I hope that our class will provide you

I hope that our class will provide you with the ability to critically understand what is happening in the real world. To facilitate your ability to take what you learn in class and apply it to the real world, I have compiled a series of current newspaper articles. These newspaper articles pertain to topics that we discuss in class and are covered in the textbook. I hope that you can discover the relevancy of our class discussions through your reading of these newspaper articles. I will include questions from the newspaper articles on your exams to reward those who have attempted to broaden and deepen their education.

Tuesday February 9 6: 40 PM ET Sexual dysfunction a common problem NEW YORK, Feb 09 (Reuters Health) -- Four out of 10 women and 3 out of 10 men experience some form of sexual dysfunction, according to the results of a survey conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago, Illinois, and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, New Jersey. ``Sexual dysfunction is a largely uninvestigated yet significant public health problem, '' researchers write in the February 10 th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors examined data from the National Health and Social Life Survey (NHSLS), described as ``the first population-based assessment of sexual dysfunction'' since the release of the Kinsey report in the 1950 s. The survey consisted of face-to-face interviews with nearly 3, 200 US men and women between 18 to 59 years of age. The study findings include the following: -- 43% of women and 31% of men have experienced some form of sexual dysfunction, including a lack of interest in sex, problems with lubrication or erection, or pain during intercourse. -- young, single women, and older men, were most likely to report sexual dysfunction. The authors speculate that the instability of sexual relationships between single women and their partners, along with sexual inexperience, ``generates stressful sexual encounters, providing the basis for sexual pain and anxiety. '' The experts attribute much of the sexual dysfunction of older men to general age-associated physical decline. -- an earlier experience of traumatic sexual acts was highly associated with later dysfunction. For example, ``male victims of adult-child (sexual) contact are times as likely to experience erectile dysfunction'' than men without such histories, the researchers report. Women who had been sexually abused as children, raped, or sexually harassed experienced higher rates of dysfunction than women who had not. Past experiences of homosexual activity was linked to raised rates of dysfunction among men, but not among women. -- satisfaction with sexual function tended to rise with level of education. The authors theorize that ``better-educated individuals are healthier and have lifestyles that are physically and emotionally less stressful. '' -- reductions in income and social status (brought about, for example, by job loss) appear to trigger sexual dysfunction in both men and women. Again, the researchers attribute this functional decline to the ``higher levels of stress'' that accompany such events. The authors conclude that ``sexual dysfunction is an important public health concern, and emotional problems likely contribute to the experience of these problems. '' They urge further research be conducted into the physical and psychological causes of this ``widespread'' health concern. SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association 1999; 281: 537 -544. Yshoo Nes: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/hl/story. html? s=v/nm/19990209/hl/men 9_1. html

Teens look to surgery for self-image boost "We have to decide what is real, what is imagined and what is exaggerated, " said a plastic surgeon. THE NEW YORK TIMES NEW YORK - Standing in front of the full-length mirror, the girl fights back tears. Her thighs are too big, her breasts too small and her nose bumpy. Or so this 16 -year-old thinks, comparing herself with "Baywatch" babes and Victoria's Secret models. "If I can look better, why not? " the girl asked during a recent consultation with a plastic surgeon. Her parents are living proof, she argued, her mother rejuvenated by a face lift and her father's brow smoothed. The girl's 40 -something parents are part of a tide of affluent baby boomers who are being tucked, peeled and augmented as never before. But it is the teen-age girls flocking to plastic surgeons who pose an ethical problem for doctors who must decide whether to operate on patients who are too young to vote, but old enough to feel social pressures. Dr. Mark Sultan, chief of plastic surgery, at Beth Israel Medical Center, said the surgeon's task is to weed out youngsters with true deformities from those responding to media messages and peer or parental pressure. "We have to decide what is real, what is imagined and what is exaggerated, " he said. A generation ago, it was not unusual for youngsters to have their noses straightened or ears pinned back, procedures that doctors say are appropriate for those with ungainly features. But these days, procedures like breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tucks are gaining popularity in this age group. At least 14, 000 adolescents nationwide had- cosmetic surgery in 1996, a slight increase from 1992, when the boom began, according to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons. In all age groups, 700, 000 procedures were done last year, up 70 percent in four years. But professionals agree that those numbers are a vast understatement, perhaps by as much as half, because they do not include the many procedures now done by dermatologists, ophthalmologists, ear nose and throat specialists, dentists and others. Roanoke Times, November 29, 1998

