Teenage girls who date older boys ‘more likely to smoke and drink’

PARENTS who forbid their daughters to date older boys may be on the right track - teenage girls who associate with older boys are more likely to smoke, drink and use drugs.

A survey of 1,000 teenagers found friends do influence behaviour, or at least reflect behaviour, The National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University said.

“We found a tight connection between teen sexual behaviour and dating and teen risk of smoking, drinking and using illegal drugs,” said CASA chairman Joseph Califano.

The survey, which CASA conducts every year, found the more time a teenager spends with a boyfriend or girlfriend, and the more sexually active friends a teenager has, the more likely the child will smoke, drink or use illegal drugs.

And girls who date boys two or more years older are much more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol. Adolescents who spent 25 or more hours a week with a romantic interest were 2.5 times more likely to drink than teenagers who spent 10 hours or less with a boyfriend or girlfriend.

The teenagers who spent more time romancing were five times more likely to get drunk - 35% of them said they had been drunk compared to 7% of the teenagers who spent less time dating.

The study found 58% of girls who had boyfriends two years or more older drank alcohol, compared to 25% of girls who dated boys their own age or not at all.

Fifty per cent of the girls who went for older boys or men smoked marijuana, compared to 8% of the other girls, and 65% of these girls who preferred to date someone older than themselves smoked, compared to 14% of girls who stuck to younger boys.

The survey found 45% of the teenagers said they had been to parties where alcohol was available, 30% had been to at least one party where marijuana was available and 9% to a party where cocaine or ecstasy was available.

But teenagers welcome their parents’ guidance on these issues, the survey found. Asked what they wished they could “honestly discuss with parents at dinner,” 42% said dating and 30% said substance abuse.