Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

UK Mandates Sex Ed for All 15-Year-Olds

Well, this is one way to handle the issue... Should be interesting to see how UK parents and faith groups respond.

Sex education is to be made compulsory for all pupils, prompting fury from faith groups which said that the move would contravene the right for children to be educated in accordance with their parents’ beliefs.

All 15-year-olds must receive at least one year of sex and relationship lessons, Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said yesterday. Those whose religious or moral values prevent them from attending will be classed as truants and may be punished by the school. Until now parents could opt out of lessons about contraception, sexually transmitted diseases and homosexuality until their children were 19.

Roman Catholic and Muslim groups said they would strongly oppose the move. Shahid Akmal, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s education board, said he would challenge the laws, which he called an imposition. “It is always better for the parents to talk to children about sex rather than the school over which the parents have no control,” he said.

The Catholic Education Service for England and Wales said it was “disappointed” that the “blanket right to withdrawal” had been removed.

The move is central to the Government’s attempts to lower the teenage pregnancy rate, which rose for the first time since 2002, according to the latest figures. There were 41.9 conceptions per 1,000 15 to 17-year-olds in 2007, up from 40.9 the year before. England has the highest rates of teenage mothers in Western Europe.

Source: TimesOnline
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6905543.ece

Teen Girls' Weight May Affect Sexual Behavior

A teenage girl's weight, or perception of her weight, may affect her odds of risky sexual behavior, a new study suggests.

The study, of nearly 7,200 U.S. high school girls, found that in general, sexually active girls who were underweight were less likely than their normal-weight peers to use condoms. The same was true of girls who viewed themselves as overweight — accurately or not — when compared with girls who perceived themselves as normal-weight.

The findings, researchers report in the journal Pediatrics, "add to a growing body of literature that girls at the weight extremes may be at increased risk for engaging in sexual risk-taking behaviors."

Exactly why this is the case is not fully clear.

Overall, half of the girls said they had ever had sex, and actual body weight showed no influence over those odds.

Perceptions did seem to matter, however. Girls who saw themselves as overweight, however, were about 20 percent less likely to say they were sexually active. At the same time, though, when these girls were sexually active, they were more likely than their peers to have started having sex before age 13.

Across the study group, the only time actual weight was related to sexual behavior was in the case of underweight girls — who were 60 percent less likely than their normal-weight peers to have used a condom the last time they had sex.

Source: Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568789,00.html

CDC: 1 in 3 Teen Girls Got Cervical Cancer Vaccine

 A new government report shows one in three teenage girls have rolled up their sleeves for a relatively new vaccine against cervical cancer, but vaccination rates vary dramatically between states.

The highest rates were in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, where more than half of girls ages 13 through 17 got at least one dose of three-shot vaccination. The lowest rates were in Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina.

The federal report is the first to give state-by-state rates for the Gardasil vaccine that targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus. The report was released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Source: Google/Associated Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h8a2vVHss0DykeXTH77z4Yh5aq7AD9AP5R9G1

Religious Belief No Barrier to Teen Pregnancy

States with populations that express strong religious beliefs also have high teenage birth rates, according to a new study.

That's the conclusion drawn by Dr. Joseph M. Strayhorn, a child and adolescent psychiatrist with faculty appointments at Drexel University College of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh.

His analysis, written with co-author Jillian Strayhorn, was recently published in the open access journal Reproductive Health.

The authors correlated data collected by Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in 2008 data with teen birth rate data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and income data from the U.S. Bureau of Census.

Not surprisingly, states with a higher religious index score had a lower abortion rate, so religiosity predicted more teen births and fewer abortions, Strayhorn found. The correlation remained high even when the researchers controlled for income.

"(A) possible explanation for this relationship is that teens in more religious communities may be less likely to use contraception," Strayhorn wrote.

Likewise, he said, it was possible that "conservative religious communities in the U.S. are more successful in discouraging use of contraception among their teen community members than in discouraging sexual intercourse itself."

