence by Teenage Girls: Trends and Context (which was written by members of the DOJ's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention program), statistics that some have interpreted as indicating a rise in girl violence are actually indicative of changes within the law enforcement community.

Available evidence based on arrest, victimization, and self-report data suggests that although girls are currently arrested more for simple assaults than previously, the actual incidence of their being seriously violent has not changed much over the last two decades.

This suggests that increases in arrests may be attributable more to changes in enforcement policies than to changes in girls' behavior. ... There is no burgeoning national crisis of increasing serious violence among adolescent girls.

The DOJ report was written in part as a response to media claims, such as those put forward in a 2005 Newsweek article titled "Bad Girls Go Wild," that aggression and violence is on the rise among teen girls.

The report's authors concede that arrest rates for girls have increased over the past quarter century, but, they write, these statistics fail to answer a fundamental question: "Do the increases in arrests indicate real changes in girls' behaviors, or are the increases a product of recent changes in public sentiment and enforcement policies that have elevated the visibility and reporting of girls' delinquency and violence?"

By the end of the 15-page report, they have their answer. Though factors such as domestic violence, gang activity, familial dysfunction, and poverty have drawn some girls into violent lifestyles, there is little definitive evidence to suggest that today's girls are more violent than those of previous generations.

"One of the most consistent and robust findings in criminology is that, for nearly every offense, females engage in much less crime and juvenile delinquency than males," the authors write.

Fish Oil May Protect Against Heart Disease

Japanese men may have lower rates of heart disease than their American counterparts because they eat more fish, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Omega-3 acids found in fish may protect Japanese men from heart disease, even though their rates of cholesterol, blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes are similar as those of American men.

Dr. Akira Sekikawa studied 281 Japanese men living in the United States, 280 living in Japan, and 306 Caucasian males. All participants underwent periodic blood tests. The men living in Japan had the highest rates of omega-3 acids in their bodies and the least amount of plaque build-up in their arteries.

Japanese people eat about three ounces of fish a day, while Americans eat less than two servings a week.

Researchers Advise All Girls Be Vaccinated Against HPV

A new study in the journal Pediatrics indicates that human papillomavirus (HPV) is so common that all girls ages 11 to 25 years old should be vaccinated against it, regardless of their sexual experience.

Some varieties of HPV lead to genital warts or cervical cancer, although the virus usually goes away on its own. Because the virus is transmitted through sexual contact, many parents of young adolescent girls are reluctant to have their daughters vaccinated because the girls are not sexually active.

However, researchers at the University of Michigan who studied the sexual behaviors of 3,180 adolescent girls found no links between being infected and the number of sexual partners, the use of drug, alcohol and cigarettes, or having sex while intoxicated.

"You really can't pick out one or two behaviors that predict if you've been exposed to HPV," said the study's author, Dr. Amanda Dempsey. "It is just so common and so easily transmitted from person to person that it doesn't take more than one partner to get exposed."

High School Cliques Linked to Girls' Weights, Diet Habits

Life in high school is often about being in a clique - for example, the jocks, the brains, or the non-conformists. Now, a study from Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., indicates that the social group a girl belongs to may influence her approach to dieting.

Scientists surveyed 236 girls ages 13 to 18 years old about both their cliques and weight concerns. Girls who considered themselves athletes or "jocks" were least likely to diet, although they did not necessarily have healthy eating habits. On the other hand, girls who were "rebels" or in alternative lifestyle groups were most likely to diet and worry about their weights. The "brains" had the healthiest eating and exercise habits. Overweight girls expressed concerns about their weights and diets, regardless of which clique they belonged to.

This study appeared in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Academic Failures Increase Odds of Depression for Female Students

A University of Washington study has discovered that adolescent girls who experience serious academic failures - being suspended or expelled, or dropping out - are at significantly greater risk for developing depression later in life than are peers who are more successful in school.

Carolyn McCarty, the study's lead author, said in a university press release that her team's research leads to greater understanding of the potentially life-altering effects academic failure can inflict upon female students. "We already know that it leads to more poverty, higher rates of being on public assistance and lower rates of job stability," McCarty said. "And now this study shows it is having mental health implications for girls."

McCarty's team analyzed data collected by the Seattle Social Development Research Project, which has been tracking 808 individuals from high-crime neighborhoods since 1985. Their results, which were published in the August 2008 edition of the Journal of >Adolescent Health, included the following findings related to academic failure and depression:

• Forty-four percent of girls who were expelled from school suffered from depression by age 21 (compared to a 20 percent depression rate among girls who weren't kicked out of school).


