Why more high school students are saying yeah, nah to alcohol

Fewer precocious schoolhouse students are turning to intoxicant to acceptable successful compared with 20 years ago, with teenagers telling researchers they person ‘better things to do’ than drink.

University of Otago, Wellington researchers carried retired in-depth interviews with 64 students aged betwixt 14 and 17 from a mixed sex Wellington schoolhouse and recovered a drastic driblet in younker drinking compared with a akin cohort from 1999-2001.

Year 12 pupil Patricia, who is non-binary, told researchers: “I bash privation to [drink] successful the future, but astatine a constituent wherever it won’t impact my brain. Because I cognize that having excessively overmuch and getting excessively drunk arsenic a teen tin impact your neuro strategy successful the future, similar it degrades your brain.”

Lead writer and nationalist wellness researcher Dr Jude Ball puts this down to a displacement successful the mode students are socialising and dating done the likes of societal media, amended eduction connected the dangers of drinking and a emergence successful the pressures placed connected young Gen Z-ers.

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“It’s truly wide this alteration is coming from young radical themselves,” Ball said.

“Some inactive spell truly hard retired and portion mode excessively overmuch conscionable similar generations earlier them, but a batch of young radical are conscionable not interested. They spot it arsenic each hazard and nary reward.”

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Dr Jude Ball, elder nationalist wellness researcher astatine the University of Otago, Wellington, says a alteration successful socialising behaviour is 1 of the factors driving a driblet successful teen drinking.

Another twelvemonth 12, Lexi, said drinking conscionable wasn’t connected her to-do list. “I’ve got amended things to bash than enactment ... I’m looking retired for my aboriginal here. I can’t person this distraction really.”

Others agreed, saying they failed to spot the payment of drinking and could person amusive without alcohol.

More than fractional the students surveyed 20 years agone were regularly drinking and going to parties by the clip they were successful Year 10, Ball said. By Year 12, each had astatine slightest immoderate acquisition drinking socially.

This radical was made up of 41 students from a mixed Christchurch school.

“The bulk had been drunk astatine slightest erstwhile oregon doubly and galore drank to intoxication connected a play basis.”

By contrast, lone 1 of the Year 10 students interviewed successful the latest survey reported drinking intoxicant socially.

Some inactive utilized drinking arsenic a means of intelligence escape, which was antithetic to underage drinkers successful the erstwhile survey who said drinking was a societal must, oregon conscionable ‘feels cool’.

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Donna Govorko, wide manager for Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD) says young radical are amended educated astir the dangers of intoxicant than they were 20 years ago.

Back then, young radical were babelike connected gathering successful idiosyncratic to socialise and “often intoxicant was a portion of that”, Ball said Now they could flirt online, wherever it was easier to beryllium bold without the societal lubricant of alcohol.

Investment successful acquisition and student-led advocacy was besides empowering young radical to marque amended choices erstwhile getting down the wheel, oregon choosing whether to portion astatine all, Donna Govorko​, wide manager of Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD) said.

“Young radical are tending to instrumentality a small much work than their parents did astir intoxicant ... The much vulnerability to that acquisition they get, the much they volition enactment retired of occupation with the police,” Govorko said.

SADD recently launched a caller interactive video to assistance thatch students astir the consequences of driving decisions, including erstwhile they’re impaired.

Ball said the question present was whether young radical were delaying drinking oregon if this behavioural alteration would travel them into adulthood, wherever New Zealand inactive has disproportionately precocious rates of binge-drinking.