Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Top 10 Lycos Web Searches for the Week ending 8/23/08

1. Paris Hilton
2. Clay Aiken
3. YouTube
4. Michael Phelps
5. U.S. Summer Olympics
6. Pamela Anderson
7. Facebook
8. Dara Torres
9. Madonna
10. Morgan Freeman

Source: Lycos
http://50.lycos.com/

iTunes – Top 10 Downloaded Songs 8/28/08

1. Whatever You Like – T.I.
2. So What – Pink
3. I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
4. Disturbia – Rihanna
5. Paper Planes – M.I.A.
6. Viva La Vida  – Coldplay
7. Get Back – Demi Lovato
8. Hot N Cold – Katy Perry
9. All Summer Long – Hit Masters
10. I Kissed a Girl – Katy Perry

Source: Apple iTunes

Top 10 TV Shows in Prime Time – Week ending 8/24/08

1. Summer Olympics Tue. Prime Time
2. Summer Olympics Mon. Prime Time
3. Summer Olympics Closing Ceremonies
4. Summer Olympics Wed. Prime Time
5. Summer Olympics Thurs. Prime Time
6. Beijing Closing Party
7. Summer Olympics Fri. Prime Time
8. Summer Olympics Sat. Prime Time
9. Two and a Half Men
10. NCIS

Source: Nielsen Media

Top 5 Movies – Week ending 8/7/08

1. Tropic Thunder
2. The Dark Knight
3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
4. Pineapple Express
5. Mirrors

Source: Box Office Mojo
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekly/chart/?yr=2008&wk=04&p=.htm

Only 42% of Teen Auto Passengers Are Buckling Up

Injury prevention experts have long known that teens are less likely than other motorists to wear seat belts while driving. Now, researchers from the Meharry-State Farm(R) Alliance at Meharry Medical College have discovered lack of seat belt use by teen passengers may be an even bigger problem.

In the first ever direct comparison of the differences between driver and passenger seat belt use for a nationally representative teen population, the Meharry researchers found that 59% of teens always buckled up in the driver seat but only 42% always wore seat belts as passengers. Even more sobering, only 38% of all teens reported always buckling up as both drivers and passengers.

Source: Marketwatch
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/teens-making-poor-choices-comes/story.aspx?guid=%7B4F6B36F3-641B-4938-95EC-D6B6F221AC5A%7D&dist=hppr

Study: Church-Going Teens Have Higher GPAs

Regular church attendance may boost a student's GPA, according to a new study.

Students who attend religious services weekly average a GPA of 0.144 higher than those who never attend services, said Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

"That suggests that the act of attending church – the structure and the social aspects associated with it – could be more important to educational outcomes than the actual religion," the sociologist suggested.

Despite the positive link between church attendance and academic success, the study surprisingly found the importance of religion to teens had "very little impact" on their educational outcomes, Glanville noted, according to the University of Iowa News Services. The study had looked at whether the teens said religion was important to them.

According to the study, church-going teens tend to do better in school because of regular contact with adults from various generations who serve as role models; their parents are more likely to communicate with their friends' parents; they develop friendships with peers who have similar norms and values; and they're more likely to participate in extracurricular activities.

Source: Christian Post
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080823/study-church-going-teens-have-higher-gpas.htm

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade about this news, but you'll have to forgive me for not being very excited about the findings. Sure, what can be said is that regular church-going teens have higher GPAs than those who aren't. But, I just can't go gaga over the increase of 0.144. The kid who doesn't go to church and has a 2.30 GPA, gets a 2.44 if he or she goes to church regularly. Now, even I would be excited if it had been a full point increase!

Also of note regarding this study is that there is no differentiation made as to various religions. And, as the study points out, the increase might be due to the structure and social aspects associated with attendance, not the religion itself.

More on Back to School Shopping

Because of  higher gas and food price concerns, 71 percent of respondents in a new Deloitte survey said they plan to spend less on back-to-school items this year. Almost half (48 percent) plan to reduce their household spending by more than $100. In addition, consumers will change where and how they shop.

According to a national study of US mothers by the Marketing to Moms Coalition, though, back-to-school spending in 2008 will be modestly higher than last year, with an 8% increase over last year's spending levels, at $484, compared with $449. 

