Research has shown that European teenagers smoke, drink and smoke weed less compared to a few years ago. They also have sex for the first time at an increasingly later age, NOS reports. The World Health Organization (WHO) has surveyed 200.000 teens between the ages of 11 and 15 from 42 countries.
To smoke
Compared to other European countries, Dutch youth smoke little: 11% of 15-year-olds smoke a cigarette at least once a week. Smoking is much more common in countries such as Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. Smoking is the most common in Bulgaria: 25% of 15-year-olds light a cigarette every week. Nevertheless, European teenagers generally start smoking at an increasingly later age compared to the year 2009, possibly due to rising excise taxes and decreasing number of places where smoking is still allowed.
blow
In the Netherlands, teenagers smoke much less than in other European countries, while access to soft drugs is easier here. Yet only 17% of 15-year-old Dutch people have ever lit a joint, compared to 27% in France and 24 in Estonia and Switzerland.
drink
In the Netherlands, the research shows that 11 and 13-year-olds hardly drink any alcohol. The number of teens who drink weekly is between 1% and 2% of the total among the study participants. Youth researcher Gonneke Stevens, who, on behalf of the Netherlands, was involved in the WHO research mentions that nowadays parents are more likely to tell their children not to drink. However, this changes as the teen gets older. 15% of Dutch 15-year-olds drink a drink every week. 17% Say they have been drunk (more than) twice. The number in the Netherlands is not striking in comparison with neighboring countries.
Sex and Contraceptives
In the Netherlands, 16 percent of 15-year-olds have had sex at some point, which is a lot less than in 2009. “The percentage is lower in only four European countries,” says Stevens. "It could be related to less alcohol consumption." In Bulgaria (31%), Hungary (28%) and Denmark (27%) the teenagers are the earliest.
In terms of contraceptives, teenagers in the Netherlands are doing reasonably well compared to the rest of Europe: almost 72 percent of 15-year-olds used a condom the last time they had sex. The Dutch therefore do this a lot more regularly than, for example, residents of Sweden (54%), Malta (41%) and Poland (26%). In addition, 66% of the Dutch girls used the contraceptive pill, which puts them in the top three of the countries surveyed. Only the amount of Belgian and German girls who indicate that they use this is larger.
Life satisfaction
The question whether the Dutch young person is now also less happy because of the reduced use of tobacco, soft drugs and alcohol and the later age at which people have sex for the first time, is quickly refuted by Gonneke Stevens. “Dutch youth are at the top when it comes to life satisfaction and they are the most positive about their relationships with classmates. So they are only healthy.”
Bullying and fighting
In addition, the World Health Organization conducted research into the amount of bullying (including online) and fighting. In all the cases examined, the Netherlands is in the minority compared to other European countries.
