At Risk Youth

Watching television is harder on children’s health than are other sedentary activities such as playing video games or using computers.

The more television children watch, the higher their blood pressure — regardless of their weight — according to a new study from researchers in Spain and the United States.

• More than 100 children (ages three to eight) wore meters that measured their activity levels.
• The average child in the study was inactive for five hours a day, with 1.5 hours spent in front of television sets.
• Children who watched 90 to 330 minutes a day had blood pressure readings five to seven points higher than those of children who watched less than 30 minutes of television a day.

“These results show that sedentary behavior and more specifically television viewing is related to blood pressure and independent of body fat or obesity level,” said Dr. Joey Eisenmann of Michigan State University, a co-author of the study.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of two do not watch television at all, and that older children should limit their TV viewing to no more than two hours a day.

The study appeared in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare – or one of them at least. Your child starts chatting with someone online and agrees to meet the person face-to-face, and discovers that the person isn’t a teenager. Task forces across the country set up “stings” aimed at catching adults who prey on young people by posing as teens online. But parents don’t have to wait for law enforcement to keep kids safe online.

“Keep teens out of online chatrooms. Interestingly, older teens are more at risk of being sexually exploited because their Internet use is often unsupervised, and the teens are more likely to talk about personal and sexual matters than a younger minor. Younger kids can face danger from online predators because the teens have a more trusting, unassuming nature; troubled teens looking for an understanding adult or emotionally vulnerable teen girls also are at risk.” [Source: The Clinton Herald]

Many parenting experts suggest that families have a centrally located computer – somewhere out in the open, where online chats can be observed. In addition, consider limiting, or eliminating, Internet access on your child’s phone. Set up rules regarding Internet use, and explain them fully to your kids. Explain why you’re doing it, and also what the consequences will be for broken rules.

A mother’s lifestyle and methods of parenting her children are factors in whether they are likely to drink alcohol as young teenagers, according to a new study from the University of Queensland.

Dr. Rosa Alti and her colleagues studied 4158 mothers and children and found that if a mother exerted a low-level of parental control when her child was under age 5 years old, and if the mother had more two or more partners before her child was 14 years old, the child was more likely to drink alcohol. The risk for problem drinking at age 14 years old was twice as high in children of mothers that had both factors.

The study appeared in the journal Addiction.

Even six-year-olds can develop school-related stress, according to a new study of Chinese children.

• Prof. Therese Hesketh of University College London studied 2191 children ages 6 to 12 years old.
• One-third of the students had stress-related symptoms, such as headaches and stomach aches.
• 80 percent worried about school exams, 66 percent were afraid their teachers would punish them.
• 75 percent feared their parents would punish them physically.

Many Chinese parents and teachers pressure children to compete for limited placements in universities, government jobs and graduate careers.

This study appeared in the British Medical Association’s Archives of Disease in Childhood.

UCLA researchers have discovered that children whose mothers abuse alcohol during pregnancy can benefit from an innovative effort to teach them how to read and interpret social cues.

According to a Nov. 19 article by Michael Smith of MedPage Today, the social skills training proved appeared to provide lasting benefits to children in this high risk group:

In a randomized cohort study, the intervention reduced those children’s tendency to attribute hostile intent to others, according to Vivien Keil, PhD, of the University of California Los Angeles.

The reduction was maintained for at least three months and may lead to improved developmental outcomes, Keil and colleagues reported in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

“Children with (prenatal alcohol exposure) have a hard time making and keeping friends,” Keil said in a statement. “They tend to have difficulty understanding social cues and common social norms.”