Stacy Tessler Lindau and Natalia Gavrilova of the University of Chicago analyzed data about health and sexual activity collected by two nationally representative surveys. The surveys involved 3,032 adults aged 25 to 74 and 3,005 adults aged 57 to 85 between 1995 and 2006.

Men were more likely than women to be sexually active, report a good quality sex life and be interested in sex, the researchers said in a paper published online by a British medical journal called BMJ. Those gender differences increased with age and were greatest among those aged 75 to 85. In that group, nearly 39 percent of men but less than 17 percent of women were sexually active and nearly 71 percent of men and less than 51 percent of women who were sexually active reported having a good quality sex life.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR THE WASHINGTON POST:

The Checkup – Maintaining a sex life.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE SMOKING GUN Kids Face Felony Sexting Charges – January 28, 2010.

Sexting — sharing sexually explicit photos, videos and chat by cell phone or online — is fairly commonplace among young people, despite sometimes grim consequences for those who do it. More than a quarter of young people have been involved in sexting in some form, an Associated Press-MTV poll found.

That includes Sammy, a 16-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area who asked that his last name not be used.

Sammy said he had shared naked pictures of himself with girlfriends. He also shared naked pictures of someone else that a friend had sent him.

What he didn’t realize at the time was that young people across the country — in Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania — have faced charges, in some cases felony charges, for sending nude pictures.

“That’s why I probably wouldn’t do it again,” Sammy said.

Yet, “I just don’t see it as that big of a problem, personally.”

That was the view of nearly half of those surveyed who have been involved in sexting. The other half said it’s a serious problem — and did it anyway. Knowing there might be consequences hasn’t stopped them.

“There’s definitely the invincibility factor that young people feel,” said Kathleen Bogle, a sociology professor at La Salle University in Philadelphia and author of the book “Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus.”

“That’s part of the reason why they have a high rate of car accidents and things like that, is they think, `Oh, well, that will never happen to me,’” Bogle said.

Research shows teenage brains are not quite mature enough to make good decisions consistently. By the mid-teens, the brain’s reward centers, the parts involved in emotional arousal, are well-developed, making teens more vulnerable to peer pressure.

But it is not until the early 20s that the brain’s frontal cortex, where reasoning connects with emotion, enabling people to weigh consequences, has finished forming.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS STORY, CLICK THIS LINK FOR YAHOO! NEWS:   Poll finds sexting common among young people – Yahoo! News.

The 13-10 vote by the Senate Finance Committee could threaten support for the health care bill from some Catholics who otherwise back its broad goal of expanding coverage. But women’s groups are likely to see the committee’s action as a reasonable compromise on a divisive issue that is always fraught with difficulties.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, argued that provisions already in the bill to restrict federal funding for abortions needed to be tightened to guarantee they would be ironclad.

But his amendment failed to carry the day. One Republican —Olympia Snowe of Maine— voted with the majority. One Democrat—Kent Conrad of North Dakota— supported Hatch.

Separately, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that the full Senate could start voting on health care legislation the week of Oct. 12, after the Columbus Day holiday. Reid has to meld the Finance bill with legislation that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved this summer.

Conservatives also are determined to strengthen prohibitions against illegal immigrants getting federal funding to buy insurance.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa offered an amendment that would have helped cut fraud in health care programs for low-income people. It would have required applicants to present a government-issued ID when applying for Medicaid or the children’s health care program.

But Democrats said unscrupulous medical providers — not beneficiaries — are usually the ones responsible for fraud. They said current ID requirements for beneficiaries are strong enough. The vote was 13-10, against the amendment.

Emotions ran high over the health care issue in Congress.

In the House, a Democratic lawmaker angered Republicans when he summed up their health care alternative as the GOP wanting Americans to “die quickly” if they get sick. Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida has refused to apologize for his remarks on the House floor Tuesday night in which he called GOP health care proposals a “blank piece of paper.”

