youth

11Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

PARENTING

A New Study Finds Youth Largely Underestimate The Risks Of Contracting STIs Through Oral Sex

Young people are largely unaware of the risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, through oral sex. That’s the finding of our recent study, published in Annals of Family Medicine. Research and education on oral sex are critical because it is a very common sexual practice. And many STIs are transmitted orally, including herpes, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV). Why it matters The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 85% of sexually active people ages 18 to 44 have engaged in oral sex at least once. A separate survey found that 41% of adolescents ages 15 to 19 reported having oral sex. Historically, research on reducing STI transmission among young people has focused primarily on heterosexual vaginal intercourse rathe...

New Study Finds In One Urban School District Nearly 10% Of Youth Identify As Gender-Diverse

It seems that more and more teens are identifying as transgender, gender-fluid or nonbinary. But because linguistic and cultural norms are always evolving, it’s been challenging to pin down an exact number. CC BY-NC-ND The 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that 1.8% of high school students identified as transgender. But my team – made up of pediatricians, adolescent medicine specialists and public health researchers – suspected that this study underrepresented the prevalence of gender-diverse youth. That’s because not all people who are gender-diverse – an umbrella term for those whose gender identity does not fully align with the sex they were assigned at birth – identify as “transgender.” So we put tog...

Youth: A Critical Stage In Life

I enjoy writing to young people like myself not because our old folks know better and do not need the information (which of course they do, and in fact should read it), but because a youthful psyche is one which is easily and readily flexible to both the positive influence (principles, knowledge, truths) about life or the negative appeals in our society. The youthful life is the period where characters are materialized, values are developed and choices are made. The choices and decisions that would transform our lives and even forthcoming generations, in spite of our present dilemma, will be taken during this phase of life. Steven Covey, who was an author and great teacher wrote, "I am not a product of my circumstance. I am a product of my decisions." Hence, the need for enlightenment and...