Over half of 10-17 year-olds “never had an alcoholic drink”
In 2010 54.1% of Irish children aged 10 to 17 years report “never having had an alcoholic drink”. In 2002, this figure was 40%.
Print13 March 2013
These figures were published in a report, State of the Nation’s Children, compiled by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in association with the Central Statistics Office and the Health Promotion Research Centre at NUIG.
The alcohol social responsibility organisation drinkaware.ie has welcomed the figures.
Commenting on the findings, the Chief Executive of drinkaware.ie Fionnuala Sheehan, said, “This increase of 35% in the percentage of 10 to 17 year-olds who’ve never had an alcoholic drink is significant and very welcome”. She added, “It’s extremely important that this finding, which shows that over half of 10 to17 year-olds in Ireland have never taken alcohol, is highlighted. Teenagers are particularly influenced by their perception of what behaviours are the norm within their peer group. If they perceive that the majority of their peers drink alcohol, then they are more likely to subscribe to that norm. It is very important therefore that our teenagers are made aware of the fact that the majority of Irish 10 to 17 year-olds abstain from alcohol. The media can play a very positive role in the communication of accurate information on the drinking norm amongst Irish teenagers and in the promotion of a norm of abstinence to this cohort”.
The finding on abstinence amongst Irish 10 to 17 year-olds in the report also puts the level of abstinence in Ireland well above the average of 37 countries across the world covered by comparable data cited in the report. In fact, the findings put Ireland as sixth best performer in this category.
The number of children aged 10 to 17 who reported being drunk at least once in the last 30 days was also down. This, she observed, represented “another significant improvement in national behaviour where alcohol was concerned”.
According to the survey 18.3% of under-18s reported being drunk at least once in the last 30 days; the comparable figure for 2006 was 20.4%.
Fionnuala Sheehan added, “It’s important that the various commentators in Ireland on the issue of alcohol acknowledge these facts. Of course, there remain problems with alcohol in Irish society, and drinkaware.ie exists to help resolve them but the impression conveyed by some commentators is that every young person is drinking when clearly this is not the case. I believe that conveying this impression actually makes it more difficult for young people to refrain from drinking alcohol”.
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