Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

One in Four Babies Born to Unmarried Couples

A new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly one in four first-born babies, or 22 percent, are born to unmarried couples living together. The numbers jumped dramatically from 12 percent in 2002.

"More people are cohabitating and more people cohabitating are likely to have children," Gladys Martinez, lead author of the study, told ABCNews.com. "We were surprised by the numbers because it was quite a jump from such a short time, just 10 years ago."

The findings were based on data from more than 23,000 face-to-face interviews with American men and women ages 15 to 44. Men and women with lower education levels were more likely to have more children than people who attended college. Hispanic women were more likely to give birth at an earlier age and have more children than other races, as well.

Experts say a cultural acceptance of having children out-of-wedlock, along with the economic downturn, contribute to the dramatic jump in children born to unmarried couples who live together.

Source: ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/children-born-unwed-couples-rise/story?id=16125007#.T47fR-3lPZG

Troubled Homes May Fuel Obesity in Girls

Girls from troubled homes are more likely to be obese at age 5 than girls from happier ones, new research shows. However, researchers did not find that same association between boys' weight and difficult family situations.

In the study, researchers looked at data on more than 1,600 preschoolers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, which tracks the health and well-being of children born to mostly low-income, single-mother families. About half were black, 27 percent were Hispanic and 22 percent were white.

When their children were aged 1 and 3 years, mothers were asked about six stressors: domestic violence, depression, drug abuse, housing insecurity, food insecurity (meaning that their household didn't always have enough nutritious food to eat) and whether the child's father was in prison. Children's height and weight were measured at age 5.

At 5 years old, 17 percent of the children were obese, defined as having a body-mass index in the 95th percentile or above, or being heavier than 95 percent of their peers for their height.

Girls whose mothers reported experiencing two or more stressors when their daughter was age 1 were twice as likely to be obese at age 5. If the mother reported experiencing two or more stressors when the daughter was age 3, the girl was also about twice as likely to be obese.

The study is published in the May issue of Pediatrics.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/04/16/troubled-homes-may-fuel-obesity-in-girls

Some Kids Perform Poorly at School Due to Problems at Home

More than a quarter of children in the UK are not reaching their potential at school because of poor living conditions and unwell parents, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of London's Institute of Education and the University of Sussex analysed the intellectual development of 18,000 children between the ages of nine months and five years.

They found that children were likely to have stunted intellectual development if they were exposed to two or more disadvantages, such as having a parent who suffered from depression, and living in an overcrowded home.

Some 28% of the children they studied came from families that faced two or more disadvantages. In most cases, these children had a considerably reduced vocabulary or behaved worse than their peers.

In their study, multiple risk factors in young children's development, the academics highlight 10 situations that can impair a child's development. These include living in an overcrowded home; having a teenage mother; coming from a family with poor basic skills or a history of drug or alcohol abuse.

Source: The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/07/home-problems-affect-child-development?newsfeed=true

Children Psychologically Damaged When Parents Fight Over Money

A study published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence confirms what many American children are likely feeling these days: When parents bicker over money, it seriously damages the kid’s well-being.

Depression is a given, along with falling into the black hole of substance abuse, aggression, and other amorphous “problem behaviors,” especially among teens.

And the issues don’t end there—among the parents who said they were dealing with “money-related chronic stress,” the relationships with their offspring were the most fraught with tension, and sadly, the least intimate of all the parents surveyed.

It comes as little surprise that the recession is doing a number on children’s well-being. A culmination of factors, ranging from foreclosures to unemployment and deep-seated resentment (and money lies) are putting family bonds on ever-thin ice.

Source: Financial Post
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/01/31/a-new-study-shows-how-children-are-psychologically-damaged-when-parents-fight-over-money/

Divorce Causes "Irreparable Harm" to Children

A new study on divorce, looking at the complete spectrum of research on the subject, confirms what most people already know – even if they are not willing to admit it: divorce causes “irreparable harm” to the whole family, but  particularly to the children.

