Boarding Schools for Girls

Teenagers who have sisters are less likely to feel lonely, unloved, guilty, self-conscious or fearful, according to a new study from Brigham Young University. The same study found that having a loving sibling of either gender fostered charitable attitudes among teenagers, even more so than having loving parents did.

• Professor Laura Padilla-Walker studied 395 families who had at least two children, with one child or more ages 10 to 14 years old.
• Affection between siblings was associated with the children doing good deeds; hostility between them was associated with a higher risk for juvenile delinquency.
• Sisters protected adolescents from negative feelings, and it did not matter if the sister was younger or older, or if they were far apart in age.

"An absence of affection seems to be a bigger problem than high levels of conflict," wrote Dr. Padilla-Walker in her study published in the Journal of Family Psychology.

Labels: relationships, siblings, sisters

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 1 Comment

High school girls are using less makeup than they did a few years ago; however, elementary and middle school girls are using more, according to a study from The NPRD Group, a market research firm.

• The study found that 18 percent of girls ages eight to 12 years old used mascara regularly, compared to 47 percent of 13 to 17 year-olds, and 56 percent among 18-year-olds.
• This represents a 5 percent drop among the older girls, but an 8 percent increase in the younger group, from three years ago.
• Products for the lips were the most popular cosmetic; mascara was second.

"A lot of 'tweens think makeup is really exciting when they first start wearing it because it's something they haven't been allowed to do," said Eva Chen, beauty director at Teen Vogue. "About 13 or 14, they feel like they are over lip gloss. They still wear it, but they transition into mascara, and that's one more step for parents to accept."
 

Labels: tweens

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

Bobby Persinger has been talking to young people for years about the dangers of drug use. Lately, he’s noticed a disturbing trend – girls are less likely to take a stand against drug use. They used to be the first ones in class to say “drugs are bad,” but they’re not saying it now.

So, Persinger wasn’t surprised when he read a recent study by the Partnership for a Drug Free America that suggested that American girls’ attitudes about drugs and alcohol have changed. The study found that in 2009, teenage girls saw drug use as more positive and acceptable, making young women more vulnerable to becoming drug users. [Source: Newark (NJ) Advocate]

More than 3,200 high school students were surveyed for Partnership’s most recent study. This was the first year that attitudes about drugs were compared between boys and girls. Most of the girls who participated in this year’s survey said they believed there were benefits to using drugs and alcohol. Unfortunately, this could indicate that drug use among girls is about to increase.

Labels: girls, drug_use

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

An Aug. 2 post on the Eating Disorders Help Guide blog addresses the very real risk that poor self-image can lead teen girls into dangerous behaviors in the name of regulating their weight:

A girl who’s convinced that she’s “fat” even though she’s not will continue trying to lose weight, even when she’s too thin. And, to the best of her ability, she’s going to hide her weight loss from her parents and other loved ones, so she can keep losing.

If you suspect that your daughter may have an eating disorder, contact your family physician or another qualified healthcare provider immediately. Eating disorders are complex conditions that can wreak considerable devastation if left untreated.
 

Labels: parenting, eating disorders

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 1 Comment

About 13% of seven-year-old and 30% of eight-year-old girls in a new study were showing signs of entering puberty based on the development of their breast tissue.

• Researchers from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco asked 1239 girls to undergo physical examinations.
• About 30% were either white, black or Hispanic, and 5% were Asian.
• Among the eight-year-olds, 42.9% of the blacks, 30.9% of the Hispanic, and 18.3% of the white girls were showing signs of entering puberty.

The age of the onset of puberty has been lowering for decades, and most doctors attribute that fact to better nutrition. However, there is concern of a relationship between early puberty and childhood obesity or environmental factors that are not yet completely understood.

• Many experts on child development express concern that girls are not able to handle the hormonal changes and sexual advances from men and boys at such young ages.
• Cancer experts warn that early menstruation may be related to increased risk for breast cancer.

"It's certainly throwing up a warning flag," said Dr. Frank Brio, lead author of the study. "I think we need to think about the stuff we're exposing our bodies to and the bodies of our kids. This is a wake-up call, and I think we need to pay attention to it."

This study appears in the journal Pediatrics.
 

Labels: health, puberty

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment

Last year, the North Carolina legislature passed the Healthy Youth Act, which – among other things – makes some changes to school sex education programs.

Beginning this year, students statewide will have access to more information on contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual assault as part of a revised sex-education program. …

Sex education will remain abstinence-based, and Buncombe County and Asheville City schools already have been covering some topics included in the law. [Source: Asheville Citizen-Times]

Lawmakers approved the bill last year, in hopes that changes will help reduce the state’s teen pregnancy rate, which is among the highest in the U.S.

Labels: school, sex

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 1 Comment

Teen sexual behavior has been associated with a wide range of problems -- but a new study indicates that all sexual activity doesn't have equal impact on teens' abilities to do well in school.

Professors Bill McCarthy and Eric Grodsky of the University of California and the University of Minnesota reviewed surveys and school transcripts from a decade-long study begun in 1994 of high school students.

