Risky behaviours by teenagers on the decline
Young New Zealanders appear to be taking fewer risks when it comes to engaging in traditionally bad behaviours including smoking, binge drinking and drug use.
A multi-year study has shown significant drops since 2001 in the number of secondary school students involved in risk-taking behaviour.
The research, led by Dr Sonia Lewycka from the University of Auckland, identified a number of possible catalysts for what she and her team said were ‘‘profound shifts’’ in youth risk behaviour.
‘‘Increased parental involvement, monitoring and access restrictions may have resulted in substance use and risky driving being displaced by other forms of sensation seeking, like social media.
‘‘Undoubtedly, much has been achieved through concerted efforts to regulate access, legislation to reduce harmful behaviours and public health campaigns and social marketing to change societal attitudes,’’ reports the study, published in the Journal of Paediatric and Child Health.
School-based health policies and curriculum changes were also likely to have spurred reductions in sexual risk-taking, risky driving and violence.
Wellington Youth Council chairman Brad Olsen said the findings were unsurprising with social media providing a new level of accountability for poor decisions.
‘‘I think young people are learning from their mistakes a lot quicker . . . they want to have fun and it is the time of your life to do that but ensure it doesn’t impact on your future.’’
Olsen also credited more traditional campaigns around drink-driving finding their way onto more youth-friendly mediums as another potential reason why prevention messages were getting through.
‘‘The [New Zealand] Police Instagram [account] is littered with pictures of police dogs because they know people love it and they can still get their [safety] messages out around things like drink-driving.
‘‘Those campaigns stick with you . . . Noone wants to see their mate all roughed up on the side of the road after a crash.’’
It’s not all good news, though, with a third of those surveyed reporting being overweight or obese and less than one in five meet the recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake or physical activity.
Support systems were also found to be sub-optimal, with about half of students not feeling safe in their own neighbourhood or having an adult they could talk to outside of their family.
Whether the decrease in risky behaviours has, or will, flow into reduced instances of youth crime remains unclear, however, the most recently available data from the Ministry of Justice shows rates have been on the decrease.