Life at age 17: initial findings from the Growing Up in Scotland study (Sweep 11)
Analysis of all key questions asked to young people at Sweep 11 of Growing Up in Scotland.
8 Risky behaviours
This chapter outlines the prevalence and frequency of vaping, smoking, alcohol and drug use, as well as anti-social behaviours. It also includes contact with the police and attitudes to risk.
8.1 Alcohol, vaping, smoking and drug use
Figure 8‑A shows the proportion of young people who had ever tried a cigarette or an e-cigarette (even a single puff), had an alcoholic drink (even a sip), or tried cannabis or any other drugs. Most (90.1%) young people had tried alcohol, over half (63.6%) had tried an e-cigarette or vaping device and 47.9% had tried a cigarette.
Base: All young people who previously answered ‘yes’ or were asked question at current sweep (varies per substance 1881-2110)[16]
Young men were more likely than young women to have tried cannabis (38.3% compared with 29.5%) and other drugs (15.4% compared with 10.5%). Young people from more deprived areas were more likely than those in less deprived areas to have tried a cigarette (53.3% in SIMD 1 compared with 43.4% in SIMD 5) or e-cigarette (67.4% in SIMD 1 compared with 57.6% in SIMD 5).Young disabled people were less likely than young non-disabled people to have had an alcoholic drink (84.2% compared with 90.8%).
8.1.1 Alcohol use
Those who said they had ever had an alcoholic drink were asked how many days they had drunk alcohol in the last 30 days. Around one in five (21.9%) had not drunk alcohol in the last 30 days. A similar proportion (19.2%) had drunk alcohol on six or more days.
Base: All young people who had ever drunk alcohol (1648)
Young people who had tried alcohol were asked how many times they had five or more alcoholic drinks[17] at a time in the last 12 months[18]. The majority (77.0%) reported having had five or more alcoholic drinks at a time on one occasion in the last 12 months – with 29.6% reporting having had five or more drinks on one occasion ten times or more in the last year.
Those in the most deprived quintile were more likely than young people in the other four SIMD quintiles to report having never had five alcoholic drinks or more on one occasion in the last year (31.9% in SIMD 1 compared with 23.3% in SIMD 5).
8.1.2 Vaping and smoking
Those who had ever tried an e-cigarette or vaping device were asked how often they used these now. Around half (52.2%) did not currently vape, around a third vaped either every day (21.8%) or at least once week (9.8%) and 16.2% vaped less than once a week. Those in the most deprived quintile were more likely than young people in the least deprived quintile to report vaping every day (26.8% compared with 12.1%).
All young people who had tried vaping (mentioned at Sweep 11 or previous sweep, 1100)
Those who had ever tried a cigarette were also asked how often they smoked now. Around seven in ten (69.2%) did not currently smoke while a fifth reported smoking either every day (13.3%) or at least once a week (6.3%). Young people in more deprived areas were more likely than those in less deprived areas to report smoking every day (16.9% and 19.7% in SIMD 1 and 2, compared with 6.4% in SIMD 5). Young disabled people were more likely than young non-disabled people to report smoking every day (17.5% compared with 8.8%).
8.1.3 Cannabis and other drugs
Among those who had ever tried cannabis, 17.2% reported that they used it most days (10.2%) or at least once a week (7.0%), whilst 31.5% had only used it once.
Among those who had ever tried drugs other than cannabis, a small minority (2.5%) used them ‘at least once a week’, 41.6% used them ‘once or twice a month’ (10.8%) or ‘a few times a year’ (30.8%) while 32.0% had tried other drugs only once. 23.9% ‘used to sometimes but not anymore’. Young men were more likely than young women to report using drugs other than cannabis ‘once or twice a month’ (14.0% compared with 7.1%) or ‘a few times a year (37.2% compared with 23.2%).
8.2 Anti-social behaviour
Young people were asked about things they may have done that can be described as anti-social behaviour. Around one in five (22.0%) young people had engaged in at least one form of anti-social behaviour. Young men were more likely to have done so than young women (28.3% compared with 16.5%).
As shown in Table 8-A, small proportions (from less than 1% to 8.7%) of young people had engaged in each of the anti-social behaviours asked about.
Young men were more likely than young women to have engaged in many of the antisocial behaviours:
- Been rowdy or rude in a public place so that people complained, or they got into trouble (12.2% compared with 5.7%)
- Hit, kicked or punched someone with the intention of hurting or injuring them (10.1% compared with 4.1%)
- Deliberately damaged or destroyed property (e.g., windows, cars, or streetlights) (3.8% compared with 1.0%).
Young disabled people were more likely than young non-disabled people to have:
- Hit kicked or punched someone with the intention of hurting or injuring them (10.8% compared with 5.9%)
- Accessed someone else’s online account without permission or sent harmful software to deliberately damage other computers (3.5% compared with <1%).
- Harassed or bothered someone via mobile phone, email or social media (8.5% compared with 2.9%)
- Sent pictures or spread rumours about someone via phone, email, social media or online (6.2% compared with 1.6%)
- Used force, threats or a weapon to steal something from someone (2.8% compared with <1%).
8.3 Attitudes to risk
Young people were asked on a scale from 0-10, where 0 was 'never' and 10 was 'always', how willing to take risks they would they say they were. Just under half (43.6%) chose between 7 and 10 - indicating a relatively high willingness to take risks - 43.9% chose between 4 and 6 - indicating a medium willingness to take risks - and 12.5% chose between 0 and 3, indicating a low willingness to take risks.
Young men reported higher levels of willingness to take risks than young women – 49.5% of young men reported scores of 7-10 compared with 38.7% of young women. Young disabled people reported lower levels of willingness to take risks, with 36.0% reporting scores of 7-10 compared with 44.9% of young non-disabled people.
| Type of anti-social behaviour | % of all young people |
|---|---|
| Been rowdy or rude in a public place so that people complained, or they got into trouble | 8.7 |
| Hit, kicked or punched someone with the intention of hurting or injuring them | 6.8 |
| Taken something from a shop or store without paying for it | 5.1 |
| Stolen money or other things that someone else left lying somewhere | 5.0 |
| Harassed or bothered someone via mobile phone, email or social media | 3.8 |
| Written things or sprayed paid on property that did not belong to you | 3.7 |
| Deliberately damaging or destroying property | 2.3 |
| Sending pictures or spreading rumours about someone via phone, email or social | 2.1 |
| Carrying a knife or weapon | 1.8 |
| Accessing someone else’s online account | 1.5 |
| Using someone else’s credit/debit card or bank account | 1.4 |
| Using force, threats or a weapon to steal something from someone | <1 |
| Breaking into a locked place to steal something | <1 |
Base All young people (varies per item 1877-1886)
8.4 Contact with the police
Young people were asked about their contact with the police since their last GUS interview: 17.3% had had some contact with the police since their last interview as shown in Figure 8‑D. Young men were more likely than young women to have experienced each of the three forms of contact with the police asked about, and were more likely to have had any form of contact with the police (23.1% compared with 12.4%).
Base: All young people (1871); young men (851); young women (1015)
Young disabled people were more likely than young non-disabled people to have been given a formal warning or charged by the police for committing a crime (4.6% compared with 1.9%).
Contact
Email: gus@gov.scot