Sex, drugs and drinking are hardly new concerns when it comes to our teens.
As many states grapple with news that some of these devastating behaviors are on the rise among young people, a new study out of New Hampshire shows teens are actually doing what mom and dad have been asking of them.
A 2015 New Hampshire Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows that teenagers’ use of tobacco, illegal prescription drugs and alcohol are down, and seatbelt and bicycle helmet use are up. Marijuana use specifically in this latest survey dropped from 31 percent in 2003 to 22 percent last year, bucking a national trend. The number of teens having sex has also reportedly dropped from 47 percent in 2011 to 39 percent last year.
That’s the good news.
The bad news: “Alarming trends continue in areas of texting and driving and heroin use,” the state Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement about the findings. The use of heroin has remained constant for 12 years. Texting and driving has gone down by 4 percent, with girls admitting to the practice more than boys. One in 4 teens has now also tried e-cigarettes.
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The state started keeping an eye on these issues back in 1991, querying local high school students at that time and every year since. Results are often used to develop public health programs.
Officials said there has been no significant change in the rate of heroin use among high school students since questions were first asked in 2003. At that time, 2.3 percent of respondents said they had ever used heroin. It was only up slightly last year to 2.4 percent.
“We know there is a correlation between youth misuse of alcohol and drugs and poor academic performance, behavioral problems, the progression to addiction and other risky behaviors,” Joe Harding, director of the state Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services, told the New Hampshire Union Leader.
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So the new numbers, assuming students answered truthfully, are promising.
The survey is a compilation of results from 14,837 students in New Hampshire public high schools in 2015. The Union Leader reports that this is about a quarter of all high school enrollment for that school year. This is also the first time the data is available on the state’s website.
New Hampshire may be reflecting a broader trend. This past December, the National Institutes of Health released its annual survey of young people’s drug use, and the numbers were at their lowest in 40 years. Alcohol was down, as was tobacco. Tobacco rates were so low, in fact, that teens are now more likely to smoke marijuana on a given day over cigarettes, although the study found no increase in teen marijuana consumption.
The 2014 Monitoring the Future survey looks at drug use and attitudes among eighth, 10th and 12th graders in America.
While that’s not the news everyone wants to hear — that our kids are picking up weed if they’re picking up anything, and that the attitudes toward certain drugs like marijuana appear to be softening — the statistics offer some hope for the next generation.
The trends will be interesting to watch, however. There continues to be an epidemic of adults hooked on, and overdosing on, heroin, prescription painkillers and cocaine.
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