Resources

Checkups at 16 Years

[16 Year Old Quiz]

What Can Your Child Do at Sixteen?

She is old enough to date, but the rules should be as follows:

• What you say is still important to him. Therefore, be quick to praise, slow to anger, and constantly reassuring about his positive qualities.
• Driving is a privilege, not a right. Because of the danger associated with irresponsible use of your car, misuse should be strongly disciplined.
• If she has a part time job, she must take care of her first jobs in family interaction and schoolwork. If not, she should quit her job.
• Acne is primarily caused by inherited tendencies. His diet has no effect on his acne. But makeup, hair spray, and other creams may worsen acne.
• She may be more independent and home less often. Teenage periods may be quite painful to your daughter. Ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil, or Nuprin) is a great drug for menstrual cramps, but should be started as soon as or before her period begins to have the best result.
• He has the reasoning ability to project far into the future and be concerned about his career, marriage, and family life.

What Can Your Child Eat?

• She should exercise 3-4 times a week to help control her weight.
• His daily brushing and flossing of his teeth will prevent decay and gum disease. Flossing is the more important of the two.
• She should have a balanced diet and should eat breakfast before school. Your example of how to eat is important since she will have the money and freedom to eat at friends' homes or at convenience stores.
• Discourage frequent snacking by him other than with fruits or vegetables. Do not add extra salt. Have him eat a lot of fiber in cereals, fruits, and vegetables and avoid having red meat and eggs every day.
• Give her a multivitamin with iron daily if she is a picky eater or has heavy periods. Milk or other calcium-containing foods are important in the teenage years to prevent later osteoporosis (thinning of the bones).

Immunizations

He should be up to date on his immunizations.

Tests to Be Done

• She may have an analysis of her urine on her checkup. This checks for kidney disease, diabetes, and bladder infections. A hematocrit will be done for her since heavy periods can cause anemia.
• A tuberculin (TB) skin test may be needed if he has been exposed to someone with TB, a chronic cough, IV drug use, HIV disease (AIDS), recent prison time, time in a developing country, or if required by school or insurance.

Accident Prevention

• Risk-taking is a common problem among teenagers, especially boys who are trying to assert their masculinity. He needs to have limits set on the use of your car, firearms, electrical equipment, and power tools. Take these privileges away if he is acting irresponsibly.
• It is best to know where she is at all times. She may complain that you don't trust her, but if you state the request with genuine concern about her welfare, she will probably accept this rule.
• Tell him to avoid drugs and alcohol and to wait on sexual activity until marriage. Teaching him to act virtuous decreases his chances of drug and alcohol use and sexual activity.
• Supervise her when she uses electrical or power equipment before letting her use it on her own.
• He needs to know a safety plan to get out of your house in case of fire.
• Teach her to swim with others rather than alone, avoid crossing fast-moving streams, enter lakes feet first, and wear a life jacket while boating.
• He should wear a safety helmet at all times while riding a bike, motorcycle, or motorized vehicle.

Emotional and Social Development

• She needs some freedom and privacy to learn about life. Her property and "confessions" to you should be respected as with a close friend.
• Good parents begin to "lose" their job as he matures. You should grow into a relationship with him as a respected advisor rather than the rigid director of his life that you once were.
• She may try to shock you with new ideas and desires. Never attack her personally even if you strongly disagree with her ideas. According to research, her morals most likely will be very similar to yours eventually.
• Encourage him to maintain good academics, spend time with family and friends, dabble in hobbies and crafts, show compassion towards the less fortunate, and have a positive spiritual involvement. Praise him for his strengths so as to increase his confidence.
• Be sympathetic, without being in agreement, with her desire to dress and do the activities her friends do.
• Avoid downgrading his friends. He probably sees their faults almost as clearly as you do.
• Have family activities that involve the whole family. Encourage her to take an active role in planning and organizing family activities.
• If you use drugs, alcohol, or tobacco frequently, he is more likely to use drugs, alcohol, or tobacco himself.
• He should continue to do chores around your home. A weekly allowance will help him develop money sense.
• Extensive television or video games limit family interaction and discourage her creativity.
• Be involved with his school as much as possible although his work has to be done primarily by him. Involvement with the PTA will give you some say in how he is taught.
• Make every effort to attend her athletic events, plays, recitals, and other special occasions that occur in her life. Few things you do for her will be so important.