Republicans are likening the remarks to Rep. Joe Wilson’s widely criticized shout of “You lie!” during Obama’s address to Congress earlier this month. They say Democrats should insist that Grayson apologize just as they insisted Wilson, R-S.C., should.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS STORY, CLICK THE LINK FOR USA TODAY: Senators reject toughening abortion rules – USATODAY.com.

Most teens who sexted sent the photos to girlfriends or boyfriends, but 11% sent them to strangers, according to the study made public today by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Cox Communications. Of teens who sext, 80% are under 18, the survey found.

Harris Interactive interviewed 655 teens ages 13 to 18 in April about their use of computers and cellphones. One in five told Harris they have been “cyberbullied” — harassed or threatened online or by text message.

Most teens are online: 91% have an e-mail address, and 60% have an instant-message screen name. Nearly three-quarters have a cellphone, and 72% have profiles on social networking sites.

Although teens say they recognize the dangers of sharing personal information online, they do it anyway.

Three in five say they know having personal information or photos on a public site is unsafe. Yet most teens using social networking sites told the survey they post photos of themselves and friends.

One in four teens say they know someone who had a bad experience because of information posted on the Internet. Bad experience can range from having a sext forwarded around school to being sexually victimized. This month, FBI agents in Los Angeles arrested a 34-year-old man who allegedly posed as a 22-year-old and began a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl he met online.

Teenagers underestimate the risks they take online, says David Walsh of the National Institute on Media and the Family. “The part of their brain that puts the brakes on things is under major construction,” he says.

Many teens say their parents are clueless: 40% tell their parents very little or nothing about what they do online.

Parents can teach their kids the consequences of putting information online, says John Walsh (no relation to David Walsh), TV host of America’s Most Wanted and a founder of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

“Parents need to sit down and tell their kids, ‘I taught you how to cross the street. I’m going to teach you how to be safe online,’ ” Walsh says.  Article by Donna Leinwand for USA Today.  For more news and information, click the link below for www.usatoday.com.  USA Today is the nation’s leading newspaper.

Please contribute your thoughts below.

via Survey: 1 in 5 teens ’sext’ despite risks – USATODAY.com.

But the practice of sexting – sending nude or semi-nude images of oneself to others via mobile phones – is having unintended and, in some cases, tragic consequences.

The risk of having one’s private pictures distributed among schoolmates or uploaded on to social-networking websites is only one part of it.

It could also lead to a criminal conviction as a sex offender for any teenager who forwards them on to someone else.

Sending or distributing explicit photos of a child under 18 is, in many countries, illegal. It is also illegal to send such photos to a minor – even if both parties consent to it.

A spate of cases in the United States has seen several “sexting” teenagers arrested on charges of child pornography – alarming parents, school officials, police and prosecutors.

It has led people to ask whether threatening children with the same law that was drawn up to protect them – and potentially creating many more sex offenders – is the best way to tackle the phenomenon of “sexting”?

‘Dangerous precedent’

One such case has ended up in a court in Pennsylvania and is being closely watched by interested groups across the US.

The route to the courthouse began when several pictures of pupils in various states of undress were discovered on other pupils’ phones by staff at the local school in Tunkhannock.

The phones were handed to Wyoming County district attorney George Skumanick, who decided to act.

He had been particularly alarmed by the case of Jessica Logan, an 18-year-old from Ohio who took her own life after pictures she sent of herself to her boyfriend ended up in the hands of fellow pupils.

Mr Skumanick offered the Tunkhannock pupils in question, around 20 of them, a six-month education programme to learn more about the consequences of their actions – and to help them avoid a child pornography charge.

Three girls – and their parents – refused to sign up, and are now suing Mr Skumanick with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Mr Skumanick said he thought he was being “innovative and progressive” when he offered the youngsters the classes.

“I didn’t have to give them this opportunity. I could have just charged them,” he told the BBC.

