American high school students today take significantly fewer health risks than did their counterparts in the early 1990s, although they do slightly worse in terms of obesity, asthma, exercise, and sunscreen use. That’s according to a new CDC report on youth risk behavior. Also: today’s teens are more likely to wear helmets and seat belts, and are less prone toward risky sex, suicide, drinking, and smoking. The share of 9th- to 12th-graders who have ever smoked cigarettes, for instance, has fallen from 70.1 percent in 1991 to 46.3 percent in 2009. The report also shows declines in violence and weapons use among teens since 1991. [%comments]
The Kids are Alright
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And what about the soaring rates of prescription drug abuse?
J.Ja
What is risky sex? Without a condom?
Just as I thought; today’s youth are getting very boring. It must be the awful unrebellious music that they listen to now-a-days.
What was the sexting rate back then?
“We word nerds have known since second grade that alright is not all right” – Bill Walsh
The Kids Are All Right, guys.
“Also: today’s teens are more likely to wear helmets and seat belts, and are less prone toward risky sex, suicide, drinking, and smoking. ”
one of these is not like the other…
@Kevin
Maybe risky sex is having sex while not wearing a seatbelt in the backseat of a moving vehicle.
I second JJ’s comment. Prescription drug abuse is everywhere, and very rarely discussed.
Also, as a ‘teenager’ myself, having just finished my first year of college, the suicide rate is more worrisome than almost all the other surveyed “health risks”. That more than 6 percent of our nation’s teenagers have attempted suicide, and double that having seriously considered suicide within the last year is horrifying and entirely unsurprising.
That we’re smoking less cigarettes and marijuana but still over a fourth of the surveyed teenage population feels continuously “sad or hopeless” for two or more weeks consecutively is a fact that we push out of sight. Do we congratulate ourselves on the “victories” of lowered illegal drinking and smoking in teenagers when clearly there are much deeper issues that are not being fully addressed by our culture?
Apparently we do. But the measuring stick we are using appears to be flawed.