• Thirty-three percent of the girls who dropped out later became depressed, but only 19 percent of non-dropouts did.


• Twenty-eight percent of the girls who were suspended became depressed later in life, compared with 19 percent of female students who weren't suspended.


• Though 45 percent of the girls and 68 percent of the boys in the study experienced a major school failure, the 22 percent depression rate among girls was significantly higher than the 17 percent rate for male students.

In the July 22, 2008, university press release that announced the study's findings, McCarty said that her team has discovered a "gender paradox" in which boys experience more school-related failures, but girls suffer from more long-term consequences with "cascading effects."

The team's findings, McCarty said, point to a need for a more comprehensive approach toward helping students deal with a wide range of issues that may cause - or be affected by - academic failures.

"We need to look more broadly at functioning and see what is going on with other aspects of their lives including the psychological," she said. "We can't just put a Band-Aid on one thing that seems to be a problem because often there is an underlying bigger issue that has to be addressed."

Study Finds No 'Math Gap' Between Girls, Boys

It looks like Barbie's critics were right all along.

In 1992, Mattel's famous doll came under considerable criticism when it was discovered that some versions of that year's "Teen Talk Barbie" had been programmed to say "Math class is tough!" Sixteen years later, researchers with the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley, have reported that female students don't have any more difficulties than their male counterparts do when it comes to mathematics.

The researchers, who reported their results in the July 25, 2008, edition of the journal Science, analyzed the results of annual math tests that were taken by 7.2 million students in grades two through 11. The tests had been given between 2005 and 2007 as part of the federal "No Child Left Behind" laws.

After examining the average test scores of all students, the performance of the most gifted children, and the ability to solve complex math problems, the study group found virtually no difference between girls and boys.

Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin psychologist who led the study, told Los Angeles Times staff writer Wendy Hansen that the results should help refute the myth that girls aren't good at math. "Both parents and teachers continue to hold the stereotype that boys are better [at math] than girls," Hyde said in a July 25 Times article. "That's just not accurate."

Peer Pressure Has Strong Influence on Body Image of Teen Girls

A study conducted by experts with the Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and the University of Miami has found that peer pressure exerts a strong influence on the body image of adolescent girls. Researchers Eleanor Mackey and Annette La Greca reached this conclusion based on their evaluation of 236 teen girls in Florida.

"Teen girls' concerns about their own weight, about how they appear to others and their perceptions that their peers want them to be thin, are significantly related to weight-control behavior," Mackey told Washington Post writer Sally Squires for her July 14, 2008 article.

According to the Post article, Mackey and La Greca found that girls who were part of low-achieving or more rebellious peer groups reported the highest degree of worry about their weight, and said they undertook more efforts than members of other peer groups did to control their weight.

The researchers also found that girls with higher body mass indices believed that their peers were more concerned with weight - and dieted more often - than slimmer teens did.

The study's authors, who reported their findings in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, wrote that their insights into peer pressure could be of use to teachers, doctors, and others who work with teen girls. "Health care providers and school personnel might ask adolescent girls about their peer crowd affiliations in order to help identify adolescents with the highest levels of risky behaviors," they wrote.

The National Mental Health Information Center has reported that teen girls are three times as likely as teen boys to have negative images of their own bodies. This claim is supported by a study that was published in the July/August 2003 issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior. According to a July 18, 2003 article on the WebMD website, this study determined that the average teenage girl believes herself to be 11 pounds over her ideal weight, while teen boys' body perception usually matches their actual current weight.

Teen Birth Rates Rise for First Time in 15 Years

For the first time since 1991, birth rates among teenage girls have risen in the United States, according to the latest national report on the health and welfare of American youth.

Released by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2008 presents statistics on U.S. youth that were collected and compiled by a number of governmental agencies and private organizations.

According to a July 14 article on the ScienceDaily website, the report cited a rate of 22 live births per 1,000 U.S. girls ages 15 to 17 in 2006 (the last year for which statistics are currently available). This rate rose from 21 per 1,000 in 2005, the first such increase in 15 years.

