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."