Tuesday July 31 5: 44 PM ET Dating Violence Common Among U. S. Teens: Report By Amy Norton NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One fifth of teenage girls in the US may be physically or sexually abused by a boyfriend at some point, according to new study findings. In surveys conducted in Massachusetts high schools in 1997 and 1999, about 20% of girls said they had been physically or sexually abused by a date. Moreover, Boston researchers found, these girls also had increased rates of pregnancy, substance abuse, attempted suicide, unhealthy weight loss practices and risky sexual behavior. Whether the abuse precipitated these other problems is unclear, but the fact that there is a relationship--as well as the sheer prevalence of teen dating violence--warrant concern, the investigators point out in the August 1 st issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. In the study, researchers led by Dr. Jay G. Silverman of Harvard University analyzed data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which is conducted in a number of high schools in all US states every 2 years. In 1997, Massachusetts became the first state to include questions on dating violence. Silverman's team focused on responses from the female students the state surveyed--nearly 2, 000 students in 1997 and about 2, 200 in 1999. In both years, 18% to 20% of the girls reported ever being the victim of dating violence--either physical abuse, sexual assault or both. About one in 10 had been physically abused only, while around 4% said they had been sexually abused but not physically assaulted. ``The numbers are dramatic, '' Silverman said in an interview with Reuters Health. However, he added, they are not particularly surprising considering the fact that an estimated one quarter of US women have been the victim of intimate partner violence. But adding to the problem of teen dating violence, Silverman's team found, were the significant signs that the overall health and well-being of victimized girls was at stake. Compared with female students who reported no dating violence, they were anywhere from two to six times more likely to have ever been pregnant, depending on the survey year and the type of abuse suffered. Silverman noted that this is in line with evidence showing that girls who are abused by their boyfriends are less likely to insist on condom use and may be afraid to even broach the topic of birth control. He and his colleagues also found that girls who reported dating violence were more likely to have attempted suicide in the past year, with the risk being about eight times greater among those who reported both physical and sexual abuse. In addition, they were significantly more likely to put their health at risk by using pills or laxatives for weight control, abusing alcohol and drugs, or having multiple sex partners in a short time span.

Silverman said it is not possible to say that dating violence caused the girls to take on these health risks. But, he noted, the survey asked about the lifetime incidence of abuse, while largely focusing on recent health behaviors. So ''it's reasonable to assume a chronology'' whereby the abuse came first, according to Silverman. He and his colleagues call for more research into the nature of these relationships, as well as more study of who the perpetrators of dating violence are--which Silverman called ''critical to stopping the problem. '' ``When we talk about dating violence, '' he said, ``we're really talking about the behavior of young men. Where does the behavior come from? '' But these findings should also have a more immediate impact, the researchers note. Silverman said that prevention efforts should be stepped up-including routine screening for dating violence by pediatricians. As for parents, just making them aware of the scope of the problem is one step, Silverman explained. He noted that his research found no racial, ethnic or economic boundaries for dating violence. ``It's a concern in every community, '' he added. SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association 2001; 286: 572 -579.