There have been plenty of individual studies exposing one or more effects of divorce, but rarely do researchers give an overview of the findings to date – and it makes disturbing reading.

Divorce puts some children on a “downward trajectory from which they might never fully recover”, says the study, The Effects of Divorce on Children, by Patrick F. Fagan and Aaron Churchill from US-based MARRI (the Marriage and Religion Research Institute of the Family Research Council). “It diminishes children’s future competence in all five of society’s major tasks or institutions: family, school, religion, marketplace and government.”

The study says that the reversal of the cultural and social status of divorce has been nothing less than a cultural revolution. Only a few generations ago, divorce was considered “scandalous”, it says, but now law, behaviour, and culture “embrace and even celebrate it”.

The study describes some negative affects of divorce: “It frequently leads to destructive conflict management methods, diminished social competence and for children, the early loss of virginity, as well as diminished sense of masculinity or femininity for young adults. It also results in more trouble with dating, more cohabitation, greater likelihood of divorce and higher expectations of divorce later in life.”

Source: MercatorNet
http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/10241
 

Adolescent Boys More Prone to Delinquency Without a Father

Adolescent boys are more prone to delinquency if they do not have a father figure in their lives, a University of Melbourne study has found, while adolescent girls seem unaffected by the presence or absence of fathers in their lives.

The study, undertaken by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the Faculty of Business and Economics, found that the presence of a father figure during adolescence was most likely to have a preventive effect on whether male youths engage in risk-taking and deviant behaviour.

“The sense of security generated by the presence of a male role model in a youth‟s life has protective effects for a child, regardless of the degree of interaction between the child and father,” Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, Director of the Melbourne Institute said.

“Fathers provide children with male role models and can influence children‟s preferences, values and attitudes, while giving them a sense of security and boosting their self-esteem. They also increase the degree of adult supervision at home, which may lead to a direct reduction of delinquent behaviour.”

“We find that adolescent boys engage in more delinquency without a father figure in their lives. Adolescent girls‟ behaviours are less closely linked to this, which may be attributed to the inherent levels of risk-taking that vary between males and females.”

Source: HealthCanal
http://www.healthcanal.com/mental-health-behavior/23811-Adolescent-boys-more-prone-delinquency-without-father.html

Close Relationship with Mom Affects Teen Sexual Attitudes

Teen boys who watch a lot of TV and also have a close relationship with their mother are more susceptible to harmful stereotypical views of women and sex, but for girls, a strong attachment to mom acts as a buffer against television's negative effect on sexual views.

Previous studies have shown that mothers play a role in children's opinions regarding mainstream sexual attitudes and sexual responsibility. Researchers from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium set out to determine whether a close relationship with mom can protect teens from the negative effects that TV has on sexual attitudes.

The researchers found that, on average, the teenagers watched more than 23 hours of TV a week, or more than three hours a day. And the more TV they watched — especially the boys — the more likely they were to support casual sex, agreeing with statements, such as, "It's OK to have ongoing sexual relationships with more than one person at a time." The TV-watchers were also more likely than those who watched less TV to agree with gender stereotypes, such as, "Males are sexually dominant."

Teen girls who were more securely attached to their mothers appeared to be less susceptible to TV's influence on sexual attitudes. However, a close relationship with their mothers did not have the same positive effect on the teen boys: those who were more securely attached to their mothers were actually more susceptible to the negative influence of TV-viewing on attitudes toward casual sex and gender role stereotypes.

Overall, among teens who didn't watch as much TV, maternal attachment was shown to have a positive influence on their sexual attitudes. For these teens, the more attached an adolescent was to his or her mother, the less they agreed with statements about stereotypical gender roles and casual sex.

Source: Live Science
http://www.livescience.com/16523-tv-mom-affect-teens-sexual-attitudes.html

Teen Girls Hold Power Over Family Spending

It may not be news to parents of teenage girls but researchers confirmed it yesterday: no-one can stop their 16-year-old daughter from deciding how the family spends its money.

