Teen girls drink like the rest of us – to forget

It’s official, Britain’s teenage girls are the biggest binge drinkers in Europe. It’s not new research but the fact that this evidence has been included in the Department of Health’s submission to the House of Commons Health Select Committee inquiry shows that it is still a problem and that politicians are still worried about it.

There are two issues here and they are very different. The first is that the UK has a problem with underage drinking compared to the rest of Europe. And the second is that girls in the UK binge drink (that is drink a lot in a single session) more than boys. No doubt the health community is focused on underage drinking in general but the gender angle is also important.

The latest survey by Girlguiding UK shows that more than half (56 per cent) of 16- to 18-year-old girls think that “getting drunk with friends is fun”. But almost a third (31 per cent) say that they often drink more than they’d planned because their friends are drinking too.

It’s tough being a teenage girl. Twice as many girls suffer anxiety and depression during their teenage years than boys. So is it any wonder then that they drink to excess more often than boys? Are they not just mistreating alcohol in the same way that adults do? They drink to forget. More than one in ten (13 per cent) of 16- to 18-year-old girls say that ‘a good night out is one where you can’t remember anything the next day’.

But while it is tough being a teenage girl, across the board, girls do better in exams and make a more successful transition to adulthood than boys do. Girls are more likely to get jobs and generally earn more than young men, before they suffer the motherhood penalty of parenthood. Other than teen pregnancy, which has an obviously disproportional impact on their life chances compared to boys, teenage girls do better than boys overall.

There are just a few exceptions. Teenage girls eat less healthily than boys (when measured by five-a-day fruit and veg) and they also get much less exercise.

Polling of school children and focus groups with schools girls that I worked on for the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation shows that half of girls are put off physical activity by their experiences of school sport and PE. School PE is better than it used to be but it still doesn’t give girls the choice of activity they say they want. Activity levels in early primary schools are actually higher for girls than they are for boys but around the transition to secondary schools the gender gap starts to open up.

Considering this survey evidence together shows that drinking, like sport, is a social activity. The impact of the peer group is very powerful for girls both in terms of giving up PE and taking up binge drinking. While sport gets less appealing, drinking gets more appealing but during the same period, teenage girls’ self-esteem dramatically declines, relative to boys.

The binge drinking gender gap highlighted by the Department for Health is hiding a more significant gender gap in teenage self-esteem.

Richard Darlington is Head of News at IPPR and is author of Through the Looking Glass, a report on the self-esteem of teenage girls. Follow him on Twitter @RDarlo

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• Razas

  My position is constant, it is the context that varies. Misogyny is a minor factor but a standard/common excuse argued by many feminists to defend women when their bad behaviour is examined.
  My point is this – whenever some women’s bad behaviour is discussed it is very rare, certainly in this forum, that women will recognize any personal responsibility for that bad behaviour. They will argue a whole plethora of reasons why some women behave badly, and by not recognizing the involvement of personal responsibility they reduce the credibility of their argument. They say – it is always somebody else’s fault, not women’s.
  My view is that if we cannot consider all possibilities for reasons for bad bahaviour, then we are not correctly analysing the problem and are unlikely to develop effective solutions. The article makes no mention that some women are just badly behaved, and they like to drink too much and ignore the consequences.
  There are many factors that cause people to drink too much. Upbringing, moral compass, environment, physiology, medication, nutrition, peer pressure, hormonal changes/impact ( men and women ), availability, impact of consequences, deterrent, etc etc. Misogyny and misandrous challenges are minor influences in comparison.
  Your argument demonstrates nothing related to misogyny and its cause of teenage girl drinking. You have stated some percentages of some unconfirmed studies and/or origin but none have any context. How do they impact and why? As I mentioned before misogyny is a standard excuse used by many feminists and when they are challenged to prove causation, they, like you are unable to.

• RidleySays

  Personal responsibility is one factor amongst many. The studies are not unconfirmed – one was posited by the Director of Prosecutions in the UK.

  The causation is that as women are more at risk of abuse, mental health problems and sexual assault, they are at more risk of developing damaging ‘coping behaviours’ like drinking too much.

  I would apply the same standard to a young man who was beaten every day. If he turned to drink, I would assume that it had something to do with the beatings.

  Similarly, the daily abuse and restrictions applied to women – that are not applied to men, or at least not at the same level – predispose women to be at more risk of developing addictions and mental health problems.

• RidleySays

  I also cited sources so I’m confused as to why you state that I have cited “percentages of some unconfirmed studies and/or origin”. The studies are confirmed and from reputable organisations.

• Razas

  My apologies – I misread that part of your comment.

• Razas

  You make a reasonable point and I respect your position.
  I agree that many factors are involved, few of which are mentioned in the article (including irresponsibility), and I guess we are unlikely to agree on the importance weighting of the various factors so maybe we should again agree to disagree on what they should be.
  I would just make one final point that the majority of children in this country who are not part of the ‘top 1%’ are massively disadvantaged and prejudiced against. We have discussed some of the negative factors that impact girls, but boys are also exposed to many significant negative factors. Class prejudice affecting expectation, aspiration, education, environment, and daily misandrous messages are but two. It would be welcome, for a change, for the Indie to publish an article exploring why boys are not performing as well as girls at exams etc as mentioned in the article, and what society can do to support them better.