Peter Reuell, METROWEST DAILY NEWS STAFF
Sunday, October 14, 2007
MetroWest and Milford-area teens
drink, use drugs, smoke cigarettes and have sex less frequently than
their peers in other state and national surveys, according to a study on
teen health released today.
The 2006 MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey
questioned nearly 17,000 area high school students and almost 7,000
middle school students on everything from smoking and drug use to
whether they wear seatbelts and bicycle helmets.
While the report found teens still engage in a wide
array of risky behavior, researchers found area teens said they do so in
far fewer numbers than those found in similar state and national
surveys.
For example, while state and national surveys have
respectively found 45 percent and 38 percent of high school students
have smoked marijuana, the MetroWest survey found 33 percent of local
students have.
The same went for drinking (42 percent locally versus
48 percent statewide and 43 percent nationally) and cigarette smoking
(just 15 percent in MetroWest, compared to 21 and 23 percent,
respectively, in state and national surveys).
Not all the findings, though, were good.
Among the areas cited by researchers as troubling
were the prevalence of alcohol use among teens - more than 66 percent
admitted to drinking at least once - and the growing misuse of
prescription drugs.
Though just 11 percent of high school students said
they had used prescription drugs, the survey found such drug use
increases drastically as students make their way through high school,
from barely more than 4 percent in ninth grade to more than 18 percent
among high school seniors.
Funded by the MetroWest Community Health Care
Foundation, the survey will be repeated every other year for the next
decade, with the aim of giving health officials and school
administrators data to track changes over the years.
"We wanted to be able to spot trends and see if we
are funding (programs) if they're making an impact," said Rebecca Donham,
a program officer at the Health Care Foundation. "What we kept hearing
from (school) superintendents was, 'It's not helpful for us to compare
ourselves to the state average ... It would be more helpful if we had a
better benchmark.' "
"Most communities do this youth risk survey, and have
done it for a number of years," Natick Superintendent Jim Connolly said
this week. "What we were able to do is have the foundation commit to pay
for the survey over time ... (so) in addition to having national data
and state data we would have MetroWest data."
Perhaps most importantly, Connolly said, the surveys
give school administrators and parents a window into the lives teens are
really living.
"One of the frustrations I have as a superintendent
is, someone might tell me there's a problem, (and) I don't know if it
was just a rumor or one problem that was reported 10 times," he said.
"At least here we have accurate data from the students that we can then
respond to."
"The world of adolescents is generally such a mystery
to adults," Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Principal John Ritchie
said. "What this does is sort of open up the door and have kids say
here's what goes on.
"The main benefit of that, what it does is allow us
to focus conversations with students and parents much more acutely,
because this is what kids are saying about themselves. It makes for a
much more useful and honest conversation."
For Framingham High School Principal Michael Welch,
the study takes out the guesswork when it comes to dealing with teens'
risky behavior.
"I think what we look for ... is confirmation of what
our instincts tell us," he said.
While parents and school administrators might suspect
students are experimenting with drugs and alcohol, the study's results
can help them determine how often they do, and what drugs they use.
"Really, what we're looking at is not so much a
one-year snapshot, we're more interested in the trends," Welch said.
"We're looking forward to seeing the trends that happen over time."
Milford High School Principal John Brucato this week
said he expects the survey results will also be an eye-opener for many
parents.
"Data has no value unless it affects the behavior in
the home," he said. "We only have these kids six hours a day. ... This
information is invaluable to parents.
"It's very simple. The one thing that overcomes all
with kids is peer pressure, and the only thing that can overcome that is
what is done in the home with parents," Brucato said.
(Peter Reuell can be reached at 508-626-4428, or at
preuell@cnc.com.)
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