My personal observation is that emotion and reason can't exist in balance in the same head at the same time, the influence of each proportionally lessened with the presence of the other. 
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.
Drinking or, umm, practicing?
If girls would only play more computer games they wouldn't have these social problems.
Because the feminazis have fed then that line of bull that the only way they can prove they are not being subjugated by men is to act even more wild and vulgar than the must wild and vulgar man. What a shame.
The 50's were a great time to grow up. It was a pretty slow process but at least we finally made it.
I thought teenage girls were always more trouble thab girls. This, coming from a former teenage girl.
Yeah, we had an AP English teacher...holy cow, memories. I ran into her a few years after high school at a bar near UT but I had the future Mrs. BJC with me so it didn't go beyond "hi".
that is why I loved living in hollywood when I was young, in my apartment building the ratio of women to heterosexual men was about 3:1,
Males over the age of 18.
My oldest boy is 26, my daughter just turned 1. It's nice to know that I'm not the only guy that does things like this.
Sez you.
Hehe, same here, saw the teacher a few years later, still looking great, but 4 kids took a toll in the bootie...
I'll remain absolutely civil and not make a fool of myself..
*giggity giggity giggity*
Doogle
Well, I'll put in a contrarian view: two boys and a girl.
One boy, by far the easiest, the girl, almost as easy to raise, but the other boy. . . .
It's difficult to generalize from small samples, but folks love to do it. The "boys are this way, girls are that," coming from a parent who has one of each, and universalizes their experience of their own children to all children of that sex, is heard far to often.
Teenage girls are now more likely than boys to drink, smoke, steal and take drugs, a survey has shown. "
And a big thank you goes out to: NOW, Gloria Steinhem, NARAL, the MSM, the New York Times, Nina Burleigh, the ACLU, Bill Clinton, academia, public school educators, new age psychologists, and teen sex apologists.
That's why my kids are in a private Christian school at great personal expense.
Apparently, the same boys get lucky more often.
Don't worry about avoiding temptation... As you grow older, it will avoid you. (Winston Churchill)
they're cunninglinguists
My personal observation is that emotion and reason can't exist in balance in the same head at the same time, the influence of each proportionally lessened with the presence of the other.
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