Teenagers who turn their backs on a healthy lifestyle and turn to drink, cigarettes and junk food are significantly unhappier than their healthier peers, new research has revealed.
It also shows that 12-13 is a defining age when young people turn away from the healthy habits of their younger years and start to get involved in risky behaviours.
The research, which used information from Understanding Society, a long-term study of 40,000 UK households looked at the responses of 5,000 young people between the ages of 10-15 to questions about their health-related behaviours and levels of happiness.
The research revealed that young people who never drank any alcohol were between four and six times more likely to have higher levels of happiness than those who did as were those participating in sporting activities.
Those who smoked were also about five times less likely to have high happiness scores compared to those who never smoked, while
a higher consumption of fruit and vegetables and lower consumption of crisps, sweets and fizzy drinks were both associated with high levels of happiness.
Researchers at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, believe the data showed that unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, drinking alcohol and taking no exercise are closely linked to substantially lower happiness scores among teenagers, even when socio-demographic factors such as gender, age, family income and parent’s education are taken into account.
Twelve percent of 13-15-year-olds reported that they smoked compared with two percent of 10-12-year-olds. The figures for alcohol consumption were even more striking with eight percent of 10-12-year-olds reporting having had an alcoholic drink in the last month rising to 41 percent amongst 13-15-year-olds.
The research also showed that between the ages of 13 and 15, when young people are given more autonomy over their lifestyle choices, their food consumption becomes less healthy and their participation in exercise reduces.
Worryingly, only 11 percent of those aged 13-15 years reported consumption of 5 or more portions of fruit and vegetables per day and even amongst the 10-12-year-olds less than a fifth reported eating the recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
Dr Cara Booker, one of the co-authors of the research said: “What this research shows us is that young people across the social spectrum are failing to eat healthy balanced diets and are starting to consume alcohol at a young age. This is storing up problems for later life because we know that there are clear long-term links between health-related behaviours and well-being in adulthood. Helping young people to reduce damaging health choices as they start making independent decisions are important in order to reduce the number of adults at risk of chronic disease because of their low well-being and poor health-related behaviours.”