Child smoking, drinking down; suicidal thoughts rise
The latest health survey of Maine schoolchildren indicated alcohol and tobacco use is down while the number of students reporting they’d considered suicide or had been bullied rose from two years ago.
The Portland Press Herald reported that the latest Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey showed the number of students who reported having at least one drink of alcohol in their lifetime declined to 54.3% from 59.4% in a 2011 survey. Those who reported using tobacco at least once in the past 30 days decreased to 12.9%, from 15.5% in the previous survey.
Among seventh- and eighth-graders, the percentage of students who reported having “seriously considered attempting suicide” rose to 16.8% from 14.5% in the earlier survey. For high-schoolers, that percentage rose to 14.6% from 12.7%. The percentage of students who reported being bullied in school at some point also rose among survey groups of fifth- and sixth-graders, seventh- and eighth-graders and high school students.
The survey is based on anonymous responses from 63,000 public school students in grades 5 through 12.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Comments