October 7, 2013
News Features
- MTV Partners with The Jed Foundation on Documentary on Suicide Prevention among College Aged
MTV today announced that the network will air “Life Continued: Defeating Depression,” a 60-minute special produced by Rainn Wilson’s SoulPancake on World Mental Health Day
October 10, 2013 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT - Beyond Rhetoric: Does It Get Better?
Another simplification is that “it gets better.” A single well-intentioned video with this message went viral and became a social media phenomenon, inspiring entertainment stars, politicians, and professional sports teams to create video messages of hope for LGBT youth.
With support from the AFSP, I investigated the question of whether it actually gets better. I found that suicide risk for LGBT youth seems to be highest during the teenage years. But it doesn’t just “get better.”
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
October 4, 2013 - The Bizarre, Misguided Campaign to Get Rid of Single-Sex Classrooms
The “Teach Kids, Not Stereotypes” initiative thinks separating students by gender is equivalent to racial segregation.
Wealthy families have always had the option of sending their children to all-male or all-female schools, but parents of modest means have rarely had that choice. That changed in 2001, when four female senators sponsored legislation that sanctioned single-sex classes and academies in public schools. Today, there are more than 500 public schools that offer single-sex classes and 116 public all-girl or all-boy academies. Many are in struggling urban neighborhoods and many have proven to be hugely successful.
The Atlantic
October 4, 2013 - Predictors of substance abuse identified among teens with bipolar disorder
Reports new study in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
A study published in the October 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that approximately one in three teens with bipolar disorder developed substance abuse, for the first time, during 4 years of follow-up. The study also identified several risk factors that predicted who among these teens was most likely to develop substance abuse.
Press Release
October 2, 2013 - The Gun Report: October 2, 2013
Michael Luo, one of the authors of The Times’s front-page story about the underreporting of accidental shootings of children that we cited on Monday, tweeted a few days ago that he’d skimmed through the 1,000-plus comments below the piece and was “shocked by number of firsthand accounts of accidental shootings.” Indeed, readers have shared some frightening tales.
New York Times
October 2, 2013 - Is Gun Play OK?
While citizens and legislators debate the pros and cons of gun control, our boys are getting in trouble for gun play. In some places, playing guns is treated almost as severely as playing with guns.
Parade
October 2, 2013 - Puberty Is Coming Earlier, But That Doesn’t Mean Sex Ed Is
While scientists try to find what’s causing early puberty, schools are left to deal with what looks like a new normal. And in the meantime, kids are left wondering if they are normal.
NPR
October 1, 2013 - Young Black and Latino Men Are, in Fact, Going to College
It’s too easy to focus on stories of failure: A new study looks at the strategies male minorities use to succeed in school.
Why aren’t the best and brightest minority students landing at elite colleges? A new study suggests we’re asking the wrong question.
The Atlantic
September 30, 2013 - Many More Kids Visiting ER for Sports Concussions, Study Finds
Many more children are showing up at emergency departments with traumatic brain injuries — such as concussions — from sports activities, a new study finds.
Health Finder
September 30, 2013 - Stereotypes Add to Burden for Minority Male Students, Researcher Says
Rather than bemoaning how few minority male students succeed in college, admissions counselors should reach out to high-school counselors to find smart, motivated students who are flying under the radar of most selective colleges, a University of Pennsylvania researcher said on Saturday.
Chronicle of Higher Education
September 30, 2013 - Vitamin D may boost bone health for adolescent girls, but not boys: RCT
Daily supplements of vitamin D may increase bone mass and structural bone parameters in adolescent girls, but boys didn’t seem to get any benefits in the parameters measured, says a new study.
September 30, 2013 - ADHD and Medication
A brand new study in the journal Pediatrics looks at national trends in psychotropic use in 2 to 5 year-olds. Researchers analyzed data from more than 43,000 children, looking at prescription rates from 1994 through 2009. Among kids with a behavioral diagnosis, the use of psychotropic drugs actually decreased from 43% during the earliest years to 29% by the end. Even though more kids are being diagnosed with ADHD, these findings show that the increase has not been accompanied by an upward trend in psychotropic prescriptions.