Source: ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Sex/study-finds-teen-pregnancy-common-religious-states/story?id=8602283

1 in 3 U.K. Teenage Girls Tell of Sexual Abuse by Their Boyfriends

One in three U.K. teenage girls has suffered sexual abuse from a boyfriend and one in four has experienced violence in a relationship, according to an in-depth study published recently.

The survey, by the NSPCC and Bristol University, found that of the 1,353 teenage girls and boys questioned across the UK, nearly 90% of girls aged 13 to 17 had been in an intimate relationship. A similar number of boys had been in relationships.

A quarter of girls had suffered physical violence, including being slapped, punched or beaten by their boyfriends, according to the study.

Source: The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/sep/01/teenage-sexual-abuse-nspcc-report

Dallas Leads U.S. Cities in Repeat Teen Births, Texas Leads Nation

Dallas leads the nation in the percentage of teen births that aren't the mother's first delivery, a nonpartisan national research group finds in a new report.

Dallas had the highest percentage of teen births that are repeat births – 28 percent – among 73 major U.S. cities in 2006, the latest year for which city-level data are available.

Texas has the highest repeat rate of any state – 23 percent of teen births. And five of the 15 worst-ranked cities are in Texas, according to the group Child Trends, in a report to be released Wednesday.

"That's not where we want to be, for sure," said Sarah Wheat, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood in Austin.

Texas had the highest repeat rate of any state for the sixth consecutive year.

Source: Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/legislature/stories/DN-teenbirths_01tex.ART0.State.Edition2.4bdf6b0.html

Early Sexual Activity Linked to Abuse and Neglect

Children who are neglected or physically or psychologically abused are more likely to have sex at an early age, and sexually active adolescents should be evaluated for possible maltreatment, a new study found.
At 14 years of age, adolescents with a history of maltreatment other than sexual abuse were 2.15 times more likely to report having had sexual intercourse than teens with no maltreatment history, according to a study published online Aug. 10 in Pediatrics.

The study found that 16-year-olds who had suffered physical or psychological abuse or neglect were 2.03 times more likely to have had sex.

"Although there is previous evidence that maltreatment other than sexual abuse predicts engagement in sexual activity and sexual risk behavior, our study is one of the first to use a prospective methodology to demonstrate that other forms of maltreatment increase the likelihood of sexual intercourse by 14 and 16 years of age in a high-risk sample," Maureen M. Black, PhD, of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.

Source: Medpage Today
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/DomesticViolence/15452

Pregnancy, STDs On The Rise Again Among U.S. Teens

Birth rates among U.S. teens increased in 2006 and 2007, following large declines from 1991 to 2005, according to a new U.S. government study.

It found that previously improving trends in teens' and young adults' sexual and reproductive health have flattened or may be worsening in some cases.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers analyzed national data from 2002-2007. Among their findings:

• About one-third of adolescents hadn't received instruction on methods of birth control before age 18.

• In 2004, there were about 745,000 pregnancies among females younger than age 20. This included an estimated 16,000 pregnancies among girls aged 10 to 14.

• Syphilis cases among young people aged 15 to 24 have increased in both males and females in recent years.

• In 2006, about one million young people aged 10 to 24 were reported to have chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis. Nearly one-quarter of females aged 15 to 19, and 45 percent of females aged 20 to 24 had a human papillomavirus (HPV) infection during 2003-2004.

• From 1997 to 2006, rates of AIDS cases among males aged 15 to 24 increased.

• In 2006, the majority of new diagnoses of HIV infection among young people occurred among males and those aged 20 to 24.

• From 2004 to 2006, about 100,000 females aged 10 to 24 visited a hospital emergency department for nonfatal sexual assault, including 30,000 females aged 10 to 14.

"This report identifies a number of concerns regarding the sexual and reproductive health of our nation's young people," Janet Collins, director of CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, said in a news release.