Papers Show U. S. Role in Guatemalan Abuses In Declassified Documents, Diplomats Describe Massacres, CIA Ties to Army By Douglas Farah Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, March 11, 1999; Page A 26 During the 1960 s, the United States was intimately involved in equipping and training Guatemalan security forces that murdered thousands of civilians in the nation's civil war, according to newly declassified U. S. intelligence documents. The documents show, moreover, that the CIA retained close ties to the Guatemalan army in the 1980 s, when the army and its paramilitary allies were massacring Indian villagers, and that U. S. officials were aware of the killings at the time. The documents were obtained by the National Security Archive, a private nonprofit group in Washington. Some of the documents were made available to an independent commission formed to investigate human rights abuses during Guatemala's 36 year civil war, which killed an estimated 200, 000 people. The report by the Historical Clarification Commission, which grew out of the U. N. brokered peace agreement that ended the conflict in 1996, was released last month in Guatemala and blamed government forces for the overwhelming majority of human rights violations during the conflict. But some of the documents were not released until yesterday. One was a Jan. 4, 1966 memo from a U. S. State Department security official describing how he set up a "safe house" in the presidential palace for use by Guatemalan security agents and their U. S. contacts. The safe house became the headquarters for Guatemala's "dirty war" against leftist insurgents and suspected allies. "I have never seen anything like it, " said Kate Doyle, Guatemala project director at the archives, expressing amazement at "the description of our intimacy with the Guatemalan security forces. " Three months after the cable about the safe house, on March 6, 1966, security forces arrested 32 people suspected of aiding Marxist guerrillas; those arrested subsequently disappeared. While the Guatemalan government denied any involvement in the case, a CIA cable sent later that year identifies three of those missing, saying, "The following Guatemalan Communists and terrorists were executed secretly by Guatemalan authorities on the night of March 6. " The CIA has a long history of involvement in Guatemala, having helped to orchestrate the army's overthrow of a democratically elected government in 1954. Nevertheless, largely because of human rights concerns, the United States never provided Guatemalan security forces with the same level of support it gave anti-communist forces in neighboring Nicaragua and El Salvador during fighting in the 1980 s.

In 1977 the Guatemalan government rejected $2. 1 million in U. S. military aid because it was conditioned on improved performance on human rights. But in the early 1980 s, under the Reagan administration, the relationship warmed up again despite occasional clashes over the military's brutal tactics. As the Cold War raged in the 1960 s and '70 s, the United States gave the Guatemalan military $33 million in aid even though U. S. officials were aware of the army's dismal track record on human rights, the documents show. On Oct. 23, 1967, for example, a secret State Department cable reported that covert Guatemalan security operations included "kidnapping, torture and summary executions. " The cable said that "in the past year. . . approximately 500 -600 persons have been killed; with the addition of the 'missing' persons this figure might double to 1, 000 -2, 000. " It also described the government's Special Commando Unit, which used civilians as well as military personnel and carried out "abductions, bombings, street assassinations and executions of real or alleged communists. " A 1992 CIA cable confirmed that indigenous villages were targeted for destruction because of the army's belief that the Indians supported the guerrillas. In describing one episode, which occurred shortly before it was written, the cable reported that "several villages have been burned to the ground. " It continued, "The well-documented belief by the army that the entire Ixil Indian population is [pro-guerrilla] has created a situation in which the army can be expected to give no quarter to combatants and noncombatants alike. " An April 1994 Defense Intelligence Agency report outlined how, in the 1980 s, as U. S. aid grew, Guatemalan military intelligence agents dumped suspected guerrillas -- dead and alive -- out of airplanes into the ocean. "In this way they have been able to remove the majority of the evidence showing that the prisoners were tortured and killed, " the memo said. But as grim a picture as the documents portray, said Doyle, the project director, the Clinton administration was to be commended for making them public. "The commission asked for documents from Argentina, Israel and Taiwan, " Doyle said. "Only the United States responded. © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Monday January 25 7: 07 PM ET US teen pregnancy rate leads developed world NEW YORK, Jan 25 (Reuters Health) -- Although there has been a slight decline in teen pregnancy rates over the past decade, according to a report, the United States still leads industrialized nations in the number of unintended pregnancies among women under 20 years. ``While recent declines in the pregnancy and birth rates are encouraging, it would be a mistake to think that the US no longer needs to be concerned about teen pregnancy, '' said Douglas W. Nelson, president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the futures of disadvantaged children. In their report, ``When Teens Have Sex: Issues and Trends, '' the Foundation brings together data from dozens of US studies focused on teen lifestyles and sexual behavior. Among their findings: -- 4 out of every 10 American females will become pregnant before the age of 20. The report concludes that ``most of these pregnancies are unintended. '' -- the US teen pregnancy rate remains the highest in the industrialized world. The rate of the number two-ranked nation, Great Britain, is just half that of the US. -- close to 80% of teen mothers will require welfare assistance. -- since 1990, US teen pregnancy rates have declined by 14%, and teen birth rates have fallen by 5%, ``from about 519, 000 to less than half a million, '' according to the report. -- rates of teen sexual activity are on the decline as well. In 1990, 54% of high school students admitted being sexually active. By 1997, this rate had fallen to 48%. However, the Foundation experts stress that even though rates of sexual activity and teen pregnancy are declining, the actual of number of unintended teen births is expected to rise in the near future.

