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Heavy text use linked to teenage risk-taking
Source: Agencies |
November 10, 2010, Wednesday
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TEENS who text 120 times a day or more are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than children who don't send as many messages, according to new research.
The study's authors aren't suggesting that "hyper-texting" leads to sex, drinking or drugs, but say it's startling to see an apparent link between excessive messaging and that kind of risky behavior.
The study concludes that a significant number of teens are very susceptible to peer pressure and also have permissive or absent parents, said Dr Scott Frank, the study's lead author, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the US.
"If parents are monitoring their kids' texting and social networking, they're probably monitoring other activities as well," said Frank.
The study was done at 20 public high schools in the Cleveland area last year, and is based on surveys of more than 4,200 students.
It found that about one in five students were hyper-texters and about one in nine are hyper-networkers - those who spend three or more hours a day on Facebook and other social networking websites.
Hyper-texting and hyper-networking were more common among girls, minorities, kids whose parents have less education and students from a single-mother household, the study found.
It also found those who text at least 120 times a day are nearly three-and-a-half times more likely to have had sex than their peers who don't text that much. Hyper-texters were also more likely to have been in a physical fight, binge drink, use illegal drugs or take medication without a prescription.
The study's authors aren't suggesting that "hyper-texting" leads to sex, drinking or drugs, but say it's startling to see an apparent link between excessive messaging and that kind of risky behavior.
The study concludes that a significant number of teens are very susceptible to peer pressure and also have permissive or absent parents, said Dr Scott Frank, the study's lead author, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the US.
"If parents are monitoring their kids' texting and social networking, they're probably monitoring other activities as well," said Frank.
The study was done at 20 public high schools in the Cleveland area last year, and is based on surveys of more than 4,200 students.
It found that about one in five students were hyper-texters and about one in nine are hyper-networkers - those who spend three or more hours a day on Facebook and other social networking websites.
Hyper-texting and hyper-networking were more common among girls, minorities, kids whose parents have less education and students from a single-mother household, the study found.
It also found those who text at least 120 times a day are nearly three-and-a-half times more likely to have had sex than their peers who don't text that much. Hyper-texters were also more likely to have been in a physical fight, binge drink, use illegal drugs or take medication without a prescription.
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