Research on Teen Dating Violence in Understudied Populations: Postdoctoral Fellowship-FY 2013

NIJ seeks applications for research related to teen dating violence (also known as adolescent relationship abuse). In particular, NIJ is seeking proposals that support postdoctoral fellows to analyze existing data or collect new data on teen dating violence in understudied populations.Research proposed may be focused at the Federal, State, local, tribal, juvenile justice policy, and practice levels. Deadline April 22, 2013.  

Real Education for Healthy Youth Act Introduced  

On Valentine's Day, Senator Frank Lautenberg (NJ) and Representative Barbara Lee (CA-13) introduced the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act! This bill lays out a comprehensive, age-appropriate, and holistic vision for sex education in the United States. Young people have the right to lead healthy lives. To have healthy lives, young people need sex education programs which provide them with the information and skills necessary to make healthy decisions - and that includes medically accurate and complete information about abstinence, contraception, condoms, healthy relationships, sexuality, and more. They also need programs which connect with young people's lives and do not ignore or stigmatize lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth, or young people who have already had sex.  Let's work to ensure that young people get the sex education they need in order to lead healthy lives and have healthy relationships. We owe it to them to provide them honest sexual health education. 

Current estimates of teen pregnancy indicate that one out of every ten young women in the United States gives birth before they reach the age of 20. To better serve the needs of pregnant and parenting teens, the Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), contracted with Child Trends to produce a report, Promising Strategies and Existing Gaps in Supporting Pregnant and Parenting Teens. This report outlines existing challenges and promising practices in supporting pregnant and parenting teens and summarizes the discussions and suggestions of national experts in the field.Specifically, this report highlights the findings of two expert workgroups convened in January and July 2012 through the support of OAH's Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF), which provides competitive grants to state and tribal organizations that support pregnant and parenting teens and their families. The experts (including physicians, university faculty, medical directors, psychologists, researchers, Federal staff, and directors of programs and organizations serving pregnant and parenting teens) were charged with the sizeable task of summarizing the state of the field.   Simply stated, they were asked to describe "what works" when it comes to serving pregnant and parenting teens and to identify the gaps and challenges that persist in the field as well as opportunities to support this vulnerable population. Pregnant and parenting teens are not a "one-size-fits-all" population, but by highlighting practical approaches to serving pregnant and parenting teens that are relevant to practitioners, researchers and evaluators, providers, and policy-makers, alike, this report serves as an important resource for all stakeholders in the field of teen pregnancy and teen pregnancy prevention. 

Shippensburg University officials and others met to discuss the availability of Plan B on campus and decided it should be allowed to continue. Federal regulators have decided not to take any action against a Pennsylvania university for selling the Plan B "morning-after" pill from a campus vending machine.Officials at Shippensburg University and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviewed the dispensing method for the emergency contraceptive after concerns arose last year over its availability to students. Some critics claimed the vending machine would encourage more students to have sex. Plan B is an over-the-counter medication available without prescription for those 17 years old or older at pharmacies and drug stores around the nation. It's meant to be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.