``As the children of the 'baby boomlet' swell the ranks of American teenagers over the next few years, the absolute number of babies born to teenagers is likely to increase even if the birth rate remains constant, '' explained William O'Hare, program coordinator of the Foundation's Kids Count research effort. Any increase in the number of teen births will exact a heavy toll on US taxpayers. The report authors estimate that ``each family that begins with a birth to a teenager is expected to cost the public an average of $17, 000 a year in some form of support over the next 20 years. '' All of this means that, despite declines in teen pregnancy rates, Americans cannot afford to become complacent about the issue. The report is ``nothing less than a wake-up call, '' Nelson said, ``giving us an opportunity to reinforce a hopeful trend in reducing the incidence of children having children. '' One of the Foundation's initiatives -- ``Plain Talk'' -- has proven helpful in reducing teen birth rates in communities where it has been used, the report authors say. Plain Talk encourages communication between parents and children, they say, and provides young people with information about sex, pregnancy, and risks of sexually transmitted disease. Yahoo News: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/hl/story. html? s=v/nm/19990125/hl/us 11_1. html

Women take on more responsibilities Survey: Female college students feel more stressed than boys do Male students spent more time doing fun things-exercising, partying, watching TV and playing video games. LOS ANGELES TIMES Women have closed the gender gap in college enrollment, but another gap has widened: College women are working harder and feeling more stress while their male counterparts are having a good time. In a nationwide survey of college freshmen to be released today, women are five times as likely to be anxious as men, reporting they frequently felt "overwhelmed by all I have to do. " These young women are smoking more than men. More of them say they frequently felt depressed in the last year, more are worried about paying for college and feel insecure about their physical and emotional health. Gender differences in lifestyle seem to contribute to the growing stress gap. During the last year, male students spent considerably more time exercising, partying, watching TV and playing video games, while female students were juggling more household and child-care chores, studying more and doing more volunteer work. "Men are spending more time doing things that inherently can be more fun, " said A. Sax, director of the 33 rd annual survey, conducted by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute. "Meanwhile, these young women are taking on more and more responsibilities and feel stressed by all they have to do. " Survey founder Alexander Astin calls the stress gap, which began widening in the mid-1980 s, "one of the ironies of the women's movement. ”

