American teens are smoking less, drinking less and fighting less. But they’re texting behind the wheel and spending a lot of time on video games and computers, according to the government’s latest study of worrisome behavior.
Most forms of drug use, weapons use and risky sex have been going down since the government started doing the survey every two years in 1991. Teens are wearing bicycle helmets and seat belts more, too.
“Overall, young people have more healthy behaviors than they did 20 years ago,” said Dr. Stephanie Zaza, who oversees the study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The results come from a study of 13,000 U.S. high school students last spring. Participation was voluntary and required parental permission, but responses were anonymous. Some highlights:
• Fewer than 16 percent of the teens smoked a cigarette in the previous month — the lowest level since the government started doing the survey, when the rate was more than 27 percent. Another CDC study had already put the teen smoking rate below 16 percent, but experts tend to treat this survey’s result as the official number.
• More than 23 percent of teens said they used marijuana in the previous month — up from 15 percent in 1991. CDC officials said they could not tell whether pot or e-cigarettes, which were not part of the study, have replaced traditional cigarettes among teens.
• Among teen drivers, 41 percent had texted or e-mailed behind the wheel in the previous month. That figure can’t be compared to the 2011 survey, though, because the CDC changed the question this time. Texting-while-driving figures for 37 states range from 32 percent in Massachusetts to 61 percent in South Dakota. The rate rises as students age, with 61 percent of 12th-grade boys and 59.5 percent of girls reporting they sent a message while driving.
• Fewer teens said they drank alcohol, down from 39 percent in 2011 to 35 percent. Drinking of soda was down, too, from 34 percent to 27 percent.
• Through texts and social media, young people are doing more communicating and living in an online world in which it’s easier to think they’re the center of the universe, said Marina Krcmar, a Wake Forest University professor who studies teen screen time. That can lead to a form of extended adolescence, she said.
By Mike Stobbe
The Associated Press
Author: Mile High Mamas