In December 2007, WebMD Health News writer Miranda Hitti wrote that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had also reported birth-rate increases among 18- and 19-year-olds, as well as among women in their 20s, 30s, and early 40s.
Dr. Edward J. Sondik, the director of the National Center for Health Statistics in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted in the Science Daily article as expressing concern about the ramifications of the rate increase among teenagers:

"It is critical that we continue monitoring this trend carefully," Sondik said. "Compared with other teens their age, teen mothers are less likely to finish high school or to graduate from college. Infants born to teen mothers are more likely to be of low birth weight."

The report also noted an increase in the prevalence of low birth weight (which is defined as less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces). According to information posted on the March of Dimes website, children who are born at these low weights are at increased risk for health issues including respiratory distress syndrome, heart and intestinal problems, and bleeding in the brain.

Overloaded Backpacks Pose Health Risk to Young Girls

Experts with the University of Washington in St. Louis and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have confirmed what some students have been saying for generations: School can be a real pain in the neck.

According to a recent CPSC report, 7,000 students suffered back and neck injuries resulting from overloaded backpacks last year. Dr. Matthew Dobbs, an orthopedic surgeon with the Washington University School of Medicine, says the risk of injury is greatest for young girls.

"Adolescent girls ages 11 to 16 are most at risk, which may be attributed to the rapid growth spurt they experience during this age range and the susceptibility of rapidly growing spines to back pain," Dobbs said in a July 11 university press release. "In addition, girls often weigh less than boys, but still carry the same amount of backpack weight."

Dobbs also cited statistics in the release indicating that as many as 50 percent of all students complain of backpack-related pain, with 10 percent of students missing school or extracurricular activities because of injuries related to backpacks.

Though orthopedic experts advise that children should avoid carrying backpacks that weigh more than 15 percent of their body weight (for example, a 115-pound student shouldn't have a pack that weights more than 17 pounds), studies have found that the average student is lugging around a pack equal to 20 percent of her weight.

To help offset the potential for backpack-related pain and injuries, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents help their children pick out packs with the following features:

• Light weight - That leather one may look cooler, but a canvas pack will be a lot lighter, and thus less likely to put added strain on your student's neck and back.


• Two wide, padded shoulder straps - Narrow straps can dig into the shoulders, and slinging the pack over just one shoulder can put extra pressure on the body as it attempts to balance the heavy load.


• A padded back - In addition to being more comfortable, extra padding offers extra protection from sharp edges on objects being transported in the pack.


• A waist belt - As any outdoor backpacker knows, strapping the pack with a weight belt ensures that the pack's weight is more evenly distributed across the body.


• Multiple compartments - Though this would seem to be merely an organizational feature, packs that contain multiple compartments also encourage a more even weight distribution, which means that more muscles can help bear the burden.

Anti-obesity Program Targets Tween Girls

A government-funded program designed to combat the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States is gaining ground by helping girls ages 9 to 13 develop healthy eating and exercise habits.

"BodyWorks," which was created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health (OWH), helps parents and other mentors teach young adolescent girls how to incorporate "7 Simple Steps to Healthy Living" into their lives.

"BodyWorks gives families the tools to make simple, gradual changes that help girls reach and maintain a healthy weight so they can grow to become healthy women," said Dr. Jonelle Rowe, OWH's senior advisor for adolescent girls, in the program's Body Basics guide for parents.

Dr. Monica Richter, a pediatrician who is also a BodyWorks instructor, told Reuters Health reporter Anne Harding that she was enthusiastic about the program because of its emphasis on developing a healthy mindset among all family members.

"The very attractive aspect of it is that it addresses the whole family, and the whole environment in the household, which I think is the best approach to childhood obesity," Richter said in a June 27, 2008 article on the Reuters website. "Diet implies a short-term deprivation, which doesn't work."

Teen Pregnancy and Abortion Rates at 30-year Lows

While most media outlets were focused on the 17 pregnancies that were initially thought to have resulted from a "pact" by high school students in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the Chicago Tribune was reporting on a report by New York's Guttmacher Institute that indicates that the pregnancy and abortion rates among teen girls have reached new lows since peaking almost 15 years ago.

According to a June 29, 2008, article by Tribune correspondent Lisa Anderson, the pregnancy rate among women ages 15 to 19 has dropped 36 percent since 1990. In 2004 (the most recent year for which statistics are available), the pregnancy rate among 15-to-19-year-olds was 72.2 per 1,000 women; 14 years earlier the rate was 117 per 1,000 women.

Anderson also reported that the Guttmacher Institute had documented a significant decrease in the abortion rate among teenagers. In 1988, the rate was 43.5 abortions per 1,000 women; by 2004 the number had declined to 19.8 per 1,000 women.

