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Youth 411: Youth in the NewsVolume 1, Number 6, November 16-30, 2006 Contents STATE WATCH
RESEARCH
ARTICLES SEARCH INSTITUTE Peter Benson can't wait to talk to you about your kid's assets. No, he's not talking money. He's talking about things like whether a child is known and valued by the adults in his neighborhood. About whether she volunteers to help others, or knows how to plan ahead. In the early 1990s, Benson combed through studies of youth development and came up with a list of 40 attributes, which he dubbed "developmental assets," that he believes every young person needs to build positive lives. The checklist ranges from family support to using time constructively to having a sense of purpose in life. It has been embraced by coalitions in hundreds of cities as a way to inspire a community's interest in its children and to help teens sidestep such pitfalls as drug and alcohol use or pregnancy. Under Benson's leadership, the nonprofit Search Institute in Minneapolis has surveyed 3 million middle and high school students to discover which assets they lack. The institute uses the asset model to train more than 150,000 people every year — from bus drivers in Houston to principals and administrators in California — in how to connect with kids. At a national level, the assets have been embraced by the YMCA, and this past summer, Benson was invited to deliver the keynote address at the White House Conference on Helping America's Youth. The Pioneer Press spoke with Benson as the second edition of his 1997 book "All Kids Are Our Kids" is being released. Pioneer Press: What is asset building? Benson: "It's a community-based approach to growing healthy kids. Usually when we talk about kids, we're using a vocabulary of 'prevention.' We want to prevent violence. We want to prevent drug, alcohol and tobacco use, teen pregnancy and so on. When I first thought up the idea of developmental assets in 1990, I was trying to create an alternative to prevention language. I was trying to create a language of what we're trying to promote, not prevent, in young people's lives. "The key axiom of asset building is that raising healthy kids is about relationships, relationships, relationships. One of our mantras is that relationships are the oxygen of human development. In America today, we're raising kids in a largely age-segregated society. We have lost that historic wisdom about the power of sustained relationships with many adults, relationships where you're known by the same people for three, five, 10 years and even longer. A lot of things screw that up: Modern mobility. Schools that put teachers in kids' lives for nine months. Coaches that are in kids' lives for six months. Youth ministers are in kids' lives for maybe a year. "The American way of raising kids now is to have a number of good adults in a kid's life in one point of time, but very little sustainability across time. Long-term relationships are a critical part of the asset building model." PP: Why are assets important? Benson: "One of the things we've documented is that the more assets kids have, the higher their academic achievement. And, as assets rise, you make major dents in alcohol use, tobacco use, violence, school dropout rates, gambling and eating disorders. That whole litany of problems is dramatically reduced by raising what we call 'asset rich' kids. It's common sense." PP: How can communities change to become more responsive to young people? Benson: "Let's take churches as an example. If you have a small congregation, the whole community is together for just about every activity, which makes it much easier for the elders to connect to kids and know them well across time. But most large congregations now are as age-segregated as the rest of society. Kids might know a couple of adults for a year or so of Sunday school. Then, next year, it's a couple different adults. We need to figure out ways for every adult active in that congregation to be engaged in a relationship with some young people. It's a culture change to become a truly intergenerational congregation. A place to start is by having nametags for the children. PP: So, what happens when a community decides to focus on its youth? Benson: "St. Louis Park has been doing this for 12 years, and the effort is still very much alive. One of the really neat symbols of this is that on the first day of school in September, as many as 1,000 adults gather at schools to welcome the kids. It's just community citizens saying, 'We're going to take a day off work to show that we're just glad you're alive and we're glad you're here.' These innovations just start to occur as people start thinking of young people in a different way. "Another one of my favorite examples is from Georgetown, Texas. The middle-school principal attended one of our conferences a few years ago. He went back to Texas and he started to wonder how well they were building relationships in this middle school. So, he gathered the teachers and adult staff in late August in the gymnasium. He put the names of each of the kids on their own card and then taped them A to Z around the perimeter of the room. Then he gave each adult 10 gold stars and said, 'I want you to affix a gold star on the name of a young person with whom you have a relationship. And by relationships, I mean you know what this child is really interested in — might be guitars or it might be motorcycles, you know their middle name, and if you saw them in a shopping mall you might be apt to go up to them and start a conversation.' What they discovered together was that a quarter of the kids got a lot of gold stars, a quarter got some and 50 percent got none. "It was a transformative moment. The 100 adults said, 'Oh my gosh! How could half the kids pass through here unknown and undetected?' And that school started to change dramatically as every adult said we have to figure out how to build connections with these kids." PP: What's the one thing you'd do in the United States to raise healthier kids? Benson: "I'd want every one of the 200 million adults in the country to know the name of six kids. That's my mission. It all starts there. So often, adults see kids on the street or in stores and we avert our gaze. We need to start by seeing young people in a positive way, rather than avoiding them and moving past them. … What does it mean when kids are saying, I'm unknown and unnamed in my neighborhood? I'm a statistic in my school. I don't have relationships outside my family with other adults? What does it mean when kids are saying that they don't feel the city where they live values kids?"
