Despite the media's dangerous -- and false -- suggestion that a suicide epidemic is striking young gay men who have been bullied, a Cornell sexuality expert believes there has never been a better time to grow up as a sexual minority.
Ritch Savin-Williams, professor of developmental psychology in human development, director of Cornell's Sex and Gender Lab and author of "The New Gay Teenager," spoke with reporters Nov. 9 at an Inside Cornell media luncheon at the ILR Conference Center in Manhattan.
Savin-Williams studies the similarities among sexual-minority youth and all teens, as well as the ways in which sexual-minority adolescents vary among themselves and the sexual development of heterosexual youth.
"All of these young men dying in a short period of time led a lot of people to believe there was a suicide epidemic among gay youth. We don't know that all these youths were gay or that they died because of the bullying. What bothers me most is that these young lives were being portrayed as being extremely problematic, and almost as if all gay youth were about trying to kill themselves or were an unhappy, fragile group of kids." Read the full story
How do jurors arrive at a dollar amount they award to plaintiffs? This is among the questions Valerie Reyna, professor of human development, is investigating with colleagues in the Institute for the Social Sciences' 2009-12 theme project "Judgment, Decision Making, and Social Behavior" (JDSB).
"If it weren't for this particular project, where we were brought together to reach across disciplinary lines, I would not be working on this," Reyna said. "There's already been a successful payoff in terms of my research."
The project unites 12 Cornell faculty members, from such disparate disciplines as economics, psychology, government and law, to examine questions of common interest and find new approaches to problems. Read full article
The CITY Project is featured on FindYouthInfo.gov as the "Spotlight" program for the month of October. FindYouthInfo.gov is a U.S. government website aimed at creating, maintaining, and strengthening effective youth programs. FindYouthInfo.gov was created by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP). The IWGYP is composed of representatives from a number of Federal agencies that support programs and services focusing on youth. Check out the Spotlight article
Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) is preparing communities across New York for an innovative system to more effectively deliver research-based programs to prevent substance abuse and risky behavior in young teens.
With a two-year, $60,000 Greater Opportunities (GO) grant from the National Institutes of Health, CCE will adapt the PROSPER (PROmoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience) Partnership Model, which pairs CCE systems with public schools to provide a range of interventions for at-risk youth. PROSPER offers proven prevention strategies backed by more than 20 years of NIH-funded research.
"The initial PROSPER/GO funding is a great opportunity to build capacity for community- and school-based family and youth programs that have a track record of success," said Kimberly Kopko, New York state liaison for PROSPER and extension associate in policy analysis and management. "PROSPER/GO aligns closely with the missions of CCE and Human Ecology and will also bring resources for our faculty researchers looking at designing interventions to engage youth."
Ritch Savin-Williams, chair of the Department of Human Development, is quoted in this article about parental anxieties about their children coming out as gay. Read more
Here's news for retirees: Volunteering on environmental projects could not only prompt you to get more exercise but also improve mental and physical health through old age, according to a new Cornell study published online in The Gerontologist in February. Read more
Whether mom's golden child or her black sheep, siblings who sense that their mother consistently favors or rejects one child over others are more likely to show depressive symptoms as middle-aged adults, finds a new study by Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer. Read more
The Mathematics of Sex: How Biology and Society Conspire to Limit Talented Women and Girls, by Stephen Ceci and Wendy Williams, has shifted the debate on the dearth of women in math-intensive fields. Published last September by Oxford University Press, it reaches a surprising conclusion: the reason why so few women hold tenure-track positions in engineering, physics, and mathematics departments is simply because they choose not to enter those fields—and if they do, they tend to leave them in large numbers. Read more
CITY Teen Leader An Ngo holds flag for Hatian National Anthem
Teen Leaders from the Community Improvement Through Youth (CITY) Project in Broome County recently held the Haitian Appreciation, a multicultural celebration and benefit at Binghamton High School, as part of their ongoing disaster relief project for the earthquake victims in Haiti. The project to organize and carry out the event was particularly important to the Binghamton CITY Teen Leaders as three of the teens had family in Haiti at the time of the earthquake.
The CITY Project Teen Leaders along with their Binghamton University Liberty Partnership partners planned and carried out the event to raise awareness about the need to continue supporting relief efforts to earthquake ravaged Haiti. Haitian Appreciation featured CITY Project youth and local talent from area schools, churches and community organizations.
CITY Teen Leader Daphne Marshall briefs the Turkish dancers
The multicultural event began with the singing of both the U.S. National Anthem and the Haitian National Anthem. CITY Teen Leaders Barbyly Noel, Alexis Spight, and John Cifaratta gave a brief overview of the CITY Project in Broome County and then served as the MCs for the event.
The CITY Teen Leaders in Binghamton feel strongly that even though the earthquake isn't in the headlines anymore, the need for help is still great. As Teen Leader Barbyly Noel explains, "Some of my family members are still outside in the streets. There are still people who need food, who need money, who need supplies. So it hasn't disappeared. Haiti is not yet fixed. We definitely need to come together and help out as best we can.”
Over $500 was raised at the event and will be donated by the CITY Teen Leaders to the American Red Cross, Southern Tier Chapter, to support the ongoing Haitian relief efforts.
Performer Jada Spight speaks with Fox 40 TV
Performances included: CITY Teen Leader Quari Pullin’s original CITY Rap; three songs by the Spight Sisters; a Turkish dance performance lead by Afyer Bagsezer; hip-hop dance medley by the Tazama Dancers; performance of We Are the World 25 and Hallelujah, and recitation of an original poem by CITY Project graduate, now college student, Kristopher Barreiro; a lively audience participation performance of the Cha-Cha Slide; a Haitian dance medley by Barbyly Noel and other members of the local Haitian community; and a medley of songs by the B.I.C. Haitian Band.
The Community Improvement Through Youth (CITY) Project uses Cornell Cooperative Extension's 4-H Signature Program, Youth Community Action as a model for promoting civic engagement, workforce preparation, and asset development among at-risk youth (13-18 years old). The CITY Project is a project of Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County and Cornell University.
The CITY Project is funded by the Children, Youth and Families At Risk (CYFAR) Program, and is supported by Smith Lever funds from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The CITY Project gratefully acknowledges the support of a number of community partners and collaborators including Binghamton University Liberty Partnership Program; OASIS After School Program, Endicott; Broome County Youth Bureau; City of Binghamton Youth Bureau. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Developmental Review: Perceptions in Behavior and Cognition, a quarterly journal of theory and literature review in developmental psychology edited by Charles Brainerd, professor of human development, has been rated one of the three most influential journals in its field. Read more
Despite the media's dangerous -- and false -- suggestion that a suicide epidemic is striking young gay men who have been bullied, a Cornell sexuality expert believes there has never been a better time to grow up as a sexual minority.
