|
|
|
|
How to cut drug use, violence in schools A landmark Australian study that examined the smoking, drinking and drug-taking habits of thousands of schoolchildren has shown there are ways to successfully intervene and cut high-risk activities in adolescence. Changing the social climate in schools – through promoting social relationships and making schools better places to work - showed a marked change in behaviour over a four-year period. Tobacco and cannabis use fell 25 per cent; violence and anti-social behaviour fell 20 per cent; and having sexual intercourse among 13-year-olds fell by 50 per cent. George Patton, Professor of Adolescent Health at Melbourne University, said the study of 26 schools across Victoria showed big changes could be made in a short period. “It doesn’t take a decade to make a change as significant as this.” The findings of the Gatehouse Study are published in this month’s prestigious American Journal of Public Health and have significant implications for how we run our schools. Professor Patton said risk-taking activities among adolescents was happening earlier and lasting longer, giving more time for drug and alcohol exposure as the brain developed (until about age 22) and more time before genes were passed on to the next generation. The time gap between puberty and becoming socially mature was growing ever longer – creating increasing mental health problems for today’s youth, he said. “The size of the gap is unprecedented. And during that time a lot of things are likely to happen that have a major influence on the health of your offspring.” Professor Patton said young women reached the start of their reproductive life about 13 – with puberty – and were commonly delaying having children for 20 years. “It used to be the transition was quick – puberty then marriage and children. But ‘marriage, mortgage kids’ has been delayed and there is a mismatch between biological maturation and social maturation.” “You need to be aware of sometimes toxic influences in this phase – substance use, alcohol, cannabis, amphetamines – and the lifestyle you lead, such as diet, weight and exercise. And the sum of your environmental exposures may affect the gene expression in your offspring.” Professor Patton will today talk on this issue in Melbourne at the 17th World Congress of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions. More than 1400 delegates have gathered for the congress, which is held every four years.
|
General
enquiries: please contact the people and organisations mentioned in our media
releases |
