Teen smoking, drinking and fighting down

But texting while driving is on the rise

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A study of 13,000 U.S. high school students conducted last spring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that American teens are smoking less, drinking less and fighting less, but they’re texting while driving and spending a lot of time on video games and computers.

The study found that most forms of drug use, weapons use and risky sex gone down since the CDC began conducting the survey every two years in 1991. More good news — teenagers are wearing bicycle helmets and seat belts more.

Participation was voluntary and required parental permission, but responses were anonymous. The survey results can be found online at www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm. Highlights released June 12 include:

• Fewer than 16 percent of the teenagers smoked a cigarette in the previous month — the lowest level since 1991, when the rate was more than 27 percent. The CDC did not ask about electronic cigarettes, which have exploded in popularity in the past few years.

• More than 23 percent of teenagers said they used marijuana in the previous month — up from 15 percent in 1991. CDC officials said they could not tell whether marijuana or e-cigarettes have replaced traditional cigarettes among teens.

• Among teenage drivers, 41 percent had texted or e-mailed behind the wheel in the previous month. That figure can’t be compared to the 2011 survey, however, because the CDC changed the question. The latest survey gives texting-while-driving figures for 37 states — ranging from 32 percent in Massachusetts to 61 percent in South Dakota.

• Fewer teenagers said they drank alcohol and soda. About 35 percent said they drank alcohol in the previous month, down from 39 percent in 2011. About 27 percent said they drank soda each day. That was only a slight change from 2011, but a sizable drop from 34 percent in 2007.

• The proportion of teenagers who had sex in the previous three months held steady at about 34 percent from 2011. Among them, condom use was unchanged at about 60 percent.

• The percentage who attempted suicide in the previous year held steady at about 8 percent.

• TV viewing for three or more hours a day has remained steady at about 32 percent since 2011, but there was a surge in the proportion of teenagers who spent three or more hours on an average school day playing video or computer games or using a computer or smartphone for something other than schoolwork. That number rose from 31 percent in 2011 to 41 percent.

• Fights at school fell by half in the past 20 years, and there was a dramatic drop in teenagers reporting they had been in a fight anywhere in the preceding year — about 25 percent, down from 33 percent two years earlier.