• Teenagers who have sex within serious, romantic relationships have academic achievements similar to those who remain virgins, the researchers discovered.
• Teens having sex within serious relationships were not statistically different from virgins on measures such as grade point averages, college acceptances, problems at school, and attachment to their school.
• However, teens who engage in casual sex have lower grades and are at higher risk for suspension and expulsion from school, and they are less likely to go to college.

"Compared to abstinence, sexual intercourse in committed romantic relationships is often academically harmless, whereas in other types of relationships it is more detrimental," according to Drs. McCarthy and Grodsky. "Females and males who have sex only with romantic partners are generally similar to abstainers on most of the education measures we examined."

This study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
 

Labels: relationships, sex, academic performance

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 1 Comment

The number of teenage girls employed as "escorts" for men is on the rise in the United States, according to a study from the Women's Funding Network.

• The Schapiro Group conducted the study in New York, Michigan and Minnesota, and found increases in the number of girls sexually exploited by commercial elements as 11% in New York, 20% in Michigan, and 27% in Minnesota.
• In New York, 3,213 young girls were used this way in February 2010 (up from 2,880 the year before).
• Almost half of the girls were were under 18 years old.

Girls are advertised on the Internet through escort services, and on escort websites and even on Craigslist.

Labels: online, internet, exploitation

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 2 Comments

Teens with diabetes may soon be able to keep better track of their medications by using their cell phones.

Dr. Jennifer Dyer, a professor at the Ohio State University School of Medicine, has invented an iphone application that sends reminders to young patients with diabetes.

"If adolescent diabetes patients do not adhere to their treatment and medication plan, it can result in difficulty concentrating in school or functioning throughout the day," Dr. Dyer said in an Aug. 10 ScienceDaily article about her innovation.

Statistics show a significant increase in diabetes among adolescents and teens, with many experts identifying rising rates of childhood obesity as the cause of this troubling development

Labels: technology, overweight, diabetes

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

Can a girl be bullied about her weight so often at school that she develops an eating disorder? A federal judge in Pennsylvania said yes, and awarded a teenage girl $55,000 in damages that her school district must pay.

The girl was only 11 years old when boys in her sixth-grade class began to tease her about her weight. Their taunts continued for two years. The child developed anorexia nervosa and had to be treated in an eating disorder clinic after her weight went down to starvation levels.

Her lawsuit named her school district as a defendant, and claimed authorities did not properly protect against bullying.

Once mistakenly believed to be a "boys problem," bullying also impacts many female students -- both as victims and perpetrators.

Labels: school, bullying, eating disorders

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment

The fear of having no friends (or being unpopular) can be a stressful experience for all children -- and for parents, the mistaken belief that "only children" are more likely to have problems with peer relations can be particularly troublesome.

However, according to a new study from the Ohio State University, children without siblings are just as popular in school as those from bigger families,

• The study included 13,000 children enrolled in the National Study of Adolescent Health.
• When the researchers asked them to choose five friends, "only children" were chosen just as often as children who have siblings.
• Only children had poorer social skills when they were in nursery school but they became equal to their peers as they grew older.

"As family sizes get smaller in industrialized nations, there is concern about what it might mean for society as children grow up without brothers and sisters," said Professor Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, lead author of the study. "I don't think anyone has to be concerned that if you don't have siblings you won't learn social skills you need to get along with other students in high school."

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Labels: relationships, friendships, siblings

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

If your daughter is struggling with teen depression, there's a good chance that someone else in her social circle is, too.

Depressed teenagers tend to hang out with one another on the "social margins" of their high schools, according to a new study from Arizona State University.

Professors David Schaefer and Olga Korienko studied data collected on 3702 teenagers, and found that depressed teenagers choose to form friendships with others who have similar mood problems.

"These students are not avoided by others at school because they are depressed, and their depression is not a product of having poor quality friendships," Dr. Schaefer said.

The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.

Labels: relationships, depression

Posted By: Boarding Schools for Girls 1 Comment

Debby Dobson has seen the positive effects animals can have on troubled and at-risk youth. As an experienced youth counselor, she’s had her share of tough clients – and some respond better to animals than people. Dobson was featured in an Aug. 20 article on the website of Arizona's Verde Independent:

“She saw this first hand years ago while working with a teenage girl client. The girl was withdrawn and communicated only with one-syllable words: yes, no. Not knowing what to do during her time together with the girl, Debby took her to a local animal shelter. Debby says she watched with amazement as the girl’s ‘whole demeanor transformed the moment she stepped in.’”

Dobson now includes animals as a regular part of her counseling sessions with young people, and she’s recently started an animal therapy business. She says the unconditional love offered by animals is just what troubled kids need.

Animal-assisted therapy -- often using horses insead of dogs -- has proved an effective means of reaching youth in crisis, and has been included in programs in many boarding schools for girls, including Copper Canyon Academy in Rimrock, Arizona and New Leaf Academy in Bend, Oregon..

Labels: animal-assisted therapy

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment