Posted on 05/19/2006 8:31:27 AM PDT by presidio9
Teenage girls are now more likely than boys to drink, smoke, steal and take drugs, a survey has shown.
In a disturbing confirmation of the spread of the 'ladette' culture, it found violence, aggression and self-destructive behaviour has spread alarmingly among girls over the past 20 years.
Are girls really more troublesome than boys? Tell us in the reader comments below
While boys appear less likely to be drawn towards crime or drugs than they were, psychological and social problems are stacking up among teenage girls, who are now expected to compete on equal terms with boys for educational opportunity and jobs.
The study of 14 and 15-year-olds was conducted by questionnaire, in schools under exam conditions, and the results compared with a similar one from 1985.
Professor Colin Pritchard, who led the research, said: 'Girls now significantly smoke and binge-drink more than boys. They truant, steal and fight at similar rates, and start under-age sex earlier than boys.'
He said binge-drinking, which was admitted by nearly a third of girls in their early teenage years, drove other anti-social behaviour such as stealing, fighting, taking drugs and engaging in risky sex.
'There is an element of following role models set by the media,' he said 'We can look back to the Spice Girls where girls were set an example in which aggressive behaviour was considered praiseworthy.
'It is also the case that girls are expected to behave differently today than they were in the past, and that has affected the of boys too.'
The study comparison found that the number of boys admitting to smoking has nearly halved to just over a quarter, while the number of girls who smoke has risen to nearly half. The number of girls who admit having smoked cannabis has gone up nearly fourfold, to one in five.
In 1985 around half of all boys and girls drank alcohol on a regular basis. Last year the numbers had shot up to 68 per cent of boys and an astonishing 85 per cent of girls.
Because researchers in the 1980s did not believe binge-drinking could be a problem among young teenagers, they did not include the subject in their questionnaire. But in the contemporary study, 15 per cent of boys and 29 per cent of girls defined themselves as binge-drinkers.
Girls were far more likely than boys to have had sex: 31 per cent against 17.
The research, produced by academics from the Institute of Health and Community Studies at Bournemouth University, suggested there had been improvements in behaviour among boys.
The number who admitted stealing had halved, as had numbers who were regularly in fights. Truanting was also down.
Professor Pritchard said: 'One thing we found among teenagers of all backgrounds was that those who said they liked school were the least likely to binge-drink, take drugs, or otherwise engage in bad behaviour. That is a challenge to schools and parents to make sure pupils are interested.' Martin Plant, professor of addiction studies at the University of the West of England in Bristol, said British teenagers were more likely to binge-drink than those anywhere else in Europe - and the problem was worse among girls.
His wife, and co-author of the book Binge Britain, Moira Plant, said many young women drink because it gives them a sense of power, and teenagers will often see drinking and even hangovers as a 'badge of honour'.
? The relaxation of licensing laws has been criticised by some of Britain's most eminent scientists.
Professor Jonathan Montgomery, an expert in healthcare law, said alcohol was potentially more dangerous than tobacco, yet the Government was making it much more available with 24-hour drinking.
And Sir John Krebs, principal of Jesus College Oxford, attacked the marketing of alcopops specifically for young people. 'The Government has stood by and let that happen, whereas it wouldn't have accepted the alcopop equivalent of cigarettes targeted at children,' he said.
"It seems being a "SLUT" is a badge of honor."
Not to me.
Making her daddy proud....
Amen to that!
No, its just that these girls are having sex with older boys... lets face it a 17 or even 20 year old boy will persue a 14 year old girl... the inverse is far less likely to occur.
Girls are being hypersexualized by our culture and its NOT a good thing...
Women have always been the tempering motivator that balances male agressive tendencies.. if girls are raised to be hypersexualized and agressive, society as we know it will no longer exist in the long run.
Well, 14-year-old girls are attractive to 20-year-old boys. 14-year-old boys are only attractive to 30-year-old teachers. ;)
Prettiest nun in the convent?
At the Catholic school across town.
Add homosexual and group sex to that list. I work in a large company with a LOT of younger entry level females. The number of "bi" girls out there these days is startling. By the time a lot of these girls turn 19 or 20, they're practically amateur porn stars.
One of said teachers (with an 18 year-old) was a 25 year-old former pageant winner.
Couldn't sleep last night (nasty cold), so got up and started channel surfing. Clicked on a commercial for "Girls Gone Wild" - can't believe what I saw. Their mothers and fathers must be SO proud of them :-(
Always being a "giver", in my younger years, I did a lot of good work with "out of control" teenage girls.
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