Boarding Schools for Girls

A former Saturday Night Live star is taking her talents to the Internet in an effort to help boost the self-image and self-esteem of girls and young women.

Amy Poehler, whose SNL experience included five years behind the "Weekend Update" anchor desk, has created - and plans to star in - a web series entitled "Smart Girls at the Party." According to a release by On Networks (the digital media company that will produce the show), "Smart Girls" will range "from the serious to the hilarious" in its efforts to promote the power of positivity:

Smart Girls celebrates young girls who are changing the world by being themselves. The show aims to help girls find confidence in their own aspirations and talents.

In each episode, Amy Poehler interviews a girl with a unique talent, community interest or point of view. The conversation ranges from the serious to the hilarious. Girls offer witty truths and show that you don't have to be famous to be interesting or to make a difference in the world.

In a "Smart Girls" preview clip, Poehler said that her goal is to highlight "extraordinary individuals who are changing the world by being themselves." The program's premiere episode is scheduled for Nov. 17.

Labels: intelligence, media_influences, role_models

Ford Motor Company will soon begin offering "MyKey," a device that allows parents to monitor their teen drivers, in some of its vehicles. MyKey will not allow a driver to exceed a predetermined speed, will limit the volume of a vehicle's sound system, and will also make loud dings until the driver's seatbelt is buckled.

There are already several other devices on the market, such as Drive Cam, that allow parents to record their child's driving and track them via computer.

My Key will be standard equipment on Fords in 2010.

Labels: driving, safety

A study of 1,000 British men found that 48 percent believe that their male primary teachers had the most impact on their lives. Over 20 percent said their male teachers increased their self-confidence, and 35 percent said their teachers had encouraged them to work harder in the primary grades.

The results are significant because only 13 percent of British primary teachers are men.

Some psychologists have pointed out that with increasingly higher rates of single mothers raising boys, male teachers are often a British child's only male role model.

"Male primary school teachers can often be a stable and reliable figure in the lives of the children they teach," said Dr. Tanya Byron, a clinical psychologist and government advisor.

Labels: boys, teachers

There is no truth to the myth that that girls are "cattier" than boys, according to a new study from the University of Arizona. Researchers found that boys are just as socially aggressive as girls are, and that both sexes gossip, spread rumors, and intentionally exclude others from their cliques. Many in the field assume that boys are more likely to bully and pick fights in a physical way, but girls are more likely to express aggression verbally or in written communication.

Noel Card, assistant professor of family studies and human development, researched 148 previous studies involving 74,000 children. He and his colleagues found that certain children, especially boys, are more likely to be both socially and physically aggressive.

Professor Card linked physical aggression to problems such as delinquency, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, poor social skills, and lack of empathy. Social aggression was associated with depression and low self-esteem.

This study appears in the journal Child Development.

Labels: boys, gossip, social_skills

Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24. Lorel Humberg, counselor at Orangeburg Area Mental Health Center, says there are warning signs parents and friends should watch for.

"If a teenager or child says things like 'I just don't want to be here' or 'You'd be better off without me,' take it seriously," Humberg said. "If they suddenly seem to be so much better, that's when the dangerous time is. All of the a sudden, it's okay. That may mean that they've decided to go ahead with plans to end it, especially if they start giving away their favorite clothes and possessions."

Humberg also urges young people who are contemplating suicide to talk to an adult they trust. She calls suicide a "permanent solution to a temporary problem." The feelings of depression or hopelessness will pass, she said, but sometimes young people need help realizing the transitory nature of their emotions. Source: The Times and Democrat (South Carolina)

Labels: parents, suicide, teachers

Having sex doubles the risk for depression in teenaged girls, according to a study of 14,000 students ages 14 to 17 years old. The same thing did not hold true for sexually active boys.

Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, researchers found that 19 percent of sexually active girls had symptoms of depression, compared to 9 percent of those who remained virgins. The researchers took into consideration other factors - such as family conflicts - that could influence the development of depression.

This study appears in the Journal of Health Economics.

Labels: depression, sex

According to a nationwide study of thousands of 5-year-olds in the United Kingdom, boys are two months behind girls on average in their verbal skills and learning ability by their first day of school.

Teachers and parents have long suspected that a learning gap opens up early on between boys and girls, but this was the first study that properly examined and quantified this phenomenon in very young children.

The finding comes in research from the Millennium Cohort Study, which is tracking the development of 15,000 children born in the first two years of this century.

The study involved assessments conducted in each child’s home by trained interviewers. The assessments were designed to measure key information-processing skills. They showed that girls were roughly two months ahead, on average, on each of the three measures.