Study finds high rates of childhood exposure to violence, abuse in US

October 7th, 2009 Gov't: Over 60 percent of kids exposed to violenceWASHINGTON — Justice Department officials said Wednesday that most children in the United States are exposed to violence in their daily lives — but a leading criminologist warned the government-sponsored survey may be lumping serious and minor incidents together. More than 60 percent of children surveyed were exposed to violence within the past year, either directly or indirectly, according to data compiled by the department.

October 1st, 2009 LONDON - Children who gorge on chocolate and sweets daily are more likely to grow into violent adults, says a new research. A study of almost 17,500 volunteers in the British Cohort Study (BCS) found that 10-year-olds who ate confectionary daily were significantly more likely to have been convicted for violence at the age of 34 years.

September 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Adolescent alcohol abuse may lead to long-term risky decision making, a new study has found. In the research, University Washington scientists have investigated the neurobiological underpinnings of a link between adolescent alcohol abuse and later adult decision-making impairments.

September 4th, 2009 TORONTO - Mammoth farming projects can erode the earth's surface at rates comparable to those of the world's largest rivers and glaciers. A new University of British Columbia (UBC) study offers stark evidence of how humans are reshaping the planet.

September 4th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The number violence and discrimination cases are continuously growing in Pakistan, a new report has revealed. Pakistani women, whether they are based in rural or urban areas, face multiple forms of violence including sexual violence, domestic abuse, burning and disfiguring through acids beating and threatening, honour-killings, custodial abuse and torture, dowry-related violence, rape and female genital mutilation, a report called "Sorrows of woman" prepared by the Pakistan Human Development Foundation said.

September 1st, 2009 LONDON - One in three girls in their teens has been a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a boyfriend, while one in four has suffered violence in a relationship, according to an in-depth study. Conducted by the NSPCC and Bristol University, the survey of 1,353 teenage girls and boys questioned across the UK, found that 90 percent of girls in the age group of 13-17 had been in an intimate relationship.

August 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Nearly 50 percent of mothers of young children in Bangladesh suffer violence at the hands of their husbands, which, in turn, increases the risk of respiratory infections and diarrhoea in their kids, according to a study. The study underlined that despite substantial improvements in childhood survival in the previous decade, 77 per 1,000 children born in Bangladesh die before age 5, mainly due to diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections.

July 3rd, 2009 DARWIN - The latest two-yearly study of the Australian Government's Productivity Commission damningly reveals that indigenous children are six times more likely to suffer abuse or neglect than non-indigenous children and 28 times more likely to wind up in jail. According to The Australian, the report categorically reveals that there has been little or no improvement in many areas of social and economic inequality in spite of federal government promises to reduce indigenous disadvantage.

June 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The risk of toxic effects of pesticides on kids extends much longer into childhood than expected, reveals a new study at the University of California, Berkeley. Newborns' levels of an enzyme called paraoxonase 1 (PON1), critical to the detoxification of organophosphate pesticides, average one-third or less than those of the babies' mothers.

May 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Being abused in childhood can have damaging outcomes for the victim throughout his or her life, leading to more suicide attempts, prevalence of substance use disorder and proneness to personality disorders. These victims also had an earlier onset of mental illness and an increase in psychiatric hospitalisations, said a Mayo Clinic study.

May 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has found that girls with a history of childhood abuse are at a risk of early menarche or onset of their menstrual periods before age 12 years. Lead researcher Lauren A.

May 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - India is among the top 10 countries that have highest levels of social stress, which has a direct link to increased dating violence, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire. The research led by Murray Straus, co-director of the UNH Family Research Laboratory and professor of sociology, is based on a 32-nation study.

May 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Cocaine exposure before birth could compromise neurocognitive development among kids during middle childhood, according to researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). The researchers revealed that heavier intrauterine cocaine exposure (IUCE) is linked with mild compromise on selective areas of neurocognitive development during middle childhood.

February 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Newborns born during the high pollen and mould seasons, linked with the presence of allergens, are more likely to develop early symptoms of asthma, suggests a new study. University of California, Berkeley (UC-B) researchers found that such children born in the high mould season, coinciding with the last quarter of the year, have three times the odds of developing wheezing, often an early sign of asthma, compared with those born at other times of the year.

February 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Girls growing up with a heroin-addicted parent and going through adversarial experiences before 18 become four times tougher than boys. These experiences include family mental illness, having a parent jailed, family violence, being a victim of abuse and having a parent die.