A couple of interesting tidbits to share today...First up "Generation Debt" may not be in as much debt as we think -- at least when it comes to credit cards. According to new research from Peanut Labs:

- Generation-Y has impressively kept out of credit card debt; 47 percent of respondents say they currently have zero credit card debt.

- 17 percent of all respondents currently owe less than $500 and 23 percent of Gen-Y respondents owe $500 - $5,000 in credit card charges.

- On the downside, 3 percent of Gen-Yers are carrying more than $25,000 in credit card debt.

And there's new research on girls playing sports -- while more girls are playing organized sports, the girls who aren't becoming jocks (including an over representation of poor girls and girls of color) are becoming less active and less healthy. According to a forthcoming report from the U of Minnesota:

- Girls are participating in sports in record numbers, but their participation in physical activity outside of organized sports is declining, especially as they move from childhood into adolescence.

- Girls' participation rates in all types of physical activities consistently lag behind those of boys and girls' dropout rates are higher.

- Girls' experiences are shaped by the quality and expertise of the adults who make decisions, manage, govern, deliver and coach physical activity programming, many of whom have minimal -- if any -- formal training.

- Outdated, stereotypical standards of femininity and masculinity continue to influence the extent to which girls participate in or shun physical activity.

- Female athletes continue to be trivialized through the popular media's widespread sexualization of women.

- Traditional models of physical education organized around competition, team sports, power, strength, aggression and which focuses on the "motor elite" rather than skill development, disadvantage girls (and boys) who are less skilled to begin with, which may contribute to a lack of enjoyment and a shunning of lifelong participation in physical activity.

And finally, just in time for the Pope's impending visit, new research shows Catholic youth are more traditional than older Catholics. According to U.S. News & World Report:

Conducted in February 2008 by the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, the survey of 1,007 self-identified Catholics found that regular mass-attending millennials are almost as accepting of church teachings as pre-Vatican II Catholics. And in some respects, their practices identify them as the most traditional.

For example, millennials are the most likely of any age cohort to follow Lenten practices, whether abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent or receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday. They are also the most likely to say that devotion to the saints is very important to their idea of being a good Catholic. They are as likely as pre-Vatican II Catholics to say that Christ is truly present in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and they are among the most inclined to say that the Eucharist is very important to their religious practice. While they are even more prone than pre-Vatican II Catholics to say that they are at least somewhat involved in parish life, pre-Vatican II Catholics still attend mass more frequently.

Posted by anastasia