In a related study, also conducted at Cornell, women in full-time dual-earner marriages were most likely to claim they worked too many hours. That study included 4, 554 married couples who were surveyed in 1987 -1988 and again in 1993 -1994 for the National Study of Families and Households. About 14% of the surveyed couples preferred that both spouses work full-time, but twice this percentage actually worked full-time, noted Marin Clarkberg, an assistant professor of sociology at Cornell. In addition, 25% of those surveyed fit the traditional breadwinner/full-time housewife family model but only 10% prefer this model. This suggests that some spouses end up not working at all because they can't find a job with the hours that fit their needs. ``The basic assumption that serious employees want to work 40 hours a week needs to be rethought, '' Clarkberg told Reuters Health. More parttime job opportunities -- particularly for professional workers -- are needed, she said. ``The American society must recognize that the breadwinner/homemaker family model is a declining percentage of the workforce, '' Moen told Reuters Health. ``I believe the large baby-boomer cohort will encourage a change in work options. . . that will promote harmony rather than conflict in work/family relations. '' Yahoo news: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/hl/story. html? s=v/nm/19990122/hl/work 10_1. html

Friday February 5 6: 18 PM ET Social forces play large role in health NEW YORK, Feb 05 (Reuters Health) -- Although gene discoveries and new infections receive more attention, social forces ``remain the most important determinants of health, '' according to a report published this week in The Lancet. The authors note that healthcare depends on many factors, including ``the attitudes of society itself. '' Now that many physical ailments are treatable or preventable, the research team believes that ``an assault must be made on factors that affect the human psyche -- those that make people feel undervalued and excluded. '' Previous research suggests that psychological factors such as feelings of isolation, exclusion or helplessness ``lie behind much ill-health, '' write Jiri Chard and colleagues, of the Universities of Bristol, Birmingham and York in the United Kingdom. ``Physicians, nurses, and others do not treat patients one at a time on the basis of textbook, evidence-based algorithms. In all their dealings with individual patients, the media, and government, they carry with them a set of social assumptions, '' according to the team's report. For example, visiting hours were once restricted in pediatric wards until it was found that, unlike adults, children do not socialize with other patients. ``This finding led to unrestricted visiting hours for parents, '' write the health researchers. Currently, many changes in healthcare being driven by increasingly knowledgeable patients. Awareness of this trend is important, the authors suggest, for ``it is far easier to deal with the ever-changing healthcare systems and public expectations if the sociology behind them is understood. '' SOURCE: The Lancet 1999; 353: 486 -489. Yahoo News: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/hl/story. html? s=v/nm/19990205/hl/soc 11_1. html

Sunday February 7 4: 14 AM ET Unification Church Weds Thousands In South Korea SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - About 40, 000 couples -- some of whom had only just met -- braved South Korea's winter chill to exchange wedding vows Sunday in what the Unification Church billed as the largest wedding ever. A church spokesman said the ceremony at South Korea's Olympic Stadium wedded 12, 000 couples while 28, 000 married couples renewed their vows. Millions more watched or renewed their vows via satellite and through Internet link-ups, the spokesman said. ``I am so happy, '' said Hong Myong-bae of South Korea, on the arm of the smiling Japanese wife to whom he had just been introduced. ``This is like a dream come true. A wedding with millions of people watching, '' he said. Korea-born evangelist Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife blessed the identically dressed couples at the stadium as well as viewers from around the world, which the church said numbered 360 million couples in 193 countries. Moon, wearing a white and gold crown and draped in a flowing gold-edged white gown, presided over the ceremony from a podium, accompanied by his similarly attired wife. ``Do you, as mature men and women who are to consummate the ideal of the creation of God, pledge to become an eternal husband wife? '' Moon asked, after sprinkling holy water on couples closest to the podium. The crowd answered ``yes'' to all his questions, pledging to never divorce nor use violence against family members. They then exchanged wedding rings. A 37 -year-old Japanese woman stood holding a picture of her absent husband, who could not get off work. Newlyweds Tibor Tanko of the Czech Republic and Morenz Alino of Poland said they were overcome with excitement. ``We met just one week ago, '' said Tanko. ``But we feel like we are in heaven. '' The church often brings together members who have never met, playing match-maker based on photos and personal information. Moon, a South Korean, founded the Unification Church in Seoul in 1954 with a theology loosely based on Christianity. His followers, often referred to disparagingly as ''Moonies, '' say the church's goal is to build a kingdom of heaven on earth and inspire people to follow the ideology of self-sacrifice. The church performed its first mass wedding in 1961 with 33 couples involved. Yahoo News: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/ts/story. html? s=v/nm/19990207/ts/wedding_1. html

