The study found links between unhappiness and drinking
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Youngsters who dislike school are twice as likely to be involved in under-age drinking, research suggests.
And the more young people drink the more likely they are to have sex, it adds.
The study of 3,641 11 to 14-year-olds by a team at Liverpool’s John Moores University suggests those drinking once a week are 10 times more likely to have full sex.
And it found links between general unhappiness and alcohol use.
The findings suggest that children who did not feel school was a nice place to be were twice as likely to drink and two and half times more likely to engage in sexual activity – including kissing, touching and full sex.
The youngsters were also asked about their general well-being – how they felt about their looks, how well they got on with their parents and their teachers.
The study, published in the journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy, says those with an unhappy home life and those unable to talk to their parents are also more likely to drink.
The findings by the team from the university’s Centre for Public Health also shows a strong link between alcohol and sexual activity.
Children drinking once a week or more are 12 times more likely to engage in any sexual activity, and have 10-fold higher odds of having sex, it adds.
Lead researcher Professor Mark Bellis said: “Our study identifies that the children who drink and are sexually active are also more likely to be unhappy with their school and home lives.
“Such children can become disengaged from both family and educational support and risk progressing to sexually transmitted infections, teenage pregnancies or becoming an alcohol related casualty at an accident and emergency unit.
“This study paints a clear picture that the children we most need to support are often the hardest to reach through conventional educational and parental routes.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The admirals say the Harrier is more versatile and will be cheaper to maintain than the Tornado.
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A group of former Royal Navy admirals have called for the decision to scrap the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the fleet of Harrier jets to be reversed.
The cuts were announced as part of the government’s Strategic Defence Review.
In a letter to the Times, the group says defence cuts will leave the “newly valuable” Falkland Islands open to attack and call the plan to axe the Harrier fleet “financially perverse”.
But ministers insist the UK will still be able to defend the Falklands.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox told the Times: “It is simply not the case that decommissioning the Harrier would impact upon our ability to defend territories in the South Atlantic.
“We maintain a wide range of assets, not least a well-defended airfield to ensure the defence of the Falkland Islands.
“The Harrier force has made an impressive contribution to our nation’s security over the decades but difficult decisions had to be made… and I’m clear that rationalising our fast jet fleet makes both operational and economic common sense.”
BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said the strongly-worded letter from a group which includes two former heads of the Royal Navy – Lord West and Sir Julian Oswald – confirmed the deep anger felt in the Royal Navy over the cuts.
The letter is also signed by Vice-Admiral Sir Jeremy Blackham, Vice-Admiral John Mcanally and Major-General Julian Thompson.
They say the prime minister was badly advised over the decision to scrap the Harrier force and HMS Ark Royal and to rely entirely upon Tornados.
They say the Harrier is more versatile and will be cheaper to maintain.
The letter says: “The existing Tornado force will cost, over 10 years, seven times as much to keep in service as Harrier. Was the recent exercise not supposed to save money?”
The admirals also warn the decision will leave the Falklands open to attack.
They write: “In respect of the newly valuable Falklands and their oilfields, because of these and other cuts, for the next 10 years at least, Argentina is practically invited to attempt to inflict on us a national humiliation on the scale of the loss of Singapore.
“One from which British prestige, let alone the administration in power at the time, might never recover.”
The decision means no planes will be able to fly from British aircraft carriers until 2019.
“The decision to axe the entire Harrier force is strategically and financially perverse,” the admirals continue.
“The government has, in effect, declared a new ’10-year rule’ that assumes Britain will have warning time to rebuild to face a threat.
“The last Treasury-driven ’10-year rule’ in the 1930s nearly cost us our freedom, faced with Hitler.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Students are staging a march against higher fees and university cuts
Tens of thousands of students and lecturers are to march in London against plans to almost treble tuition fees to £9,000 per year in England.
The National Union of Students wants to put pressure on MPs who will vote by the end of the year on raising fees.
NUS president Aaron Porter says the Liberal Democrats face an electoral “wipeout” if they break their pledge to vote against higher fees.
The coalition government says its plans are “fairer” than the current system.
But the UCU lecturers’ union leader, Sally Hunt, attacked the proposals which will see the upper limit for fees rising from £3,290 to £9,000 per year from 2012.
“There is nothing fair or progressive about tripling the cost of a degree and axing college grants that are often the difference between students being able to study or not,” said Ms Hunt.
Students say they will try to use the proposed “right to recall” legislation to unseat MPs who ditch their election pledge to oppose an increase in tuition fees.
“This abolition of funding… is the abdication of the state’s responsibility ”
Aaron Porter NUS president
This proposal would be mean that MPs guilty of “serious wrongdoing” could be forced by voters to stand down.
In particular, Mr Porter warned that student voters will target Liberal Democrat MPs who failed to keep their promise to vote against a fee increase, threatening to topple MPs with a narrow majority.
There have already been student protests against Liberal Democrat ministers Vince Cable and Chris Huhne.
An effigy of the party leader, Nick Clegg, was hanged by students staging an occupation against the fee increase at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The protest to be staged in London by students and lecturers will challenge the far-reaching funding shake-up being proposed for higher education.
The higher tuition fees will be used to replace teaching funding being withdrawn as part of public spending cuts.
It is likely to mean that many arts and humanities courses will no longer receive public funding, with financial support restricted to subjects including science, technology, engineering and maths.
“This abolition of funding is a most profound shift,” said Mr Porter. “It is the abdication of the state’s responsibility.”
The UCU lecturers’ union also warned that there was no certainty that such higher fees would mean a better experience for students.
The union says the cost of university has already increased more than threefold since 1988 – but the student to staff ratio is now worse.
In 1988, there were about 13 students to each academic member of staff, now the figure is 16, despite students paying much more to study.
The coalition government says the proposals will protect poorer students and are designed so that better-off graduates pay higher contributions.
“The coalition government has developed a package that is fairer than the present system of student finance and affordable for the nation. Access to higher education will be on the basis of ability, not ability to pay,” said a spokesperson for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.
“The graduate contribution system will protect the lowest earning graduates and ensure that their contributions are linked to their ability to pay.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
