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| Childhood Obesity Awareness Month |
 September 2013 is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month,
and even kids with limited access to nutritious food can find
themselves at risk for obesity. More than 20 percent of U.S. children
lived in households that were food-insecure during part of 2011. These
children are actually at greater risk of being overweight, perhaps
because of lower diet quality or less variety, or because unpredictable
availability of food can lead to overeating. Even marginal food
insecurity is associated with poor health and developmental outcomes,
extending to behavioral problems and depression.
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Full-day kindergarten attendance triples over 35 years
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Since
1977, the percentage of kindergarteners enrolled in full-day (in
contrast to half-day) programs has nearly tripled, from 28 percent then
to 76 percent in 2012, with no variation by family income level. While
one study found that children in these programs scored higher in math
and reading through second grade, another found that academic gains had
largely disappeared by the end of first grade. There's similar ambiguity
regarding behavioral outcomes for these kids. Read more in the Child Trends DataBank.
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| National Grandparents Day |
| Children living without their parents |
Nearly
3 million U.S. children live in homes with no parent present; more than
half of these live with grandparents. Just in time for National
Grandparents Day (Sept 8th) comes this review of literature
about children in nonparental care. It points out, for example, that not
much is known about the quality of relationships between caregivers and
parents. Evidence suggests that positive relationships may be
beneficial to the children, by promoting parent-child contact or
more-stable placements. The report was produced by Child Trends for The
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the
Department of Health and Human Services.
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Beyond twerking: What we know about sex among teens
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 Miley Cirus's recent performance at the MTV Music Video Awards elevated twerking
in the popular lexicon, and with it much speculation about sexual
attitudes and actions among today's teens. We know, though, that dating
during adolescence is common (66 percent of 12th
graders have) and that most sexually active teens first have sex in a
steady dating relationship. But a smaller percentage of high school
students are sexually active than were just over twenty years ago. Child
Trends' Elisabeth Golub on what we know about sex and dating among
teens, in our latest blog post. |
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Copyright © 2013 by Child Trends, Inc.
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