TEENAGE girls tend to go out more than boys, who prefer to sit indoors reading or playing computer games, according to a study in Glasgow.

The study of 3,000 15-year-old schoolchildren also found that girls were more likely to drink and smoke, and a much greater increase in drugs use was recorded among girls than boys.

The Glasgow University researchers behind the study said that it turned upside down the old stereotype of boys as outgoing and girls as stay-at-homes. It could also explain the growing problem of obesity and ill health among young people, they added.

Dr Helen Sweeting said: “Up until the last few decades of the 20th century, the leisure time of teenage girls was more likely to revolve around their homes or shops while boys were more likely to go out. Reduced constraints on female behaviour have resulted in both greater social freedom and more equal opportunities. But freedom and opportunities also bring some risks.”

The study also recorded a rise in female “neds”, with girls increasingly likely to loiter on the street corners while boys became more inclined to stay at home. In 1987, 45 per cent of boys hung around the street daily or most days, falling to 39 per cent by 1999. Among girls the figures were 30 per cent and 37 per cent.

Rates of smoking and drinking also increased in both sexes but once again the girls outstripped the boys. In 1987, 14 per cent of boys and 16 per cent of girls smoked rising to 22 per cent for boys and 29 per cent for girls by 1999. Twenty-two per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls drank at least monthly in 1987, compared with 61 per cent of boys and 66 per cent of girls in 1999.

There were similarly large increases in drug use. In 1987 11 per cent of boys and 6 per cent of girls reported ever having tried drugs, while by 1999, 42 per cent of boys and 38 per cent of girls were experimenting with banned substances.

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