Six varsity high school football teams were assessed by confidential questionnaire regarding anabolic steroids, before and 2 weeks after an education intervention. The education program used the American College of Sports Medicine's position on the “use of anabolic androgenic steroids in sports.” Two teams received a lecture and a four-page handout, two teams were given the handout only, and two teams were controls. Self-report of current use was 1.1% but 38.8% claimed availability of these agents. Although increased awareness of the adverse effects of anabolic steroid was found after the education program, no differences in attitudes toward the use of anabolic steroids occurred as compared to controls. Strategies designed to dissuade adolescent athletes from considering these drugs need to be developed.
This review examines images relating to gender roles on television and the possible impact of these images. Numerous content analyses point to one basic finding: on television, women are underrepresented and the images of both men and women tend to be stereotypical and traditional, despite a number of programs with characterizations that present a more liberated view of gender roles. Studies examining the impact of these images have focused upon four specific areas: the perception of gender-typed behaviors and occupational roles; the tendency of children to identify with specific television characters; the notion of counter-stereotypical portrayals; and the cultivation of gender-role attitudes in both adults and children.
This study evaluated the effects of lessons taught by trained nonprofessional volunteers in community prenatal clinics. Project participants (n = 210) and comparison subjects (n = 189) were pregnant women, aged 18 years or younger. Participants were divided according to those who attended eight or more lessons (high treatment, n = 94) and those who attended fewer lessons (n = 116). A system of rewards for attendance was used. The number of prenatal visits was significantly different between the three groups (p less than 0.001), with the high-treatment participants having a significantly greater number of visits than the other groups. The groups differed on gestational age at delivery (p less than 0.006), favoring the infants of high-treatment participants; however, only 8% of gestational age variance was attributable to prenatal visits. A significantly greater proportion of high-treatment participants returned for postpartum care (p less than 0.011 vs. low-treatment participants, p less than 0.002 vs. comparison subjects). Postpartum return was not improved by a hospital visit by a volunteer. Regardless of treatment, most (99%) accepted a contraceptive method at their postpartum visit. The groups did not differ on their return for method check at 3 months. However, a significantly greater proportion of the high-treatment participants returned for an annual family planning evaluation (p less than 0.015 vs. low-treatment participants, p less than 0.005 vs. comparison subjects). Both the high- and low-treatment participants differed significantly from the comparison subjects on having taken their infants for at least one well-child visit during the first year (p less than 0.001 for both tests).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Two to four percent of the population carry meningococcus in the nasopharynx. Pharyngeal infections may be the entry point for blood-borne metastatic lesions throughout the body. Primary infections in other tissues are rare, and proof of transmission from a known carrier to a specific patient is uncommon. We report a primary infection of the urethra with the meningococcus in a heterosexual male contracted during an act of fellatio.
The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether or not the family-planning compliance patterns of indigent adolescents could be influenced by various types of incentives. From February 1988 through January 1989, 534 postpartum inner city teenagers, aged 12–19, who delivered at a large city-county public hospital, participated. Teens were randomly assigned to two treatment groups that either offered a coupon for milk for the infant or a gift for the teenage mother if they returned for their postpartum visit 4–6 weeks after delivery. A third group, which used no incentive for appointment keeping, acted as a control. Although overall compliance was low, a significant relationship was found between type of program incentive and compliance outcome. The program using milk coupons as an incentive had the best compliance rate. This incentive appeared to be most effective with black adolescents. Such incentive programs, although not without controversy, offer a potential way to enhance postpartum contraceptive appointment-keeping compliance in a high-risk population.
In the present investigation, laser-induction welding using oscillating beam guidance is employed to joint sheets of nodular grey cast iron, which typically exhibit poor weldability properties. Through non-destructive dye-penetrant testing, a reduction of more than 50% in crack density as a result of manipulted thermal cycles is identified. The microstructural and chemical characterization using scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron backscatter diffraction reveal the formation of brittle cementite lamellae with austenite/ferrite at the inter-lamellar spaces. The direction of beam oscillation and, thus, melt pool dynamics as well as thermal history exhibit a substantial influence on hardness and tensile properties, which are favourable for specimens welded with beam oscillation perpendicular to the traverse direction. Here, the maximum hardness of EN-GJS-400–15 specimens is reduced to around 700 HV. Yet, embrittlement and cleavage fracture originating from cold-cracks and pores within the weld metal are observed as well and emphasize the ongoing challenges of welding nodular grey cast iron.
