Generation abstinence: Teens play it straight
TODAY’S teenagers are shunning sex, drugs, alcohol and cigarettes amid a rise of the “deliberate generation”, research shows.
A News Corp investigation has found during the past decade teenage pregnancies have plunged by almost a third, illegal drug use has nearly halved and abstinence from alcohol has increased by more than half.
Experts warn, however, that while youngsters are taking fewer risks, they are experiencing greater mental health problems and difficulties learning social skills.
Social media and increased screen use is fuelling these problems, meaning young people are unable to maintain personal relationships, affecting everything from their education to job prospects.
“It’s a more deliberate generation,” said leading psychologist Professor John Toumbourou.
In the past, teenage years were marked by rebellion and risk-taking behaviour but a series of new pieces of research paint a different story for today’s generation.
Teenage pregnancies have plunged by 32 per cent since 2006 and the number of teenagers engaging in sexual activity has dropped, according to La Trobe University research.
The proportion of teens having sexual intercourse fell from 40 per cent in 2008 to 35 per cent in 2014, its national sexual health survey of more than 2000 secondary students found.
Griffith University student Tina Hubbert, 18, said most her age thought drinking and smoking was “boring”.
“I feel like it was big when we were 15 or 16, everyone’s saying smoking, drinking is gross now,” she said.
“We’ve done it all earlier. It was bigger, cooler, but when you’re in uni, not in school, it’s different.
“I’d say social media is a massive part of (mental health problems) now, it’s addictive and a lot of people don’t realise how much.
“And then everyone’s stressed because we really don’t realise how much time we’re spending on it, you don’t realise how much you have to do.”
Fellow student Josh Saarinen recently turned 20 and said online games may have played a big part in the shift.
“You see young kids now staying in and playing games,” he said.
“But everyone’s different, there’s that many people around and it definitely doesn’t apply to everyone.”
An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare study found the levels of binge drinking has fallen over the past three years while smoking rates have halved.
The research also found:
• TODAY’S teenagers are increasingly becoming teetotallers — 82 per cent abstained from alcohol in 2016 up from 54 per cent in 2004;
• IN 2013, 8.7 per cent of teens drank at risky levels but that had fallen to 5.4 per cent in 2016, according to the triannual National Drug Strategy Household Survey report.
• THE age at which those between 12 and 17 years smoke their first cigarette has risen from 14.2 years to 16.3.
• TEENAGE smoking rates have halved to less than 2 per cent during the past three years to 2016.
• ILLICIT drug use has almost halved. Just 16 per cent of teenagers aged 14-19 used illegal substances in 2016, compared to 28 per cent in 2001.
Prof Toumbourou, from Deakin University, said falling teenage drinking rates came from “pretty decent effort in public health to get that to happen”.
He said teens now have better information available in schools about how consuming alcohol can permanently damage their brains.
It was also harder to buy alcohol and their parents were less likely to introduce them to it at home, he said.
By consuming less alcohol, teenagers are then less likely to engage in drunken sex, start smoking or take drugs while drunk, he said.
IT WAS BIG WHEN WE WERE 15 OR 16, EVERYONE’S SAYING SMOKING, DRINKING IS GROSS NOW
TINA HUBBERT