2016

An Australian study conducted by Jones, Smith, Ward, Dixon, Hillier and Mitchell sought to explore the schooling experiences of transgender and gender diverse students that are becoming increasingly visible across Australia’s education landscape. From their findings they propose a number of recommendations for establishing more inclusive practices within schooling environments…

With less than 10% of girls entering high school able to perform basic skills such as kicking, catching and throwing a ball, and less than 20% being sufficiently physically active, it is easy to see why teenage girls are far more likely to drop out of playing sports than boys.…

A survey of teachers at Canadian public schools has revealed that while many teachers are aware of and say they support the rights of LGBTQ students, this is not necessarily reflected in the actual practices they engage in their classrooms. The result is that there are “gaps and tensions” between…

A study by researchers from the University of Canberra and Australian National University found that 8-year-old girls were less likely to take part in extracurricular sport than boys and took 2,000 less steps per day. Overall, girls were 19% less active than boys. Girls also had poorer cardio-respiratory fitness and…

With 25% of children and teens now classified as overweight or obese, efforts are underway to reverse this trend. However, eating disorders are also on the rise and health professionals are concerned that children and teens of normal weight are misinterpreting healthy eating messages and developing anorexia, bulimia and other…

A survey of 600 Australian girls aged 15-19 has revealed that cyberbullying and online sexual harassment are endemic. The ‘Don’t Send Me That Pic’ report, which found that over half of survey participants agreed that girls were “often pressured” to share explicit photos of themselves, was jointly commissioned by Plan…

Teenagers who spend more than thirty minutes texting after lights out are missing out on essential sleep and their academic performance is suffering the consequences. As reported by Science Daily, Professor of Neuroscience and Neurology at Rutgers University, Xue Ming, says that the effect of ‘blue light’ emitted from smartphones…

A study by Monash University researcher Kate Broadley has found that career advice is critical to reducing the gender disparity in STEM. Careers advisers not only need to understand the extent of the gender gap in STEM careers, but also implement a range of practices and interventions — such as…

Researchers from Ireland’s National Suicide Research Foundation have found that young people at the highest risk of repeated self-harm are females aged 15-19 and males aged 20-24. While intentional drug overdose is the most common method of self-harm among those aged 10-29, self-cutting is most associated with repetitive self-harm, particularly…