Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) is a landmark report carried out every four years in collaboration with the WHO. The latest one (this is volume 3) was released this month and focused on adolescent substance use in children aged 11, 13 and 15 years old.
They surveyed 280,000 children from 44 countries across regions in Europe, central Asia and Canada. The data was collected in 2021/2022 – so smack-bang during those depressing months of Covid, lockdowns and school closures.
What were the children of the UK doing at that time? As it turns out, possibly the same as their parents: getting drunk.
Children in the United Kingdom were at or near the top of the league tables of drinkers, vapers, smokers and cannabis users, where statistics were provided.
In England, the data showed that 57 per cent of girls and 50 per cent of boys aged 13 have had alcohol. One in three have had it by 11 years old. By comparison only 16 per cent in Ireland have drunk by the time they are 13.
In Scotland 15-year-old boys were second in the list for cannabis smoking – beaten only by Canadian girls. Children in the UK are drinking and vaping more, with teenage girls in England leading the way.
What is going on? First of all, and I don’t want to sound all ‘cool mum’ here. The report doesn’t specify how much 11-year-olds were drinking. They were asked if they had tried it ‘at some point’. My children have also tried wine ‘at some point’. The younger ones have had a sip, pulled a face and pronounced it ‘disgusting’. That said, we still were still top of the leader boards (and not the good ones).
Secondly, while we can’t ignore this data or what it tells us about how we drink as a nation, another recent report has shown that the slightly older Gen Zs are drinking far less and are ‘sober curious’. These league tables seem to show us something unique seems going on with our younger teens – especially our girls.
As always, let’s look at the parents. One in three adults drank far more than they usually did and memes circulated on social media about drinking and homeschooling. My brother-in-law works for a wine merchant and said every day at the beginning of lockdown was as busy as their busiest Christmas. We all know that children mirror the behaviour they see in their parents (except when it comes to unloading dishwashers) and lockdown was certainly the perfect storm for drinking and setting a bad example.
There is also the popular theory that parents must ‘demystify’ alcohol by allowing their children to try it. The logic goes something like this: a small glass of wine with a meal would civilise a child’s drinking and prevent rampant binge drinking the moment they turned 18. This theory that a child will eschew the shots of Jägerbombs because they’d once enjoyed a lovely Chateauneuf du Pape 2017 with their mum and dad does not stand up to scrutiny.
Dr Katherine Severi, chief executive of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: “People tend to have this perception that introducing children to moderate drinking is a good way of teaching them safer drinking habits. This is untrue. The earlier a child drinks, the more likely they are to develop problems with alcohol in later life.”
I was given wine by my family in this way and can confirm it didn’t do anything to curb my teenage drinking.
There’s also the theory that teenagers drinking at home is far safer – 16 and 17-year-olds, too young for the pub, will drink anyway so better they do it inside and with a parent nearby. Some risks are inevitably reduced but certainly not all. According to the Drink Aware website, alcohol – even small amounts – can affect memory function, reactions, learning ability and attention span in the developing adolescent brain. Evidence also reveals that children who start to drink by age 13 are more likely to go on to have worse grades, to skip school and even to be excluded from school.
I was told about assaults, fights and alcohol poisoning in underage drinkers when canvassing for opinions on whether drinking is simply too harmful to allow. Risky behaviours, injuries and bad judgment – we all know what happens when alcohol wipes our inhibitions. Children are obviously at higher risk of all those things, because, well, they are children.
Maybe this report reveals another awful consequence of Covid on our younger generation. Other countries, though, had lockdowns though too of course.
Dr Jo Inchley, international coordinator for the study from the University of Glasgow, said: “We’re seeing really high levels of early initiation into drinking amongst boys and girls in England [and] why that’s much higher than other countries, I don’t really know, but it’s certainly something we need to look at and address.”
Read more Parenting Truths from Emilie Silverwood-Cope every month in the Cambridge Independent.
