The main points of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children report.
• 15 per cent of 15-year-olds were smoking daily in 2006 compared with 16 per cent in 2002.
• Weekly drinking rates among 15-year-olds stood at 19 per cent in 2006 compared with 18 per cent in 2002.
• The percentage of 15-year-olds who have smoked cannabis has risen from 21 per cent in 2002 to 23.5 per cent in 2006.
• The percentages of school-children experiencing bullying is rising. The percentage of 11-year-olds who reported being bullied at school at least twice in the past two months rose from 4 per cent in 2002 to almost 10 per cent in 2006, while the percentage of 13- year-olds being bullied rose from 5 per cent to 8.5 per cent over the same period.
• Among 15-year-olds bullying rates rose from 6 per cent in 2002 to 8 per cent in the latest survey.
• The percentages of girls reporting that they feel fat has dropped slightly since 2002 but the percentage of boys reporting they feel fat has risen slightly.
• The percentage of 15-year- old girls on a diet has dropped from 25 per cent in 2002 to 19 per cent in 2006 but the percentage of boys on a diet has increased over the same period from 6 to 8 per cent.
• Boys and girls in the State from wealthier families get on better with their fathers than do children from poorer families.
• 59.5 per cent of 11-year-olds in the Republic were watching TV for two or more hours a day in 2006 while 64 per cent of 13-year-olds and 63 per cent of 15-year-olds were watching the same amount of TV. These figures cannot be compared with 2002, when children were asked if they watched four or more hours of TV a day.
• The percentages of children involved in physical fights in the Republic increases as children get older but in many of the 40 other countries looked at in the report, this practice decreased as children grew up.
• Toothbrushing among Irish children has improved and soft drinks consumption is down.