Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Teens Who Text and Drive Take Other Driving Risks

If your teen texts while driving, chances are he or she also practices other dangerous motor vehicle habits — including failing to buckle up and driving after they have been drinking, a new federal analysis finds.

In 2011, 45% of all students 16 and older reported that they had texted or e-mailed while driving during the past 30 days, says the study by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported in June issue of Pediatrics.

Teens who texted while driving were five times more likely than those who didn't to drive when they had been drinking alcohol. And the more they texted the worse their seat belt habit. Teens who texted every day while driving during the past month were more than 40% more likely to not always wear their seat belts than were teens who engaged in texting while driving once or twice in the past 30 days.

It's not surprising that kids who take such risks in one area may be more likely to take risks in other areas, says CDC Director Thomas Frieden.

The new study (drawn from a survey of 8,500 high school students 16 and older) is the second this month to highlight evidence suggesting that texting and driving is associated with other dangerous behaviors.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/13/texting-driving-teens/2150755/

One in Five Teen Births Are Repeats

More than 18 percent of all babies born to teenagers in the U.S. are baby No. 2 or 3, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s bad news not only because it means young mothers aren’t getting the message about birth control, but also because babies born to teenagers, especially unmarried teenagers, are more likely to be underweight and to have other health problems.

“Although teen birth rates have been declining for the last two decades, in 2010, more than 367,000 teens aged 15–19 years gave birth,” the CDC said in its report.

“Teen mothers want to do their best for their own health and that of their child, but some can become overwhelmed by life as a parent. Having more than one child as a teen can limit the teen mother’s ability to finish her education or get a job. Infants born from a repeat teen birth are often born too small or too soon, which can lead to more health problems for the baby," adds the CDC.

Source: NBC News
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/02/17570113-one-in-five-teen-births-are-repeats-cdc-says?lite

Sexual Activity Rare Among Young Adolescents

The notion that the youngest adolescents – ages 10 to 12 – are more sexually active today than in the past is greatly exaggerated, says a new report in the April issue of Pediatrics.

It finds that among both boys and girls, only 0.6% of 10-year-olds, 1.1% of 11-year-olds and 2.4% of 12-year-olds, have had sex, and the incidence of pregnancy among girls age 12 or younger "is minuscule."

The study also finds that sex among very young adolescents is frequently involuntary; 62% of girls who had sex by age 10 say their first encounter was coerced. Coercion was also cited by 50% of those who had sex by age 11 and 23% who had sex by age 12.

By middle adolescence, sexual activity is more common among teens but only for a minority (5.4% of 13-year-olds; 11% of 14-year-olds; 20% of 15-year-olds; 33% of 16-year-olds ). Although more than half of older teens (ages 17 to 19) have had sex, 25% of both males and females have not had sex by age 20.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/01/sex-teens-adolescents-young/2029113/

CDC: 110+ Million Venereal Infections in U.S.

According to new data released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 19.7 million new venereal infections in the United States in 2008, bringing the total number of existing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the U.S. at that time to 110,197,000.

The STI study referenced by the CDC estimated that 50 percent of the new infections in 2008 occurred among people in the 15-to-24 age bracket. In fact, of the 19,738,800 total new STIs in the United States in 2008, 9,782,650 were among Americans in the 15-to-24 age bracket.

“CDC’s new estimates show that there are about 20 million new infections in the United States each year, costing the American healthcare system nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs alone,” said a CDC fact sheet.

The most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States in 2008 was human papillomavirus (HPV), which caused 14,100,000 estimated infections that year.

Source: CNSNews.com
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/cdc-110197000-venereal-infections-us-nation-creating-new-stis-faster-new-jobs-or

Rural Teens at High Risk for Pregnancy

Nationally, the birth rate for U.S. teens has plunged to record low levels, but a new analysis shows that a disproportionate share of teen births are in rural communities.

In 2010, the birth rate for girls ages 15 to 19 in rural counties was 43 per 1,000, nearly one-third higher than the rate for metropolitan counties (33 per 1,000), says a newly released report.

The national rate in 2010 was 34 births per 1,000; preliminary 2011 data show an 8% drop to a historically low 31 births per 1,000.

The new report by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy used the National Center for Health Statistics urban-rural classification system, which identifies rural counties (also called non-metro counties) as those with populations of less than 50,000. Metropolitan counties have populations of 50,000 or more.

"The prevailing stereotype is that teen parenthood is primarily an urban and suburban phenomenon," says Bill Albert, chief program officer for the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit. In fact, "the landscape of teen childbearing is more open spaces and fresh air than gridlock and high-rises," he says.

The results indicate that "the rates are far, far higher in rural areas compared to other parts of the country," Albert said. That suggests a greater need for efforts directed at helping rural teens avoid too-early pregnancy and parenthood.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/20/rural-teen-births-analysis/1928727/

Study: Parents Prefer the Pill Over Condoms for Their Teenage Daughters

"If your teen's doctor found out your daughter was having sex, is it acceptable or unacceptable to you for the doctor to provide birth control to your teen confidentially?" The question was posed to a diverse group of parents of girls aged 12 to 17. On a scale from 1 to 4, researchers at UC San Francisco wanted to know, how comfortable were they with their daughters being given birth control pills? Condoms? Emergency contraception? An intrauterine device (IUD)?

