Teen Trends - Monthly Newsletter from CWK

Use of Diet Pills by Teen Girls Soaring

It appears the national obsession with weight and looks is hitting teenage girls especially hard.

A study of 2,500 female teenagers by the University of Minnesota’s Project EAT found that diet pill usage by high school-aged girls nearly doubled over a five-year period – to just over 14 percent. And by the time they were 19 and 20, one out of every five of the females surveyed were taking diet pills.

Another disturbing fact: nearly 22 percent of the teen girls surveyed were using “very unhealthy weight control behaviors,” which included diet pills, skipping meals, laxatives or vomiting.

“These numbers are startling,” says professor Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, one of the study’s researchers, “and they tell us we need to do a better job of helping our daughters feel better about themselves and avoid unhealthy weight control behaviors.”

Neumark-Sztainer says parents can play a major role in keeping their children healthy – by establishing good eating habits, making sure their kids are physically active and by helping children build a positive body image.

Weekday Afternoon Driving as Dangerous as Weekends for Teens

Attention parents who’ve ever waited up for their teen drivers to get home on a Friday or Saturday night… A new report says the after school hours on the weekdays are just as deadly as the weekends for adolescent motorists.

According to a new AAA analysis of crash data, nearly as many 16- and 17-year-old drivers were involved in fatal crashes between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, as were on Friday and Saturday nights.

"Parents are right to be worried about their novice teen drivers being on the road during the high-risk evening and late night hours when most state licensing programs correctly limit teen driving," said AAA president and CEO Robert L. Darbelnet. "But parents also need to be engaged in their teens' driving activities during the after school hours when so many teens are on the road and, tragically, many are involved in deadly crashes.”

At least 35 states currently have graduated driver-licensing programs that limit night driving for new teen drivers and also limit the number of teen passengers for a new driver.

Many Teens Grow Out of Migraines

One out of every five teens suffers from migraines – intense, pounding headaches that are often accompanied by nausea and vomiting.

But a new survey says the majority of those teen migraine sufferers will be migraine-free by the time they enter adulthood.

An Italian study looked at teenagers with migraines five and ten years after their preliminary screenings and found that nearly 40 percent no longer had migraines ten years later. Another 20 percent developed less severe headaches.

"This is great news for children and teens who are dealing with migraine headaches," said Dr. Rosolino Camarda, a neurologist at the University of Palermo and the study’s author. "Most of them will no longer have to deal with these disabling headaches by the time they are adults.”

Smoking Doesn’t Keep Girls Thin and May Keep Boys Short

Here’s more ammunition for parents who find their teens smoking – contrary to popular belief, smoking doesn’t help in weight control – and it may turn teen boys into shrimpy grown-ups.

A five-year study out of McGill University in Montreal looked at nearly 1,300 students – and found that smoking and non-smoking girls gain weight at the same rate.

But 42 per cent of boys in the survey who smoked were slimmer and shorter than non-smoking boys, which suggests that smoking may have stunted their growth.

“By the time we started following the girls, they already had reached puberty,” said Dr. Louise Pilote, an epidemiologist with the university’s Health Centre. “Whereas in boys, puberty comes in later so that could be a factor that explains the difference between boys and girls.”

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