This time last year, Avon Park High School senior Steven Snyder hadn't given much thought to what he was going to do after high school. This year is different. Since joining the Heartland Workforce's and South Florida Community College's Panther Youth Partners program last summer, Steven -- a die-hard athlete -- now has goals, according to his mother, Regina White. "He says: 'I want to go to college,'" White said. "He's maturing. Since starting in the program, he's staying on task, working harder in school to keep his grades up." These goals are White's goals, too. "I don't want to live on the corner," said Snyder, who credits his mother as well as Avon Park High School football coach Ernest Perkins for giving him direction. Snyder's now a dual-enrolled student in SFCC's Air Conditioning and Heating Technologies program, which gives him credit towards an occupational certificate while he works to finish high school. "It's interesting," Snyder said about his vocational course. "I'm really getting a feel for it." All this, on top of playing high school football and basketball. The Panther Youth Partner program has shown Snyder that there is life after high school. Though he was always pretty good at math and considers himself "an A-B-C" student, Snyder was struggling more that he should have because his reading skills weren't up to par. Specific tutoring in the subject at Panther Youth summer camp last year gave Steven new confidence. He said, "I think I'm catching up" with reading. "He's doing extremely well," agreed his mother, obviously pleased with the change she's seen in her son. "He's so excited about his refrigeration classes" and is becoming very good at anything involving technology and computers. She said he also talks a lot about the more goal-oriented students he's gotten to know better through participation in the Panther Youth Partners. The growth White sees in Snyder is just the kind of change PYP hopes to spur. This year, SFCC's PYP enrolled 61 students. Last year, the program graduated 19 students. All of them either found jobs in the community or went on to post-secondary education. Although all the high schools offer supplemental assistance to help students with their academic studies, PYP targets "at risk" students and steers them towards one of two pathways: preparation for work after high school graduation, or preparation for college or vocational training. "At-risk" students may have challenges throughout their school year. The temptation to drop out of high school is high. Rather than let such youth fail, PYP staff motivate these vulnerable students to earn higher grades and focus on their future, said SFCC's Eddie Cuencas, PYP program specialist. "It's working," said Gilda Mixon, one of Avon Park High School's PYP mentors. She gets more questions from PYP students who want to know what kind of classes they should take that support specific careers that catch their interest. "This program offers students a choice," and the sooner they enter it, the sooner they get on track and stay on it, she said. "The students are seeing their scores come up, and sometimes they're surprised. We tell them things like 'Read more, even if it's not an assignment.' For some students, that's all the direction they need. Others, well, they still need to be told three or four times what they need to do." Cuencas said, "Someone is making that extra effort to show these students why they need to do more than their peers 'have' to. Then, they give them the tools." PYP started as a two-week summer school camp at SFCC, funded by a grant from the Heartland Workforce. Participants learned life management skills, began exploring careers of interest, and received tutoring in reading and math. In 2002, SFCC again partnered with the Heartland Workforce to create a comprehensive year-round academic and career oriented mentoring and support program, serving ninth through 12th graders. PYP operates at all five high schools in SFCC's three-county district of Highlands, Hardee and DeSoto counties. Here's how it works: Students like Snyder are assigned a PYP academic tutor in his or her home high school. Each high school has designated PYP mentors who track their students' academic progress and offer specific guidance services that help students not just finish high school but give them direction after graduation. The students take extra tests that measure their progress, particularly after tutoring. The program requires students to job shadow at local businesses, often arranged by Cuencas and Jackie Tillman, SFCC's case data specialist. The college's Paul Fox, director of career planning services, and academic counselors, also sit down with them. Students begin developing resumes and learn the importance of achieving early accomplishments so their resumes amount to more than a blank sheet of paper. Mixon said her PYP students use a Web site designed to help students map out options for specific career choices. At least twice a week at Avon Park High School, the 20-some PYP students are required to report to before- and after-school study/mentoring sessions. Also attending are their PYP mentors, who make sure they complete their schoolwork. Every summer, all PYP participants from all five high schools across the tri-county area attend summer sessions at the college. All PYP students know that program staff is monitoring their progress. Each takes the College Placement Test, which colleges use when considering the admission of prospective students. In Mixon's experience, the PYP students' grades go up, they stay in school, they do a better job of staying out of trouble because they have someone to talk to, and they feel better about themselves and their futures.
