May 5, 2014

The Roundup contains information about all of the latest news, commentary, reports, surveys, issue briefs, charts, and fact sheets related to boys' issues collected by our staff during the preceding week.

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News Clips

  • Boys in Chairs: Navigating Our Sex, Sexuality and Sex Appeal in Attendant Care Programs
    Before delving into it too far, I feel it's important to unpack what I mean when I say "attendant care." I live in what is known as supportive housing -- that is, I live in rent-subsidized housing wherein care is provided in part by the state/province and charitable organizations. This means that I have personal support workers come in to assist me with my activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, toileting, etc.). These individuals are not nurses, nor can they do anything medical. That said, they have seen me in all states of undress (let that visual sink in) and have helped me with my more intimate care needs (showering, etc.). In many of these programs, sex and sexuality are not talked about in any capacity. 
    Huffington Post
    May 3, 2014

  • Girls have been better students than boys for decades
    Girls have earned better school grades than boys for nearly a century, according to a new study. And that includes math and science, even though it's long been believed that boys do better in those subjects, said the researchers at the University of New Brunswick, in Canada.
    WNCT
    May 2, 2014

  • Do schools really have a 'boy problem'?
    Yes, education has a gender issue, but "fidgety" boys aren't the cause
    According to a new paper from the Third Way, a Washington-based research group, there is a correlation between college graduation rates and the behavior gap between young boys and girls. The paper's authors, Thomas DiPrete and Claudia Buchmann, argue that the gender gap in behavioral skills "is considerably larger than the gap between children from poor families and middle class families or the gap between black and white children."
    The Week
    May 2, 2014

  • Teachers' Tactics and Test Performance
    Motivation and test performance among high school students may suffer when teachers place their focus on the consequences of failure, as opposed to the benefits of success new research suggests.
    Medline Plus
    May 2, 2014

  • Overweight Teens Feel Stigmatized, Bullied: Study
    British survey finds some young people link excess weight to laziness and lack of self-control
    "The perspectives of young people in the U.K., when synthesized across the spectrum of body sizes, paint a picture of a stigmatizing and abusive social world," researchers from the Institute of Education at the University of London wrote.
    Medline Plus
    May 1, 2014

  • It All Comes Back to the Reading Gap
    When President Obama announced an initiative focused on young men of color, he shared a statistic that took my breath away: 86 percent of African American boys can't read proficiently in fourth grade, compared to 58 percent of white peers.
    Huffington Post
    May 1, 2014

  • News Coverage of Teen Suicides May Have Ripple Effect
    Study finds possible link between prominent stories and copy-cat deaths
    Looking at several dozen teen suicide "clusters" that struck various U.S. communities, researchers found evidence that local newspaper coverage might have contributed in some cases.
    Medline Plus
    May 1, 2014

  • The Masculine Mystique
    Bullying may be why gay and bisexual boys are using steroids at five times the rate of straight-identified boys. A recent study published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has raised alarms about the way some gay teens are responding to bullying.
    Researchers analyzed government surveys from 2005 to 2007 of boys whose age averaged 16, 4% of whom self-identified as gay or bisexual. While only 4% of the survey's straight respondents said they used steroids, 21% of the gay ones did.
    The Advocate
    April 29, 2014

  • A Link Between Fidgety Boys and a Sputtering Economy
    All of which makes the comparisons between boys and girls in the same categories fairly striking: The gap in behavioral skills between young girls and boys is even bigger than the gap between rich and poor.
    New York Times
    April 30, 2014

  • Body image isn't just a 'girl thing': Boys suffer too
    Obsessing about weight, worrying about physical flaws, or just aspiring to take a perfect selfie isn't just a "girl thing." Negativity about our body image has no gender boundaries and, increasingly, research shows it's an issue for boys, too.
    Today
    April 30, 2014

  • Girls Make Better Grades Than Boys, But Boys Score Higher On Standardized Achievement Tests
    One of the most disturbing topics in education today is the seeming disparity between grades in math and science for boys and girls. A new study from the University of New Brunswick, however, reveals that girls have made higher grades than boys throughout their school careers for nearly a century, despite stereotypes.
    Red Orbit

April 30, 2014

International News

CANADA

  • Professional Help: Understanding the teenage mind
    Adolescents do know about danger, but because of altering dopamine levels and hyper-rational thinking, the danger is perceived as not that important. So, with substance abuse, they just don't care. Siegel says, "They just consider the risk so unimportant, that it doesn't weigh on them at all."
    Vancouver Sun
    April 28, 2014

FINLAND

  • Accidents, suicide among most common causes of children's deaths in Finland
    Accidents such as drowning and road incidents were the leading cause of non-natural deaths among minors, according to Finland's Safety Investigation Authority. The accident investigators said suicides were the second most common cause of non-natural death and were committed mostly by boys.
    Alaska Dispatch
    April 29, 2014

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