A huge number of young people in the UK are experimenting with sex, drugs and alcohol, dealing with violence in relationships and at home, and contemplating suicide at an ever younger age. How do adolescents in Britain deal with issues such as exercise, nutrition, sex, stress, suicide, substance abuse, eating disorders and mental health? How can adolescents avoid risk-taking behaviour and improve their social health? This book, with information from a wide variety of sources, provides a timely and thought-provoking overview of adolescent health in the UK today.
The information comes from a wide variety of sources and includes government reports and statistics, newspaper reports, features, magazine articles and surveys and literature from lobby groups and charitable organisations.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Overview
Young people into 2006, Student health issues, Nutrition through life: teenagers, Addictions: the basics, Adolescent mental health, Drug use, smoking and drinking, Young Brits lose stiff upper lip.
Chapter Two: Adolescent Health Issues
Young people and smoking, Smoking and the "sleeper effectÕ", Young people unaware of sexual health risks, Wise up: chlamydia, Depression in children and young people, Not just skin deep, Exam stress, Obesity amongst young people, Burger boy and sporty girl, Food for thought, Children and suicide, Self-harm, Self-harm and suicide, Truth hurts, My story.
Key Facts
Additional Resources
Index
Acknowledgements
• 24% of 14 to 15-year-old females and 14% of 14 to 15-year-old males surveyed smoked at least one cigarette during the previous week. (page 2)
• Teenagers in Britain are largely inactive, with 46% of boys and 69% of girls aged 15 to 18 spending less than the recommended one hour a day participating in activities of moderate intensity. (page 6)
• More than a million adolescents have wanted to self-harm, and more than 800,000 have done so. Nearly one million young people have felt so miserable that they have considered suicide, with more than one in five 18 to 19-year-old girls admitting to feeling this way. (page 9)
• Half of smokers under the age of 16 who try to buy cigarettes from shops succeed in doing so. (page 11)
• 1,000 children under the age of 15 are admitted to hospital each year with acute alcohol poisoning. (page 16)
• 27% of 11 to 15-year-olds have used an illicit drug in the last month. (page 17)
• The age at which the majority of 16 to 19-year-olds today first have sexual intercourse is 16. Almost 30% of young men and almost 26% of young women report having intercourse before their 16th birthday. (page 21)
Young People and Health Study Guide
Each book in the Issues series has a study guide. These four-page guides provide a variety of discussion points and other activities to suit a wide range of ability levels and interests.
Publisher: Independence Educational Publishers
Price: £1.50
ISBN: 978 1 86168 381 6
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