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

• Michael Douglas: HPV caused my throat cancer
  In an interview with the Guardian published on Sunday, Michael Douglas said that his throat cancer was apparently caused by a strain of human papillomavirus (HPV) he contracted through oral sex. The actor was diagnosed with stage four cancer throat cancer in 2010 and subsequently underwent an eight-week course of chemotherapy and radiation treatments; he revealed that his cancer was HPV-related after fielding a question about his history of tobacco and alcohol use:

  Asked whether he now regretted his years of smoking and drinking, thought to be the cause of the disease, Douglas replied: “No. Because without wanting to get too specific, this particular cancer is caused by HPV [human papillomavirus], which actually comes about from cunnilingus.”
  Salon
  June 3, 2013

• ADHD meds don't boost substance abuse risk later in life, study found
  The findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry were based on a meta-analysis of 15 previous studies, dating from 1980 to 2012, that included more than 2500 participants with ADHD, some of whom were prescribed medication and some of whom were not.  Researchers at the University of California said they found children who took medications like Ritalin were neither more nor less prone to try or abuse alcohol, nicotine and other drugs compared to untreated ADHD kids.
  Herald Sun
  May 30, 2013

• Study: Health Law Protected Young Adults From High Hospital Bills
  Researchers at the RAND Corporation set out to find some hard data on one aspect of the health law: Does having medical insurance protect young adults from the financial ruin that often comes with a major injury or illness? The quick answer: Yes, it does.  Since September 2010, the Affordable Care Act has allowed young adults to remain on their parents’ medical insurance until they turn 26, and an estimated 3.1 million young people have taken advantage of the new rule. The RAND researchers looked at nearly a half a million visits young adults made to emergency departments around the country before and after the under-26 provision took effect. “We looked at just the most serious conditions,” said Andrew Mulcahy, an associate policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Mulcahy and his colleagues pored over actual hospital records for bone fractures, poison, traumatic brain injuries, and other incidents that would require an urgent trip to the hospital.  The RAND analysis, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the new law resulted in $147 million in hospital bills charged to private insurance companies in 2011.
  Kaiser Health News
  May 29, 2013

• The School-to-Prison Pipeline
  School officials across the country responded to a surge in juvenile crime during the 1980s and the Columbine High School shootings a decade later by tightening disciplinary policies and increasing the number of police patrolling public schools. One unfortunate result has been the creation of a repressive environment in which young people are suspended, expelled or even arrested over minor misbehaviors — like talking back or disrupting class — that would once have been handled by the principal. The need to chart a new course in school discipline is underscored in a report scheduled to be released on Thursday by the New York City School-Justice Partnership Task Force, a working group led by Judith Kaye, the former chief judge of the State of New York, and composed of people from the fields of law enforcement, education, philanthropy, civil rights and child advocacy.
  New York Times
  May 30,2013

• Call the Doctor! Our Guys Are Drowning!
  Dennis J. Barbour examines why boys and men aren’t getting the health care they need. 
  Today we have an adolescent obesity epidemic in this country, and it isn’t just an issue for girls and young women. We have an adolescent suicide problem, and it’s pronounced with adolescent males, who complete suicide at four times the rate of adolescent females. Homicide among adolescent males is four times that of adolescent females. Adolescent males have an unintended injury rate that is double that of females, and adolescent males have an ADHD diagnosis rate that is three times that of adolescent females. The diagnosis rate of epilepsy among young males is twice that of young females, and the incidence rates of syphilis among males age 15-24 is from twice to five times that of females.
  The Good Men Project
  May 24, 2013

• SAMHSA Sponsors Challenge to Develop Technology-based Products to Prevent High-Risk Drinking among College Students
  SAMHSA announces a new opportunity for individuals and organizations to help prevent high-risk drinking among college students.  Excessive and underage drinking among college students are significant public health problems on college and university campuses across the United States, which often result in life-altering consequences such as death, injury, assault, sexual abuse, unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, academic difficulties, suicide attempts, and alcohol dependence.  SAMHSA is seeking solutions to this problem through cost-effective, portable, technology-based products that effectively reach a diverse population of college students and their parents, as well as administrators, faculty, and staff, and that can be adapted to meet the local needs of these institutions throughout the United States.  Technology-based products may include, but are not limited to, web applications, mobile apps, short message services (SMS), and podcasts.
  SAMHSA
  May 24, 2013

