Korea: early teens increasingly prone to smoke and drink alcohol

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

early teens increasingly prone to smoke and drink alcohol

by The Korea Herald via NewsEdge
KOREA;
Date: Monday, 5/24/99


The Korea Herald via NewsEdge Corporation : A considerable number of Korean 
adolescents start smoking and drinking in their early teens, a recent survey 
has showed.


"Piltong," a monthly magazine for teenagers published in Chinju, 
South Kyongsang Province, recently conducted the survey on 608 Chinju high 
school students who smoke and drink. The results showed that 12.3 percent of 
315 male respondents and 9.7 percent of 293 females started smoking in their 
early teens while attending elementary school. As for drinking, 10.7 percent of
boys and 22.4 percent of girls said they had started drinking during the same 
period.


In the poll, the most 32.9 percent of boys said that they began smoking at age 
16, followed by 22.6 percent and 18.7 percent who did so at 17 and 15 
respectively. By comparison, 26.8 percent of girls started smoking at 15, while
19.3 percent did so at 14 and 15.9 percent at 16.


Sixty-three percent of boys and 70 percent of girls started drinking between 14
and 16 in their middle school years.


Asked why they drank, 63.5 percent of boys and 58.5 percent of girls answered 
"to get along better with their friends," while 19.3 percent of boys 
and 22.8 percent of girls said that they did it to "relieve stress." 
The majority of smokers, 63.7 percent of boys and 61.5 percent of girls, said 
they started smoking because of peer pressure, while 32.4 percent of boys and 
22.6 percent of girls started out of curiosity.


Copyright 1999: The Korea Herald. All Rights Reserved.


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