The Relationship betweenTeenage Motherhood and Marriage

Teenage childbearing is associated with many adverse consequences for teen mothers, their families,
and children. Many of the negative consequences for teen mothers are due to the disadvantaged
situations in which many of these girls already lived before having a teen birth. While the disad-
vantaged backgrounds of most teen mothers account for many of the burdens that these young women
shoulder, having a baby during adolescence often restricts economic and educational opportunities, and
these disadvantages tend to be passed on to the next generation. Children born to teen mothers are often
worse off than children born to older mothers.1 They are at higher risk of poverty, low educational attain-
ment, problem behavior, early sexual activity, and becoming a teen parent themselves.2–4 Marriage, or
more specifically, the absence of marriage, helps explain this cycle of disadvantage.
Many family-related factors affect how children fare and develop over time, and marriage is one of them.
Research suggests that children do best when they are raised by two parents who have a stable marriage.5
Yet only 20 percent of teen births occur within marriage ,9 and teen pregnancy itself is associated with a
lower likelihood of marriage. Teen mothers are unlikely to marry the biological fathers of their children,
and those teenage mothers who do wed often end up in unstable marriages.6,7 For their part, the unmar-
ried fathers are less likely to be involved in their children’s lives, and reduced paternal involvement is
associated with lower child well-being.8 For all of these reasons, helping more women reach adulthood
before they have children would go a long way toward ensuring that more children grow up in stable,
married families. And considering the large body of research on the benefits to children of growing up in
such families, the link between reducing teen pregnancies and improving overall child well-being is clear.
By khagendra Acharya

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Bursting glacial lakes in Nepal

For the people of Nepal, the threats of global warming are not something they fear for the future, but something they face right now. “Glaciers are rivers frozen in time and time is running out for Nepal's glaciers,” says Ang Tshering Sherpa, the president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association and the Union of Asian Alpine Associations. He is trying to turn the world’s attention to his country’s glacial lakes, which are threatening to burst and cause massive destruction, including the trail to Mount Everest

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Five-Letter Words

As I shoveled the last bite of spaghetti into my mouth, I heard a voice from the next room, “Come on, Tracy. I want to teach you some five-letter words tonight.”

“Okay, Daddy.” I skipped into the family room and my father scooped me into his lap, a pen and paper in hand.

“I’m going to write some words down, and I want you to pronounce them, all right?”

“Okay.” I kissed him on the cheek and waited excitedly for the words to

 

form on the page. Nights with my parents teaching me words were the highlight of my day; and little did I know they would be the most important lessons of my life.

Ever since I learned to read I have been in love with the English language. Words are my passion, and I have been writing everything from fiction to poetry since I could first form sentences. When I started preschool, I began reading books on my own. My teacher was impressed and allowed me to read to the class. My favorite books in elementary school included The Chronicles of Narnia and some of Stephen King’s shorter novels, among hundreds of others.

My parents always assumed that I would graduate at the top of my class. They were extremely proud that I was so interested in school. I was usually the first to finish assignments and would help others who were struggling. One thing that has been consistent in my life is my dream to become a teacher, and I believe it may have stemmed from the satisfaction I received from helping classmates.

Around seventh grade, my outlook on school changed. Although I maintained my love for words, I became moody and rebellious, refusing to work hard. Instead, I would sneak my own books into school and read them during class. Because of my attitude, my grades suffered.

Regrettably, I did not realize the repercussions until it was too late to erase the damage. It was difficult for me to understand the importance of school, and I am really sad that I wasted four years of my academic career. Due to dropping grades, freshman year I was grouped with the lazy, unmotivated students who hated reading (instead of those who were more like me: stimulated from the get-go and ready to learn). But instead of realizing that I was misplaced, I fell hard, telling myself, “Just wait until college. I will do all of my work then because I’ll be doing what I love every day.”

I wish I had known that this attitude would hurt me in the end, but I hope it does not cost me admission to college. While I don’t expect to be chosen over a student with an immaculate transcript, I hope that if I am compared to a student with a similar transcript, I will shine due to my passion and sincere promise of success.

I firmly believe I will succeed as a high school English teacher. English has always been my forte, and I understand how to deal with “slackers” because I am able to empathize with them. I want nothing more in life than to teach students the wonders of literature so they can reach their potential. I know I can succeed in college – it’s what I have been waiting for my whole life. Now that it is approaching, I would like the chance I feel I deserve.

