Boarding Schools for Girls

Many parents worry that their ability to influence their teens' lives dwindles as the children age, and is replaced by the impact of peer pressure. But a UCLA study has determined that parental influence remains a guiding factor in the lives of teenagers.

"The researchers looked at social behaviors, such as standing up for people who are being teased and saying bad things about others, as well as academic behaviors, such as listening to teachers or turning in homework late," Canada's CanWest News Service reported.

Children in grades 4, 6 and 8 were influenced by parents in both their academic and social behavior. Older students, however, told researchers that parents mostly influenced their academic behavior. The researchers said they believe this is due to the fact that, as students get older, parents often shift their focus from social to academic issues.

Labels: parents, influences

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According to researchers with the RAND Corporation, teenagers who regularly view sexually explicit television programs are more likely to become pregnant or father a child before the age of 20 than are peers who aren't exposed to such shows.

"Our findings suggest that television may play a significant role in the high rates of teenage pregnancy in the United States," Chandra said in a Nov. 3 article in the Canadian newspaper The National Post. "We're not saying we're establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome."

A Nov. 5 Medscape Today article by Marlene Busko provided the following highlights of the RAND study:

• 2,003 teenagers completed the baseline phone interview about television viewing in 2001, and 1,461 of the teens also completed two follow-up phone interviews, which were conducted in 2002 and 2004.


• The researchers focused on 23 television programs - including dramas, comedies, reality shows, and animated cartoons - that were widely available to (and popular with) teens, and which contained sexual content that included physical flirting, sexual talk, and intercourse.


• 718 participants had engaged in sexual activity by the third survey and reported data on pregnancy status.


• At the time of the third survey, 58 girls had become pregnant and 33 boys had fathered a child over the three-year period. This meant that 14 percent of those who had participated in the surveys had been involved in a pregnancy - almost double the 7.6 percent teen pregnancy rate in the general population.

"The study highlights the importance of helping teens become more critical consumers of television and other media that do not present a balanced portrayal of possible consequences of sex," Dr. Anita Chandra, the study's lead author, told Busko.

On its website, the RAND Corporation is described as "a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis." The RAND research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

Labels: sex, influences, TV

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A study co-sponsored by the British version of the Girl Scouts and the United Kingdom's Mental Health Foundation has found that teenage girls are having a hard time resisting social pressures surrounding materialism and sexuality.

As described by Alexandra Topping in the July 14 edition of The Guardian newspaper, the report (titled A Generation Under Stress?) revealed the following facts about the emotional state of British teen girls:

• Forty percent of girls who were surveyed said they felt worse about themselves after looking at pictures of models, pop stars, and actresses in magazines.
• Some teens said they also felt pressure from such publications to be thin, take drugs, and even have plastic surgery.
• Many were self-conscious about their appearance and weight, and described being sexually pressured by boys at school or feeling obliged to wear clothes that made them look older.

The findings were based upon information provided by hundreds of teen girls who participated in online survey and eight focus groups.

Tracey Murray of Girlguiding UK told Topping that young girls believe that the pressures on them are increasing, as are the social penalties to be paid by those who refuse to conform. "Young girls today often feel there is a growing checklist of ideals they have to adhere to," Murray said. "If they don't they often feel singled out and vulnerable to bullying."

Noting the number of young girls who consider plastic surgery or see self-harming behaviors as "normal," the chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation told The Guardian that today's adults are responsible for alleviating the pressures that are weighing down modern adolescents.

"Girls and young women are being forced to grow up at an unnatural pace in the society that we, as adults, have created and it's damaging their emotional wellbeing," McCulloch said. "We have a responsibility to put this right - we must tackle head-on the difficulties that the younger generation are facing."

Labels: sex, influences, peer_pressure

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