Children too busy online for drinking or smoking
TEENAGERS are drinking and smoking less than they did a decade ago as they spend more time online than misbehaving with friends, research has shown.
The percentage of 14 and 15-year-old boys who said they had drunk alcohol in the past seven days has dropped from 32 per cent last year to just 15 per cent this year.
Separately, in the last decade the percentage of both girls and boys who drink and smoke has dropped sharply, according to data by the Schools and Students Health Education Unit (SHEU).
In 2005, the percentage of boys who drank alcohol within the past week stood at 37 per cent for boys and 41 per cent for girls. The percentages stand at 15 per cent and 26 per cent respectively. A decade ago, 16 per cent of boys said they smoked regularly and 26 per cent of girls said they did so as well. The figures are now 9 per cent for boys and 18 per cent for girls.
David Regis, research manager at the SHEU, said: “There has been a generational decrease in unwelcome behaviour across the Western world in adults and young people since the mid1990s.
“It is a bit mysterious as to why that’s the case. It may have something to do with an improvement of the economy, health education messages finally getting through, behaviours shifting online or a combination.
“If it’s more interesting to be chatting online than messing around behind the bus shelter, I can understand why a displacement theory can be argued for.”
The unit questioned more than 78,000 primary and secondary school students.