TEENS DITCH BOOZE, DRUGS
Drop in alcohol, drug use
THERE has been a dramatic drop in teenage alcohol use compared to two decades ago, a new Deakin University study has found, and Geelong is leading the charge.
Alcohol, cannabis and tobacco use all dropped dramatically between 1999 and 2015, researchers discovered.
“The reductions that are occurring in Geelong in secondary school age alcohol and drug use are probably occurring at even faster rates than the rest of the nation,” Geelong-based leader researcher Professor John Toumbourou said.
“We’ve seen very good reductions across the nation, and I think Geelong’s been a leader in trying to see that type of behaviour reduced.”
Prof Toumbourou, the Chair in Health Psychology at Deakin’s School of Psychology, said the results marked “a huge public health success story for Australia”.
Researchers used ‘Communities That Care Youth Survey’ data, encompassing more than 41,000 teenage respondents from Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland between 1999 and 2015, to identify trends.
The study found that a reduced tendency for parents to supply their children booze and more outlets tightening up restrictions on serving underage youths were the likely cause of the large decrease in teen alcohol use.
The research, a collaboration with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, found parental supply of alcohol to adolescents had dropped 10 per cent, from a high of 22 per cent in 2007, to 12 per cent. “It shows parents are making radical changes in their attitude to underage drinking and also how they model their own drinking behaviour,” Prof Toumbourou said.
“This is a game changer, we can see that parents are taking on the advice from our national health guidelines that even a small amount of alcohol is harmful to teenagers. And we believe this is what has seen Australia go from having one of the highest rates of alcohol use by high school students in the world, to one of the lowest.”