Week of August 12, 2013

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.

News Clips

  • Youth Concussion FAQ; How widespread are concussions among youth athletes?
    An estimated 400,000 high school athletes sustained concussions while participating in five major male sports and four major female sports during the 2005-2008 school years.iIn addition, experts believe that the prevalence of sports-related concussions among young people in all sports is significantly higher than reported.
    NFL.com
    August 9, 2013

  • Study finds that some depressed adolescents are at higher risk for developing anxiety
    Some adolescents who suffer with symptoms of depression also may be at risk for developing anxiety, according to a new study of children's mental health.  
    The study found that among youth who have symptoms of depression, the risk is most severe for those who have one or more of three risk factors, said psychologist Chrystyna D. Kouros, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who led the study.  Specifically, those who are most vulnerable are those who have a pessimistic outlook toward events and circumstances in their lives; those who have mothers with a history of an anxiety disorder; or those who report that the quality of their family relationships is poor, Kouros said.
    Medical Express
    August 9, 2013

  • Early Discipline Tied to Less Use of Drugs, Alcohol in Teens
    A program to help correct disruptive behavior at ages 7 to 9 seemed to make a difference through age 17.
    Correcting disruptive behavior in young children could help prevent them from using alcohol and drugs when they're teens, researchers report.  Their study included 172 boys with disruptive behavior in kindergarten who were divided into three groups. All of the boys came from low-income families in Montreal. One group of 46 boys took part in a two-year intervention program when they were ages 7 to 9. The program included training to help the boys learn self-control and reduce impulsive and antisocial behavior. Their parents were taught to recognize problem behaviors in their sons, set clear goals and reinforce appropriate behaviors. All of the boys in the study were followed until age 17 in order to assess their use of alcohol and drugs. The boys in the two-year program had lower levels of drug and alcohol use from their early teens until they completed high school than the boys in the other two groups, according to the study in the Aug. 8 online edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
    Healthfinder.gov
    August 8, 2013

  • Most youth who use smokeless tobacco are smokers, too
    Most young people in the U.S. who use newer smokeless tobacco products are smoking cigarettes too, according to new research. "These findings are troubling, but not surprising, as tobacco companies spend huge sums to market smokeless tobacco in ways that entice kids to start and encourage dual use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco," Vince Willmore, vice president of communications at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, told Reuters Health in an email.
    Medline Plus
    August 8, 2013

  • Targeting Disruptive Behavior in Early Childhood Can Reduce Teen Substance Abuse
    Canadian researchers believe early intervention for behavioral problems can reduce or prevent substance use in adolescence. The new study found that delivering a comprehensive two-year intervention program to disruptive kindergarten children from low socioeconomic backgrounds resulted in significant reduction in substance abuse throughout adolescence.
    Psych Central
    August 8, 2013

  • Concussed Athletes May Not Be Good at Self-Reporting Recovery
    Testing young athletes' memory and thinking skills after they've suffered a concussion is a more accurate way of assessing whether they have recovered, rather than relying on them to report symptoms, a new study suggests.
    HealthFInder.gov
    August 8, 2013

  • Youth sports injuries highlighted in new report
    Concussions, sprained ankles and torn knee ligaments are hazards of playing sports. And, they're also partly responsible for the 1.35 million children and teens who were admitted to emergency rooms for sports-related injuries in 2012, according to a new report. "Ankles are at the top of the list in terms of body parts that take kids into the emergency room," says Kate Carr, president and CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide, the organization that commissioned the report.
    WTOP.com
    August 6, 2013

  • The Computer Game That Helps Therapists Chat to Adolescents With Mental Health Problems
    Adolescents with mental health problems are particularly hard for therapists to engage. But a new computer game is providing a healthy conduit for effective communication between them
    Today, David Coyle at the University of Bristol and Gavin Doherty at Trinity College Dublin outline the work they’ve done on a computer game called gNats Island which is specifically designed to facilitate communication between therapists and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 15.
    MIT Technology Review
    August 6, 2013

  • Adolescents Are What They Don’t Eat, Too
    Diets lacking omega-3 fatty acids—found in foods like wild fish, eggs, and grass-fed livestock—can have worsened effects over consecutive generations, especially affecting teens, according to a University of Pittsburgh study.
    Pro Health
    August 5, 2013

  • Firearm Homicides and Suicides in Major Metropolitan Areas — United States, 2006–2007 and 2009–2010
    Firearm homicides and suicides are a continuing public health concern in the United States. During 2009–2010, a total of 22,571 firearm homicides and 38,126 firearm suicides occurred among U.S. residents. This includes 3,397 firearm homicides and 1,548 firearm suicides among persons aged 10–19 years; the firearm homicide rate for this age group was slightly above the all-ages rate. 
    Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, CDC
    August 2, 2013

  • Evaluating Obesity Prevention Efforts: A Plan for Measuring Progress
    Obesity poses one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century, creating serious health, economic, and social consequences. Despite acceleration in efforts to characterize, comprehend, and act on this problem, further understanding is needed on the progress and effectiveness of implemented preventive interventions. An IOM committee developed a concise and actionable plan for measuring the nation’s progress in obesity prevention efforts – specifically, the success of policy and environmental strategies recommended in the 2012 IOM report Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. 
    Institute of Medicine
    August 2, 2013

