Boarding Schools for Girls

Teenage girls prefer the rhythm method of birth control -- a method that is only 75% effective, according to new research from the National Campaign to Prevent Pregnancy.

• Researchers interviewed 2,800 teenagers ages 15 to 19 years old who have been sexually active.
• The surveyers found that teens' attitudes toward pregnancy have grown more casual since the last survey in 2002.
• The girls who were questioned said that they preferred the rhythm method of birth control, although many used it in conjunction with other more reliable methods.

"We have known the decline in childbearing has stalled out," said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the group. "This report kind of fills in the why."
 

Labels: sex

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 1 Comment

The stories and videos are all over the news and YouTube: teenage girls beating each other up over issues including boyfriends and “dirty looks.” The increase in violent behavior among teen girls is concerning to many, but not surprising to some.

“Girls, like boys, are citizens of our violent world… The resulting message to young girls is that they are vulnerable and that they must learn to be violent to survive. That misguided belief is often reinforced in the smaller world of highly dysfunctional home lives where kindness is confused with weakness.” [Source: Gloucester (MA) Times]

Teens are also strongly influenced by their peers. Dr. Thomas Berndt of Purdue University refers to a “contagion effect,” similar to a mob effect, that causes teenagers to do things in groups that they would never do alone.

Labels: teenagers, violence

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

Your daughter’s school year ended on yet another less-than-successful note, and once again you feel as though your only option is to endure another long summer while hoping that next year will finally be the time when things start turning around.

Why wait ‘til next year?

Many effective private boarding schools offer programs that are specifically designed to meet the unique needs of underachieving girls – and these programs accept students on a year-round basis. Here are two such schools:

• New Leaf Academy – Located in Central Oregon, the New Leaf program is tailored to the developmental, social, emotional and academic needs of pre-adolescent and young adolescent girls (ages 10 to 14 upon admission).
• Copper Canyon Academy – On a beautiful campus in a Central Arizona valley, teams of dedicated and experienced teachers and therapists help teen girls (ages 14 to 17) develop the skills and strategies that will allow them to live healthy, productive and successful lives.

Within weeks from the time you first read these words, your daughter could be in school and on her way to a more successful future. For more information about the many opportunities that are available to your family, click the links above or call (866) 828-7043.
 

Labels: boarding schools, summer

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

Words like “cyberbullying” and “sexting” have become descriptors for some of the negative ways that teenagers use the Internet and their cell phones. Based on mainstream media’s coverage of these topics, it would seem that “everybody’s doing it.” But are they?

“A recent Pew Internet report on teen and tween Internet usage paints a much less ominous picture with 62 percent of kids saying they go online to get news about current events and politics while another 31 percent logon for health, dieting or physical fitness information.” [Source: Business Wire]

Many young people also have an online component for their classes. Of course, cyberbullying and sexting are real problems for some teens. But the problems aren’t as prevalent as we think.

Labels: computers, online, internet

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

Children who have two copies of a certain gene are more likely to experience emotional difficulties when they are bullied by other children, according to a new study from Duke University.

• Dr. Karen Sugden and her colleagues studied 1,116 pairs of same-sex twins ages 5 to 12 years. Half of them were identical twins.
• The children were tested at ages five, seven, ten and 12.
• 230 of the children children were victims of bullies.
• Those who carried two copies of the gene 5-HTT were more likely to experience anxiety, depression and social withdrawal when bullied.

Dr. Sugden used identical twins in order to rule out the possibility of pre-existing emotional problems. If both twins carried two short copies of the 5-HTT gene, but only one was bullied, only the one that was bullied had emotional difficulty. Previous studies have found that the short form of the gene intensifies emotional reactions to stress.

This study appears in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
 

Labels: bullies, bullying

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

Girls who are allowed to drink soda at age 5 become teenagers who have unhealthy diets, according to a new study from Pennsylvania State University.

• Dr. Laura Fiorito and her colleagues followed 170 girls for ten years.
• Those who were allowed to have soda at age five showed much lower intake of fiber protein, vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium magnesium, phosphorus and potassium throughout the ten-year study than those not allowed to have soda at age five.
• All the girls in the study had inadequate levels of recommended nutrients as teenagers.
• By age 15, nearly all were drinking soda, although the "early soda drinkers" were drinking twice as much.

"We think that the patterns develop when they are younger," Dr. Fiorito said. "Some studies show that children are already drinking soda or carbonated beverages by age two."

The study appears in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
 

Labels: teenagers, nutrition, children

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

Worried that your daughter is watching too much TV? The solution may be closer than you think.

Children will watch less television if they and their parents agree to limit it, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics:

• Dr. Susan Carlson, of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control, surveyed 5685 homes.
• The researchers asked parents and their children and television rules and how much time they spent watching it. n.
• About 27 percent of survey recipients watched more than two hours a day, a limit set by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
• This group tended to be male, African-American, and from low income families. 
• Children in the study tended to watch within limits set by their parents.

Experts have noted that excessive time in front of television sets and computer monitors has been associated with a range of problems among children and teens. The good news is that there are a range of effective ways parents can limit their children's screen time.

Labels: parenting, technology, television

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

European girls are entering puberty at younger ages, according to a new study from Denmark.

The study of 1,000 girls found that they began menstrual period at age 9 years and 10 months, an entire year earlier than 1991, when a similar study was conducted. Girls in the 19th century hit puberty at about age 15.

While some see this as a positive sign that nutrition has improved, others find the trend worries some, because hitting puberty early means longer exposure to estrogen, a factor in breast cancer. These girls are also at greater risk for heart disease.

"If girls mature early, they run into teenage problems at an early age, and they are more prone to diseases later on," said Dr. Anders Juul, of the Department of Growth and Reproduction at the University Hospital in Copenhagen. "We should be worried about this regardless of what we think the underlying reasons might be. It is a clear sign that something is affecting our children, whether it is junk food, environmental chemicals or a lack of physical activity."

Previous studies have identified childhood obesity as a risk factor for early puberty.
 

Labels: health, puberty

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

An annual survey of teenagers found that girls are drinking more alcohol than boys, but they are less likely to use drugs. However, that too might be changing because the survey also indicated that girls are taking an increasingly more tolerant attitude toward drug use.

• MetLife Foundation and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America surveyed 3,300 teenagers in private, public and parochial schools in 2008 and again in 2009.
• The percent of girls who agreed with the statement, "Drugs help you forget your troubles," increased from 40% to 53% in one year.
• Only 33% of the girls said they do not want to "hang out" with drug abusers, compared to 38% in 2008.

Girls were more likely to associate drugs and alcohol as ways to deal with stress.

"Girls tend to be more internalizers with issues that are happening. It makes sense that if they have some stress in things that they are dealing with, they are going to take care of themselves instead of reaching out," said Dr. Leslie Walker, director of adolescent medicine at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Other experts point to changes in the culture.

"Women previously had more constrained roles in terms of the propriety of indulging in behaviors such as public intoxication and the like," said Dr. Marc Galanter, director of the division of alcoholism and drug abuse at New York University Langone Medical Center. "Now with women in the workforce and becoming more liberated, they are not so constrained."

The survey indicated that girls may be catching up with boys in terms of drug and alcohol use, because the boys' use is declining as the girls' use is increasing.
 

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