Per the results, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, 59 percent said they'd be okay with birth control pills. Only 51 percent approved of condoms. And way down the scale, past injectables (46 percent), emergency contraception (45 percent), the transdermal patch (43 percent), and the implant (32 percent), was the IUD, with only 18 percent approval.

"The lower than expected acceptability of condoms likely reflects parents' overall low acceptability of contraception in general for their daughters," lead author Lauren Hartman wrote to me in an email. "It also highlights the importance of educating parents about the importance of condoms, both for protection from STIs and pregnancy."

Parents who believed their teenager was likely to have sex in the coming year were more likely to accept their use of emergency contraception and condoms. The authors suspect that they only begrudgingly okay'd those two because "parents may associate these methods with a single episode of sex rather than condoning an ongoing sexual relationship, which would require a more permanent contraceptive method."

Source: The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/02/study-parents-prefer-the-pill-over-condoms-for-their-teenage-daughters/273144/

CDC: Teen Births Hit Record Lows in 2011

The number of U.S. babies born to teen mothers dropped to record lows in 2011, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fewer women gave birth in their 20s as well than in prior years, the researchers said in findings published in Pediatrics - but the birth rate increased for those in their late 30s and early 40s.

The new data showed an eight percent drop in teen births between 2010 and 2011, with just over three percent of 15- to 19-year-olds having babies during that period.

CDC statistician Brady Hamilton, lead author of the report, and his colleagues calculated that 3.6 million more babies would have been born to women in that age group over the last two decades had the teen birth rate not been falling since a peak in 1991.

Hamilton said the decline in teen births, in particular, is especially welcome news and reflects the efforts of programs and policies targeting that age group.

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/12/us-teens-birth-idUSBRE91B01M20130212

Teens Who Drink Excessively Face Increased Sex Risks

A new study finds that teens who drink alcohol to excess are much more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.

A stufy of more than 500 Australian teenagers found that students who reported binge drinking were three times as likely to have had three or more sexual partners in the past year. Compulsive drinkers, who said they were unable to stop, were four times as likely to have had sex they later regretted.

The study was published in The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

Lead author Paul Agius, of the Burnet Institute, said the links between excessive drinking and risky sexual behaviour occurred even in students with strong ties to school and family, which might have shown a protective effect.

The study found 19 per cent of sexually active students had three or more sexual partners in the past year, and 28 per cent had sex they later regretted due to alcohol use which, according to the study's authors, ''may indicate a sexual encounter contextualised by sexual coercion, poor communication about expectations of the encounter or sexual inexperience and unpreparedness for sex''.

Source: The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/national/alcohol-putting-teens-at-sex-risk-20130205-2dwkt.html

Another Study Links 'Sexting' to Sexual Activity in Teens

A new study of Dutch teens finds that few of them frequently engage in risky online activity related to sex, such as sending naked photos to strangers and searching for sex partners, but those who do are more prone to have casual sex in real life.

"There seems to be a relationship between engagement in online and offline sexual risk behavior," said study author Susanne Baumgartner, a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam. "Adolescents who engaged in offline sexual risk behavior were also likely to engage in online sexual risk behavior."

The authors of the new study wanted to understand how "risky" sexual behavior online (talking with strangers about sex on the Internet, searching for someone to have sex with and sexting to strangers) is related to "risky" sexual behavior offline (having casual sex).

Baumgartner's team surveyed over 1,700 Dutch adolescents aged 12 to 18. Those at highest risk of risky behavior online "were less satisfied with their lives, had higher levels of sensation-seeking . . . and were lower educated," the study authors found.

The researchers suggested that kids at higher risk deserve more attention in terms of preventing risky sexual activity.

Jeff Temple, a psychologist and an assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch who studies teenage sexuality, said the study provides "more evidence that the boundary that separates offline and online lives is becoming increasingly blurred." Parents should pay attention, Temple noted, because if a teen is sexting, he or she may also be engaging in risky sexual activity in the real world.

The study appeared online Nov. 5 and in the December print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Source: MedlinePlus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_131178.html

Poor Reading Skills Linked to Teen Pregnancy Risk

Preteen girls' reading skills can strongly predict whether they'll get pregnant when they're teens, a new study suggests.

University of Pennsylvania researchers looked at the reading skills of more than 12,000 girls when they were in grade 7 (average age 11.9 years) in Philadelphia public schools and then checked to see how many of them gave birth when they were teens.

Girls with below-average reading skills in grade 7 were 2.5 times more likely to have a child during their teenage years than those with average reading skills, the investigators found.

Among preteen girls with below-average reading skills, 21 percent had one baby and 3 percent had two or more babies during their teens, compared with 12 percent and 1 percent, respectively, of girls with average reading skills, and 5 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively, of those with above-average reading skills.

The study was scheduled for presentation Oct. 31 at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association and will be published in the February 2013 issue of the journal Contraception.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2012/10/31/poor-reading-skills-linked-to-teen-pregnancy-risk