United Way of Mid Coast Maine and its Safe & Healthy Community Solutions Council is co-sponsoring the forum together with Maine's Attorney General, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services Office of Substance Abuse, and the U.S. Department of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Underage Drinking: Myth vs. Reality Prepared February 2006 for the Maine Office of Substance Abuse by MESAP: Maine's Environmental Substance Abuse Prevention Center, Medical Care Development, Inc. (207) 773-7737;mesap@mcd.org Myth: "If we changed the minimum drinking age back to 18 instead of 21, it would reduce problems with underage drinking." Reality: Researchers consider the 21 minimum drinking age to be one of the most successful public safety & public health policies in United States history. Since the minimum drinking age was changed to 21 in 1984, deaths from drinking and driving accidents have decreased by thousands, saving an estimated 20,000 lives. Myth: "Cracking down on underage drinking will only make kids want to drink more." Reality: Even though we tend to think of young people as naturally rebellious, research shows that the great majority of kids respond best to clear rules—both from their parents and society at large. For example, studies show that underage youth are significantly less likely to drink alcohol when they believe they'll be caught by police. They're even less likely to drink alcohol when they believe their parents think it would be "very wrong" for them to do so. Myth: "In Europe, youth drink more responsibly than in the US." Reality: According to data collected from 15- and 16-year-olds in 35 European countries, European kids actually drink more often, drink more heavily and get drunk more often than American teens. Only in Turkey are teen drinking rates lower than in the U.S. Myth: "At least alcohol is safer than other drugs." Reality: Alcohol kills 6.5 times more youth than all other illegal drugs combined. Myth: "It's okay as long as they don't drive. Most teen alcohol-related deaths are from drinking & driving." Reality: Only one-third of underage drinking deaths involve auto crashes. The remaining two-thirds involve alcohol poisoning, homicides, suicides, and unintentional injuries such as burns, drowning and falls. Taking away the car keys doesn't make underage drinking safe. Myth: "If we just educate kids about the dangers, they won't drink." Reality: Research shows that scare tactics just don't work, at least not for most people. That's because we all have a natural tendency to think, "That won't happen to me." In addition, research suggests that using scare tactics can actually do more harm than good, because they can normalize or glamorize the risky behavior. Myth: "If we just give kids more things to do, they won't drink." Reality: Providing youth with positive and fun alternatives can be an important part of a community's strategy to prevent underage drinking—but it's not a cure-all. Research shows that positive community involvement serves as a strong protective factor against substance abuse. But this does not necessarily mean "having more stuff to do." Data shows that kids in urban areas drink just as much as kids in rural areas. And even in the most remote and isolated communities, there are many kids who don't drink at all. Myth: "Kids are going to drink anyway - It's a rite of passage." Reality: Contrary to popular belief, most kids don't drink. In Maine, anonymous student surveys show that the majority of teens--including 60 percent of 10th graders and 51 percent of 12th graders—have not consumed alcohol during the past 30 days. Research shows that misperceptions that "everybody's doing it" actually make young people more likely to drink alcohol. On the other hand, when these misperceptions are corrected, and kids realize that "NOT everybody's doing it," they are less likely to drink alcohol. Myth: "It's better for kids to start drinking young, so that they can learn how to handle it." Reality: Alcohol impacts a teenager differently than an adult because the adolescent brain is still developing—especially the part of the brain that deals with decision-making. Drinking before the age of 21 places kids at higher risk for academic failure, depression, suicide, and sexual assault. It also increases their risk for alcohol dependence: Young people who begin drinking before age 17 are twice as likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who begin drinking at age 21. Those who begin by age 15 are more than four times more likely to develop dependence.
