March 17, 2014
News Clips
- The Money Behind My Brother’s Keeper: What’s Known So Far
It does not appear that the federal government will bring any resources to bear for My Brother’s Keeper; Obama did not announce and federal funding for it, nor did he single any out in his fiscal 2015 budget request.
His hopes for a robust initiative appear to rest entirely with the ten foundations he has asked to participate: Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The California Endowment, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Open Society Foundations, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and The Kapor Center for Social Impact. The project will start out with $7.5 million, $750,000 each from ten foundations, to help build the infrastructure of the initiative. It Is not clear which entity will harbor and manage that money, which will likely be spent on hiring consultants and firms to assist with My Brother’s Keeper.
Chronicle of Social Change
March 17, 2014 - Girls–and boys–just wanna have education
Marin’s longest-standing all-girls school goes co-ed
The differences between men and women have been written about endlessly and analyzed incessantly. But are the differences so severe and the divide so evident, that it’s best to approach education with separation in mind?
Pacific Sun
March 15, 2014 - The Plummeting Labor Market Fortunes of Teens and Young Adults
Employment prospects for teens and young adults in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas plummeted between 2000 and 2011. On a number of measures—employment rates, labor force underutilization, unemployment, and year-round joblessness—teens and young adults fared poorly, and sometimes disastrously. This report provides a number of strategies to reduce youth joblessness and labor force underutilization.
Brookings
March 14, 2014 - THE NEGLECTED SUICIDE EPIDEMIC
Alan Berman, the executive director of the American Association of Suicidology and the president of the International Association of Suicide Prevention, has said that in the developed world ninety per cent of those who attempt suicide suffer from psychological ailments. “We have effective treatments for most of these,” Berman said last year. “But the tragedy is, people die from temporary feelings of helplessness—things we can help with.”
The New Yorker
March 15, 2014 - Energy Drinks Popular With Troubled Teens, Study Says
Kids who are depressed or use alcohol or marijuana often consume the beverages, researchers report
Teens who are depressed or use alcohol or marijuana are more likely to consume energy drinks than their peers, a new study finds. Although the reasons for these apparent links are unclear, they are cause for concern due to the large numbers of teens who consume the caffeine-laden beverages, the researchers said.
Medline Plus
March 14, 2014 - Study Finds No Link between Years of Football Play and Neurocognitive Function in Adolescent AthletesAmerican Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) found no link between neurocognitive function and years of football play in adolescent athletes. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), between 1.6 and 3.8 million sports and recreation-related concussions occur each year in the U.S., most of which go untreated by medicalprofessionals. Concussions and sub-concussive hits (repeated head blows without immediate, visible signs or symptoms of neurological damage) are especially common in high school football. Several recentresearch studies have found a link between sub-concussive head blows in football and neurocognitive decline in adolescents.
Gnomes National Service
March 13, 2014 - Put the Sex Back in Sex Ed
The refusal by public schools’ sex-education programs to acknowledge gender differences is betraying both boys and girls. The genders should be separated for sex counseling. It is absurd to avoid the harsh reality that boys have less to lose from casual serial sex than do girls, who risk pregnancy and whose future fertility can be compromised by disease. Boys need lessons in basic ethics and moral reasoning about sex (for example, not taking advantage of intoxicated dates), while girls must learn to distinguish sexual compliance from popularity.
Time
March 13, 2014 - Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers. You Just Brought Back Measles in NYC. (Opinion)
Measles was considered eliminated at the turn of the millennium. Now it’s back, thanks to the loons who refuse to vaccinate their children.
Of all the things to be nostalgic for, infectious diseases probably don’t make it onto many lists.
Daily Beast
March 13, 2014 - Vaccinating against HPV: Why so early? Why boys?
Human papillomavirus vaccine uptake in the United States continues to lag far behind rates in other developing countries at around 30%, compared with rates ranging from 75% to 90% in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
“We’ve always wanted a vaccine against cervical cancer. We’ve got it, so why aren’t we using it?” H. Cody Meissner, MD, of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told an audience at the 2014 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners Annual Conference.
Clinical Advisor
March 13, 2014 - UN Sets Guidelines for How Developing Countries Should Teach Puberty
Educating boys and girls about menstruation and sex sets up a path to greater gender equality
That’s why, for the first time, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization)—in partnership with sanitary product maker Procter & Gamble—is releasing a publication setting out guidelines for puberty education. The goal is to provide developing countries with a framework of programs that promote access to hygiene products for girls, safe sanitation facilities in schools, and better puberty knowledge and skills for both boys and girls beginning at age 10.