My father’s lessons have enabled me to succeed and I hope they will follow me forever. Those five-letter words have had a great impact on my life, allowing me to “learn,” “dream,” “trust,” and hopefully “teach” someday.

I have the potential and the enthusiasm to succeed as an English major. It is what I have been working toward ever since those days of my parents’ teaching, and I eagerly look forward to what college has in store.

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Optimism Comes with Age

People tend to see the glass half full more frequently as they age, new research indicates.

Researchers showed test subjects virtual faces portraying sadness, anger, fear and happiness.They used eye-tracking technology to record which faces the subjects looked at and for how long.

Test subjects age 18-21 focused on the fear faces. Those 57 to 84 zeroed in on the happy faces and avoided the angry ones.
The participants were screened for cognitive ability—all were sharp.
What's it mean? Perhaps with their time on Earth getting shorter, people tend to focus on things that make them feel good now, the researchers figure. Whatever the reason, they seem motivated to avoid focusing on negative information.
"The study suggests that the way individuals in late life process information enables them to stay on an even emotional keel and feel good," said study leader Derek Isaacowitz of Brandeis University. "By focusing more on positive things and avoiding negative ones, older adults are able to maintain emotional resilience, which becomes acutely important in the face of dwindling time."

 

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Teens and Sex

Why teens start having sex in the first place. Environment, age of partner and perceived family support may affect young people's decisions to have sex.


While the media bombards us with alarming statistics about the number of teenagers having sex, few  reports shed light on what might encourage teens to become sexually active in the first place. Three studies offer some insight into sexually active teens: environment, age of partner and perceived family support may affect young people's decisions to have sex.

In a study presented at a meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA), researchers at the University of Kentucky followed 950 teenagers at 17 high schools in Kentucky and Ohio from 9th to 11th grades. They found evidence that teens who have intercourse tend to think their friends are too, even if they're not. "You're 2.5 times more likely to have sex by the 9th grade if you think your friends are having sex -- whether or not they really are," says Katharine Atwood, assistant professor at the Kentucky School of Public Health. Plus, teens tended to overestimate how many of their friends were sexually active. Only 33 percent of kids in the study had had sex by the 9th grade, but 31 percent said that most or all of their friends had had sex. "If you can persuade them that fewer are having sex than they think," she says, "that can have a significant impact on their behavior

Among young girls, a partner's age is a risk factor for sexual activity. "The younger the girl is at the age of first intercourse, the more likely she is to have a much older partner," says Harold Leitenberg, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Vermont. His study, published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that of 4,201 girls in 8th through 12th grades, those who lost their virginity between ages 11 and 12 tended to have partners five or more years older. For girls who had sex later in adolescence, the partner's age disparity was much smaller. Early sexual initiation was also associated with a number of behavioral problems. "Ignoring the age of the partners, the earlier a girl was when she first had intercourse, the greater her risk of suicide attempts, alcohol use, drug abuse, truancy and pregnancy," Leitenberg says

The good news is that while teen sex may not be wholly preventable, the health risks it involves can be reduced through communication within the family. More research presented at the APHA meeting showed that frequent parent-child discussions about sex and its dangers may prevent teenagers from engaging in risky sexual behavior. Researchers at Emory University questioned 522 sexually active African-American adolescents about the openness and support that their families provided. Adolescents who felt that their families were more supportive were less likely to have unprotected sex, and thus were at a lesser risk for pregnancy and disease.

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"The Importance Of Solar Energy Advantages"

It has always been obvious that the earth is capable of producing a lot more energy than we think. In fact, most of the fossil fuels are depleting, and some people are worried about where our energy is going to come from when the inevitable happens.

However, there is a way that each of us can get the energy that we need, with little or no trouble. It is called solar energy advantages, and if everyone used it, there would be not need to ever use any other types of resources.

How Does It Work

There are many ways that solar energy advantages can work for you. First of all, the easiest way for you to take advantage of solar energy advantages is to install solar panels on your home. You can easily install these on your roof or put them in when you build a new house.

The only thing that might take a little doing is making sure that the home is wired to understand the solar energy advantages and where it is coming from. You will need to install, as well, a generator that can harness the solar energy advantages and turn it into usable power.