 MONTANA City commissioners here have agreed to donate a parcel of city-owned land to serve as the site of a home for at-risk adolescents. "Montana Youth Homes provides critical services to our area youth," Burton said. "It's one of the top needs of our community at this time."
Illinois leads a wave of states focusing on rehabilitation as a cure for the high number of repeat offenders and costly jails. Cook County, home of the nation's first juvenile court, created in 1899, hasn't always had the best track record for dealing with young offenders. A 1995 Chicago Tribune editorial deplored the local juvenile detention center's filthy conditions, unqualified staff, and children who "languish there like warehoused animals." But these days, spurred by a state recidivism rate around 50 percent and research showing clear differences between the ways adolescents and adults cope with jail time, Illinois is rethinking its approach to juvenile justice. In doing so, it's leading a wave of new policy approaches nationwide that emphasize rehabilitation and intervention programs over simple punishment and incarceration for youths, or the "scaring them straight" strategies favored by many during the 1990s crime waves. The state's pilot programs and brand new Juvenile Justice Department were centerpieces of a MacArthur Foundation conference on juvenile justice reform this week - just a few days after the Department of Justice released new statistics showing that a record 7 million Americans, or 1 in 32 adults, is now in prison or on parole. Other states, like Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Washington have been experimenting with similar programs. "People have a sense that incarceration in itself, at the levels that we are incarcerating kids, doesn't necessarily work," says Jason Ziedenberg, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute, which favors juvenile justice reform. "Because of the falling crime rates, because of the state budget crisis, which makes states look at how much they spend on the justice system, because of Roper v. Simmons [the 2005 Supreme Court case that made capital punishment illegal for offenders under the age of 18], and because of the research, we have seen a sea change." The tougher approaches - including automatically trying kids as adults for certain crimes or imprisoning them for even minor offenses - were mostly spurred by the crime waves of the 1980s and early 90s, when fear of the young "super predator" was widespread. A report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency shows a 208 percent increase in the number of offenders under 18 serving time in adult jails between 1990 and 2004. Since it peaked in 1999 at close to 9,500 youths, that number has started to drop off, but reform advocates say it's still too high. Of equal concern to many juvenile advocates is the willingness of some judges to ship kids to detention centers, even if their crimes are relatively minor. Recent research has shown that adolescents perceive punishment fundamentally differently from adults, says Laurie Garduque, research director for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which has funded many studies in the area. They're less inhibited, more impulsive, have a shakier understanding of consequences, are more susceptible to peer pressure - and are also far more receptive to rehabilitation efforts than adults. "We know that having committed a serious crime [as a youth] doesn't mean you're on a pathway to becoming a career criminal," says Ms. Garduque. "We thought we could find a third way in this polarized debate, with the adult [jail time] that were being adopted by states and advocates saying that the juvenile justice system had lost its way." As a result, MacArthur has invested close to $100 million in state juvenile justice reform, particularly in programs that focus on alternatives to secure detention centers, which critics say can turn a minor delinquent into a more hardened criminal. In Illinois, advocates are hoping that the new Department of Juvenile Justice - separate from the Department of Corrections - will help change a culture that gave little thought to rehabilitation and has a recidivism rate close to 50 percent. "The whole juvenile justice system in Cook County is now trying to divert kids from going deeper into the system," says Paula Wolff, a senior executive at Chicago Metropolis 2020, a nonpartisan think tank. At Chicago's brand-new Juvenile Intervention Center police can bring youths in for assessment, and workers spend time trying to match kids up with social or mental-health services. "Rules without relationship breeds rebellion," says Azim Ramelize, assistant commissioner for the Chicago Department of Children and Youth Services. Mr. Ramelize, a former gang leader who eventually attended law school, says he knows first-hand the ways in which the system often fails troubled kids. He and the center connect the teens with mental-health services, alternative schools, and community or church programs that meet those needs. Focusing on rehabilitation, makes financial sense as well, advocates say. The cost of incarceration in the state is now more than $70,000 a year per juvenile - seven times the state's budget for K through 12 education, and significantly higher than the proposed rehabilitation and prevention programs. "The kids whose mental health needs are diagnosed and treated, they have extraordinarily low recidivism rates,"says George Timberlake, who retired as chief judge of the state's Second Circuit Court last week. "We're trying to show communities and states attorneys that you can be smart on crime without being tough on crime - that you can use intelligent responses instead of punitive responses, and achieve a better result."
