The teen court concept has gained popularity in recent years as juvenile courts have had to deal with increased numbers of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. Its acceptance has been fueled, in part, by positive anecdotal reports from those involved with this peer-centered approach. This Bulletin examines several teen court evaluations, but cautions that we lack the empirical data...

This study examined behaviors of African American male adolescents, resulting from father absence. It further examined the extent to which there is a relation between African American boys’ behavior and their status as sons of an absent father. Effects of father absence was approached by researching articles and journals comparing African American males raised in female headed household to Afri...

Professor Hersch argues that most state regulations aimed at fighting teen smoking have had little or no effect. She provides evidence that despite widespread age restrictions on purchasing tobacco, most teens do not consider it difficult for minors to purchase tobacco products within their community. She also presents evidence demonstrating a strong correlation between smoking rates and perc...

A complex process is often a balance between non-stationary and stationary components. We show how the non-extensive Tsallis q-entropy indicator may be interpreted as a measure of non-stationarity in time series. This is done by applying the non-extensive entropy formalism to the Diffusion Entropy Analysis (DEA). We apply the analysis to the study of the teen birth phenomenon. We find that the ...

Mechanisms that account for treatment effects are poorly understood. The current study examined processes that may underlie treatment outcomes of an attachment-based intervention (Connect) for parents of pre-teens and teens with serious behavior problems. Parents (N = 540) in a non-randomized trial reported on their teen's functioning prior to and following treatment. Results confirmed signific...

Results from a qualitative study with parents about underage drinking are presented. Semistructured interviews (n = 44) were conducted with parents of teens to investigate whether and why parents permit underage drinking. Parents had three primary reasons for allowing underage drinking: deliberate, spontaneous, and harm reduction. Deliberate reasons included passing on knowledge about drinking ...

A lmost one million teenagers in the United States become pregnant each year (“Facts in Brief”), and these same teens’ ideas about sex and related matters are strongly influenced by the media. Young adult novels about teen pregnancy can speak to teens who “want to read about things that are interesting and true” (Donelson and Nilsen 87). These same teens also read young adult literature to “fin...

OBJECTIVE Few studies have investigated risk factors that predispose males to be involved in teen pregnancies. To provide new information on such factors, we examined the relationships of eight common adverse childhood experiences to a male's risk of impregnating a teenager. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study using questionnaire responses from 7399 men who visited a primary car...

One of many important objectives for teen services librarians is to develop a relevant and current collection of materials. This collection should be representative of the community in which the library resides and the teens in that community. It is important for teens to be able to see themselves in books as both characters and writers. The writing of this paper was triggered by a group of tee...

OBJECTIVES To compare national fatality rates for teen drivers by vehicle type. METHODS Fatality rates were calculated for 16- to 19-year-old drivers by vehicle type using data from the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (1999-2003) and estimates of miles driven from the National Household Transportation Survey (2001). Relative fatality risks for teen drivers of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) an...