  • More Follow-Up Needed for Kids With High Blood Pressure Reading
    Children who have a high blood pressure reading at the doctor's office typically don't receive the recommended follow-up blood pressure readings within a month, a large new study finds. This held true even for children with risk factors for having hypertension. However, the study also found that when follow-up blood pressure readings were taken, most children's results had returned to normal.
    Medline Plus
    August 2, 2013

  • What Outbreak? Students Tune Out Tweeted Health Warnings
    You can lead college students to soap and water, but you can't make them wash their hands. In fact, you can't even make them read their e-mail. That was one takeaway from an outbreak of pneumonia at Georgia Tech last fall that sickened at least 83 students – "the largest [outbreak] reported at a university in 35 years," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Located in Atlanta – the CDC's backyard – Georgia Tech went to great lengths throughout November 2012 to shout word of the public health risk to students via social media, e-mail blasts and paper posters. The campaign urged students to wash their hands, cough into their elbows, stay home when sick and to check with a doctor if they had a cough or fever. But by early December, when the CDC surveyed 105 students who hadn't been sick to see how well the message had gotten through, most (54 percent) said they were unaware of the outbreak.
    NPR
    August 1, 2013

  • Put “HPV Cancer Prevention” on Your Back-to-School Checklist.
    HPV vaccine can prevent certain cancers and other diseases caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). Get your girls and your boys vaccinated at 11 or 12, or as soon as possible if they're already 13 or older.
    CDC
    July 30.2013

  • Children’s Mental Health – New Report
    On May 16, a new CDC report was released that describes, for the first time, federal activities that track U.S. children’s mental disorders. Find out about children’s mental health and what we have learned.
    CDC,
    July 30, 2013

  • How Many Extra Calories Add Up to Obesity for Kids?
    Study finds overweight children consume more excess calories daily than previously thought
    Overweight kids may be consuming far more calories than their doctors or parents realize, a new study suggests. The study, which is published in the July 30 online issue of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, updates the mathematical model doctors use to calculate the daily calorie needs of children and adolescents.
    US News,
    July 30, 2013

  • College Football Players May Be At Risk of High Blood Pressure
    College football players, particularly burly linemen, may develop high blood pressure in just one season of play, new research suggests.The study of 113 freshmen on Harvard's football team found that while none had high blood pressure at season's start, 14 percent did by season's end. All of the affected players were linemen.
    Medline Plus
    July 29, 2013

  • Why Men Commit Suicide: The Three Warning Signs Most People Miss
    Although women, too, can take their own lives when they suffer at the intersection of  “feeling alone, feeling a burden, and not being afraid to die,” this is clearly a more male phenomenon.  Throughout our lives males take more risks and invite injury more often.  We are taught that “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” and “no pain, no gain.”
    The Good Men Project
    July 13, 2013

Opinion

  • Michael Kimmel: Don't segregate boys and girls in classrooms
    Today, single-sex schools may provide some benefits, though these tend to be benefits that accompany the economic privilege of the families that can afford them. (That is, single sex private schools tend to also be schools for the elite.) But single-sex classes, in otherwise coeducational public schools, are entirely misguided.
    CNN
    August 9, 2013

Journal Articles

International News

AUSTRALIA

  • Boys want to look fit to be happy
    Boys as young as eight have decided they want to look fit and sporty - and think they will be happier if they do - a new body image study has found. Researchers from Victoria's Deakin University interviewed 70 children aged eight to ten to identify what body shapes boys considered ideal, and compare those with the body ideals of prepubescent girls. They found that by the age of eight children already had definite body ideals, which are influenced by their peers, the media and gender stereotypes.
    Sydney Morning Herald
    August 11, 2013

CANADA

  • Tackling HPV: Protection must include vaccinating boys, experts say
    Fewer than two-thirds of school-aged girls in Windsor-Essex are vaccinated against the human papilloma virus. The boys? Who knows.  Adolescent boys aren’t eligible for the free immunization in grade school currently offered to their female peers. But new research points to the need to vaccinate boys and men — not just girls and women — to create sufficient herd immunity.  Experts agree that until it becomes affordable, or free for males, the push for HPV vaccination will fall short of its goal to prevent serious and even deadly cancers in both women and men.
    The Windsor Star
    August 10, 2013

NIGERIA

  • Nigeria: Future Bleak for Nigerian Boys, Says Mother Group
    Nigeria is neglecting its boys and creating a situation that could become a crisis when boys are unable to head families or contribute to the country for lack of education, the National Council of Catholic Women Organisation has said.
    All Africa.com
    August 2, 2013

UAE

  • Why are UAE boys dropping out of school?
    Even as the UAE puts impressive and effective measures in place in education to take its knowledge-based economy to higher levels, there is an occurrence that seems to be slowing down the pace — UAE males at the senior secondary level choosing to drop out from school.
    GulfNews.com
    August 11, 2013

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