Quebec study finds high school girls engage in more risky behaviour than boys [Video]

Fewer young people in secondary school are drinking alcohol, consuming sugary drinks and eating junk food, but not all their habits are improving.

More of them are also inactive, taking action to change their weight and not eating breakfast before going to school.

These are just some of the findings of the Enquête québécoise sur la santé des jeunes du secondaire 2022-2023 conducted by the Quebec statistics institute (ISQ). The survey polled 70,825 young people in 483 public and private, French- and English-language secondary schools across Quebec.

The results published on Monday show that the proportion of students who drank alcohol in the 12 months preceding the survey fell from 60 per cent in 2010-2011 to 47 per cent in 2022-2023. The rate of students who drank excessively also tended to fall. For the same periods compared, this proportion has fallen by 12 percentage points.

“One of the things that …