OUC -- STUDY SHOWS TEENAGE YEARS A RISKY BUSINESS

A major study currently being conducted in the Central Okanagan and looking
at the behaviour of teens has found that while young people here are
experimenting with drugs, alcohol and other "risky" activities, they are
not doing more than other North American kids.

The study, led by Okanagan University College professor Marvin Kranke,
released its initial findings yesterday.

"The levels of risk-taking by young teens may surprise some people in our
region," said Kranke. "But they are much the same as those in other areas
of Canada and the U.S."

The three-year, $500,000 study of students in Grades 7 to 9 in the Central
Okanagan school district is looking at what causes adolescents to choose
certain risky behaviors and how those behaviors affect their health,
education and social outcomes.

The Project on Adolescent Trajectories and Health (PATH) is being done in
co-operation with the local school district, the Interior Health Authority,
and the Ministry for Children and Family Development and includes
researchers from York University, University of Calgary, the Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health, and the University of Southern California.

Kranke has already presented some of his findings to an international
conference in Helsinki, Finland and will present additional findings this
spring in Washington, D.C. and Florida.

Kranke and his researchers surveyed more than 1,300 local students during
the past year about drug, alcohol, and tobacco use; sexual activity, dating
violence, and bullying.

They found that the middle-school years are when many teens begin taking
risks with alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and sex.

Researchers found:

Alcohol use and abuse is a growing problem. Although only one in four Grade
7 students interviewed uses alcohol, that number jumps to two in three
students in Grade 9. Of the Grade 9 students, six in 10 admitted to being
intoxicated.

"One of the factors influencing adolescent alcohol expectancies and use is
television," says Kranke. "We found a direct correlation between the amount
of time an adolescent spent watching late night television (when
commercials and program content are more adult-oriented) to their
willingness to indulge in risky behaviors."

Public education campaigns against tobacco use seem to be having some
impact. Only 30 per cent of Grade 9 students have tried smoking, only one
in 10 have smoked in the past month, and less than 15 per cent said they
intended to smoke in the future.

"Unfortunately when those numbers are broken down by gender, we found that
girls are still not getting the message when it comes to the adverse health
effects of smoking," says Kranke. More girls (35 per cent) than boys (21
per cent) said they had smoked in the past; while that number decreased for
those who intended to smoke in the future, girls still outnumbered the boys
by almost two-to-one.

Experimental marijuana use is about eight per cent higher than with Ontario
students in the same grades, with 40 per cent of Grade 9 students admitting
to having tried marijuana.

A small percentage of boys and girls said they had had sex by Grade 8, with
nearly one in five girls saying they had done so by Grade 9. One in four
boys said they were sexually active.

More than 50 per cent of Grade 7 to 9 students reported being bullied in
the past year and 40 per cent admitted bullying someone else.

Other early findings included:

While less than two per cent of Grade 7 students said they had ever used
opiates, club drugs such as ecstasy, stimulants or hallucinogens, that
number climbed substantially for Grade 9 students, especially hallucinogen
use. About 13 per cent said they had used them in the past, while only six
per cent admitted to using stimulants, four per cent to club drugs and
three per cent to opiate use.

Seven out of 10 students said they had been bullied in the past with about
5 in 10 students saying it had happened within the last year. Half of the
students surveyed in Grade 7 admitted to bullying others, while nearly 70
per cent of Grade 9 students said they had done so.

Although only a small percentage of respondents said they had experienced
dating violence, including pushing, kicking, slapping and threatening
behavior, the numbers increased as the students got older. In Grade 7,
three per cent of girls said they had been pushed by a dating partner; four
per cent said they had pushed a dating partner. By Grade 9 that number had
increased to 12 per cent of females pushing or being pushed by a dating
partner. Six per cent of Grade 9 boys and girls said they had been kicked
by their dates.

The main purpose of the PATH research is to go beyond these statistics.
"Our work shows that these transitions to risk are predicted by changes in
how teens think about risky behaviors," said Kranke.

"This study is different from most others in the field because it follows
students over time and examines the causes of changes in risk behavior."

Kranke will present his study's early findings in a lecture at OUC's
upcoming open house and research Expo at the north Kelowna campus March 8
in Room 281 in the arts building. His lecture will start at 12:30 p.m.