In response to recent incidents in the city, including a series of knife fights this summer, county and city law enforcement officials formed the Youth Violence Prevention Task Force. There have been varying degrees of fights, criminal mischief and neighborhood violence involving juveniles, leading officials to believe that it is a countywide problem, which can only be resolved at the countywide level, according to members of the committee - co-chaired by Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson and District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson.
"I take it everywhere. To work, school. I don't know, anything I do, I have it out with me," the high school junior said. "I pay attention to where I park it, though." Public schools commonly reward excellent attendance with movie tickets, gas vouchers and iPods. But some diligent students like Kaytie are now hitting the ultimate teenage jackpot for going to school: They have won cars or trucks. School districts in Hartford, Conn.; Pueblo, Colo.; South Lake Tahoe, Calif.; and Wickenburg and Yuma, Ariz., are also giving away vehicles this school year. In most cases the car or truck is donated by a local dealership, and the prizes typically are awarded through drawings open only to students with good attendance. So does bribing students with the possibility of winning a car or truck actually get them to think twice about staying home from school? Some educators think so, and say their giveaways have boosted attendance. But the evidence is not clear-cut. Katyie -- who has a 4.0 average at Natrona County High, Dick Cheney's alma mater -- won her truck last spring, in the school system's first such drawing. But she said that was not what motivated her to keep up her attendance; she just didn't want to fall behind. District attendance officer Gary Somerville said he hopes to raise attendance and also reduce the district's 29 percent dropout rate, which he blames in part on Wyoming's booming gas-and-oil industry. "These kids can go out and earn $15, $16, $17 an hour swinging a hammer. It's kind of hard to keep them in school past their 16th birthday," he said. Hartford has been holding a drawing -- for either a car or $10,000 -- for the past six years. Five of those times the winning family chose the money. "I can't tell you that it's increased attendance," district spokesman Terry D'Italia said. "But what it has done over the years is just kept a focus on it and kept it at the top of kids' minds." Jack Stafford, associate principal at South Tahoe High School, said attendance increased slightly last year, the first year the school system gave away a car, and is up slightly so far this year. He said changing times call for such incentives. "My mom had the three-B rule: There'd better be blood, bone or barf, or I was going to school," Stafford said. But "that's not the case now." Kaytie's district is giving away a blue 2007 Chevy Colorado crew cab this year. It is being displayed at football and basketball games and will be parked at the mall over the holidays. "The kids all come around and say, 'Man, that's the truck I'm working for,'" Somerville said. Only 98 of Natrona County's 3,200 sophomores, juniors and seniors were eligible for last year's drawing. They were allowed only one excused absence, and no unexcused ones. Districts have a lot to gain and little to lose by holding car drawings. The vehicles are usually free. And in Wyoming, even a one-student increase in average daily enrollment means another $12,000 in state funding for the year. If not for the giveaway in Casper, Kaytie might be driving the family's broken-down 1987 Buick LeSabre with peeling blue paint. "I would have had such an awful car," she said.
