News, Advice, and Tips for Parenting Teenagers

On April 6, a Colorado State University student committed suicide. The tragedy prompted school officials to send out a message to all faculty members, urging them to watch for signs of stress among students who may have increased financial concerns due to the economy.

Michael Daine, associate executive director of CSU's University Counseling Center, said counselors are helping an increasing number of students dealing with tight budgets and parents losing jobs during a time of year that historically is the most stressful with finals approaching.

Dean of Students Anne Hudgens said many students realize the sacrifices their parents are making and begin to feel like they're burdening their parents. Worries about finding a job after graduation are weighing heavy on their minds, too.

Source: Coloradoan

Labels: suicide, stress, college, economics

Posted By: Aspen/CRC 0 Comments

A survey of parents of college-bound seniors found that most parents are encouraging their children to consider in-state public universities or otherwise limit their choices to inexpensive institutions. The survey, conducted by ApplyWise.com, found that 88 percent plan to limit spending because of today's economic downturn. Less than a third said economic factors would not influence their college selections.

Two-thirds of those who were surveyed said that they intend to apply for need-based scholarships, and 53 percent will ask for government and private loans. Many plan more drastic ways of financing college: seven percent will sell real estate, 11 percent will liquidate a retirement fund, and 27 percent will take out a second mortgage.

Labels: college, economics, student_loans

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

A report released by one of the world's oldest and largest international development agencies says that the failure to adequately educate girls costs developing nations more than $92 billion every year.

According to Plan, a child-centered community rights group, data provided by the World Bank and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) indicates that the cost of failing to educate girls almost equals the developed world's $103 billion annual overseas development aid budget.

The group's report, Paying the Price: The economic cost of failing to educate girls, says that "those who oppose girls' education are doing great damage not only to the girls and their families but also to wider communities and economies." The report's "Reflecting on the numbers" section includes the following observations:

• Countries in South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa have the worst record on educating girls to secondary level. India alone misses out on potential economic growth worth about $33 billion per annum. Other major losers include Turkey ($20 billion) and Russia ($9.8 billion).



• Nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa have a gap of 10 percentage points or more between the proportion of girls educated to secondary level and the proportion of boys. Yet, despite this poor record, the region's total lost annual growth ($5.3 billion) is limited by the small size of its economies.



• By contrast, just two countries in South and Central America fail to educate girls to the same standard as boys. Indeed, many have more girls in secondary education than boys.

The report did include some good news for advocates of girls' education, noting that net primary enrollment rates for girls across the globe increased from 78 percent in 1990 to 85 percent in 2005, and that secondary enrollment for girls had improved from 47 percent to 57 percent over the same 15 years.

Labels: education, girls, economics

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

Wealthy families are twice as likely to have children with autism, and no one knows why, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Experts have known since the 1940s that affluent parents are more likely to have children with this spectrum, but the prevalent theory was that children from wealthier families were more likely to be diagnosed and to seek medical help. Dr. Maureen Durkin set out to design a study that would determine if that were the case or if something else was going on.

Professor Durkin took census information on socioeconomic status that includes education, profession, and income level and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. She found that children from affluent families were twice as likely to have autism than the poorest children.

"We demonstrated that there is this association," she said. "It is statistically significant, and it is there, but we really cannot show why it is there. There may be a genetic predisposition to both becoming highly successful and to be at risk for autism."

This study was published in PLoS One.
 

Labels: autism, economics

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment