Teens, ‘Tweens Not Immune to Breast Cancer

The vast majority of breast cancer patients are adult women, but as an Oct. 26 CNN article about 11-year-old Hannah Powell-Auslam and 13-year-old Taylor Thompson indicates, even teens and ‘tweens are at risk for developing the disease:

While Taylor and Hannah's cases are rare, they're extreme examples of a troubling trend emerging with breast cancer, medical experts say. Younger women are getting a disease that usually strikes around menopause -- and no one knows why.

"The breast is a very sensitive, vulnerable organ," said Dr. Marisa Weiss, founder of Breastcancer.org, a breast health Web site. "The breast is the only organ in men and women that is formed after you're born." Most of the breast forms during adolescence, she said. "It's while organs are formed that they are most vulnerable to changes and insults."

Breast cancer could theoretically occur at any age and for either gender.

"You have breast tissue, so at any point, if you have that tissue in your body, it can become cancer," said Dr. Jennifer Litton, an assistant professor in the department of breast medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Study Links Perceived Body Weight with Sexual Activity among Teen Girls

A study led by Dr. Aletha Yvette Akers of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania has revealed an association between perceived body weight and sexual activity among teenage girls in the United States. An Oct. 21 Reuters article provided the following details about the research:

The study, of nearly 7,200 U.S. high school girls, found that in general, sexually active girls who were underweight were less likely than their normal-weight peers to use condoms.

The same was true of girls who viewed themselves as overweight — accurately or not — when compared with girls who perceived themselves as normal-weight.

The findings, researchers report in the journal Pediatrics, "add to a growing body of literature that girls at the weight extremes may be at increased risk for engaging in sexual risk-taking behaviors."

Exactly why this is the case is not fully clear. And the current study found that the question becomes more complicated when race is considered — with weight and perceptions of weight having different effects on white, black and Latina girls' sexual behavior.

"We speculate that girls with a negative body perception may have a limited capacity or willingness to negotiate effectively with partners," the researchers wrote in Pediatrics, "resulting in higher rates of sexual risk behaviors."

Tennessee Teen Calls for Greater Access to Accurate, Appropriate Sex Education

In an Oct. 19 letter that was posted on Tennessee news website knoxnews.com, an area teenager who is active in the Knoxville Planned Parenthood’s peer education program called for greater access to medically accurate and age-appropriate information about sex:

A nationwide study found that teens who had comprehensive sexual education were less likely to become pregnant than teens who had no sex education or were in abstinence-only programs.

The study also found that teens who get open, honest information about sex had better sexual health their entire lives.

The U.S. has the highest rate of teen pregnancy among the most developed countries in the world. At least one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection.

This year, an estimated 729,000 American teens will become pregnant, and nearly 4 million will contract a sexually transmitted infection.

This is why many elected leaders, including President Barack Obama, are supporting medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education that helps reduce teen pregnancy and prevent [sexually transmitted infections].

The letter-writer, Olivia Spooner, is the advocacy coordinator for FYI, a Planned Parenthood-affiliated program that trains teens to inform peers about sex, teen pregnancy, birth control and related topics.

Actress/Activist Calls Attention to Scourge of Teen Relationship Violence

In a Sept. 30 speech at Emory University, actress Jane Fonda addressed the continuing problem of violence within teen relationships.

According to an Oct. 11 article by Muriel Y. Vega and Stephanie Ramage of The Sunday Paper, Fonda (who is the founder and CEO of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention) touched on a topic of particular interest in Georgia:

One in six Georgia high school students has been abused by a boyfriend or girlfriend, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s nearly twice the national average for teenage dating violence. ...

"Besides doing physical harm and even causing death, teen dating violence and abuse is associated with higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse, unplanned pregnancy, STDs, depression, and suicidal tendencies," says Fonda. "This is a problem that impacts more than one million young people each year, crossing all race and socioeconomic boundaries, perpetuating an intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse."

Violence Prevalent in Lives of Chicago Girls

According to a Sept. 30 Chicago Tribune article by Joanna Broder, violence is a prevalent factor in the lives of many girls and young women in Illinois:

A report released earlier this month found that many girls in Chicago and Illinois "face serious violence in their lives," including physical and sexual abuse, threats and injury in school, and assault on the streets.

The report, "Status of Girls in Illinois," -- notes that 10.7 percent of girls in Chicago's high schools skipped school in 2007 because of safety concerns -- nearly double the national average of 5.6 percent -- and that "many girls also report a pervasive feeling of threat and lack of security."

The report pulls together existing survey data about girls in Chicago and Illinois and makes recommendations about a variety of development, health and wellness issues such as access to health care, mental and emotional health, sexuality, safety and substance abuse. It also found that depression and other forms of mental illness pose a serious health issue for area girls.

Teen, Tween Girls Worried, Misinformed About Breast Cancer

According to an Oct. 12 article by MedPage Today senior staff writer Crystal Phend, girls as young as age 8 are worried about breast cancer -- but many are misinformed about the causes of the disease:

Nearly a third of teens and 'tweens reported they've already worried about whether the disease will strike them personally, Marisa Weiss, MD, founder and president of Breastcancer.org, and colleagues reported ... at the ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium.

These girls "had misinterpreted a normal breast finding as a sign of breast cancer or thought they had breast cancer because someone close to them had been diagnosed and they thought automatically they would have it," Weiss said.

Among the girls ages 8 to 18 surveyed before an assembly at 13 schools in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles, more than 23 percent believed that infection, drug use, stress, and tanning cause breast cancer.

