"Free Teens Leadership Training empowers young people to value their lives and to live their values through its award-winning Relationship Intelligence education, which has been used in 38 states and many countries around the world."
For parents:
A guide for discussing Relationships and Waiting to Have Sex
Ways we can work with your organization:
- Teacher’s Training
- Summer Camp
- School and After School Programs
- Parents Meet Ups
- Motivational Speakers
Call us to discuss ways we can cooperate to empower our children. Recent studies shows we should focus, devote time and energy, to supplement the education our children are receiving at home and schools to protect them against HIV/AIDs, STDs, drug and alcohol abuse and empower them to make positive decision for their lives. Together we can make a difference.
Free Teens USA - An Abstinence Approach To Teenage Life
Abstinence Statistics & Studies: Sex and Drug Use Linked to Suicide Risk
April 22nd, 2007
Sex and Drug Use Increase Teen Suicide Risk
[Health Behavior News Service, 09/10/04]
Teens who engage in high-risk behaviors involving sex and drugs have significantly higher odds of depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts than teens who say no to sex and drugs, according to a study.
“These results suggest that healthcare professionals who identify adolescent patients reporting sexual intercourse or drug use should strongly consider screening for depression and risk of suicide,” says study author Denise D. Hallfors, Ph.D., a Senior Research Scientist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Adolescents are no strangers to the phenomena of depression and suicide. Previous research found 28 percent of U.S. high school students experienced severe depression, and the third leading cause of death for 15- to 19-year-olds is suicide. Suicide death rates among 15- to 19-year-olds doubled between 1960 and 2001, according to the study.
Hallfors and colleagues analyzed various sex and drug behavior patterns via data from a survey of nearly 19,000 teens in grades 7 through 12. The data were gathered in the mid-1990s from 132 U.S. schools as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.
The researchers clustered the teens in 16 groups according to their behaviors. Groups included the abstainers, who eschewed sex and drugs; sex dabblers; alcohol and sex dabblers; teens with multiple sexual partners; and illegal drug users.
Abstainers had the lowest levels of depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, while teens in groups associated with sex and drugs, and heavy use of illegal drugs such as marijuana had the highest levels. In between were the dabblers in sex, drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
The results appear in the current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
The researchers found girls less likely than boys to pursue high-risk behaviors, but girls who did were more vulnerable than boys to the constellation of depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
Another interesting finding involved the association of socioeconomic status with depression. While higher socioeconomic status reduced the likelihood of depression by about half, it increased the risk of suicidal thoughts. Hallfors and colleagues call for more research to examine this phenomenon.
Further research is needed to understand which comes first: sex and drugs or poor mental health. But until then, Hallfors and colleagues advise healthcare professionals to screen all teens for sexual behaviors and drug use. Those who engage in such behaviors?especially those who do more than dabble in them?should be screened for depression and suicide risk also.
“It is particularly important not to miss opportunities to diagnose depression because effective treatments are available, or to overlook suicide risk because suicide can be prevented,” Hallfors says.
Funding for the study was from the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
April 3rd, 2006
We all know about the costs of teen pregnancies, the health risks of sexually transmitted diseases, the human costs of fatherless families, and how relationship “issues” affect our schools, workplace and society at large. Can anything be done about these problems? Past educational approaches have been ineffective at best. Some would say that nothing can be done, but we respectfully disagree.
The Free Teens of Pennsylvania invites you to join us on March 29, 2006 (from 1:00 - 5:00pm), for a conference on Supporting and Challenging Our Youth at the Harrisburg Hilton Hotel in Harrisburg. This conference is designed to present to you the positive impact of abstinence-based character education in our schools, how it benefits the business community and the society at large.
Registration Form |
Featured speakers:
Richard Panzer, Founder and CEO of Free Teens USA
Free Teens is a reality-based, abstinence-centered HIV/AIDS, STDs, and Pregnancy Prevention program used in 38 states and in more than 70 countries around the world. It has been translated into 12 languages. Mr. Panzer has spoken to audiences all over the world.
Dr. David Kandole
Dr. Kandole is Founder and Senior Pastor of Global Outreach Christian Center Church in Harrisburg, PA with. Dr. David Kandole was born and raised in the beautiful nation of Uganda, East Africa. He will speak on how the ABC program is effective and saving lives in Uganda.
Registration for the conference is $35 per person. Sponsorship opportunities are available for donors.
Space for this conference is limited, please register today by returning this registration form. The deadline for registration is Wednesday, March 15. For addition details or questions please call toll free 888 421 2368.
Sincerely,
Lourdes Swarts
Free Teens of Pennsylvania
President Pennsylvania Family Coalition
P.O. Box 1008, Gouldsboro, PA 18424
Tel 570 842 3205
E-mail: lourdes@pafamilies.org
Brian Hewitt
Free Teens Educator
www.freeteens.org
www.culturemachine.com
GREATER HARRISBURG AREA COORDINATOR
February 25th, 2006
