In Brief: Jun. 25, 2001

• Share

GUNPLAY A couple of boys find a gun. What do they do next? According to a study in Pediatrics, 75% will pick it up, and nearly half will pull the trigger. Sixty-four boys, ages eight to 12, took part in the experiment, in which an unloaded .380-cal. handgun was hidden in a drawer in a medical examining room. Left alone in the room, the boys explored. Half of those who handled the gun were correct in thinking it was real.

DADDY TRAP Fathers who don't live with their biological children are often labeled shirkers. The reality is that many are juggling multiple family obligations, concludes a study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The study found that half these dads have more than one set of children to take care of, emotionally and financially, and 24% have three or more groups of kids--whether biological or stepchildren--in their lives. On the whole, 78% of them pay child support, and 30% visit their children at least weekly.

TEEN SENSE Teenage girls in the U.S. are less likely to become pregnant than at any time since at least 1976, when national data first became available. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control finds that the teen pregnancy rate has fallen nearly 20% from its all-time high in 1991, to 94.3 pregnancies per 1,000 girls, ages 15 to 19.

--By David Bjerklie