Study: Teen girls drinking more

June 30th, 2010 - 9:02 pm ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

Maryland, Jun 30 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Historically teenage boys have always drunk more alcohol than the opposite sex. However the tide seems to be steadily changing. New information from the Partnership for a Drug Free America shows that more girls are turning to alcohol and other narcotic drugs, than boys these days.

The report examined a survey of the attitudes of teens by a 2009 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS). The survey shows that there’s been an 11% increase in middle-to-high schoolgirls who admit drinking alcohol. However on the other hand the percentages for boys have been stable in the same time.

In 1998, only 26.6% of girls, compared to 39% of boys admitted to have drunk alcohol within the last 30 days preceding the interview by Monitoring the Future.

In the past, studies on under-age drinking were focused on boys, but lately girls are also drinking as much and researchers have started focusing on girls as well. Amelia Arria, who is the director of the center on young adult health and development at the University of Maryland School of Public Health said that, “The numbers go down for boys and girls, but they go down much more dramatically for boys.”

She added that, “It represents a 25 percent decrease for boys, but only a 1 percent decrease for girls.”

Related Stories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in World News |

Subscribe