Monday March 1 5: 24 PM ET Skinny models impact girls' body image NEW YORK, Mar 01 (Reuters Health) -- The models in fashion magazines have an impact on adolescents and teenagers, influencing how they feel about their body shape and their desire to lose weight, according to a study conducted by Harvard researchers. Girls who often read such magazines are two to three times more likely than their peers to say that magazine articles have prompted them to try to lose weight by dieting and exercising, the investigators report. Overall, 69% of the 548 girls in grades 5 to 12 who were surveyed said that models in magazines influenced their idea of the perfect body shape, and 47% said they wanted to lose weight because of such pictures, according to Dr. Alison Field, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues ``The effect of the media was so strong, that even among girls who only infrequently read fashion magazines, almost 60% felt that the media influenced their idea of the perfect body shape, '' Field and colleagues report in this month's Pediatrics. ``Given the substantial health risk associated with overweight and the fact that during the past two decades the prevalence of overweight has increased sharply among children and adolescents, it is not prudent to suggest that overweight girls should accept their body shape and not be encouraged to lose weight, '' the authors conclude. ``However, aspiring to look like underweight models may have deleterious psychological consequences. '' If such magazines refrain from showing severely underweight models and feature more articles that promote exercise, they may provide young girls with important positive health messages, according to the researchers. However, more study is needed to determine if articles that warn about bulimia, severe dieting, and having a very low body weight can help prevent girls from developing eating disorders. The study is published in the electronic version of the journal Pediatrics at www. pediatrics. org. SOURCE: Pediatrics electronic pages 1999; 103: e 36. Yahoo news: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/hl/story. html? s=v/nm/19990301/hl/mag 14_1. html

Wednesday March 17 6: 17 PM ET Language influences human perception NEW YORK, Mar 17 (Reuters Health) -- Researchers have long wondered if language evolves to fit the world as humans perceive it, or does it actually influence the way in which humans perceive the world. This week in the journal Nature, researchers report that study of two stone-age tribes suggests that language may in fact influence perception. The theory that we construct our understanding of the world through language -- called the linguistic relativity hypothesis -``is still influential, '' write the team, led by Jules Davidoff of Goldsmiths' College, University of London, UK. They note that a previous researcher suggested that Eskimos have many words for snow, reflecting their experiences with different types of the white stuff. The investigators write that the Dani of Irian Jaya are a Melanesian people who have only two terms for describing color. Yet the Dani memory for color seems to be much like that of modern English speakers. But the Berinmo tribe, hunter-gatherers in a remote area of Papua New Guinea, offer an opposing view. These tribal people have five basic color terms, but do not distinguish between blue and green. Instead, they have a distinction for shades of yellow, called nol and wor, which English speakers do not. In their study, Davidoff and colleagues found that the Berinmo were better able to categorize colors around their nol-wor boundary than the blue-green boundary. But they were able to learn to divide colors into blue or green, just as Englishspeaking individuals were able to learn the distinction between nol and wor. Both groups learned to distinguish between two greens that are not categorized in either language. ``These results indicate that categorical perception occurs, but only for speakers of the language that marks the categorical distinction, which is consistent with the linguistic relativity hypothesis, '' the researchers write. In other words, the study shows that words do appear to influence how humans perceive their world. SOURCE: Nature 1999; 398: 203 -204. Yahoo news: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/hl/story. html? s=v/nm/19990317/hl/mem 12_1. html