After you have made the installations, you don't need to worry about using your solar energy advantages only when the sun is out. First of all, the panels will catch the energy from the sun, even when it is overcast.

Also, the panels will catch much more energy than you can use in a day, so the energy is converted and stored in the solar energy advantages generator. This means that you can use it on your own, during the night and other very stormy or cloudy days.

One of the best things about using solar energy advantages is that you are doing your part to help out the earth. If everyone was to use solar energy advantages, our dependence on other types of energy would be completely gone and we'd find ourselves in a much cleaner and happier world.

It might be expensive to install solar energy advantages panels and to convert the energy at first, but once you have the system up and running, it means that you no longer have to pay for any of your electricity or even your heat. Imagine not having those bills to pay.

Also, the best thing about using solar energy advantages is that it is excellent for the earth, and if you have enough panels, you will make enough energy to actually sell some back to the electrical companies. Imagine being able to do that!

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Are We Caring For The Environment?

Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important worldwide, and we all have a duty to do our bit to protect our future by being as ‘green’ as possible. As we develop a furniture making business we must realise what impact we are having on the environment, and what we can do to keep carbon emissions to a minimum, as well as recycling wherever we can.

There is however, a compromise to be reached between manufacturing efficiency, affecting product cost, and what clients are willing to pay for the end product.

Before the industrial age, furniture was handmade. Trees were being cut down, planked into boards, air dried and turned into furniture all with the use of hand tools. It took two men (one of them stood in a pit) with a long saw hours to convert a tree trunk into boards, which now takes minutes with the right machine, one man with the skill to use it, and a little petrol, diesel or electricity (and hopefully gas conversions will be coming soon). The question is whether the end user is willing to pay the wages for two men to saw the wood up or pay a great deal less but put some carbon into the atmosphere?

Since the industrial revolution, we have developed machinery to speed the making process up, to a stage where the human hand does not even come in contact with wood (if indeed ‘real’ wood has been used). Thankfully, we are not, nor will we ever will be in this market. Our machines are not that specialised and we use our hand skills to make a solid piece of furniture that will become an antique. However, our woodworking machines still use electricity, which is not as ‘green’ as doing it all by hand. Our clients would not pay for labour intensive furniture. Even places such as China and India are getting away from the cheap labour methods of production, and are beginning to use more advanced mechanisation as their countries develop. This, at the same time as cutting costs to the consumer, also increases profits for the manufacturer and/or retailer.

We have to be economical (note ‘eco’) with electricity and fossil fuels without being ridiculous. Do we use a horse and cart to deliver a new four poster bed? Or do we use diesel or gas in low emission vehicles, combining deliveries to several customers, so that we are on the road as little as possible?

Customers are asking for beeswax or natural oil finished four poster beds, which is more environmentally friendly than pre-catalyst lacquers. The latter does give better protection against heat and water, but does have an impact on the environment by atomising (sprayed on) chemicals into our atmosphere. One solution that polish manufacturers are working on are water bourn lacquers, not solvent (cellulose for pre-catalyst) lacquers, but at present, we have found the ‘greener’ polish is less acceptable to the customer as the colour does not look as natural when used to produce an antique or reproduction finish.

As a business seen as consuming trees furniture makers may not seem very ‘green’, but by using locally grown timber from sustainable sources we can be as environmentally friendly as possible. Government funded schemes and grants have been introduced in parts of the UK encouraging and aiding the regeneration of local woodlands, and promoting the use of local materials from properly managed woodland, rather than using foreign hardwoods from rain forests. Virtually all of our furniture orders are made from local oak and ash, with hardly any orders coming in for mahogany, a great difference from twenty years ago. Customers are quite rightly concerned with where the timber is coming from, and mahogany like many other foreign hardwoods are out of fashion for the foreseeable future.

The Wood-Mizer sawmill can be used, and as the name suggests, has been developed to get the most out of the raw material with minimum waste. The bark and sapwood from the outside of the tree is dried and cut up for firewood, and sold locally. Small offcuts from the workshop are cut up for kindling wood, and we are at present trying to turn wood shavings and dust into winter fuel to keep us warm.

To save our ecosystem means we need, and are taking responsibility of our personal and business activities. By adapting our actions accordingly we do our share of planet saving, while maintaining a good quality, reasonably priced product that our customers are happy with, and one must remember that happy customers keep companies in business

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