"The U.S. still leads developed nations in the rate of pregnancies, births and abortions among teenage mothers, but it has whittled the numbers dramatically through a combination of greater accessibility to and use of contraception, the tendency of teens to delay sexual activity longer than they did in the past, and education programs, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services."

Though the pregnancy and abortion rates have returned to levels not seen since the 1970s, the news is not all good, Anderson wrote. Among other areas of concern, she noted that the number of live births among women ages 15 to 19 rose three percent in 2006, reversing a 14-year trend of annual declines.

D.C.-area Schools to Add Single-sex Classes

In the 22 months since the U.S. Department of Education published regulations intended to clarify the legality of single-sex education within the American public school system, the practice has continued to garner both interest and support.

The Washington, D.C.-area WTOP News is reporting that school districts in and near the nation's capital are among the latest to embrace this philosophy:

Some public schools in Prince William, Prince George's and Fairfax counties have tried the method or plan to start doing so. In D.C., two new charter schools that plan to offer same-sex classes are slated to open in August.

According to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, at least 392 U.S. schools intend to offer single-sex educational opportunities during the 2008-2009 academic year.

Frequent Family Meals Reduce Risky Behavior Among Young Girls

Researchers with the University of Minnesota have determined that adolescent girls who frequently participate in family meals are significantly less likely to smoke tobacco, drink alcohol, and use marijuana than are their peers who don't dine with their families.

Under the direction of Marla Eisenberg, an assistant professor of pediatrics at UM, investigators analyzed data collected over a five-year period from about 800 subjects who were between the ages of 10 and 13 when the study began. Among the conclusions drawn by Eisenberg and her team was that "eating together has benefits for teen girls no matter how close their families or how good their relationships with their parents."

In an article on the American Psychological Association website, Eisenberg wrote that family meals seem to encourage positive results while reducing the likelihood of less-desirable behaviors. "We found family mealtime to be a protective factor in the lives of adolescents for nearly all of these variables, particularly among girls. Specifically, kids who reported eating more family meals per week reported significantly less substance use and significantly better academic and mental health than those eating fewer meals with family."

Shannon Proudfoot, who reported on the study for the Canwest News Service, noted that researchers were unable to determine why the frequent family meals were good for the girls - and didn't know why boys don't reap a similar benefit.

"Part of it is just parents being more in touch with their kids, being able to see earlier on if their kids are veering down a path that might not be filled with healthy choices," says Eisenberg.

Family meals may also offer protection simply because they increase the amount of time teens spend at home instead of out with their friends, she says - the environment where they are most likely to experiment with cigarettes, drugs and alcohol

."It's really not as clear for boys, we've had a hard time pinning down what's going on with boys," says Eisenberg.

Eisenberg's research was conducted as part of UM's Project EAT, an ongoing effort to investigate influences on the eating habits of American adolescents.

Group Criticizes Arizona's Efforts on Behalf of Young Girls

Despite having a strong history of female leadership - including more female governors (three) than any other state in the union - Arizona has come under criticism by a nonprofit advocacy group for not doing enough to take care of the young girls who live there.

Released in June 2008 by The Girl's Education Project, "The State of Arizona's Girls" paints a relatively bleak picture of life in America's 48th state. The following are three samples of the statistics cited in the report:

• With an average of 65 teen mothers giving birth every week, Arizona has the second-highest teen pregnancy rate among U.S. states.
• Among adolescents aged 13 to 15 years old, girls in Arizona consume alcohol at rates equal to boys - and eighth-grade girls in the state are actually drinking more than their male counterparts.
• The student-to-teacher ratio in Arizona's public schools is the second-to-worst balance in the United States.

The project's executive director, Shirley Osborne, told The Arizona Republic that the rationale behind the report was a desire to call attention to the depth and breadth of issues facing girls in Arizona. "We wanted to make sure that we gave full voice to the experiences and insights of the girls of Arizona who embody the issues," Osborne told Republic reporter Karina Bland.

In the report's introduction, Osborne wrote that though this is "an electrifying time for women and girls in the United States ... the promise for the girls coming into womanhood in Arizona does not appear quite as bright."

Female Sexual Molesters Exhibit Problems with Maturity and Intimacy

Women who have sex with underage boys tend to be socially immature individuals who have difficulties in their intimate relationships. They are also likely to have been victims of sexual molestation themselves, and most have histories of substance abuse and personality and mental disorders, according to a spate of new studies.