Moral Development of Your Child

• Your positive example model will help him to adopt similar values as yourself.
• She may be confused by differences between your values and what she views in others, hears on the radio, or sees in TV and movies. Discuss these differences with her and teach her the difference between right and wrong.
• He will learn more from your example than from what you say. If you smoke and drink often, divorce easily, or have sex with many partners, he will likely repeat this in adulthood.
• She will want to go to R-rated movies at this age. Do not give her the freedom to see any movie, but screen her choices by finding out what is actually contained in the movies either by seeing the movie first, reading newspaper reviews, or going to the internet. Teach her to morally examine movies and TV programs.
• About 80-90% of the sex shown on television is premarital, extramarital, or violent, and most of the marital sex is shown as unenjoyable. Unwed pregnancies, diseases, or divorces are seldom mentioned. Teach your child how unrealistic this is.
• Violence as shown in movies and television is usually self-serving or vengeful. If you do not want him to think of violence as acceptable behavior when he is angry or selfish, you need to limit his exposure to that philosophy.
• It is philosophically difficult to maintain firm moral standards without some form of religious instruction. Traditional Christianity and Judaism place value on the individual, the healthy family, and compassion toward others. The media and most other world views emphasize selfishness, irresponsible lives, and hunger for possessions. This is one of the main reasons so many children, teenagers, and young adults are confused and in trouble.
• Provide her with religious instruction. Otherwise her values will be shaped by others with whom you may not agree. One of the greatest gifts you can give her is to join a traditional Christian church or Jewish synagogue that has a good high school program.
• Provide healthy environments for teens of both sexes to be together such as family get-togethers, church meetings, or athletic events.
• Teenage pregnancy is not the result of a lack of knowledge about contraception. Irresponsible sex on TV, movies, and printed material and sometimes young adults taking advantage of young teenagers largely cause the problem. Do not be afraid to tell him that sex should be delayed until marriage. Studies show that if you encourage him to wait he will likely delay sexual activity.

 

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16-YEAR-OLD QUIZ

These questions, based on research, are meant to teach you and your teenager facts that will help him have a fuller life.

1. Smoking cigarettes causes no problems until someone is 50 years old (True or False).
2. Chewing tobacco does not cause cancer like smoking does (True or False).
3. Marijuana is not a physically addicting drug, but does cause a psychological addiction (True or False).
4. Almost all hard drug users such as heroin, cocaine, crack, and amphetamine users started with marijuana (True or False).
5. Drinking alcohol lowers inhibitions and decreases clear thinking making regretted consequences, such as date rape, drinking and driving, or physical fights, more likely (True or False).
6. The most common reason stated by teenagers for sexual intercourse is that they did not know how to say "No!"  (True or False).
7. You cannot get pregnant the first time you have sex and a girl will never get pregnant if he withdraws early (True or False).
8. Teenage mothers usually marry the fathers of their baby eventually or the father helps financially with the care of the baby (True or False).
9. Adult men (age 18-24 years) who date 16-year-old teenagers are usually interested in a lifelong relationship (True or False).
10. The earlier someone catches human papillomavirus (a sexually transmitted disease), the greater the chances of cancer of the private organs (True or False).
11. Condoms if used properly are always successful in avoiding transmission of the AIDS virus (True or False).
12. Eating breakfast in the morning has nothing to do with how well a student does in school (True or False).
13. People who go to church often are less likely to be depressed and more likely to live a long time and have happy marriages (True or False).
14. Children from divorced families are more likely to be suicidal, do poorly in school, and later get divorced themselves (True or False).
15. When a man and a woman live together before marriage, they are more likely to determine their compatibility (True or False).
16. Married people live longer, have better relationships with their children, and tend to have better physical and mental health (True or False).

Answers and Explanations to Questions

1. False. Smoking causes many problems now including more colds in the smoker and her friends, less stamina, a hacker's cough, smelly clothes and hair, stained teeth, and is a costly habit. 2. False. Lung cancer is lower than with smoking, but mouth and lip cancer is higher. 3. True. While not causing true addiction, marijuana causes a dependency that is hard to break, especially  since it also seems to lower levels of ambition. 4. True. While one cannot say that marijuana causes harder drug use to occur, it does prepare the setting,  contacts, and mind set that allow many people to go on to higher drug use. 5. True. All of these problems occur more frequently when inhibitions have been lowered because of drinking. 6. True. At least according to some scientific studies. Other common reasons given other than "I just wanted to have sex," include peer pressure, pressure by boyfriend or girlfriend, being in an unsupervised party where others were having sex, and drinking which lowered inhibitions. 7. False. A girl can become pregnant the first time she has sex and pregnancy can occur anytime there is penetration since with an erection the penis has a little bit of semen discharged early. 8. False. A teenage mother seldom marries the father of her baby who seldom financially supports her either because he is unable to or more often because he is not interested in his child. 9. False. These young adult men are interested in a sexual relationship and often nothing else because if the girl becomes pregnant, the man seldom marries her, supports her financially, or stays around long. 10. True. This is why it is especially important that teenagers not catch this illness since there is no treatment for the virus and the teen will be infected for a long time, making cancer more likely.  Condoms are not very  protective because the virus is all over the perineum (bathing suit area) of both males and females. 11. False. Condoms have a 31% failure rate which makes them very risky, but if one has decided to be sexually active before marriage, then condoms should be used. 12. False. Breakfast is helpful to avoid lows of sugar in the midmorning, lowering ability to think. 13. True. Religiously involved teens are less likely to be depressed, more likely to marry and stay married,  and more likely to live a long life according to many studies. 14. True. Divorce increases many problems in the divorcing couple and with their children. 15. False. People who cohabit are more likely to divorce if they ever get married, much more likely to break up if they do not marry, and more likely to be unfaithful to their partner than couples who marry without having cohabited first. 16. True. There are many advantages to marriage including longer life, better health, better mental health, and better relationships with their children.