While consumers will continue to buy supplies, such as paper, pencils and notebooks (95 percent), clothes (92 percent), shoes (86 percent) and backpacks/book bags (68 percent), many indicated that they intend to cut back on these purchases. Notably, more than eight in 10 said they will spend less on clothes, while 48 percent said they will spend less on shoes and 30 percent said they will spend less on backpacks/book bags. Almost one-third (29 percent) said they will spend less on supplies.

The vast majority of consumers (88 percent) will do their back-to-school shopping this year at discount/value department stores. Almost four in 10 (37 percent) will shop at dollar stores, and almost one-third (32 percent) will shop at office supply/computer stores.

Source: Center for Media Research
http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/research_brief/?p=1776

Check out my other recent post on this topic by clicking here.

College Presidents Want Lower Drinking Age

College presidents from about 100 of the best-known U.S. universities, including Duke, Dartmouth and Ohio State, are calling on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18, saying current laws actually encourage dangerous binge drinking on campus.

The movement called the Amethyst Initiative began quietly recruiting presidents more than a year ago to provoke national debate about the U.S. drinking age, which is among the highest in the world.

But even before the presidents begin the public phase of their efforts, which may include publishing newspaper ads in the coming weeks, they are already facing sharp criticism.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving says lowering the drinking age would lead to more fatal car crashes. It accuses the presidents of misrepresenting science and looking for an easy way out of an inconvenient problem. MADD officials are even urging parents to think carefully about the safety of colleges whose presidents have signed on.

Both sides agree alcohol abuse by college students is a huge problem.

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-08-18-college-drinking_N.htm

Personally, I seriously doubt that lowering the drinking age is the answer to the problem of alcohol abuse on college campuses. I understand the rationale, but to me it seems more like an attempt to deal with the symptom (the alcohol abuse on campuses) and not the real problem (why kids are abusing alcohol - which might be more about the factors of college-age students dealing with new-found independence and the their proneness to experimentation during late-adolescence than with the drinking age.)

To me, this is another aspect of long debated issues of permissiveness in our culture, as in, if we were more permissive in areas of drugs and alcohol, would this lower the tendency to engage in behaviors that have been "prohibited" in the past?

Also, what about 18-year-old high school students? I would absolutely bank on some buying alcohol for their friends, and parties if the drinking age is lowered.

What's your take? Should the drinking age be lowered?

Poor Sleep Linked to High Blood Pressure in Teens

Teens who don't get enough sleep or have poor-quality sleep run the risk of elevated blood pressure, a new study finds.

It's the first study to make such a connection, said study senior author Dr. Susan Redline, director of the University Hospitals Sleep Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

"In adults, there has been evidence that less than six hours of sleep a night was associated with high blood pressure levels," said Redline, who is professor of medicine and pediatrics at Case Western Reserve. "No study has been done in adolescents."

Redline and her colleagues studied 238 boys and girls ages 13 to 16, asking about their sleep habits. They found that 11 percent of them slept less than 6.5 hours a night, and 26 percent had poor "sleep efficiency," with frequent awakenings at night.

One of every seven teens in the study had either hypertension, which is high blood pressure greater than 120 over 80, or borderline high blood pressure called prehypertension. Teens with less than 85 percent sleep efficiency had nearly three times the odds of high blood pressure, the researchers reported.

Source: U.S. News & World Report
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/08/18/poor-sleep-linked-to-high-blood-pressure-in-teens.html

Problem Parents Contribute to Teen Drug Use

A survey on substance abuse among teens was released recently that really lowers the boom on parents. The annual survey from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University calls out parents for contributing to drug and alcohol use among kids ages 12 to 17. Some parents fail to monitor their children's activities, do not safeguard medications at home that can be used for abuse, and do not set good examples for their kids, the report said.

Almost half of the teens surveyed -- a nationally representative sample of 1,002 teens and 312 of their parents -- said they leave the house to hang out with friends on school nights. Among those teens, half who come home after 10 p.m. said they had been drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or doing other drugs. Just under 30% of those who come home between 8 and 10 p.m. said they had been drinking or using drugs. In contrast, only 14% of the parents said their teens leave the house to hang out with friends on school nights.

Source: Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2008/08/problem-parents.html