Children's Sake Summit / TV and Teen Pregnancy / Driver's Ed for Love - 11/4/08

[Smartmarriages]

- FOR CHILDREN'S SAKE; SUMMIT NOV 19 & 20, ATLANTA
- STUDY IS FIRST TO LINK TV SEX TO TEEN PARENTHOOD
- DRIVER'S ED FOR LOVE

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- FOR CHILDREN'S SAKE; SUMMIT NOV 19 & 20, ATLANTA

The Supreme Court of Georgia and the Institute for American Values present
"For Children's Sake: A Summit on Marriage and Family,² Nov 19 & 20 in
Atlanta. A terrific group of national marriage and family leaders including
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and Elizabeth Marquardt will present town-hall style
panels on current and emerging topics in marriage, family, and the debt
crisis facing America¹s families. The banquet, Wed Nov 19, features a
conversation between two marriage leaders with very different points of view
­ David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch ­ on the future of marriage.  Summit:
$75 or with CE it's $125 (12 hrs CE for Georgia MFTs; 8 hrs CE for Georgia
attorneys).  Banquet: $50. Registration deadline: Nov 14.
For full agenda and registration information:
https://www.ciclt.net/aoc/Events/Registration.asp?E=101290&Ty=&P=&EL
For Banquet only registrations:  http://iav.eventbrite.com.
 
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- STUDY IS FIRST TO LINK TV SEX TO TEEN PARENTHOOD

And, speaking of our children's sake.....

> What they found: By age 16, teens who watched a lot of sexually charged TV
> were more than twice as likely to be pregnant or father an out-of-wedlock
> baby as teens who watched very little: 12% vs. 5%. The gap holds steady
> through age 20. Researchers controlled for parents' race, income and
> education and teens' total TV time.
> 
> Previous studies have linked sex on TV to earlier initiation of sex; this
> is the first to link TV sex to pregnancy.


Study is first to link TV sex to teen parenthood
More tube time increases likelihood
By Greg Toppo
USA TODAY
November 3, 2008

Could the amount of sex teens see on TV predict whether they'll become a
teen mother or father?

A study in today's Pediatrics says it's a distinct possibility.

The study is the first to draw a direct link between sexual content on TV
and the likelihood that teens who watch it will become parents. Researchers
examined survey data from about 2,000 teens. They plucked out 23 popular
shows and asked how much teens watched each. They coded the replies to
established indicators of sexual content for each show — everything from
nudge-nudge jokes on network sitcoms to full-blown intercourse on steamy
cable dramas.

What they found: By age 16, teens who watched a lot of sexually charged TV
were more than twice as likely to be pregnant or father an out-of-wedlock
baby as teens who watched very little: 12% vs. 5%. The gap holds steady
through age 20. Researchers controlled for parents' race, income and
education and teens' total TV time.

Previous studies have linked sex on TV to earlier initiation of sex; this
is the first to link TV sex to pregnancy.

"I don't find it surprising," says Jane Brown, who studies media and
adolescent health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Most
teenagers watch about three hours of TV a day, so the likelihood that
they'll encounter sexual content is high. "It's a cumulative effect," she
says. "It's probably not any one portrayal that makes the difference, but
it's a consistent, and now unhealthy, sexual script that adolescents do see
as a depiction of appropriate behavior."

Psychologist Dave Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family
sees parents "delegating sex education to Hollywood.  If I'm a 15-year-old
kid and no one's really talking to me about sex and I'm watching a lot of
sex on TV, it's not a direct, conscious decision, but over time I start to
think, 'That's what people do. That's the norm.' "

Lead researcher Anita Chandra of the Rand Corp. says even sex talk has an
effect. If a child is watching more than just an hour of TV a day, she
says, he is getting "a pretty substantial amount of exposure" to sex.

Brown says most TV shows portray sex as having few life-altering
implications, such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases. She calls
it a dearth of the three C's: commitment, contraceptives and consequences.

Even a tame sitcom joke takes a toll, she says. "It says, 'Everybody's
thinking about it, everybody's doing it and nobody's suffering any negative
consequences.' "
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- DRIVER'S ED FOR LOVE

A crash course on love, relationships
Gainesville Sun (Florida)
By Yara Simon
Correspondent

November 4, 2008 

After three years of research, one local woman has designed a course that
teaches the skills, knowledge and tools for being healthy in love.

Isabell Springer, who is becoming licensed as a marriage and is a family
therapist and doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Florida,
created "Driver's Ed for Love - Navigating Relationships: A Roadmap for
Young Adults" after she was upset by the pain her clients felt after a
devastating separation or divorce.

Springer, who divorced herself after 18 years of marriage, said people are
expected to naturally know how relationships function. After reading books
and Web sites about divorce and marriage, she developed "Driver's Ed for
Love," an activity-based course aimed to alleviate the more than 50 percent
divorce rate by helping young people achieve success in their relationship
goals, Springer said.

On Saturday, Springer will hold a course for high school students at the
Tower Road Branch Library, 3020 SW 75th St., from 9:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m.

To participate students must register on www.DriversEdForLove.com. The
library holds about 40 people.

The event is free and being sponsored by the library. Participants will have
free pizza for lunch.

Springer said she has made the course fun and easy to understand.

Her classes are targeted mostly to a younger audience, some of whom have
never been in a serious relationship.

"Academically, school gets you ready for life," Springer said. "And
socially, zero."

She added that future courses will be available to young adults.

Springer said most books focus on the relationship after divorce has
occurred, but she wanted to focus on helping people know what to look for in
a partner.

"I wanted people to have more than was available to me," she said.

Springer said she has received positive feedback from participants who have
gone through the course.

Graduate student Amy Mazak, 24, who attended one of Springer's sessions last
month, said the presentation was very informative and made a lot of sense.

"The age group being targeted is thinking of whether or not to marry," Mazak
said. "It is a positive portrayal, unlike in the media, which focuses on the
downsides to being married and the failed relationships in Hollywood."


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13th Annual Smart Marriages® Conference, Shingle Creek Resort,
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