Medline Plus
September 30, 2013 - Drug ‘Molly’ is taking a party toll in the United States
Molly is the street name for a drug that is pushed as the pure powder form of a banned substance known as MDMA, the main chemical in ecstasy. In the last five years, Molly has made its way into popular culture, helped by references to it made by entertainers such as Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West. The drug’s dangers became more clear after a rash of overdoses and four deaths this summer, including two at a huge annual electronic music festival in New York City.
Medline Plus
September 28, 2013 - Institute of Medicine Report: Improving the Health, Safety, and Well-Being of Young Adults – Workshop Summary
On May 7-8, 2013, the IOM and National Research Council held a workshop to bring together more than 250 researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and young adults. The workshop was designed to highlight research on the development, health, safety, and well-being of young adults. The workshop will help inform a forthcoming consensus study. This document summarizes the workshop.
September 27, 2013 - Adolescent Violence Is Contagious
In June, a new study came out on how conflict has affected adolescents in southern Israel. As time went on, the researchers found, kids exposed to rocket attacks and terrorism weren’t much more anxious or depressed than their peers. But they were more violent: for each point a teen scored on a scale measuring exposure to such attacks, he or she was about twice as likely to commit violence later on
The Atlantic
September 18, 2013
International News
AFGHANISTAN
- Taliban sexually abuse suicide bombers during training, NDS says
Taliban militants are drug and sexually abuse boys whom they are training to carry out terror acts, Afghan officials say.
Taliban molestation of boys, once rarely discussed in Afghanistan and Pakistan, is now becoming a more common topic of conversation.
Central Asia Online
October 3, 2013
AFRICA
- Africa: Youth Forum Concludes With Recommendations for Male Youth
The youth also recommended the strengthening of male involvement on sexual and reproductive health and rights and called for ensuring young peoples’ universal access to high quality comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services in line with the Maputo Plan of Action and the African Youth Charter.
All Africa
September 28, 2013
CANADA
- Ontario asked to publicly fund HPV vaccine for boys
Parents and health officials call on Ontario to publicly fund the HPV vaccine for boys as part of the school-based program.
The Star
October 4, 2013 - Professional Help Needed for Canadian Youth
Here’s what we know about kids who kill themselves in B.C.: Boys are three times more likely than girls. Girls attempt more, but are less successful. First Nation kids take their own lives twice as often as non-aboriginal kids.
Vancouver Sun October 1, 2013
IRELAND
- One in seven teens bullied online in past three months
ONE-in-seven Irish teens has been the victim cyber-bullying in the last three months, according to new findings. And one-in-11 young people admitted to cyber-bullying others over the same period, said Dr Stephen Minton, a lecturer in the psychology of education at Trinity College.
Independent
October 2, 2013
UAE
- Girls continue to outperform boys in UAE schools
The gender gap is growing in schools across the UAE, according to an international report released last week.
Girls in grade 4 outperform boys in reading, science and maths, with the gap between the two greatest in reading and least in maths.
The National
October 4, 2013
UK
- Third of six year-olds ‘struggling to read basic words’ – poor white boys faring worst
Official figures show almost 180,000 pupils failed to reach the expected level in a new reading test for all six-year-olds this summer. Data from the Department for Education also revealed that boys were already lagging far behind girls after 12 months of compulsory education.
The Telegraph
October 3, 2013 - Teenage boys addicted to ‘extreme’ porn and want help
Exclusive: Young boys are becoming so addicted to extreme internet porn that they now want help to stop watching it, according to a new study.
A fifth of boys aged between 16 and 20 told the University of East London they were “dependent on porn as a stimulant for real sex”.
The Telegraph
September 30, 2013