But Minneapolis police say nothing's quaint about the estimated 9,700 Minneapolis students who last year skipped some school on seven or more days without excuses. As juvenile crime has risen, habitual truancy increasingly is seen as more than a school problem. Police are picking up truants on streets at nearly three times the rate of last year. And officers soon will be assigned citywide to confront parents at home about chronically absent students. "It is crime prevention -- short term," Police Chief Tim Dolan said of his new emphasis on truancy. "These kids are off the street and not wandering around, and not committing thefts and burglaries." Kids in school also are far less likely to become crime victims, he added. At North High School in Minneapolis, nearly half of the 1,300 students skipped enough school last year to be habitual truants -- the highest of any city school. Some alternative schools that draw from beyond the city had truancy rates exceeding 50 percent of enrollment. Overall, one in four district students were truants. "It makes me a little sick to my stomach," Peggy Flanagan, a school board member, said when she first heard the truancy data, released in response to a Star Tribune request. "Those numbers are staggering. It is a call to action." Interim schools Superintendent Bill Green said he is "shocked by those numbers" and pledged to do something about the problem. It's not that schools have ignored truancy. For years, officials have sent warning letters home, met with parents and referred some truants to juvenile court. Prosecutors lecture about truancy in schools. Tutors and mentors try to help chronic truants, offering after-school and other programs. New software, purchased with $6 million from the Microsoft antitrust settlement, makes it easier for teachers to track attendance. Soon parents will be able to check online whether their child is in school, Green said. Outside of school, negative influences, such as gangs and drugs, probably are worse than ever, said Nancy Schaefer, who oversees school-attendance efforts in Hennepin County. "They get pulled off into negative activities and gradually drift away from school," she said. "It is really hard for them to be able to make that up and become engaged again." St. Paul schools' truancy rates are just as high. More than half of students at Johnson and Arlington high schools were absent more than seven days last year. More than 5,700 junior or senior high school students were habitual truants last year, 32 percent of enrollment. That's up slightly from the previous year, though it's below levels of the mid-1990s, an annual truancy report said. Habitually truant kids more often used alcohol or drugs or had mental health or school behavior issues, the report said. Caught at bus stops Getting caught on the street is no fun for kids such as Fatimah Bobo, 15, who on a recent weekday morning got picked up by police at a bus stop in downtown Minneapolis for not being in school. "The bus driver went right by me," Bobo said. She insisted she had done nothing wrong, and was on her way to a St. Paul charter school. Officers didn't agree. They brought her to Kevin Carlisle, who runs the Curfew and Truancy Center in downtown Minneapolis, a receiving unit for minor juvenile offenders. Last year, 2,200 kids came in the door for truancy, violating curfew or petty crime. Most were taken to school or picked up by parents. Carlisle's advice calmed Bobo. He called her mother, Anne, who lives on the North Side. She came to get her and thanked Carlisle as they left. Minneapolis police have dramatically increased such encounters, making a record 1,057 curfew arrests this summer and 363 truancy arrests in September and October, up 179 percent over last year. Word of stepped-up truancy stops is spreading among kids. On a weekday morning, teens scattered as officers David Shotley and Jim Stetson approached them at the downtown Block E entertainment complex. "They think we're harassing them, but we want the kids to get an education and a job," Stetson said. "But some on the streets get lost. They deal drugs and can't see beyond making money to get some new clothes. That's too bad." Next, the officers checked a video store and several restaurants, then spotted an 18-year-old North High School student sitting on a bus stop bench. A man next to him ditched a crack pipe underneath. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?" Stetson asked. "I'm sick," the kid said softly. He insisted he was going to his grandmother's house in south Minneapolis, though he waited at a stop for a bus going north. 'Knock and Talk' program For years, schools largely dealt with truancy as an educational issue. Green, the superintendent, said schools need to work with police and others on truancy as a social problem. In January, police will begin knocking on doors of kids with five unexcused absences -- two days short of habitual truancy. Officers won't make arrests, but they will talk to parents about their responsibilities. "Police will not be going out to threaten families," said Merle Bell-Gonzales, manager of the district's school attendance office. On the North Side, where two officers have made regular home visits in a pilot "Knock and Talk" program, truancy declined 34 percent, Bell-Gonzales said. When the project is expanded citywide, the focus will be on truant students through eighth grade, she said. "We have always known that students who are truant at 12 and over have had truancy issues early in elementary school," Bell-Gonzales said. "It starts in the early grades." Dolan said police should intervene at all ages even though odds are low that older, chronic truants will stay in school. "I don't think we should be giving up on them," he said. Colleen Kaibel agrees. She runs Check and Connect, a Minneapolis schools program with mentoring and other services for truant high school students. She said police visits to truants' homes send a message that school is important. Once kids are back in school, problems remain. Students who skipped classes often are behind in their studies, she said. If they can't catch up, they're more likely to skip school again, she added. "Fear doesn't engage students," Kaibel said. "You can scare a kid to school for a while, but it doesn't keep them in school."
If there was any question what teens thought about a proposed 10 p.m. curfew in the city, they answered it Wednesday at Hillhouse High School. One by one, dozens of young people unleashed their opposition. Only a few voiced support. "It’s not going to do anything but cause unnecessary confrontation between police and the youth of the city," warned Stephen Hardy, 18, a senior at Hillhouse.