Girls underestimate school performance NEW YORK (Reuters Health)--Adolescent girls tend to have a poorer view of their academic abilities compared with boys, researchers conclude. "Compared to teachers' ratings, boys overestimated and girls underestimated their academic competence, " write Dr. David A. Cole and colleagues at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana. Their findings are published in the March/April issue of the journal Child Development. The researchers asked over 800 third- and sixth-grade students to fill out a series of questionnaires over a 3 -year period. The questionnaires sought to determine each student's level of depression and/or anxiety, as well as their view of their own academic abilities. Those views were compared with teacher assessments of each child's competence level. According to the study authors, nearly all third- and fourth-grade students tended to overestimate their individual academic ability, regardless of gender. However, the investigators report that "gender differences in self-perceived academic competence. . . (began) to emerge in fifth or sixth grade. " At this point in their development, girls began to feel less confident about their ability to successfully complete academic tasks, while boys tended to overestimate their scholastic talents. Previous reports have suggested that when boys do express doubt regarding their skills in a specific area, they tend to blame this deficiency on either a lack of effort, bad luck, or the extreme difficulty of the subject at hand. Girls, on the other hand, are "more likely. . . to cite low ability as the cause of their presumed failures, " the Indiana authors note. The researchers believe that much of this gender-based variance might be attributed to higher rates of anxiety and depression among adolescent girls compared with boys. The investigators point out that "boys and girls with similar levels of depression and anxiety did not differ in their tendencies to underestimate their academic competence. "

Previous studies have also found that teacher-student interaction tends to vary depending on student gender. Teachers' feedback with girls tends "to attribute their failures to low ability, " the researchers point out. They speculate that these types of exchanges "may make girls more vulnerable to helplessness, if not depression. " Boys, on the other hand, "received (teacher) feedback that encouraged them to attribute failure to (lack of) effort, luck, or task difficulty, " according to the authors. If depressive feelings are an underlying cause of girls' low self-confidence, the Indiana authors believe that "the next step will be to investigate children's interpretation of actual (teacher) feedback" to see if this type of interaction encourages depression and anxiety. Source: Child Development 1999; 70: 459 -473. http: //www. healthcentral. com/newsfulltext. cfm? ID=11109

Friday April 9 6: 23 PM ET Early risky behaviors predict teen problems NEW YORK, Apr 09 (Reuters Health) -- Sixth-grade students who use alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems in tenth grade than their peers, according to a survey released by the University of Washington in Seattle. ``One of the most important findings is how early these problems start, '' said Richard Brandon, director of the Human Services Policy Center at the University of Washington, in an interview with Reuters Health. In the 1998 Washington State Survey of Adolescent Health Behaviors, 2 out of every 5 sixth-grade students (aged 11 to 12) had tried alcohol, 1 in 4 had tried cigarettes, and 1 in 14 had tried marijuana. One in 7 had been suspended from school, and 1 in 8 had attacked someone. Of tenth graders surveyed, 4 out of 5 have tried alcohol, while 2 out of 5 drink regularly. One in 4 had been suspended from school, and one-quarter had attacked someone. Within the 30 days preceding the survey, 3 out of 5 tenth graders reported smoking and 1 out of 4 used marijuana. Figures were even higher for the subgroup of tenth graders who reported engaging in risk behaviors before age 12. Of these, 67% had used alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey and more than 50% reported being drunk at school within the past 12 months. ``Early substance use is a major predictor of the trouble these kids will have in the 10 th grade, '' Brandon said. ``Eighty percent of the adolescents between 12 and 17 years old who are regular users of alcohol and drugs have at least one parent who is abusing alcohol or drugs, '' Brandon told Reuters Health. ``The troubled kids said their parents were not involved in their lives and they had no other adult available to reach out to. '' When asked how Washington compares with other states, Brandon said, ``We are very close to the Centers for Disease Control national average of adolescent substance abuse. '' ``Early intervention and prevention are the keys to effecting change, '' Brandon noted, and stressed that such efforts need to begin prior to sixth grade and continue through high school. Yahoo News: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/headlines/hl/story. html? s=v/nm/19990409/hl/kids 15_1. html