He says the recent arrest of a man in Georgia for allegedly making internet contact with one of the pupils involved in the case justifies his concern. The man has been charged with criminal solicitation and corruption of minors.

“Our main goal was simply for the pupils to go through the programme we had developed to help them learn about the dangers of sexting,” Mr Skumanick said.

But Witold Walczak, legal director for ACLU in Pennsylvania who is fighting the case on behalf of the pupils, said the district attorney’s actions risk setting a dangerous precedent.

“Child porn is about the abuse and exploitation of minors by adults. That’s not happening here,” he said.

“The kids who do this are doing potential harm to themselves. They are both the perpetrator and the victim. Why would you want to compound that with a criminal prosecution and conviction?”

Cyber-tattoo

This is one of at least 20 prosecutions that have been undertaken or threatened in a number of US states in recent months.

But it is not just an American problem. Cases have also been reported in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

The New South Wales state government in Australia launched an education campaign this month after receiving reports that girls as young as 13 were sexting.

“I urge parents to warn their children about the consequences of sexting,” state Community Services Minister Linda Burney said.

“It may be a difficult conversation but I think every parent will agree it is a very important one.”

A survey of more than 1,000 teenagers in the US last year found that around one in five 13 to 19 year olds had sent nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves either by text or online.

A third of boys and a quarter of girls said they had had nude or semi-nude images, originally meant to be private, shared with them, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies found.

Bill Albert of the Washington-based organisation says today’s generation of teenagers needs to find a line between public and private behaviour in light of the new technology.

“The line is very much more blurred than in the past. The technology is so new that people haven’t found their moral compass when using it,” he told the BBC.

“The problem is that even if you think you are sending a picture only to your boyfriend or girlfriend of the moment, it can go from private to global in a nano-second.

“And something like that can stick with you, almost like a cyber-tattoo, for the rest of your life.”

Mr Albert said that while child porn laws are “an awfully severe and blunt instrument”, alerting teenagers to the legal consequences of their actions is no bad thing.

“The teenagers in our survey were very surprised by the legal action taking place,” he said. “The legal consequences were very low on their list of concerns.”

Law changes

Parry Aftab, a leading authority on cybercrime, is campaigning for a change in the law in the US.

She says the current legal options for dealing with cases of sexting “are insane”.

She wants to see children facing a misdemeanour charge rather than child pornography – a much less serious offence that would eliminate the possibility of a teenage offender being labelled a sex offender for years.

A number of states in the US are considering this approach.

Vermont has introduced a bill that would legalise the consensual exchange of graphic images between two 13-to-18-year-olds, although passing on such images would remain a crime.

Ohio is considering a proposal that would see the practice of sexting reduced from a felony crime to a misdemeanour. Mr Skumanick would like Pennsylvania to consider something similar.

However, ensuring laws are available so that prosecutors and police can still act over sexting are vital, Ms Aftab says.

“It is dangerous behaviour that we don’t want children to be encouraged to do,” she told the BBC.

“Not only could these images end up in the hands of paedophile groups and place kids at higher risk of being targeted, but they could also be subject to extortion by those who have ended up with the images.”  Report originally filed by the BBC.  For the latest in International news, click the link below for the BBC.

Do we need tougher laws regarding ’sexting’?

via BBC NEWS | Americas | Alarm bells ring over ’sexting’.

In the beginning of a relationship we do our best to give our partner the benefit of the doubt, expressing our love and goodwill, even when we’re upset. However, as time goes on, it can get harder to resolve arguments and, therefore, harder to feel loving and forgiving towards our partner. It’s at these times that we start to ask ourselves, is there a secret to making a relationship last? Is it really possible to live happily ever after?

The answer to these questions is, “Yes!” However, the hardest question to answer is: How do we do it? How do I have a lasting, happy relationship that doesn’t end in a painful breakup?