Professor Susan Strickland of the University of Georgia, who studied 130 female prisoners, found that most of the sex offenders she evaluated lacked the social skills necessary to relate to individuals their own age. These offenders also wanted power and control in relationships, and saw young boys as persons that they could mold into ideal partners.

According to a press release on the University of Georgia website, experts estimate that between five and seven percent of sex crimes are committed by females.

"21 for 21" Tradition Causing Concern about Binge Drinking on College Campuses

An alcohol-fueled ritual in which students celebrate their 21st birthdays by attempting to down 21 drinks is causing concern after a university-sponsored study revealed the prevalence of the practice.

Researchers with the University of Missouri discovered that 80 percent of the 2,518 current and former college students they surveyed said they drank alcohol on the day they celebrated their 21st birthday, which is the first age at which individuals can legally drinking alcohol in the United States.

What has prompted the most concern among health experts and school administrators is that 34 percent of the men who were surveyed and 24 percent of the women admitted to having consumed 21 alcoholic drinks or more on their birthdays as part of a "21 for 21" tradition.

Patricia C. Rutledge, Ph.D., who was the lead author of the study, wrote that the research group's results indicate that celebrating one's 21st birthday with alcohol involves "a pervasive custom in which excessive consumption is the norm."

The study, which is titled "21st Birthday Drinking: Extremely Extreme," also advocates for additional attention and resources in an attempt to curtail this trend of celebratory binge drinking:

One would be hard pressed to point to other situations where such a large percentage of people expose themselves so predictably to such a potentially serious health hazard. It is this combination of prevalence, severity, and predictability that makes the 21st birthday celebration a clear target for public health interventions.

Los Angeles Teen Teaches Sex Education to Peers

Two years after becoming one of Planned Parenthood's youngest peer counselors, a Los Angeles teenager is continuing to educate fellow students about how to avoid unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

Andreina Cordova, a 15-year-old sophomore at L.A.'s King/Drew Magnet High School of Science and Medicine, was profiled in the June 9 edition of The Los Angeles Times for her efforts to raise awareness of the risks associated with unsafe sex.

Cordova told Times reporter Francisco Vara-Orta that a middle-school classmate's pregnancy prompted her to begin educating herself about sex, and that the lessons she learned at Planned Parenthood sparked a desire to spread the word among her peers.

Andreina's work is anchored in Planned Parenthood's Ujima Program, which preaches more abstinence and less sex. At least "until you know what you're getting into and the consequences," Andreina said.

The program was launched in 2002 after research indicated that teens were more likely to feel comfortable discussing sex with peers instead of parents, said Mary-Jane Waglé, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.

Andreina "understands the experience of teens in her area, she has lived there, and she understands what they are going through," Waglé said. "Her knowing all that firsthand gives her authority to be a leader and get people to listen."

Cordova's efforts are particularly important because she lives in an area that is rife with sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancies. The Times reported that Los Angeles County has an annual teen STI rate of more than 350,000, and more than 5,000 girls younger than age 18 gave birth there in 2005.

Girls with ADHD May Develop Eating Disorders or Depression

Girls with attention deficit disorder are at greater risk for eating disorders, depression and anxiety, according to a new study from the University of Virginia.

Psychologist Amori Yee Mikami, lead author, said that girls with ADHD are more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies and develop bulimia, a disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging through laxative use or vomiting.

This study appears in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Causes of Adolescent Eating Disorders Differ Between Boys and Girls

A study in this month's edition of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine has shed new light on the reasons that adolescent boys and girls begin to binge eat or purge.

The study, which analyzed data collected on 6,916 females and 5,618 males during the Nurses' Health Study II, determined that adolescent girls who binged or purged were more likely to attach significance to negative comments about weight by males and peers - and were more strongly influenced by media images of women - than were those who did not engage in these dangerous eating practices.

Among boys, the primary risk factors for binging and purging were negative comments by their fathers and the importance of weight among their peers.

Actually being overweight was not seen as an influence on whether or not the adolescents binged or purged on a regular basis.

Study Debunks Claims of "Gender Gap" in Education

An analysis of 35 years' worth of academic trends and statistics has led researchers to conclude that fears of a "boys crisis" in education are unfounded.

The study, which was released by the American Association of University Women on May 20, 2008, revealed that the educational gains of male and female students are consistent from fourth grade through the end of college.