From 10 percent to 20 percent said they thought caffeine, antiperspirants, or getting bumped or bruised in the breast were causes. According to 7 percent, breastfeeding increased the risk of breast cancer. None of these are known to increase the risk of a developing a breast tumor.

Teens More Likely to Get Sex Info from Friends than From Parents

You've been trying to ensure that the lines of communication between you and your teen remain open and productive. But it seems as though your child is more likely to turn to her friends to get information about important topics such as sex.

Though this is understandably frustrating, it may help to know that you're not alone.

• A study from the nonprofit organization Austin LifeGuard found that teenagers are more likely to get information about sex from their friends, not their parents.
• The organization collected data from 223 people ages 14 to 18 years old, as well as from 142 parents.
  
• The parents believed that they were the ones providing their teens with the most information.
  

But even though teens may not appear to place a premium upon parent-delivered information, experts emphasize that such communication remains effective.

"Data is overwhelming in showing that when parents do communicate, it is a tremendous influence on teens," Art Coleman, CEO of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin, Texas, said in a Sept. 2 article in the Daily Texan. However, he noted, many parents don't feel adequately prepared to talk about sex with their children.

Older Teen Girls Like Deep Voices; Younger Girls Fear Them

A study that was conducted by researchers with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland found that older teenage girls like deep male voices, but younger girls are afraid of them.

• Researchers played two tapes of a male voice to 300 girls ages 11 and 15 years old, lowering the pitch on the second tape.
• Younger girls associated low-pitched male voices with villains like Darth Vader.
• On the other hand, the older girls in the study found deep voices more attractive than the higher pitched ones.

This study appeared in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

Very Few Teens Eating Enough Fruits & Veggies

Only one in 10 teenagers is meeting the government's requirements for fruits and vegetables, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

A Sept. 29 Associated Press article provided the following details:

Less than 10 percent of U.S. high school students are eating the combined recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables, a finding that the [CDC] called "poor" in a report.

The report based on 2007 data found that only 13 percent of U.S. high school students get at least three servings of vegetables a day and just 32 percent get two servings of fruit. Less than 1 in 10 get enough of both combined. ...

Federal nutrition goals for 2010 call for at least 75 percent of Americans to eat two servings of fruit each day and at least 50 percent to eat three vegetable servings.

"This is a call for states, communities, schools and families to support increased fruit and vegetable consumption," said Heidi Blanck, a CDC senior scientist who worked on the report.

Female Students Experience Sexual Harassment in Elementary, Middle Schools

In a Sept. 27 article in the Arizona Daily Star, writers Rhonda Bodfield and Carmen Duarte reported on the disturbing prevalence of sexual harassment directed at female students in area elementary and middle schools:

Sexual harassment at school happens at surprisingly young ages. A case of student-to-student sexual harassment was reported last year at Sunrise Drive Elementary School, in the Catalina Foothills district, and school officers responded to several elementary schools in [Tucson Unified School District] for sex-related offenses.

In Vail, there were more reports of sexual harassment at middle schools than at high schools.

Researchers from the University of Southern Maine published a study in the journal Sex Roles in July 2008. It indicated 35 percent of 522 students ages 11 to 18 reported they had experienced some form of sexual harassment.

"We have a lot of sexual violence going on in school, and it's happening at younger and younger ages," said Nan Stein, a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women. Stein specializes in the subject and has written a book on it. "It impedes equity in school, and it impedes achievement. If you're worried about being sexually assaulted in school, you're not going to be thinking too much about your coursework."

If you suspect that your child is being bullied, hazed, sexually harassed or otherwise abused in school, don't assume that this experience is either a "phase" or rite of passage. Students deserve to be educated in an environment that is free of harassment and abuse -- and if these inappropriate behaviors are allowed to continue, the damage can be both significant and long-lasting.

Female Students Now Outnumber Males on Many College Campuses

In a Sept. 28 article on the website GreenvilleOnline, staff writer Anna Simon noted that women are now in the majority at many U.S. colleges and universities:

The declining number of men compared to women attending the nation’s colleges is a phenomenon that carries profound social and economic implications as comparatively more female graduates enter the workplace. Experts aren’t really sure why it’s happening.

Clemson is 54 percent male and 46 percent female. The University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus is 44 percent male and 56 percent female, a more typical ratio. Officials at USC and on other campuses including Furman University and Erskine College are taking steps to recruit, retain and graduate more men. ...

Female enrollment outpaced male enrollment 29 percent to 22 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education.

In the decade ahead, enrollment among women is projected to grow by 16 percent versus 9 percent among men, according to new education department projections through 2018.

Women's Issues Emphasized at Global Conference

In a Sept. 30 Huffington Post article, Maria Eitel noted that the recently concluded annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) placed a significant emphasis on the importance of investing in issues that affect girls and women:

For the first time in its five-year history, CGI included a cross-cutting focus called "Investing in Girls and Women." That means that for every single session no matter what the topic, CGI's planners included solutions designed for girls and women to accelerate progress.

Now this isn't a total win. Anyone who's ever met me has probably heard me talk about how girls and women can't be lumped into the same category. That's one of the ways we make the mistake of thinking our efforts are reaching girls when they really aren't.

That said, this is an enormous step in the right direction and there was a ton of momentum at CGI this week around both the importance of investing in girls and women for global prosperity.

"Simply having a plenary session called 'Girls and Women' with male CEOs and heads of multilateral organizations was a symbolic victory for girls actually being seen and considered on the global stage," Eitel wrote.