The first thing to remember is that keeping a partnership healthy and happy requires work and that it will not happen on its own — just like a flower won’t grow if it isn’t watered and fed. Relationships need nurturing, tending to, time, and energy! We often forget that a couple contains two human beings who both need to be appreciated, heard, valued, and respected.

With this in mind, here are seven ways to make your relationship last:

1. Keep the lines of communication open. If you don’t know how to express your feelings and/or have poor listening skills, learn to get better at both. You can read a book, take a class, or get into counseling. Good communication requires both the ability to express and listen.

2. Don’t sweep your fights under the rug and think they’ll magically resolve themselves. Do your best to resolve your first argument as soon as it arises so you won’t have the same argument for the next 50 years, in different forms.

3. Remember that you love your partner; therefore, you want the best for her/him. Give her/him the benefit of the doubt when you feel angry, hurt, or disappointed. Talk to your partner; don’t make assumptions.

4. Don’t take your partner for granted. Tell your partner every day something you appreciate about her/him and how grateful you are to have them in your life.

5. Your partner should never feel like your enemy. If they do, something is wrong; remember that you fell in love with this person. If there’s so much anger that you feel like you are enemies, get help somewhere as quickly as possible.

6. Gauge your relationship. Notice and don’t ignore the warning signs if you’re not talking, you’re less affectionate, you’re fighting all the time, and you’re not happy. The sooner you acknowledge you’re having problems, the sooner you can begin to solve them.

7. Always remember that you have the power to change behaviors in your relationship through different tools of self-discovery. You don’t have to stay stuck in unhealthy ruts.

Good, lasting relationships are made up of two conscious individuals who have the desire to work on themselves with the determination to stay focused on the importance of their relationship. They do not take their partner for granted. They have their partner’s best interest at heart and, therefore, build trust with their partner. When arguments come up, they don’t ignore them. They address the issues and try to resolve them. When they see warning signs that their relationship could be in trouble, they act immediately and look for new ways to relate to each other.

This can be accomplished by anyone who is willing to take the time and energy to make their relationship a priority in their life. Nurture your partnership as it so richly deserves! You can live happily ever after, not with magic, but with work, awareness, and knowledge of yourself and your partner. Article by Sharon Rivkin, M.A., M.F.T. for Hitched.  For more news and information, click the link below for Hitched and Yahoo! Personals.

Do you have any relationship advice?  Please Share?

Dating Advice: 7 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Love Alive — Yahoo! Personals.

When adult kids fly away from home, some empty nesters find they’re having more fun

“At first simply driving past a soccer game would make me weepy,” says the 54-year-old mother of two from Philadelphia, who officially became an empty nester in August 2007. “But by December, I remember thinking, “I’ve adjusted.”

Suddenly she and her husband were going on impromptu dates and getting together with friends. And Shure, a family therapist, threw herself into editing a clinical treatment book — something she would never have time for if the girls were still home.

“I absolutely miss my kids,” she says, “but I’m enjoying a really full life now.”

Research is confirming what many mothers have been discovering — that “empty nest” syndrome isn’t so empty after all. These days, the classic description of lingering depression, apathy, and loss of identity (“Who am I if I’m not taking care of the kids?”) is no longer typical.

“Our mothers talked mainly about their pride and joy in watching their kids make this transition and the relief they felt in seeing the fruits of their labor realized,” says Christine M. Proulx, Ph.D., a University of Missouri professor whose 2008 study found that mothers took their children’s departure no harder than fathers. (According to another 2008 study out of Wheaton College, fathers were actually less emotionally prepared.)

One reason for the shift is the growing number of women with fulfilling careers; another is the advance of communication technology like cell phones, PDAs, and computers.

“When I went to college, I had to schedule one day a week when I could call home from the dorm phone,” Shure says. “Today I chat away on Skype with my oldest in Madrid as if she were sitting next to me.”

