Some of This & Some of That
Some of This & Some of That
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Most Teens Who Take Virginity Pledges Not Committed to Upholding Them
Virginity pledges may not be effective in preventing teens from having sex before marriage, and teens who do take a virginity pledge are likely to misreport earlier sexual activity. That's according to research from the Harvard School of Public Health. The study found that pledgers' reports of their sexual history were less reliable than those of non-pledgers, and that most adolescents who took a virginity pledge recanted their vows within a year, suggesting that the teens were not dedicated to upholding the pledge in the first place. The study can be found in the online edition of the June 2006 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Read the full article at:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press05022006.html
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Media May Contribute to Likelihood of Early Sexual Activity
Can media exposure to sex make teens more likely to engage in sexual behavior? A new study published in the April issue of Pediatrics suggests it just might. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill surveyed 1,017 teens and found that those who took in a high level of sexual media content between the ages of 12 and 14 were up to 2.2 times more likely to have sex by age 16. "Teens are defaulting to entertainment media for sexual information because they aren't getting this information in other places," said Dr. Jane D. Brown, James L. Knight professor in UNC's School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the principal investigator of the study. "Unfortunately, the media aren't the best sex educators. The media tend to leave out the crucial three C's: commitment, contraception and consequences." Read the full article at:
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/teenmedia033006.htm
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Gifted Students May Be More Vulnerable to Bullying than Their Peers
While bullying can be damaging to all its victims, gifted students may be at greater risk, says research from Purdue University. "All children are affected adversely by bullying," says Jean Sunde Peterson, an associate professor of educational studies in Purdue's College of Education, but many gifted students "are intense, sensitive, and stressed by their own and others' high expectations, and their ability, interests, and behavior may make them vulnerable." The researchers found that more than two-thirds of gifted students had been the victims of bullying by eighth grade, and that the consequences included depression, unexpressed rage, and school absenteeism. Read the full article at:
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/hp/Peterson.bullies.html
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Increased Binge Drinking in Girls, among Findings of New Report
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University has released "Underage Drinking in the United States, 2005: A Status Report," which summarizes current underage-drinking research. Among its findings, binge drinking is on the rise among girls, and female and binge drinkers are more likely to drink distilled spirits than beer. In addition, a direct link has been found between alcohol advertisements and underage drinking. The report also found that each day, 5,400 young people under the age of 16 try alcohol for the first time.
Read the full article at:
http://camy.org/press/release.php?ReleaseID=34
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