Texting while driving common among Ontario teens: study

A survey of Ontario high school students reveals more than one-third of all licensed drivers in Grades 10 to 12 admit to having textedwhile driving.

That percentageincreases to 46 per centof licensed students in Grade 12.

Approximately 108,000 adolescent drivers surveyed said they havetextedwhile driving at least once in the past year, according to the 2013 Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey (OSDUHS), a biannual study conducted for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

• Teen texting-and-driving concerning but not exclusive to youth, CBCNews.ca readers say

"We asked about texting while driving because research shows that this is a very hazardous behaviour," said CAMH senior scientistDr. Robert Mann. "We were surprised to find that so many young people are taking this risk."

The report looked into other health indicators for teenagers in the province.It found:

• Up to 79 per centof teenage cyclists report they do not always wear a helmet and 53 per centreport rarely or never wearing a helmet.
• Young girls reported contemplating suicide at twice the rate of boys.
• 28 per cent of respondentsreportedthere was a time in the past yearwhen they wanted to talk to someone about a mental health problem, but did not know where to turn. Again, girls were twice as likely as males to report an unmet need for mental health support at 38 per cent versus19 per centrespectively.
• More than 80 per centof students visit social media sites daily, with about 10 per centspending five hours or more on these sites daily.
• 25 per centof students play video games daily or almost daily, with males being almost four times as likely as females to play.
• Schoolyard bullying fell from 33 per centreporting it in 2003 to 25 per centin 2013.

The OSDUHS is a biannual survey that reveals important trends in mental and physical health and risk behaviours among Ontario's middle and high school students.