|
The U.S. had the second-lowest proportion of students who usedtobacco and alcohol compared to their counterparts in 36 Europeancountries, a new report indicates. The results originate from coordinated school surveys aboutsubstance use from more than 100,000 students in some of thelargest countries in Europe like Germany, France and Italy, as wellas many smaller ones from both Eastern and Western Europe. Because the methods and measures are largely modeled after theUniversity of Michigan's Monitoring the Future surveys in thiscountry, comparisons are possible between the U.S. and Europeanresults. The 15- and 16-year-old students, who were drawn innationally representative samples in almost all of the 36countries, were surveyed last spring. American 10th graders in the2011 Monitoring the Future studies are of the same age, socomparisons are possible. The differences found between adolescent behaviors in the U.S. andEurope are dramatic, according to Lloyd Johnston, the principalinvestigator of the American surveys. About 27 percent of American students drank alcohol during the 30days prior to the survey. Only Iceland was lower at 17 percent, andthe average rate in the 36 European countries was 57 percent, morethan twice the rate in the U.S. The proportion of American students smoking cigarettes in the monthprior to the survey was 12 percent - again the second lowest in therankings and again only Iceland had a lower rate at 10 percent. Forall European countries the average proportion smoking was 28percent, more than twice the rate in the U.S. "One of the reasons that smoking and drinking rates amongadolescents are so much lower here than in Europe is that bothbehaviors have been declining and have reached historically lowlevels in the U.S. over the 37-year life of the Monitoring theFuture study," Johnston said. "But even in the earlier years of theEuropean surveys, drinking and smoking by American adolescents wasquite low by comparison. "Use of illicit drugs is quite a different matter." The U.S. students tend to have among the highest rates of use ofall of the countries. At 18 percent, the U.S. ranks third of 37countries on the proportion of students using marijuana or hashishin the prior 30 days. Only France and Monaco had higher rates at 24percent and 21 percent, respectively. The average across all theEuropean countries was 7 percent, or less than half the rate in theU.S. American students reported the highest level of marijuanaavailability of all the countries and the lowest proportion ofstudents associating great risk with its use - factors that mayhelp to explain their relatively high rates of use here, accordingto Johnston. The U.S. ranks first in the proportion of students using anyillicit drug other than marijuana in their lifetime (16 percentcompared to an average of 6 percent in Europe) and usinghallucinogens like LSD in their lifetime (6 percent vs. 2 percentin Europe). It also ranks first in the proportion reporting ecstasyuse in their lifetime (7 percent vs. 3 percent in Europe), despitea sharp drop in their ecstasy use over the previous decade.American students have the highest the proportion reportinglifetime use of amphetamines (9 percent), a rate that is threetimes the average in Europe (3 percent). Ecstasy was seen as moreavailable in the U.S. than in any other country. For some drugs, however, the lifetime prevalence rate in the U.S.was just about the average for the European countries, includinginhalants (10 percent), cocaine (3 percent), crack (2 percent),heroin (1 percent) and anabolic steroids (1 percent). "Clearly the U.S. has attained relatively low rates of use forcigarettes and alcohol, though not as low as we would like,"Johnston said. "But the level of illicit drug use by adolescents isstill exceptional here." Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China 808nm Diode Laser Hair Removal , China Body Shaping Machine for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits 808nm Diode Laser Hair Removal.
Related Articles -
China 808nm Diode Laser Hair Removal, China Body Shaping Machine,
|