• On the TED Stage: Revealing a Heartbreaking Secret about Young Male Suicide (VIDEO)
  My sharing of John's story was my first attempt to spark a conversation about the taboo subject of suicide, and in particular the challenge of coming back from an attempt and choosing life. It worked well enough to bring more than a half million viewers to see it. 
  TED Weekends
  May 24, 2013

• After vote to accept gay youth, Boy Scouts are sure to face more pressure from left and right
  Dismayed conservatives are already looking at alternative youth groups as they predict a mass exodus from the BSA. Gay-rights supporters vowed Friday to maintain pressure on the Scouts to end the still-in-place ban on gay adults serving as leaders.
  Washington Post
  May 23, 2013

• Institute of Medicine: U.S. School Kids Should Get Hour of Exercise Daily
  Schools should ensure that kids get at least one hour of physical activity each day to support their health and boost performance in school, according to a new report. Although previous studies show 60 minutes of vigorous to moderate-intensity exercise daily promotes health and development, it's estimated that only about 50 percent of school-aged kids are currently meeting this recommendation, according to the report from the Institute of Medicine.
  Health Finder
  May 23, 2013

• Why Are Boys So Violent?
  After every national tragedy committed by boy or young man, we ask "why" or "what made him or them do it?" We probe their family, school, peer, and religious life seeking signs of pathology. More often than not, we find what we are looking for to confirm our homegrown theories about why boys commit such violence. What we rarely do, however, is listen to the boys themselves. 
  Huffington Post
  May 22, 2013

• Self-Regulation Skills Better In American Girls Than Boys; Asian Preschoolers Equally Motivated
  Self-regulation skills are a significant factor in academic success. While children of both genders in China, South Korea, and Taiwan are equally motivated in behavioral tasks, American girls perform significantly better than boys.
  Previous studies have linked self-regulation to academic and long-term success, and the capacity of many American children for the skill seems to be declining — along with their academic performance relative to kids in other nations. For some time, American boys have been falling behind girls in academic achievement.
  Medical News Daily
  May 22, 2013

• Suicide Can Be Contagious Among Teens
  The research suggests that one person's suicide can influence another person'ssuicidal thoughts or behavior, and this is particularly seen among younger adolescents. Additionally, the teens do not have to be personally associated with the suicide victim to start thinking about suicide or to attempt suicide themselves, the investigators discovered.
  Medical News Today
  May 22, 2013

• New study suggests that disturbed sleep in adolescents is associated with more symptoms of depression and greater uncertainly about future success. 
  However, higher levels of perceived support from parents and from teachers were associated with significantly fewer sleep disruptions and subsequently with fewer symptoms of depression and greater optimism about the future. 
  Health Canal
  May 22, 2013

• Myths Debunked: Underage Drinking of Alcohol at Home Leads to Real Consequences for Both Parents and Teens
  While many parents may think that allowing their teens and their teens' friends to drink at home under adult supervision keeps kids safe and leads to healthier attitudes about drinking, the truth is that there are serious negative consequences for both parents and teens. The Partnership at Drugfree.org and The Treatment Research Institute (TRI) today announced the launch of a new, interactive web resource for parents and caregivers to help inform them about one of those negative consequences: parents' legal liabilities if they serve alcohol to teens.
  Sacramento Bee
  May 22.2013

• More gym for kids means less chance of obesity, especially for boys, Cornell study says
  The study provides some of the first evidence of a causal effect between gym and childhood obesity. It is to be published in the Journal of Health Economics.
  Los Angeles Times
  May 21, 2013

• Does having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a child increase the risk of obesity later in life?
  That was the question posed by an international team of researchers. They collected data from 207 boys, 8 to 12 years old, who were diagnosed with ADHD. 178 boys without the condition were recruited for comparison. The majority of the participants were then tracked for more than 30 years with follow-up exams conducted at the mean ages of 18, 25 and 41. The results? Men with childhood ADHD had significantly higher body mass index compared to those without the condition, an average 30.1 versus 27.6.
  Medline Plus
  May 20, 2013