"It is disheartening that after years of improvement with respect to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, we now see signs that progress is stalling and many of these trends are going in the wrong direction," she said.

Source: Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/hscout/2009/07/16/hscout629129.html

UK Health Booklet's Message: Teen Sex Can Be Fun

More news from the UK on teen sexuality. It seems odd to me that on the heels of determining that a government sponsored comprehensive sex education program was deemed a failure (see my blog post on 7/9/09 "UK Initiative to Cut Teen Pregnancies Had Reverse Effect") that this new teen sexuality pamphlet, entitled "Pleasure" is being released by the UK's National Health Service.

It's my contention that comprehensive sex education needs to be combined with training on morals and values and that parents need to take the lead in this endeavor. Check out HomeWord.com for our resources on teaching kids healthy sexuality, including Jim Burns' book Teaching Your Children Healthy Sexuality. Jim also has books targeted directly for pre-teens and tweens, The Purity Code, and for teens, Accept Nothing Less.

Be aware that the excerpt from the news item posted below is quite graphic in its description.

One final note before the news item. A topic which receives a lot of focus in the UK sex education pamphlet is masturbation. Although this may be one of the toughest sexual topics that parents can talk to their kids about, it is an important topic nonetheless. Most parents simply don't know what to say to their kids about this issue. You might benefit from reading my article, "Talking to Your Kids About Masturbation" on the HomeWord.com website.

Britain's National Health Service has a message for teens: Sex can be fun.

Health officials are trying to change the tone of sex education by urging teachers to emphasize that sexual relations can be healthy and pleasurable instead of simply explaining the mechanics of sex and warning about diseases.

The new pamphlet, called "Pleasure," has sparked some opposition from those who believe it encourages promiscuity among teens in a country that already has high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The National Health Service in the city of Sheffield produced the booklet, which has a section called "an orgasm a day" that encourages educators to tell teens about the positive physical and emotional effects of sex and masturbation, which is described as an easy way for people to explore their bodies and feel good. Like more traditional sex education guides, it encourages demonstrations about how to use condoms and other contraceptives.

The booklet suggests ways in which teachers can encourage sexual awareness and responsibility while teaching young people that sex is something that is meant to be enjoyed.

Steve Slack, who helped produce the leaflet as Director of the Center for HIV & Sexual Health in Sheffield, said one goal is to help young people learn to resist peer pressure and delay having sex until they are emotionally ready.

"Far from promoting teenage sex, it is designed to encourage young people to delay losing their virginity until they are sure they will enjoy the experience," he said.

Slack said some of the ideas in the booklet came from the Netherlands, which is well known in Europe for its liberal attitude toward sexual behavior.

But the pamphlet is condemned by some educators who believe it will lead to more casual sex among teens.

Source: AP/Google
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iqhQp07xJAWEUOm9uRdznHXmtG7QD99EADC00

UK Initiative to Cut Teenage Pregnancies Had Reverse Effect

A government drive to lower the rate of teenage pregnancies has backfired, actually increasing the number of school-age mothers in England, a study confirms today.

The Young People’s Development Programme (YPDP) was extended to 27 parts of England between 2004 and 2007 after reports from the United States suggested that it could reduce unplanned pregnancies and alcohol and cannabis misuse among teenagers. It cost £5.9 million.

Independent research published in the British Medical Journal found that young girls who attended were “significantly” more likely to become pregnant than those in a comparison group.

A total of 16 per cent of the YPDP group became pregnant, compared with 6 per cent in the other group, a youth programme not receiving YPDP funds. This was despite those in the YPDP group having education about sex and drugs and being no more sexually active than the other group.

The girls were given intensive health education and free condoms in the hope that this would enable them to avoid unprotected sex.

Sources:
Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6662124.ece

Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1198462/How-teen-pregnancies-Left-admits-sex-education-disaster.html