Time
March 13, 2014 - Boy Behavior or Bad Behavior? (Commentary)
By mistaking unchecked behavior for undeveloped behavior, we allow unacceptable behavior in boys and men to be seen as just another part of “being a guy.”
Patheos
March 13, 2014 - The 300 Workout: How Movies Fuel Boys’ Insecurities
Young men—whether they were looking for their battlefield gore fix or a chance to geek out over the historical inaccuracies of a sex scene between Themistokles and Artemisia—lined up for the opening of 300: Rise of an Empire on Friday. And though some parents may forbid their teens from seeing the R-rated film because of the blood and violence, they should probably be more concerned about the Greeks’ sweaty, washboard abs.
Time
March 11, 2014 - When Hasidic Boys Grow Up Without Real School
Last summer, when I interviewed Hasidic men and women who grew up with little to no secular education, I remember feeling angry at this system that churns out, intentionally, boys who cannot speak or read English — the first step in acquiring basic skills to function as an adult in the 21st century. The words one brilliant man used to refer to educational neglect in Satmar is still ringing in my ears: “This is criminal.”
Jewish Daily
March 11, 2014 - ADVOCATES FOR YOUTH AND PHYSICIANS FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND THIRTEEN OTHER ORGANIZATIONS JOIN THE PARTNERSHIP FOR MALE YOUTH
The Partnership is a collaborative effort to disseminate and improve upon the Toolkit while developing provider, patient and parent education initiatives designed to enhance provider and parent knowledge and skills while engaging AYA males in their own health care.
The Boys Initiative
March 13, 2014 - Trainers association focuses on mental health issues for youth and college athletes
Concussions were front and center this week at the fifth Youth Sports Safety Summit. But the alarm also was sounded over mental health issues among youth, high school and college athletes.Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, anger issues and the effects of bullying happen among athletes, too.”Consider … that one of every four or five teenagers and young adults in this country suffer from a mental health issue that can be diagnosed by a physician or mental health care professional,” said Timothy Neal, assistant director of athletics for sport medicine at Syracuse University.
Star Gazette
March 12, 2014 - A ‘Manly’ Approach That Harms Men (Opinion)
The My Brother’s Keeper initiative might provide crucial support for a vulnerable population, but it risks reinforcing gendered notions of male success that could undermine broader progress. The program’s advocates appear to promote traditional masculinity as the key to salvation for black and Hispanic boys, but at the cost of the boys’ own fuller humanity.
New York Times
March 12, 2014 - Body-Image Pressure Increasingly Affects Boys
Cultural ideals are becoming an equal opportunity anxiety-inducer, and eating disorders are increasingly common in men. But the symptoms in men and women don’t look the same.
A new study of a national sample of adolescent boys, published in the January issue of JAMA Pediatrics, reveals that nearly 18 percent of boys are highly concerned about their weight and physique. They are also at increased risk for a variety of negative outcomes: Boys in the study who were extremely concerned about weight were more likely to be depressed, and more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors such as binge drinking and drug use.
The Atlantic
March 10, 2014 - Young Binge Drinkers May Not Need Special Counseling From Family Docs
Swiss study suggests results just as good for physicians without certain training
Special counseling from family doctors had no effect on young people’s binge drinking or marijuana use, new research suggests.The study included 33 family doctors and pediatricians in Switzerland and nearly 600 patients aged 15 to 24. About half of the patients reported binge drinking (more than five drinks in one sitting) or marijuana use.
Medline Plus
March 10, 2014 - Experts: Stereotyping Huge Barrier to Engaging African-American Males on Campus
“Part of successful engagement with African-Americans is to simply not stereotype them,” said Perry. “If Black students are going to a predominantly White institution, then they might not know how to respond to nuanced racism in the form of stereotypes.”
Diverse Education
March 6, 2014 - For our young men of color, do we have the will to make a way? (Opinion)
I applaud President Obama’s new initiative, “My Brother’s Keeper,” but an important conversation is missing from the announcement and from the initiative itself. While it is necessary to encourage boys to work harder, that alone will not solve the problem. The reason so many boys and young men of color continue to fail remains unexplored.