AMERICA’S PROMISE A study released today by America's Promise finds that when youth are provided with at least four out of five fundamental resources, their life chances for success dramatically increase and damaging gaps separating low-income and minority youth from other youth are significantly closed. The data, unfortunately, also show that more than two-thirds of our youth are not currently receiving enough of these resources to benefit from their full effects. The in-depth study, "Every Child, Every Promise: Turning Failure Into Action," culled from three different study pieces, commissioned by the America's Promise Alliance measures the presence and impact of the five fundamental resources - or "Five Promises" - that research has shown affect the development and lives of America's youth:
The America's Promise Alliance is the largest public-private partnership focused on children and youth in the country. The new report finds that children receiving four or five Promises, as compared to youth receiving zero to one Promise, are far more likely to be successful, including being twice as likely to get A's, twice as likely to avoid violence and 40 percent more likely to volunteer. The research shows that receiving four or five of these basic developmental resources has the potential to level the playing field for youth across racial and economic lines. For example, experiencing four or five Promises:
The "National Promise Study," the first of the three studies comprising "Every Child, Every Promise" takes a quantitative approach to determining the presence of the Five Promises in the lives of American youth. The second, the "Voices Study," offers detailed perspectives of young people in America concerning their own needs and well-being. The final study, a large-scale economic analysis "Investing in Our Young People," examines the importance of investing in our youth from preschool through adolescence, not only in the early years. It was conducted by Nobel Laureate Dr. James Heckman and fellow University of Chicago economist Flavio Cunha. According to the "Voices Study," America's youth have concrete goals, and are willing to work hard to achieve them, but many said they need adult help to make it happen. Dispelling the myth that young people are not driven and lack goals, 90 percent of young people were able to identify their goals, but more than 40 percent fear they would be unable to achieve them. "The findings in "Every Child, Every Promise" paves the way," said Marguerite Kondracke, CEO and President of the America's Promise Alliance for the actions we must take to improve the lives and strengthen the future of America's youth. All sectors of society and our communities must come together in an integrated and collaborative manner to help our children succeed. The Alliance is committed to this fundamental and integrated approach to 'whole child' development." "We have an aggressive growth plan to bring significant more mentors into the lives of children in their schools and neighborhoods," said Judy Vredenburgh, President and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the country's pre-eminent youth mentoring organization. "Our own research quantifies the substantial positive impact that having a Big Brother or Sister has on the lives of children" she continued. "We look forward to working with The America's Promise Alliance, its partners and the broader corporate, foundation, schools and faith-based communities to help our children have successful futures." "The time is now to invest in our nation's greatest resource – our youth," said Edward B. Rust Jr., Chairman and CEO, State Farm Insurance Companies. "This report so vividly illustrates the power all sectors of the community have to help young people succeed in life. We must all work together to reverse the disturbing trends exposed in the report and ensure every child has every resource they need." This holistic investment approach is further supported by the economic analysis conducted by Heckman and Cunha. They found that the effects of balanced long-term investments throughout childhood are striking and resulted in:
"Every Child, Every Promise" suggests that it will take a coordinated effort - businesses and non-profit organizations, city governments with help from state and federal sources, parents and young people themselves - to address challenges facing our nation's youth. The report makes clear that investing in youth is not only morally justified, it is an economic imperative. "We know our children are ready and willing to put in the hard work to succeed," said Kondracke, "and we know they want the help and guidance of adults to show them the way. Alliance partners such as Big Brothers Big Sisters are working every day to provide the needed support and ensure we fulfill our obligation to the nation's youth."
