Survey on Teen Relationships

A new national survey reveals the attitudes and beliefs of teenagers on the important topic of sexual behavior. “Kiss and Tell: What Teens Say about Love, Trust, and Other Relationship Stuff” has been published by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Examples of the survey results include:

• 35 percent of teens say the parents have the strongest influence on how they act within their dating relationships.
• Only 4 percent of teens cited the media as the strongest influence.
• More than half of teenagers think parents should starting talking to their kids about sex when the kids are 13-years-old.
• Over three-fourths of teenagers admit that, yes, they enjoy spending time with their parents.
• Over 84 percent of teens say they have never felt pressure to be in a romantic relationship before they were ready.

Read the survey report

The differences between bullying and teasing can be subtle, but knowing those differences and how to deal with bullying are essential skills for youth-serving professionals. Learn the latest in IYI’s Issue Alert, “When Push Turns to Shove: How to Help Bullies and their Targets.” The Issue Alert also includes the latest information on cyberbullying.

Sponsored by Clarian Health, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Lilly Endowment, the Issue Alert is available here.

Girl Ambition is an empowering website for tween girls and their parents that promotes healthy self-esteem and Internet safety. Girl Ambition is a site for girls by girls. Started by three working moms, the site hopes to provide a safe, fun, positive, and inspirational environment for tween girls and
their parents. Girls can play games, participate in arts and crafts, take quizzes, email and chat with friends, and even raise a virtual pet. Parents can benefit from expert resources and advice on online safety, and how to stay hip to the trends that tween girls think are all the rage.

Find out more at www.girlambition.com.

The subject drug in this rendition of “name that drug” is an increasingly popular drug. It is as pervasive on the street as it is in the modern medicine cabinet. The drug can be obtained from a physician by way of a telephoned or written prescription. Although widely available and identified as a generic, the drug is readily known on the street by its original brand and trade name. This drug has central and peripheral pharmacological actions: it is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant, and it is also quite effective as a muscular skeletal relaxant. The drug’s brand name can be found in well-known essays of Aldous Huxley and William Burroughs. In Huxley’s seminal Brave New World, an enlightened and cultured citizenry ingested this drug for the purpose of curbing nefarious counter-social thoughts and urges.

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Not long ago, hospital emergency room staff summoned a Drug Abuse Recognition (DAR) trained officer to investigate claims a patient’s claims that her spouse was trying to kill her. The patient was alleging that her husband had been poisoning her bottled water and that she was becoming very ill because of it. The DAR trained officer met with the doctor and the charge nurse. He was told that the patient had been admitted to the emergency room with fatigue, nausea, migraine headaches, tingling sensations in her extremities and severe stomach cramps. The hospital lab had analyzed some blood and urine samples she provided and they were awaiting the results. The police had been called to investigate the patient’s claim that her husband had been poisoning her; the patient’s symptoms were posited as being the result of poisoning.

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