Youngsters hit the bottle as young as 11, major survey finds

Cayman children start drinking at age 11 on average, a survey has found.

The study also reported that alcohol was the earliest drug used by youngsters, the most common and that 10.2% of the young people surveyed had admitted they had been drunk at least once in the past year.

Researchers also found that “reports of being drunk increased as grade levels increased”.

A total of 570 pupils — 17.3% of those surveyed — had used alcohol by the time they were aged 13 or younger.

Just over 10%, 336 pupils, said they had used alcohol in the previous 30 days and 45.5% of those said they had also been involved in binge drinking.

The figures, revealed on Friday, were contained in the Cayman Islands Student Drug Use Survey 2024, carried out by the National Drug Council among pupils from Years 7 to 13 in the public and private sectors.

Vaping and cannabis use

E-cigarettes were the second most used drug, followed by marijuana.

Psychologist Dr. Erica Lam said in a virtual presentation with Laila Shim of the NDC that cigarettes and alcohol were often used by young people to “self-medicate”.

Youngsters were on average aged 12.5 when they first used vapes and 13 when they tried marijuana.

A total of 15.5%, 521 children, had used e-cigarettes at 13 or younger and 5.5%, 175 youngsters, had used marijuana at the same age or younger.

The survey also showed that 33.7% of pupils who had vaped in the last year said that they used an e-cigarette containing marijuana.

Of the 263 pupils who had used marijuana in the last year, 58% said they had also tried or been offered marijuana-laced edibles such as gummies.

Suicide risk

Dr. Lam said it was “interesting” that marijuana use was regarded as a “significant predictor” of mental health difficulties.

She added that almost 27% of those surveyed, 544 children, had reported some form of self-harm, with girls and those dealing with gender identification issues more likely to admit they had hurt themselves than boys.

Lam explained that self-harm indicated an 11 times bigger risk of attempts at suicide or thoughts of it.

Lam added that mental health training to spot suicide risk should be as accessible to the public as first aid classes.

She said, “Suicide is the third-leading cause of death in young people and we can do something to reduce that risk.”

Lam added that suicide attempts could be cut by limiting the access to means such as poisons.

She said that teaching life skills to adolescents could also help, and that more resources should be devoted to identifying and managing those at risk.

She said that the media had a role to play by ensuring responsible reporting, which was “one of the biggest preventative factors”.