"A rising tide lifts all boats. When girls perform better in school, we see improvements across gender, race, and income lines," AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman said in a press release on the organization's website.

The study was commissioned to evaluate claims in recent years that educational advances made by girls have resulted in, or been the result of, a diminished academic experience for boys. The AAUW release that accompanied the study report stated that this was not the case.

"Girls' gains have not come at boys' expense. Overall, educational achievement has improved or stayed the same, and more men and women are graduating from college than ever before. Girls have made rapid gains in many areas, but boys are also gaining ground on most indicators of academic achievement."

STD Epidemic Among Teen Girls: One in Four Has an Infection

About one in four teenaged girls - and nearly half of all black girls - has a sexually transmitted disease (STD), according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The government estimates that 3.2 million girls have an STD. Many are unaware of their condition and may be passing their STDs to their partners.

Researchers analyzed data on 838 girls between the ages of 14 and 19 and tested them for human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and herpes. Syphilis, HIV, and gonorrhea were not tested in the study, which means the numbers of infected girls may be even higher than the study suggests. HPV is the most common STD, and can lead to cervical cancer. A new vaccine for HPV is available for females ages 11 to 26 years old, and some school districts are providing it to students.

Fifteen percent of the infected teens in the study had more than one STD. Twenty percent who had only one partner were infected, and among those who had more than one partner, 40 percent had STDs.

Dr. Kevin Fenton of the CDC said that STDs cost the health care system $15 billion a year. About 19 million are infected, and almost half of them are 14 to 25 years old.

"Sexually transmitted infections have been called a hidden epidemic because a lot of these conditions are going to be asymptomatic when they're diagnosed, but they're highly common," said Dr. Emily J. Erbelding, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. "[The study] shows that what people have always suspected is true."

Girls with ADHD More Likely to Develop Eating Disorders

A study that was published in the February 2008 edition of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology found that adolescent girls with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are more likely to develop eating disorders than girls of the same age who don't have ADHD.

Dr. Amori Yee Mikami, the University of Virginia psychologist who led the study, told Advance magazine that ADHD-afflicted adolescent girls "frequently develop body-image dissatisfaction and may go through repeating cycles of binge eating and purging behaviors that are common in bulimia nervosa."

Because ADHD is diagnosed three times as often in boys as it is in girls, research into the ramifications of the disorder in girls is relatively lacking, experts have noted. Mikami told Advance that this dearth of understanding could be impacting the severity of the problem.

"Our finding suggests that girls may develop a broader range of problems in adolescence than their male counterparts," she said. "They may be at risk for eating problems, which are a female-relevant domain of impairment. We know that eating disorders occur 10 times more often in girls than boys."

The study that Mikami spearheaded involved 228 girls in the San Francisco Bay area. The subjects were between 6 and 12 years old when they were initially assessed, with researchers following up with them five years later.

Frequent Self-cutting Linked to Higher Likelihood of other Unsafe Behaviors

A study of teenagers who engage in the practice of self-cutting indicates that frequent cutters are more likely to engage in unsafe practices that put them at greater risk for contracting HIV.

The study, which was originally reported on the WebMD website, was a follow-up to a 2005 investigation by the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center. Dr. Larry K. Brown, who spearheaded both studies, told WebMD that teens who cut themselves four times or more were much less likely to use condoms and much more likely to share cutting instruments than were teens who cut infrequently or not at all.

"There were very real clinical differences among kids who cut habitually - those who really did it as a habit - and those who had done it in ways that they described as experimental," Brown said.

Among the teens in the study who admitted to sexual activity, only 40 percent of the frequent self-cutters said they consistently used condoms, while 70 percent of the infrequent cutters said they or their partners always used condoms.

Several studies have noted an increase in self-cutting, primarily among teen girls. Jeanne Whitehouse, a staff psychologist at the nonprofit Human Relations Service, told the WickedLocalWellesley news website that the practice has been on the rise for decades. "In the 20 years I've been practicing, there has been an increase [in self-injury cases]," Whitehouse said. "It's a much more common symptom than it was 30 years ago."

Girls More Likely Than Boys to Experience Harassment Online

By Hugh C. McBride

A study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that almost one-third of all teens who regularly use the Internet have experienced some form of online harassment, with older girls having the greatest likelihood of encountering a cyberbully.

