Hypertexting Teens More Likely to Drink and Have Sex

The Associated Press reports that teens who text 120 times a day or more — and there seems to be a lot of them — are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than kids who don't send as many messages, according to a new research study to be released today at a meeting of the American Public Health Association in Denver.

The new study is based on confidential surveys with more than 4,200 students in Cleveland high schools. The  authors told AP they aren't suggesting that "hyper-texting" leads to sex, drinking or drugs, but say it's startling to see an apparent link between excessive messaging and that kind of risky behavior.

The study concludes that a significant number of teens are very susceptible to peer pressure and also have permissive or absent parents, said Dr. Scott Frank, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

The study was done at 20 public high schools in the Cleveland area last year, and is based on confidential paper surveys of more than 4,200 students.

It found that about one in five students were hyper-texters and about one in nine are hyper-networkers — those who spend three or more hours a day on Facebook and other social networking websites. About one in 25 fall into both categories.

Hyper-texting and hyper-networking were more common among girls, minorities, kids whose parents have less education and students from a single-mother household, the study found.

Here's a link to the full story -   http://www.facebook.com/l/04bbch3W6wtUbbNagHYZVEJorcA;news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101109/ap_on_he_me/us_med_teens_texting