Fewer Irish children are reporting high life satisfaction and feeling happy with their lives, compared to a study measuring the same indicators among their counterparts in 1998.<\/p>\n
The proportion of schoolchildren who said they regularly feel low (46.3%) has doubled over a period of 25 years.<\/p>\n
The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Trends Report 1998-2022 revealed that the youth of today also feel more pressured by schoolwork compared to in 1998.<\/p>\n
The report was led by researcher Louise Lunney in collaboration with the HBSC research team at the Health Promotion Research Centre at University of Galway.<\/p>\n
The HBSC survey is carried out every four years in collaboration with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. In 2022, 45 countries and regions participated.<\/p>\n
In Ireland, the report brings together data from over 70,000 children on their health behaviours, health outcomes and the social contexts of children’s lives.<\/p>\n
Some of the key changes over the 25 years include the proportions of children smoking, drinking and using cannabis have reduced very significantly: smoking rates reduced from 23% to 5%; the number reporting ever being really drunk reduced from 33% to 18%; and cannabis use in the previous 12 months reduced from 12% to 7%.<\/p>\n
There has been an increase in the number of children consuming fruit daily from 18% to 25%, while daily soft drink consumption has reduced from 37% to 7%.<\/p>\n
There was an increase in the number of children feeling able to talk to their mother and father about things that bother them – mother from 73% to 82%, and father from 47% to 70%.<\/p>\n
The number of children reporting that they had good places to socialise locally has risen from 45% to 63%.<\/p>\n
There were also significant increases in the proportions of children using seatbelts from 41% to 81% and regularly brushing their teeth from 58% to 73%.<\/p>\n
However, the report revealed that despite an overall decline in reported sexual activity, with the proportion of 15-17 year olds reporting ever having sex has fallen from 26% to 20%, fewer young people – 55.2% in 2022, down from 78.0% in 2010 – report using a condom during last sexual intercourse.<\/p>\n
Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Jennifer Murnane O\u2019Connor, said the results are used to inform policy development.<\/p>\n
“It is particularly encouraging to see improvements in areas such as reduced smoking, alcohol use and cannabis use. We continue to develop robust policies to further protect young people from these harms.<\/p>\n
“Under our Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Act we banned the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, a measure which aims to reduce young people\u2019s use of these products and ultimately to further reduce smoking rates,” said Ms Murnane O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n
“Collectively, these policies provide a strong foundation upon which families, schools and communities can work together to create healthier environments in which our young people can thrive.”<\/p>\n
The HBSC mental health-related results showed decreases in the number of children reporting bullying others from 22% to 13%, while the number reporting being bullied has increased from 25% to 29%.<\/p>\n
There were also increases in the number of children reporting experiencing headaches and sleep disturbances, as well as a decrease in the proportion of children being happy with life at present from 88% to 79% and high life satisfaction, from 76% to 62%, with an increase in those reporting feeling low on a weekly basis from 23% to 46%.<\/p>\n
Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Ellen Crushell said: “Overall, the HBSC report shows welcome increases in the proportions of young people engaging in healthy behaviours, creating a generational improvement that will impact on overall population health.<\/p>\n
The mental health budget has been increasing year on year, reaching just under \u20ac1.5 billion in 2025.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Principal Investigator of HBSC Ireland at the University of Galway, Professor Saoirse Nic Gabhainn said: “A study like HBSC, that tracks trends in health behaviours, outcomes and social context of children\u2019s lives over such a long period is a huge resource to anyone interested in children\u2019s lives.”<\/p>\n
Ms Nic Gabhainn added that while many indicators have improved over time, the pressures that children feel from school and society are increasing.<\/p>\n
“Now is the time for our society to support teachers and parents in schools and communities to protect and promote youth well-being.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fewer Irish children are reporting high life satisfaction and feeling happy with their lives, compared to a study…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[105,218,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-155395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114620714362130624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}