The willpower and determination of teenage girls gives them a big say in how a family’s spending money goes on everything from food and meals out to mobile phones and, of course, clothes.

Teenage boys do not show up at all in the analysis that tried to trace the influence of young people on household spending.

Children who reach the age of 21 and live at home have less say over the family budget. Parents appear to be more resistant to their bargaining power the older they get – even though they may have a job and be bringing in their share of income.

The findings on the irresistible spending power of teenage girls were calculated from the United Kingdom's Office for National Statistics records of family spending during the 80s and 90s.

Researchers examined how much money went on services and leisure goods in different kinds of homes. They checked spending on food, restaurant meals, alcohol, tobacco, services, leisure, heating, transport, clothes and sports and entertainment equipment in 2,745 British families.

They found: ‘Teenage girls in the UK typically play an active role in family decisions about the allocation of household resources. But older children, those over the age of 21, who are still living with their parents, appear to have no say over household decisions.’

Source: Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009307/What-wants-gets-How-teenage-daughter-dictates-family-spending.html

The Importance of Family Dinners - VI

Over the past 16 years, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University has surveyed thousands of American teens and their parents to identify factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of teen substance abuse. We have learned that a child who gets through age 21 without smoking, using illegal drugs or abusing alcohol is virtually certain never to do so. And, we’ve learned that parents have the greatest influence on whether their teens will choose to use.

These surveys have consistently found that the more often children have dinners with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs, and that parental engagement fostered around the dinner table is one of the most potent tools to help parents raise healthy, drug-free children.

Simply put: frequent family dinners make a difference.

In the latest report, The Importance of Family Dinners VI, CASA examined the link between the frequency of family dinners and teens’ substance use, their access to substances, and the quality of teens’ relationships with their parents. Compared to teens who have frequent family dinners (five to seven per week), those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are:

• Twice as likely to use tobacco;
• Nearly twice as likely to use alcohol; and
• One and a half times likelier to use marijuana.

Source: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA)
http://www.casacolumbia.org/upload/2010/20100922familydinners6.pdf

Multi-Generational Family Households Make a Comeback

According to a report based on the Pew Research Center's public opinion surveys and analysis of 2008 U.S. Census Bureau data, a record 49 million Americans, or 16.1% of the total U.S. population, lived in a family household that contained at least two adult generations or a grandparent and at least one other generation.

In 1940, about a quarter of the population lived in an extended family household one; by 1980, just 12% did, says the study. A range of demographic factors contributed to this decline, including the rapid growth of the nuclear-family-centered suburbs; the decline in the share of immigrants in the population; and the sharp rise in the health and economic well-being of adults ages 65 and older.

The multi-generational American family household is staging a comeback, driven in part by the job losses and home foreclosures of recent years but more so by demographic changes that have been gathering steam for decades.

Key findings about multi-generational family households and living arrangements of older adults:

• This 33% increase since 1980 in the share of all Americans living in such households represents a sharp trend reversal. From 1940 to 1980, the share of Americans living in such households had declined by more than half (from 25% in 1940 to 12% in 1980)

• The growth since 1980 in these multi-generational households is partly the result of demographic and cultural shifts, including the rising share of immigrants in the population and the rising median age of first marriage of all adults

• At a time of high unemployment and a rising foreclosures, the number of households in which multiple generations of the same family double up under the same roof has spiked significantly. From 2007 to 2008, the number of Americans living in a multi-generational family household grew by 2.6 million

One reason for the reversal in the multi-generational household trend, says the report, is the change in the median age of first marriage. The typical man now marries for the first time at age 28 and the typical women at age 26. For both genders, this is about five years older than it was in 1970. A byproduct of this cultural shift is that there are more unmarried 20-somethings in the population, many of whom consider their childhood home to be an attractive living situation, especially when a bad economy makes it difficult for them to find jobs or launch careers.

Source: Center for Media Research
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=125881