Thursday September 2 12: 54 PM ET Poor relationship with father tied to teen drug use NEW YORK, Sep 02 (Reuters Health) -- Teens who do not have good relationships with their fathers are more likely to drink, smoke, and use drugs, according to a survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) in New York. ``This is a wakeup call for every dad in America, '' said CASA President Joseph A. Califano, former US secretary of health, education and welfare, about the implications of the survey's results. In the study, 2, 000 teenagers -- 1, 000 males and 1, 000 females, ages 12 -17 -- and 1, 000 parents -- 464 fathers, 536 mothers -were surveyed to determine the affect of different family structures on teen drug, alcohol and tobacco use. According to the survey, a child in a two-parent household who has a ``fair or poor'' relationship with their father has a 68% greater risk of engaging in substance abuse compared to all teens living in similar households. The study also showed that teens living with their single mothers have a 30% higher risk of substance abuse compared to all teens living in a two-parent household. Just over 70% of teens in the CASA survey said they had an excellent or very good relationship with their mothers, but only 58% gave the same rating to their relationship with their fathers. And more than twice as many teens said that it was easier to talk with their mothers about drugs than with their dads, 57% versus 26%. But the survey also shows that parents can positively influence their child's decisions regarding drug use -- 42% of teens who had never used marijuana credited their parents with their decision. ``Parent power is key to keeping our kids drug free, '' said Califano in a statement. ``Parents have enormous power over a child's well-being but too many fail to appreciate and use this power, '' he added. About 60% of teens are at moderate or high risk of substance abuse, with risk factors including having friends who use illicit drugs or drink regularly, having easy access to drugs such as marijuana, or having an expectation that they will use illegal drugs in the future. Yahoo News: http: //dailynews. yahoo. com/h/nm/19990902/hl/_dad 1_1. html

Thursday March 22 5: 39 PM ET Many High School Students Suffer Eating Disorders By Keith Mulvihill NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nearly one third of high school girls and 16% of high school boys show symptoms of an eating disorder, researchers announced on Thursday. The survey is the first national screening of high school students for eating disorders. Dr. S. Bryn Austin of Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, presented her research team's findings at the annual meeting of The Society for Adolescent Medicine, held in San Diego, California. ``While full-blown eating disorders are more rare, very unhealthful eating behaviors are much more common, '' Austin told Reuters Health in a telephone interview from the meeting. ``It is very important to get young people to seek help from a healthcare professional or a counselor, and that's what we hope to accomplish with the survey. Based on their results, students are encouraged to seek treatment, '' she said. The team of researchers evaluated 5, 740 surveys out of 35, 000 received from students from 152 high schools around the United States. The eating disorder screening surveys were designed to assess the eating habits and weight concerns of the students--asking them specific questions about binge-eating, vomiting, exercising and smoking, for example. Austin and colleagues found that 12% of the girls and 4% of the boys surveyed said that they vomited to control their weight, and 7% of the girls and 6% of the boys reported binge-eating once per week or more often, Austin told Reuters Health. ``Binge-eating or excessive overeating is more than what people experience at a Thanksgiving Day meal, '' Austin explained. ``These people report that sometimes eating is a compulsion for them that they can't stop. It is often in response to negative emotional triggers about themselves, their body weight or shape. '' The girls also responded to specific questions about their menstrual cycles. ``Girls with eating disorders are likely to experience irregular menstrual cycles or miss their periods completely, '' Austin told Reuters Health. Of the young women who participated in the survey, those who reported vomiting as a means to control their weight were much more likely to have irregular menstrual cycles. ``The results (of the survey) indicate that a sizable minority of high school students have significant eating-disorder symptoms and have not received treatment, '' the researchers conclude.