Boarding Schools for Girls

Want to encourage your daugther to embrace the concepts of philanthropy and service to others? Do, don't tell.

A new survey from Harris Interactive Service Bureau found that teenagers were more likely to be philanthropic if their parents were, too. Though 90 percent of parents surveyed said they want their children to be charitable, only 29 percent regularly talked to their kids about the importance of giving.

"Teens who regularly donated their time or money said their parents were their primary influence, the report said. These teens were more likely to hold paying jobs and have responsibilities for helping neighbors.” Source: Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune]

The report also included suggestions for parents who want to encourage their teens to be more charitable and engage in community service. Suggestions included: talking to your child about your own volunteer work, explaining how your kids can make a difference in other people’s lives, and helping your child set and reach giving-related goals.

Labels: finance, service project, philanthropy

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

Parents have trouble seeing their teenagers as sexually desirable and sexually predatory, according to a new study from North Carolina State University. However, parents in the same study had no problem seeing other teenagers that way.

• Dr. Sinikka Elliott and her colleagues conducted two-hour interviews with 47 parents of teenagers.
• The research team found that most parents characterize their children as immature, naïve, and innocent about sex.
• However, these same parents tended to envision other teenagers a sexually active, aggressive, and even promiscuous, and likely to take advantage of their children.

"This binary thinking does more than simply establish their teens as asexual and therefore good," said Dr. Elliott, "it also creates a scenario in which their teenagers are imperiled by their peer group." She noted that parents of boys express that aggressive teenage girls might use sex to make their relationship more solid, and parents of girls thought their daughters might become victims of sexually aggressive boys.

The study appeared in the journal Symbolic Interaction.
 

Labels: sex

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

If your child posts online references to sex on social networks such as Facebook, chances are that she is about to become sexually active, according to a study from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Dr. Megan Moreno and her colleagues studied the Facebook pages of 85 college freshman, surveying them about their sexual experiences and intentions. The research team found a strong association between posting sexual references online and becoming sexually active in real life.

"Facebook profiles may represent an innovative venue to identify adolescents considering sexual activity who may benefit from targeted prevention or education messages," according to this study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
 

Labels: sex, computers, internet

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 1 Comment

A study released this week found that teen pregnancy rates are dropping faster in Canada than they are in the United States. From 1996 to 2006, rates fell by nearly 37 percent in Canada, and 25 percent in America.

Like [Alex] McKay, [Louise] Moody believes falling teen pregnancy rates are a result of better-informed young people making smarter choices about sex, but they also reflect young women who see a future for themselves that might include something other than motherhood, she says.

In her experience, many of the young women who choose to become parents aren’t following the ‘traditional trajectory’ through school to a career, she says, and they often lack role-models or stable homes. [Source: CanWest News Service]

According to the same study, teen birth rates fell in England and Sweden as well, but the declines were not as significant. Of course,teen pregnancy remains a persistent problem in all of the nations involved in the study.

Labels: pregnancy, canada

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments