Boys will be boys, the saying goes, and  that may actually be preferable , The New York Times reports. The World Health Organization (WHO) released data this week from an  enormous study  surveying more than 200,000 11-, 13-, and 15-year-old boys and girls across 42 European countries between 2013 and 2014. The study found that for the most part, boys reported a higher level of life satisfaction than girls, and the disparity got worse with age. At age 11, boys and girls were about even, with 89% of both genders reporting high life satisfaction. But by age 15, only 79% of the girls reported satisfaction, versus 87% of the boys. 

Science, March 18, 2016

Vapin' in the Boys Room

A recent study published by Nicotine & Tobacco Research, focused on middle and high school students, finds that "the number of youth who had never smoked a cigarette but had used e-cigarettes at least once increased three-fold."

ydr.com, March 18, 2016

The vaccine is actually a series of doses. Kids get the first dose at 11 or 12, with two follow-ups over the next few months. In 2015, the CDC reported that 60 percent of girls got the first dose, while only 39.7 percent of boys did. For comparison's sake, there are two other unrelated vaccines that kids are supposed to get at  the same doctor's visit , and the CDC found that 79.3 percent and 89.6 percent of boys got those. As for the full series of shots: Less than 13 percent of boys get that.

New York Magazine, March 15, 2016

According to the four-yearly report published by the World Health Organisation, 15-year-old girls in Wales are more than 50 per cent more likely to say they have had sex than boys of the same age.In England girls are 28 per cent more likely than boys to give the same answer while in Scotland the gender gap was narrower but still noticeable. The British findings stand out in the WHO's of Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study as the only areas in which girls are significantly more likely than boys to say they have had sex by 15.

Telegraph, March 15, 2016

Conflicting expectations between parents and medical providers about who is responsible for scheduling follow-up appointments is resulting in a failure of young girls completing the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination series, according to a new study led by Boston Medical Center researchers. The study, which is published online ahead of print in the journal  Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics , involved interviews with both parents and providers in order to determine why, despite the known benefits of the vaccine, patients are not receiving all three doses.

AAAS, March 15, 2016

Boys with August birthdays are more likely to get an ADHD diagnosis. Here's why.

The study involved examining data from 378,881 children ages 4 to 17 from 1997 to 2011 in Taiwan and found that ADHD was significantly more likely to be diagnosed in the youngest children in a grade. Taiwan, like many U.S. school districts, has a cut-off date of Aug. 31 for school enrollment. The researchers found that boys and girls born in August were much more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis than their counterparts born in September who were 11 months older. Boys born in August had the highest rate of diagnosis, at 4.5 percent, while girls born in September had the lowest rate, at 0.5 percent. The August boys were more likely to be medicated.

Washington Post, March 14, 2016

Prevalence of HPV After Introduction of the Vaccination Program in the United States

Within 6 years of vaccine introduction, there was a 64% decrease in 4vHPV type prevalence among females aged 14 to 19 years and a 34% decrease among those aged 20 to 24 years. This finding extends previous observations of population impact in the United States and demonstrates the first national evidence of impact among females in their 20s.

Pediatrics, March 2016

The Weekly News Roundup is produced by The Partnership for Male Youth and is released every Monday. 

For more information contact Dennis J. Barbour, JD. News Roundup editor and President/CEO of the Partnership, at dbarbour@partnershipformaleyouth.org.

The  Partnership for Male Youth is a collaboration among 23 national organizations and representation from six federal agencies. It is led by a multidisciplinary and multispecialty steering committee and advisory council. The Partnerships's flagship effort, released in January 2014, is  The Health Provider Toolkit for Adolescent and Young Adult Males.