"While most mothers disapprove of their sons or daughters being sexually active, their kids don't always get the message. And there are differences among boys and girls.  Specifically, when mom strongly disapproves, 30% of girls do not believe they do. For boys, nearly half do not believe mom disapproves of their having sex when mothers tell us that they do.

It is clear that what mothers believe is not consistently getting through to their teenagers."

(Source: Robert W. Blum, "Mothers' Influence on Teen Sex: Connections That Promote Postponing Sexual Intercourse," Center for Adolescent Health and Development, University of Minnesota, 2002; http://www.allaboutkids.umn.edu/presskit/MonographMS.pdf.)

"When we fail to tell our children that there are limitations to human freedom, for example, that there can be no freedom to hurt another human being; when we fail to teach our young that there are some moral absolutes and they must reckon with them or perish, then we do grievous harm to the future of the human race."

(Source:  Janet K. Museveni, at The World Congress of Families regional meeting in New York http://www.worldcongress.org/Special/WCF_020503_NY_Museveni.htm, quoted in George Archibald, "Diplomats urged to back families, teen abstinence," The Washington Times, May 5, 2002, http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020505-31514864.htm.)

Children and adolescents who move frequently often struggle in school and suffer from psychological distress.  But the most vulnerable unrooted youth are typically those moving as part of a single-parent family.  So suggests a team of social workers from the University of Washington and the Veterans Administration in an analysis of residential mobility appearing in a recent issue of the Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare.  Assessing a raft of studies on how moving affects the young, the authors of the new study emphasize that "children and adolescents . . . face unique problems during relocation, such as the loss of a familiar school and friendships."  Indeed, among children who have moved frequently, these analysts limn a troubling pattern of difficulties.  These difficulties include "decreased academic performance," "higher levels of grade retention," "social distress [and] difficulty making friends," "increased incidence of peer conflict," "anti-social behavior," "increased rates of depression [and even] higher rates of suicidal behavior." 

Nonetheless, the Washington and Veterans scholars acknowledge that some researchers doubt that all of these negative outcomes actually reflect the effects of residential mobility, arguing that many of the problems among mobile youth actually reflect disadvantages in "pre-morbid functioning, S[ocio]E[conomic]S[tatus], and family structure."  Reinforcing the doubts of those who question whether moving in and of itself harms children are the findings of a 1998 study showing that "moderate levels of mobility (less than 8 moves) [has] no measurable effects on school performance if children live with both of their biological parents."   These findings make sense if the way children respond to a move depends upon "the cohesion and support among household members."  Accordingly, the authors of the new study reason that "relocation is not always problematic," but tends to become so in the presence of "other risk factors such as poverty, life-cycle changes, and single-parent family structure." 

(Source: Edward Scanlon and Kevin Devine, "Residential Mobility and Youth Well-Being: Research, Policy, and Practice Issues," Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Vol. 35, No. 1[2001]: 119-136, emphasis added.)