The research, the results of which were published June 27, 2007, revealed that 32 percent of the 935 youth ages 12 to 17 who were surveyed reported having had at least one of the following experiences:
• Receiving threatening messages
• Having their private emails or text messages forwarded without consent
• Having an embarrassing picture posted without permission
• Having rumors about them spread online

Cyberbullying and online harassment appear to affect girls the most, with 38 percent of female teens reporting negative experiences, compared with 26 percent of boys. And the problem seems to increase with age: 41 percent of girls ages 15 to 17 reported online abuse.

Having private information made public by someone else was the most common form of online harassment cited by the survey participants, though 13 percent of all the teens (and 19 percent of the older girls) reported receiving a threatening message via an e-mail, a computer-based instant message, or a cell phone text message.

In a focus group conducted in conjunction with the survey, young participants cited intolerance, adolescent cruelty, and the apparent anonymity of the Internet as reasons behind the boom in online harassment.

Among the comments included in the Pew report was one from a16-year-old girl who reported participating in the online abuse of a fellow student. "There's this boy in my anatomy class who everybody hates," she said. "Some girl in my class started this I Hate [the targeted student's name] MySpace thing. So everybody in school goes on it to comment bad things about this boy."

A high school boy told interviewers that "people think they are a million times stronger [online] because they can hide behind their computer monitor."

A report by the National Association of School Psychologists suggests that the prevalence of girls bullying and being bullied online is reflective of trends in their offline behavior.

In the introduction to the association's "Girls Bullying Girls" report, the authors note that "relational aggression [is] ... a type of bullying primarily used by pre-adolescent and adolescent girls to victimize other girls - a covert use of relationships as weapons to inflict emotional pain. Researchers have found that, contrary to popular belief, girls are not less aggressive than boys, they are just more subtle or covert in their use of aggression."

Having Gang-affiliated Boyfriends Double Girls' Likelihood of Becoming Pregnant

Having a boyfriend in a gang doubles a teen girl's likelihood of becoming pregnant, according to a study published in the May 1, 2008, edition of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Researchers associated with RTI International, the University of California-San Francisco, and the University of North Carolina reached this conclusion after studying 237 sexually active females in the San Francisco area for two-year periods between 2001 and 2004. More than 27 percent of the girls who were observed became pregnant during the study, with those whose boyfriends were in gangs or previously incarcerated becoming pregnant at twice the rate of girls without gang-affiliated partners.

Whether the girls themselves were members of gangs had "no significant affect" on the pregnancy rate, the researchers reported.

According to an article published by United Press International, "researchers suggest there may be increased perceived social pressures for gang members to have a baby, or women with gang-involved partners may feel less power to negotiate condom use."

An abstract of the study that was posted on the AJE website notes that the heightened pregnancy rates indicate that girls with gang-affiliated or incarcerated boyfriends are also at a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Girls with Older Partners More Likely to Get STDs

Teen girls who date males three or more years older are more likely to acquire a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and to get pregnant out of wedlock, according to a new study from Child Trends, a nonprofit research center.

Researchers led by Dr. Suzanne Ryan found that for boys, the age of their partners was not as significant as whether they had sex before age 16. Having sex before age 16 doubled the risk of an STD for both sexes. Very few teens have sex before age 16 - only 10 percent of girls and 2 percent of boys.

The study also found that the more sexual partners a teen has before adulthood, the more likely he or she will acquire an STD or become an unmarried parent.

"I think that parents need to be very aware of the partners that their teens are dating," said Dr. Ryan, lead author of the study published in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. "What we found is that for girls, a combination of factors - having sex before their 16th birthday and having a sex partner at least three years older than them - is especially risky in relation to getting sexually transmitted diseases [STDs] in young adulthood."

Stepfathers Criticize, Fight with Stepteens More Than Bio-Dads

Stepfathers are more likely to be critical and to fight with their stepchildren than biological fathers, according to a new study from the University of London.

British researchers interviewed 435 biological dads and stepfathers of children ages 11 to 18. Stepdads reported more problems with their children, such as hyperactivity and misconduct, and were less likely to praise them.

Erin Flouri, lead author of the study, said the researchers are not sure if the stepteens actually behave worse with their stepfathers or if the stepfathers were simply more critical of their behavior.

Dr. Alan Kazdin, director of the Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic at Yale University, said that stepparent relationships are "riddled with conflict" and have a different dynamic from other families. He said by recognizing and talking through tension points before they become problematic, adults can learn to cope successfully with the stresses of being a stepparent.