Of 43 adolescent mothers who had been enrolled in a specialized program of prenatal care, 20 reported no subsequent unplanned pregnancy for 2 years. Descriptive statistics were used to identify differences between these nonrepeaters and 23 repeaters. The locus-of-control framework provided the theoretical basis for the study. The two study groups and those lost to follow-up were similar in demographic characteristics. School attendance, contraceptive knowledge, use of contraception, locus of control, and maternal support did not effectively differentiate the two groups. Program activities, including attendance at prenatal groups and nurse/social worker visits, also did not explain recidivism. Implications of these findings for health care providers and for further research are discussed.
Samples of adolescent and adult mothers of 6-month-old infants were compared on parenting knowledge, quality of stimulation in the home, and family involvement with the infant. Adolescents perceived that care-giving had less influence on infant outcome and they provided a lower quality of stimulation in the home environment than did adults. For both groups, greater knowledge was associated with higher quality of stimulation in the home. Adolescents were more likely to live with their own mother/grandmother, less likely to live with the infant's father, and more likely to live in larger households. The adolescent's infant was more likely to have daily involvement with the maternal grandmother. Approximately 50% of the fathers in both groups were involved on a daily basis. The fathers were involved to a greater extent if the mother of the infant was an adult. Services to adolescents with infants should include an assessment of family participation in infant care and provide support to the mother.
To investigate the outcomes for repeat teenage pregnancy and the effect of interpregnancy interval on birth weight, birth certificate data were reviewed from all mothers under 26 years delivering their second baby during 1981–1983 at an urban teaching hospital. Initially, 409 mothers who had delivered their first baby at the same hospital were identified. Mothers were divided into three groups: mothers under 20 years for both births; mothers under 20 years for the first birth, with the second birth delayed until 20 to 25 years; and mothers 20–25 years for both births. Group 1 mothers had high but identical rates of low birth weight (17.5%) for both parities, high rates of very low birth weight infants (<1501 g), and no change in mean birth weight between the two pregnancies. Group 2 mothers were older at first birth and had better outcomes for first and second births than group 1 mothers. For group 1 mothers, the initiation of prenatal care was delayed at second pregnancy compared to first pregnancy (46% receiving first trimester care versus 59% at first delivery). In contrast, groups 2 and 3 showed improvement in accessing prenatal care for the second pregnancy. Interpregnancy interval had no influence on the birth weight of the second infant in any group.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in adolescents has been reported in a number of studies, but little attention has been given to the potential for an epidemic spread among inner city adolescents. Voluntary HIV testing and counseling without parental consent should be available to all adolescents, especially those at high risk of infection. Although physicians may fear legal liability as a consequence of testing and counseling adolescents without parental permission, legal authority to do so exists in most jurisdictions in the United States. The sources for that authority differ from state to state. This article analyzes these sources. Requirements for confidentiality or the disclosure of test results to parents vary from state to state, but in most instances there is no authority to disclose the confidence of a minor patient who has independently consented to his or her own treatment.
This study examined the extent to which child sexual abuse was associated with an increased likelihood of premarital sex among adolescents at high risk of sexual abuse. The sample consisted of 177 teenage girls who, because of evidence of family dysfunction, had become part of a public child welfare system. Half the sample had been placed in a foster home and the remainder were receiving protective services in their own home. About 40% of the teens in both groups had been sexually abused, although teens still living at home were less likely to have reported abuse. Victims of sexual abuse were found to be more likely to have engaged in voluntary sexual intercourse, even after background factors were controlled. Teens in foster home were somewhat less likely to be sexually active than the teens who remained at home.
