A federal survey shows that Hispanic high school students use drugs and attempt suicide at higher rates than their black and white classmates. This represents the continuation of a troubling trend found in the series of surveys of U.S. high school students every two years.
“It is disheartening that we aren’t seeing progress among Hispanic teens for certain risk factors,” said Howell Wechsler of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study showed that black and white students are reporting less sexual activity than in years past, but there was no decline among Hispanics and experts are not sure why.
Hispanic students were also more likely than either blacks or whites to attempt suicide, ride with a driver who had been drinking alcohol, or use cocaine, heroin or ecstasy.
They were also found most likely to drink alcohol on school property, be offered or sold illegal drugs, and occasionally skip school because they feared for their safety.
Wechsler, who is director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, said the school environments many Hispanics face may differ considerably from what many blacks or whites encounter.
“There’s tremendous segregation in our schools,” he said.
A CDC survey of about 14,000 U.S. high school students has been conducted every other year since 1991. Results reported Thursday were from last year’s survey.
The questionnaires were given to students in grades 9-12 in both public and private high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Parental permission was required for each student who participated.
Adolescents cannot always be counted on to tell the truth about their sexual exploits, drug use, or other risky behaviors. But CDC officials say they take many steps to secure accurate responses: Participation is confidential, kids are spaced apart when answering the questions and teachers do not hover.
Questions over a wide array of behaviors such as sunscreen use, seatbelt avoidance, drug use and suicide attempts are covered in the survey.
Both the 2005 and the 2007 data showed higher rates of risk-taking by Hispanics in several areas.
One example being that about 10 to 11 percent of Hispanic students said they attempted suicide, compared with around 7 percent of whites and 8 percent of blacks.
Whites reported the highest rates of smoking and heavy drinking, while blacks reported the highest rates of obesity, violence and sexual activity.
Blacks faired the worst in the amount of time spent watching television.
No more than two hours of daily TV viewing a day for kids is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Physical activity is needed to develop mental and social skills and help prevent obesity, and TV violence has been associated with more aggressive behavior in children who watch a lot of it.
TV watching by high school students has been generally steady overall, with about 35 percent watching three or more hours a day.
The new report shows that about 63 percent of black students watch three or more hours a day. In contrast, 43 percent of Hispanic students and 27 percent of whites watched too much TV, the report concluded.
“We don’t see that kind of gap in virtually any other measurement of risky health behaviors,” said Wechsler.
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