More than 50 parents, students and women's rights activists turned out for the second annual February Forum, which focused on the health issues facing young women and their relationships. The two-hour seminar was sponsored by the Albany Academy for Girls and UAlbany program Initiatives for Women.
With peer pressure, increasing violence and multiplying cases of sexually transmitted diseases, it's not easy to grow up in the 1990s, said panelist Laura Staff, a family practice doctor who works at the Planned Parenthood clinics in Albany and Schenectady. But its even harder for kids-especially teenage girls-when their parents don't level with them.
"Young, adolescent women completely feel like
they're immortal. They are convinced that the people they were with don't have
these diseases," Staff said. "I don't know if parents talk about this
stuff-it's easier to say, 'Don't do it,' but let's talk about doing it."
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Half of the nations high school students
are sexually active by the time they're 16, said Cajsa Schumacher, a general
practitioner in pediatric medicine at Community Health Plan's office in
Latham, citing a University of Michigan study. Moreover, surveys show that
30 percent of high school seniors get drunk every two weeks, she said. Experimenting
with sex and drugs both are influenced by a teen's peers-and both can lead
to premature bouts of depression, she said. |
But by and large, most teenage girls simply don't feel comfortable talking about sex-not to mention lesbianism-with their parents. An 18-year-old UAlbany freshman, said she learned more about sex from school and her friends then she did from her mom and dad. "I'm sure I could go to them, but it'd be difficult," said the business major from Marathon, Cortland County, said after the seminar. "It's not that they'd be disappointed in us, but more taken aback that we wanted to have sex, or were thinking about sex."
If parents can't approach their daughters with such touchy topics, they should at least help their children build self-esteem, said Estela Rivero, director of the UAlbany's counseling center. One of her clients recently sought help for "needing to figure out where I fit in the world," Rivero recalled. That's a dilemma that seems to plague a lot of young women, she said.
It's not just sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll that trouble teens, the panelists agreed. Healthy eating habits and exercise also are important to a young woman's well-being.
At any given time, 85 percent of women in American are on a diet, Rivero said. Surveys also indicate that 70 percent of female high school students diet on a regular basis.
| By Lara Jakes, Staff writer |
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