ALMOST 70 per cent of teenagers have begun drinking alcohol by the age of 15, according to a survey of almost 700 people aged from 14 to 17 for the Aer Lingus Young Scientist Exhibition.
Some 70 per cent of respondents, who came from schools throughout Leinster, also said they had been drunk on at least one occasion.
About 38 per cent of respondents said they had first tried alcohol between the ages of 12 and 13, while a further 35 per cent first tried it between the ages of 14 and 15.
The survey, by Elizabeth Brennan (14), a student in Gorey Community College, Co Wexford, appears to confirm the growing popularity of alcoholic lemonades. Some 35 per cent of those surveyed drank it, while 18 per cent most of whom were female, claimed it was their favourite drink.
"Most of the teenagers had a positive reaction to drink," said Elizabeth. "Girls appear to be catching up with boys and that may be because of alcoholic lemonades." The power of the advertising campaign for the drinks may be a major factor in their consumption, with 25 per cent of respondents naming the alcoholic lemonade ads as their favourite television advertising.
The power of the media was also the subject of a project from another student in Gorey Community College, Laura Brennan (£6) "I wanted to see if the teenage magazines are contributing to an `ideal', thin image of females, if readers recognised this image and if it could affect them," said Laura.
She studied the responses of 500 girls and 150 boys to the magazines and found that 60 per cent of the girls surveyed said the images of the female body contained in teenage magazines gave them a negative image of themselves, while 15 per cent felt they had to emulate the models. Almost 60 per cent had dieted in an effort to attain the "thin" shape.
There was some good news, though. Almost half of males surveyed said they preferred a curved female body and only 1 per cent preferred the thin shape.
Heather Lacey (16), a student in Hartstown College, Clonsilla, Dublin, found that only 22 per cent of mates surveyed by her claimed to judge people according to their looks. Her study of teenage attitudes also revealed that males were less concerned about the impact of looks on their social life than females, were happier with their weight and, more than 90 per cent of them considered themselves intelligent compared to only 78 per cent of the females surveyed.