Better understanding why very young people start drinking has been a recent focus for the team at the ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies at UCL. Research published earlier this year by the team showed that one in seven 11 year-olds said they had drunk alcohol and indicated strong ties with having friends who drank…
Tag: Young people
Who are the 11 year old drinkers?
The number of young people who say they drink alcohol has recently fallen. But the teenage years are still the time most of us start drinking. Drinking can be linked to other types of risky adolescent behaviour and, later in life, alcohol remains a major risk factor for illnesses such as heart attacks, cancer and…
Teenage obesity and bowel cancer risk
Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer among men worldwide, with nearly 1.4 million new diagnoses each year. Links with obesity in adulthood are fairly well established with what appears to be a rise in risk with increasing body mass index. The link is significantly stronger for men than it is for women. Much…
Are children becoming obese earlier?
Are children becoming obese at a younger age compared with the generations before them? New evidence from a research team at CLOSER, making use of the UK’s Cohort Studies, indicates they are. One of the team, Professor Rebecca Hardy from UCL, spoke to Child of our Time about the research. How has the age-related process of…
Get up, get out, get active!
Just what are the long term effects of being a couch potato as a youngster? New research using the 1970 British Cohort Study shows we may reap what we sow if we don’t switch off the television or the Playstation and get ourselves and our kids off the couch and active. Dr Mark Hamer from UCL…
Middle-aged couch potatoes ‘planted’ 30 years earlier
Parents should routinely switch off the TV and take young children out for a walk or some other exercise in order to increase their chances of growing up to be fit, healthy adults, new research suggests. And if it isn’t feasible to go outside, children could perhaps be encouraged to play interactive video games that…
What teenage girls eat
Teenage girls have the poorest diets of all according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey with less than one in ten girls eating the recommended five-a-day fruit and vegetables. At an ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies Policy Seminar, researcher Laura Weston presents preliminary evidence from NatCen Social Research on adolescent girls’ nutrient intake and the…
Alcohol and adolescence: who’s drinking age 11?
Who is drinking alcohol at age 11? And what are the links with parents’ and friends drinking habits? See the slides and listen to Professor Yvonne Kelly talk at an ESRC Centre for Lifecourse Studies Policy Seminar about her research, Alcohol and adolescence: exploratory drinking in 11 year-olds, which makes use of data from the…
Understanding ethnicity in the battle against obesity
One in five children in Reception class (age 4-5) at school is either overweight or obese according to the most recent figures from Public Health England. By the time they go into year 6 (age 10-11), the figure rises to one in three. Over time our children are becoming increasingly overweight and it’s a tide…
Poor and obese: why poorer adolescents are more likely to be overweight
What are the links between poverty and obesity? And are policy initiatives aimed at getting children to consume less fizzy drinks and sugary snacks enough to tackle the problem? Professor Amanda Sacker looks at the picture for 11 year-olds in our latest Child of our Time Research Talk recorded at a recent ESRC International Centre for Lifecourse Studies…