• Ending the Silence on Mental Illness
  That is why I applaud President Obama's budget proposal, which calls for $235 million in new mental health initiatives, including $130 million for a program that would help train teachers and adults to recognize the first signs of mental illness in children -- and refer them to get help.  The push to provide young people with better care for mental disorders couldn't come at a better time. This month, the nation celebrates "May Is Mental Health Month," a campaignthat calls attention to the fact that a staggering 1 in 5 Americans suffered from some form of mental illness during 2011.
  Huffington Post
  May 20, 2013

• Study: Many Laws on Detecting Youth TBIs, But None on Preventing Them
  While a growing number of major league sports teams have policies on concussion assessment and return to play, many youth and school sports leagues and teams do not have similar rules, despite thousands of sports-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) reported in children and adolescents every year.
  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
  May 17, 2013

• 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. 
  This is the first report to describe the number of U.S. children aged 3–17 years who have specific mental disorders, compiling information from different data sources covering the period 2005–2011. It provides information on childhood mental disorders where there is recent or ongoing monitoring. These include ADHD, disruptive behavioral disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder, autism spectrum disorders, mood and anxiety disorders including depression, substance use disorders, and Tourette syndrome. The report also includes information on a few indicators of mental health, specifically, mentally unhealthy days and suicide.
  Centers for Disease Control
  May 16, 2013

• HPV is epidemic, which is odd since it is largely preventable
  Back in 2006 and 2009, when the  HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix came onto the market, health officials dreamed of halting the spread of HPV, which is sexually transmitted, in a single generation. Scientists call such blanket coverage herd immunity — in which a pathogen gets vaccinated into oblivion, becoming so rare that even unvaccinated people are protected.  But the hope for herd immunity against HPV anytime soon is fading fast in most of the West. By 2011, only 8 percent of U.S. teenage boys, a target group for the vaccines, had received them.  Only 1 percent actually completed the three-shot regimen.
  Science News
  April 20, 2013

International News

AUSTRALIA

• About Our Boys - Education, Risk and Mums
  There's one group of people who are more at risk of dying in a car accident, more likely to fail at school, more likely to be a criminal, have AIDS, die from cancer, have a drug or alcohol problem or suicide. Do you know which group of people that is? Males. So where can we start to address these problems? How about school?
  ABC
  May 31, 2013

• Boys susceptible to unhealthy food claims
  CHILDREN are being tricked into unhealthy food choices by marketers who make misleading nutritional claims and use celebrities to endorse their products, according to research by an anti-obesity action group.
  Boys are the main victims and are 96 per cent more likely to choose unhealthy food products if they have nutrient claims like "high in calcium" or "good source of protein" on the packaging.  They are 65 per cent more likely to choose unhealthy products if they are endorsed by male sports stars.  Only male sport starts were used for the study. They had no impact on girls food choices, but girls were nonetheless 66 per cent more likely to make unhealthy choices based on nutrient claims.
  Herald Sun
  May 28, 2013

• Boys increasingly getting eating disorders as body-image pressure grows
  HUNDREDS of young boys are developing eating disorders every year and experts say that pressure to look perfect at a younger age is partly to blame.  Cases of eating disorders among men and boys have risen by 27 per cent since 2000, figures show, compared with 15 per cent in the population as a whole.
  The Australian
  May 21, 2013

SOUTH AFRICA

• Helping boys cross over to manhood
  Once again our rite of passage, initiation, a cultural practice that dates back hundreds if not thousands of years, has been plagued by catastrophe. News reports suggest that 27 young boys have lost their lives while undergoing circumcision ritual in Mpumalanga over the past two weeks.
  Pretoria News
  May 23, 2013

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The Boys Initiative is a groundbreaking national nonprofit campaign to shed light on documented trends in recent years pertaining to boys' underachievement and young men's failure to launch. For more information about The Boys Initiative, visit www.theboysinitiative.org.