Dating violence among teenagers might be increasing, even leading to homicides in some cases, according to a report in the Jan. 4, 2009, edition of the New York Times.

• Statistics from public health agencies indicate that one in ten relationships involves violence or abuse.
• However, a 2008 survey of 1,000 middle school students suggested the figure could be closer to 25 percent.
• A study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that one third of 920 college students surveyed said they had been victims of physical and emotional abuse.
• In a study by the Center for Disease Control, eight percent of teens said they had been forced into sexual intercourse.
• Within the past two years, several high school girls have been murdered by their boyfriends.

Not all dating abuse is physical: It can include verbal harassment, name-calling and ridicule, sometimes done over the Internet or via cell phone text messages.

Besides being at increased risk for physical violence, abuse victims suffer from emotional problems as well. They are also twice as likely to abuse alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, and are at increased risk of suicide.

Public middle schools in many parts of the country are working to initiate programs to educate young people about safe relationships, and to make them aware of protections that are available to them.

Labels: dating, violence

Two new research studies indicate that children who have spiritual lives tend to be happy and well adjusted.

A University of British Columbia study found that children who feel that their lives have meaning are happier than their peers. However, religious practices such as attending church did not affect their happiness.

Professor Mark Holder and his colleagues surveyed 320 Canadian children (ages 8 to 12) and their parents about the children's temperaments, religious practices, and spirituality. Outgoing children tended to be happier than shy ones, and children who had spiritual values such as being kind to others were more likely to be happy.

This was the first study of young children. Previous studies have found a link between teenagers' happiness and spirituality.

A second study, from the National Center for Health Statistics in the United States, indicated that children who live in two-parent families and who regularly attend religious services are less likely to have problems at home or in school.

Specifically, these children were 5.5 times less likely to repeat a grade and 2.5 times less likely to be reported by school officials for conduct or academic problems than were children who did not live in two-parent homes or attend religious services. It did not matter whether the parents were biological or adoptive.

The NCHS study used surveys of more than 100,000 children and their parents. The results were the same regardless of the child's family income, parental education, or race.

Labels: development, religion, spirituality

Religion helps people develop self-control, which at least one psychologist believes may explain why religious people have lower rates of substance abuse and depression, better academic success, lower levels of criminal behavior, better health, and longer lives.

Dr. Michael McCullough of the University of Miami Department of Psychology combed through eighty years of research on religion for a report published in the journal Psychological Bulletin. Among his findings were that religious rituals affect the part of the brain that regulates self-control, which may explain why religious people are less likely to misuse drugs and alcohol or have criminal behaviors.

Dr. McCullough also found that since religious people believe their goals are "sacred," they put more energy into them, and are more likely than others to attain them.

Labels: religion, self-control, substance_abuse

Children who experience poverty at very young ages have a harder time as teenagers, according to a new study from Iowa State University Institute for Social and Behavioral Research.

Early "socio-economic adversity" affects later mental health, making it harder for a teenager to transition successfully into adulthood, according to the decade-long study of 500 families from Iowa.

Dr. K.A.S. Wickrama, professor of human development and author of the study, said that one of his main findings is that early family adversity is linked to depression in adolescents, making it harder for them to successfully transition into adulthood and reach their full potential socially, academically, and occupationally. This effect increases if a child also experiences disruptive events along with poverty.

Dr. Wickrama said his work indicates that poverty is passed down from one generation to the next through such mechanisms as adolescent depression.

This study appears in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Labels: depression, mental_health, poverty

Whether or not you experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a catastrophic event may depend on your genetics.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied 200 people from 12 multi-generational families who experienced a terrible earthquake in Armenia in 1988. Everyone in the study saw buildings destroyed, and over 90% saw dead bodies and severely injured people left lying in the streets.

According to the report published in Psychiatric Genetics, about 40% of post-traumatic stress syndromes developed by people in the study was due to genetic factors. Genetic factors accounted for 61% of depression and 66% of anxiety. Dr. Armen Goenjian of the UCLA Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and lead author said that other studies have shown that depression tends to coexist with anxiety.

"Our findings show that a substantial portion of the coexistence can be explained on the basis of shared genes and not just environmental factors such as upbringing," he said. "This was a study of multigenerational family members - parents and offspring, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings and so on, and we found that the genetic makeup of some of these individuals renders them more vulnerable to develop PTSD, anxiety and depression."

