While body piercing has become common among adolescents and many parents may see the trend as a harmless means of self-expression, new study findings suggest that teens with piercings are more likely to smoke cigarettes, use drugs and exhibit other types of unhealthy behavior.
Researchers presented the results of their analysis of 1996 data on more than 4,500 adolescents aged 12 to 21. The researchers defined body piercing as piercing in a body part other than the ear.
Both boys and girls with body piercings were more likely to have friends that used substances such as cigarettes, marijuana and other illicit drugs.
Body piercing was less common in boys than in girls, with 7.1% of females and 1.6% of males having piercings. In boys, piercing was associated with problem drinking; getting in trouble with parents, school and friends because of drinking; and truancy.
Girls with body piercings were more likely to have had sexual intercourse, to have smoked cigarettes or marijuana in the last month, and to have failing grades. Pierced girls were also more likely to have skipped school within the last year, and to exhibit antisocial behavior such as painting graffiti, petty theft and shoplifting.
It may be that body piercing is a way for teens to identify with their peer group, and that peer group tends to be higher in risk taking.
If a teen wants to get a body piercing, a parent might want to have a discussion of why, and what other risk behaviors they might be engaging in.
And given the behaviors associated with piercing found in his study, the presence of body piercing should open up a dialogue about other behaviors that the teen might be considering, or has already tried.
Many of the behaviors adolescents engage in aren't really visible. But body piercing, by its very nature, is visible. So this could be a visual sign of behaviors that might otherwise go unrecognized.
Annual Meeting of the Society of Adolescent Medicine Boston March 2002
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