Excess body fat early in life may have adverse cardiovascular effects, even in children and adolescents who aren't obese or overweight, researchers suggest in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. In the study, researchers found that adiposity (fat) in body tissue was associated with reduced blood vessel distensibility, an early marker of cardiovascular disease. Distensibility is a measure of the elasticity of blood vessels. Ultrasound is used to measure distensibility. In young teenagers, excess fat was more strongly associated with the reduction in arterial distensibility than was cholesterol and other blood fats. "These observations emphasize the importance of population-wide strategies to reduce childhood adiposity by a combination of changes in diet and physical activity," said Peter H. Whincup, Ph.D., of the Division of Community Health Sciences, lead author of the study and Professor of Cardiovascular Epidemiology at St. George's. In the past, classic heart disease risk factors, such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure, were uncommon in childhood. However, obesity and associated risk factors have become increasingly common in children and adolescents and is epidemic in some Western countries. Reduced distensibility predicts adverse cardiovascular outcomes in adults. Obesity in adults is associated with a clustering of heart disease risk factors (including high blood pressure, cholesterol abnormalities and insulin resistance) known as metabolic syndrome. Childhood adiposity has a similar adverse effect on metabolic factors, but the impact of excess fat in childhood, and the associated metabolic changeson heart and blood vessel disease have not been studied extensively. It has previously been shown that severe obesity in teenagers is associated with abnormal activity of the endothelium (the thin lining of blood vessel walls), and reduced arterial distensibility. High cholesterol levels have a similar association in children who have not yet reached puberty. With that background, the researchers studied the association of adiposity and its associated metabolic disorders with arterial function and compared the relationship to that of other heart disease risk factors. The study involved 471 children, 13-15 years old, who had their blood pressure, lipids, insulin and skin-fold thickness (an indication of body mass and fat accumulation) measured. Researchers used ultrasound to determine the arterial distensibility of the brachial artery in the arm. Some children (152) had undergone similar evaluations when they were 9—11 years old, allowing the investigators to study the effects of heart disease risk factors over time. When the researchers examined different components of the metabolic syndrome, they found that insulin resistance, diastolic blood pressure (the second number in a blood pressure measurement), and the number of components of the metabolic syndrome present in a child were also associated with arterial distensibility. C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, also was inversely correlated with distensibility. LDL (bad cholesterol), HDL (good cholesterol), triglycerides (a type of blood fat), systolic blood pressure, and blood glucose had either a minor or no effect on distensibility. An evaluation of the interaction between risk factors showed that adiposity was related to blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL and insulin resistance. These associations partly explained the impact of body fat accumulation on distensibility. Analysis of data on the children evaluated at ages 9-11 and 13-15 showed that the relationship of cholesterol and blood pressure with distensibility was present at both time periods. In contrast, the relationship between body mass index (BMI, a measure of obesity) and insulin resistance appeared only at the later time period. Though high levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) are related to lower distensibility, HDL (good cholesterol), triglycerides (another type of blood fat), systolic blood pressure, and blood glucose had either a minor or no effect on distensibility. The impact of adiposity appeared stronger than the previously documented association between cholesterol and distensibility, Whincup said. The researchers noted that the effects of adiposity on arterial distensibility occurred at BMI levels well below those considered to represent obesity. The results suggest that arterial distensibility may provide a valuable marker for detecting the early cardiovascular consequences of adiposity in future studies researching adiposity's impact and reduction in young people, Whincup said. Researchers suggest using a combination of diet and exercise as important strategies to combat adiposity in children and young adults.
INDIANA PM Adolescents who play violent video games show differences in brain activity from those playing nonviolent games. The differences were associated with emotional arousal and self-control, medical researchers reported. Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine asked 44 adolescents to play either a violent or a nonviolent video game for 30 minutes. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity while participants performed a series of tasks measuring inhibition and concentration immediately after playing video games. The researchers announced Tuesday that they had documented differences between the two groups. The groups didn't differ in accuracy or reaction time, but those who played the violent game showed more activity (brightly colored scans) in the amygdala. That is an area of the brain connected with emotional arousal. They showed less activity in an area associated with executive functions such as planning, shifting, and controlling and directing thoughts and behavior, according to researchers. Those who played the nonviolent games showed activation in the portions of the brain associated with inhibition, concentration, and self-control and less activity in areas connected with emotional arousal, the study revealed. The study aims to address a long-lasting debate over the influence violence in media can have on youth. Experts, including American Psychological Association Fellow Craig Anderson, have addressed several of the arguments that criticize studies linking media violence and aggression. Anderson said that the current findings are consistent and correlations between the two groups are significant. He has pointed out in APA publications that entire scientific fields, such as astronomy, are based on correlation. Earlier studies have indicated a correlation between exposure to media violence and brain functioning, but the researchers didn't actively manipulate participants' exposure to violence, said William Kronenberger, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at IU's medical school. In this study, researchers randomly assigned adolescents to play either a violent or a nonviolent game, he said. "Therefore, we can attribute the difference between the groups specifically to the type of game played," Kronenberger said. Dr. Vincent Mathews, an Indiana University radiology professor who led the study, said it reveals effects on short-term brain function. "During tasks requiring concentration and processing of emotional stimuli, the adolescents who had played the violent video game showed distinct differences in brain activation than the adolescents who played an equally exciting and fun--but
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