But the empty nest isn’t just survivable — it can even be beneficial. When Sara Gorchoff, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, and colleagues tracked marital changes in 123 women from their 40s to their early 60s, they found that empty nesters reported greater satisfaction with their partners than did mothers with children at home.

“It wasn’t simply having more time for each other that made the difference,” Gorchoff says. “It’s what they did with their time that counted.”

A fall Sunday with the kids can now become a chance to go hiking together; raucous family meals turn into intimate dinners for two. And sex can regain some of the old abandon of the pre-children days.

Of course, the passage to a childless household is not a happy time for everyone: It can be particularly tough on some single mothers who, overnight, find themselves completely alone, and for those in fragile marriages that have been held together mainly by the glue of raising a family.

And there are mothers (about 10 percent) for whom empty nest syndrome does become a long-term issue, according to a survey of about 1,000 women by Carin Rubenstein, Ph.D., author of “Beyond the Mommy Years: How to Live Happily Ever After…After the Kids Leave Home.”

“But these women are likely already prone to depression, and the change tips them over.”

For most mothers, says Rubenstein, this next stage of life is one to look forward to, especially if you start planning before it arrives.

“Join an art class, volunteer in your community, look into continuing-ed classes, renew friendships. Engage in other roles and ways of living, and you’ll discover the confidence and rich well-being that can blossom with this freedom.”

From O, The Oprah Magazine, June 2009.  Written by Naomi Barr.  For more news and information, click the link below.  Read O, The Oprah Magazine and watch CNN the leading name in cable news.

Sex and other perks of empty nesting – CNN.com.

The findings, obtained in an annual survey on values and beliefs conducted May 7-10, marked a significant shift from a year ago. A year ago, 50 percent said they were pro-choice and 44 percent pro-life — in the new poll, 42 percent said they were pro-choice.

The new survey showed that Americans remained deeply divided on the legality of abortion — with 23 percent saying it should be illegal in all circumstances, 22 percent saying it should be legal under any circumstances, and 53 percent saying it should be legal only under certain circumstances.

The findings echoed a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center, which reported a sharp decline since last August in those saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases — from 54 percent to 46 percent.

Taken together, the two polls have elated anti-abortion activists , who had been stung by the November election results that placed President Barack Obama and other abortion-rights supporters in power in Washington.

“Ironically, Obama’s radical abortion policies and nominees may have helped make America more pro-life,” said Wendy Wright, president of the conservative advocacy group Concerned Women for America.

The Rev. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said the poll findings demonstrate that the anti-abortion cause “is a vibrant, growing, youthful movement.”

“We are winning the battle for hearts and minds in our culture on the life issue,” he said.

The president of a leading abortion-rights group, Nancy Keenan of NARAL Pro-Choice America , said the Gallup findings “do not square with the voting patterns in the last two elections cycles.”

“It would be a mistake for anti-choice groups to interpret this one poll as a signal that Americans want even more interference from politicians in their personal, private decisions, including a woman’s right to choose safe, legal abortion,” Keenan said.

Another abortion-rights leader, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards , questioned the terminology in the Gallup questions.

“The terms pro-choice and pro-life no longer define the parameters of the debate, witnessed by the fact that in the Gallup Poll, a majority of people say they are both pro-life and that abortion should be legal,” Richards said.

She added that most Americans share Obama’s stated goal of reducing the number of unintended pregnancies .

Planned Parenthood also noted that another recent national survey, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp., poll in April, reported 49 percent of respondents identifying as pro-choice and 45 percent as pro-life.

The Gallup poll’s release came just ahead of Obama’s scheduled commencement speech Sunday at the University of Notre Dame , where he also is to receive an honorary degree. Those plans by the Roman Catholic university have sparked a wave of protests by anti-abortion activists, who contend Notre Dame should not honor a such a prominent supporter of abortion rights .