Huffington Post
March 6, 2014 - Boys Don’t Cry: The Crisis of Masculinity (Opinion)
When we talk about sexism, we almost always automatically think of the victims as women. Tackling discriminating language, sexual harassment and domestic violence seems to be exclusively discussed as ‘women’s issues’. Much in the same way that these problems are not only ‘women’s issues’, sexism itself is not a ‘women’s issue’. There are other types of sexism which are equally pervasive in our society and potentially more corrosive due to the fact that they constantly go undiscussed or completely undetected.
Social Worker Helper
March 6, 2014 - Black Boys Viewed as Older, Less Innocent Than Whites, Research Finds
Police likelier to use force against black children when officers ‘dehumanize’ blacks, study says
Black boys as young as 10 may not be viewed in the same light of childhood innocence as their white peers, but are instead more likely to be mistaken as older, be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
Newswise.com
March 6, 2014 - Moving Out of Poor Neighborhood May Disrupt Boys’ Mental Health: Study
However, girls tend to do better with upward mobility, researchers say.
One reason for this distinction might be how boys and girls are seen by their new neighbors, Kessler said. When a boy comes from a poor neighborhood to a better neighborhood, he is automatically seen as a “juvenile delinquent,” and people treat him differently, he said. “He doesn’t get the same chance of integrating into the neighborhood,” Kessler said. “Whereas, when a girl comes, ‘She’s this poor little thing from the inner city — let’s help her.’ “
Healthfinder.gov
March 5, 2014 - Of Fathers and Father Figures: Supporting or Undermining Gay Men’s Health (Opinion)
Gay men’s relationships with our fathers are often fraught, to say the least. But without a father’s — or father figure’s — loving support and kicks-in-the-butt as needed, research suggests that the odds already stacked against us in enjoying good mental health and staying HIV-negative grow even steeper.
Huffington Post
March 5, 2014 - Before Obama’s New Initiative Stands A Landscape Of Hard Numbers
CORNISH: My Brother’s Keeper is not a government program with money to spend. The dollars are largely private, some 200 million from a group of big-named foundations. And they’ll spend them over the next five years working on things like early childhood development, literacy and parent engagement. Meanwhile, the government’s role is really to study the problem. Why are so many young black and Latino men falling behind? And to make sure the federal government is doing all it can to be part of the solution.
NPR New Hampshire
March 5, 2014 - Adolescent relationship violence has mental health implications for male victims, perpetrators
The researchers found that few respondents reported continual involvement in IPV across relationships. A more common pattern was for violence to be present in one or two relationships. The researchers also found that IPV victimization, perpetration, and mutual violence all correspond with increases in symptoms of depression. Furthermore, these results were present for young men as well as women, documenting that young men are not immune to negative psychological outcomes associated with IPV victimization or perpetration.
MedicalXpress
March 5, 2014
International News
CHINA
- Sex with underage boys should be punished same as that with girls, deputy says
Lawmaker says that offences against boys should be treated the same as for girls
The Criminal Code currently treats sex with boys, whether consensual or not, as child molestation, which is punishable by up to five years in jail. Sex with a girl under the age of 14, or rape, carries a jail term of up to 10 years, unless severe violence or gang rape is involved.
SCMP
March 8, 2014
FRANCE
- Boys have different learning patterns
A recent study from researchers at the University of Georgia, which followed 10,000 students as they moved from kindergarten to eighth grade, indicates that though boys scored well on tests, indicating mastery of material, girls got better grades. Researchers account for higher scores in girls because they comported themselves better than boys while in the classroom.
Paris Post Intelligencer
March 13, 2014
IRELAND
- How to engage boys in education
The study is an attempt to tackle the root cause of difficulties that Northern Ireland still suffers, and which have parallels in areas of social deprivation in other pockets of the UK. Dr Ken Harland said: “We are dealing with the fact that schools are failing boys. 70 per cent of learning is outside school, meaning it takes a community to educate a child. The first step is to simply talk to boys about their needs.
Plymouth Herald
March 10, 2014
SOMALIA
- Somalia to seek Japan’s help to save young boys from life of piracy
“We want the amount of funds that Japan was putting into service delivery like education to be refocused on providing vocational education centers for those young boys so that they become useful members of society,” Mohamud said at the Japan Press Club prior to consultations with Tokyo this week.
Global Post
March 12, 2014
SOUTH AFRICA
- Fears raised over HPV jab
Johannesburg – The departments of health and basic education have launched a national campaign to vaccinate girls nine years and older against cervical cancer.
But critics are asking why boys are not being offered the jab.
Ioloco
March 12, 2014