Dr. Goenjian also pointed out that it is hard to do family studies on PTSD because typically whole families do not experience a single stressful event together.

Labels: genetics, stress, trauma

A University of Michigan study found that males who are rule-breakers tend to be popular, and that their behavior has a genetic basis.

Professor Alexandra Burt collected DNA samples from over 200 male college students, and then had them interact for an hour. Afterward, participants filled out questionnaires about which participants they liked best.

The most popular in the study had a certain gene associated with rule-breaking behaviors.

"The gene predisposed them to rule breaking behaviors and that rule breaking behavior made them more popular," Dr. Burt said in her report published in the Journal of Personality and Social Development.

Labels: genetics, popular, risky_behaviors

High self-esteem in children may increase their aggression toward others when they feel ashamed, according to a new study from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and the University of Michigan.

Researchers tested 163 children 10 to 13 years old for self-esteem, and then had them play in a fake video game tournament. Some were randomly selected to be "shamed." The team told that group that they were playing against poor players and that their scores would appear on a website that everyone could see. The narcissistic children in the study who felt ashamed became aggressive.

"Narcissists seem highly motivated to create and maintain a grandiose sense of self," said co-author Brad Bushman, a psychologist at the University of Michigan. This finding opposes conventional wisdom that children with high self-esteem are better at handling criticism and insults.

This study appears in the journal Child Development.

Labels: agression, self-esteem, violence

A study from Princeton University found that 25% of today's teenagers believe you can justify violent behavior some of the time, and 20% say that they did so themselves at least once in the past year. Over 40% said someone had behaved violently toward them in the past year.

The top two reasons for justifying violent behavior were self-defense or to help a friend, although 34% said it was okay to use violence to get revenge.

Dr. David Miller, director of Princeton's Faith and Work Initiative, surveyed 750 people ages 12 to 17 years old, using pollsters from Opinion Research.

"Employers will have their hands full, if a quarter of teens grow up willing to resort to violence and other unethical behavior when it comes to decisions about how to settle differences, protect their interests or get ahead," he said. He noted that over 75% of those who justify violence say they are ethically prepared to enter the workforce.

Labels: aggression, violence

Teenagers who take risks in one area of their lives tend to take risks in others, according to a new study from the Mailmen School of Health.

Professor John Santelli analyzed data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of high school students taken between 1991 and 2007. He found that those who engage in high-risk behaviors such as texting while driving or using alcohol were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors such as having multiple partners and not using condoms.

However, he noted that high-risk behaviors are declining among teenagers, particularly in three areas: More teens are delaying sex, using condoms, and reducing their number of partners.

This study appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Labels: health, risky_behaviors

A Canadian study of over 70,000 middle and high school students found that gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people were significantly more likely to experience pregnancy. For example, in the year 1998, 7.2% of lesbian and 10.6% of bisexual girls got pregnant compared to only 1.8% of heterosexual girls. Among boys in the same year, 9.6% of gay and 11.6% of bisexual boys got a girlfriend pregnant, compared to 1.5% of heterosexual boys. The study also found that this group of teens experiences sex at a young age - under 14 years old.

Researchers from University of British Columbia studied health surveys from 1992, 1998, and 2003. They speculated that gay and bisexual teens are under pressure to hide their sexual preferences, and pregnancy acts as a camouflage.

This study appeared in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.

Labels: gay, pregnancy, sex

Over the past few years, West Virginia has experienced one of the highest increases in the rate of drug overdose deaths of any state. Between 1999 and 2004, West Virginia's rate of unintentional poisoning more than quintupled, increasing by an astounding 550 percent. A new study of these deaths has found that most of these fatalities were the result of non-medical/recreational use of prescription drugs. The most commonly identified type of drug in these cases was prescription pain killers.

Beginning in 1997, experts in pain management began encouraging wider use of opioid pain medications for the management of chronic pain problems. The experts also recommended that patients who were prescribed opioid pain medications be carefully evaluated and counseled. In the past 10 years, however, per capita sales of pain relievers in the United States have increased drastically. Notably, emergency room visits and deaths because of pain killer overdoses have also significantly increased.

The West Virginia study was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. (Source: sciencedaily.com)

Labels: overdose, pain-killers, prescription_drug_abuse