Gallup said its new poll showed an increase in the pro-life position across Christian religious affiliations, including an eight-point gain among Protestants and a seven-point gain among Catholics. It also reported a 10-point shift toward the pro-life category among Republicans but said there was no significant change among Democrats.

In the new poll, men identify as pro-life, 54 percent to 39 percent, while women also tilt pro-life 49 percent to 44 percent. A year ago, Gallup found more women calling themselves pro-choice than pro-life, by 50 percent to 43 percent, while men were more closely divided: 49 percent pro-choice, 46 percent pro-life.

“It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has pushed the public’s understanding of what it means to be ‘pro-choice’ slightly to the left, politically,” according to the Gallup analysis. “While Democrats may support that, as they generally support everything Obama is doing as president, it may be driving others in the opposite direction.”

The Gallup survey was based on telephone interviews with 1,015 adults nationwide. Its margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.  Article by David Crary AP National Writer.  For more news and information, click the link below for AP and Yahoo news.

Do you agree with this poll?  Are you pro-life or pro-choice.  Please share your thoughts below.

Poll: More Americans calling themselves pro-life.

Furthermore, teens who smoke pot to relieve their depression, anxiety, grief or stress, or help them sleep better or concentrate, often say they do so because they had no other option, Dr. Joan L. Bottorff of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and her colleagues found.

“We really need to pay attention to adolescents who are experiencing concerns about their health, who are having difficulties, and we need to work with them to find alternatives,” the researcher told Reuters Health.

Bottorff and her team had initially set out to learn more about young marijuana users by conducting in-depth interviews with them. While the researchers had expected most would be using the drug recreationally, they were surprised to find that many were smoking pot as a way to manage their health problems.

To find out why, Bottorff and her colleagues interviewed 20 adolescents from Vancouver and two rural communities in British Columbia about their reasons for using marijuana in this “therapeutic” way. The province allows some medical marijuana use, the researchers note, and the drug is also fairly readily available illegally.

As the team reports in the online journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy, six of the study participants said they smoked pot to relieve depression, while 12 said they used the drug to ease stress and anxiety. Nine used marijuana to help them sleep better, three said pot helped them to concentrate, and five said they used the drug for pain relief. (The numbers add up to more than 20 because several subjects used pot for more than one reason.)

The participants often said legal drugs they’d been prescribed for these problems — including antidepressants, Ritalin, or sleeping pills — didn’t work, or had unpleasant side effects. When they had sought help from medical professionals or other adults, the young people said their concerns weren’t taken seriously or the treatments they were offered didn’t help.

The teens also recognized the ill effects of pot smoking, such as making it harder to learn and concentrate, and many believed that they were addicted to the drug or dependent on it.

“We’re certainly not advocating that youth resort to marijuana to deal with their health problems,” Bottorff said. Pot carries many risks, she pointed out, including interfering with learning and memory and harming the lungs. Also, the researcher said, there is evidence that smoking pot can trigger psychotic symptoms and disorders in young people.

The findings make it clear that young people need help from adults to find other ways to cope with difficulties in their lives, the team says. Options include “counseling, stress management, social skills training, anger management, study skills, pain management, and sleep hygiene,” they write, but “the youth in this study had minimal access to these types of resources.”

Also, Bottorff said, adults need to find ways to have conversations with young people about marijuana use and its risks.

“The stories that the kids told us, some of the situations were kind of sad stories,” Bottorff said. “Some of the kids that we interviewed didn’t have really strong family support systems behind them.”

One girl was grieving after the death of her closest friend, the researcher noted, but felt no one was paying attention to her, and that smoking pot was the best option she had for handling her emotional pain. “There’s a situation where, you know, some counseling either by a parent or someone else, a teacher…might have made the world of difference for her.” Reprinted from Fox News and Reuters. For more news, information and video, click the link below for www.foxnews.com.

Should Pot be legalized. Please leave your thoughts below.

Study: Teens Smoke Pot to Cope With Stress, Health Problems – Children’s Health.