Young people in the UK are among the worst behaved in Europe, research by a leading think-tank has revealed.

In a series of indicators on bad behaviour, including drugs, drink and violence, Britain was at, or close to the top, a study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows.

The report suggests that a key factor that defines British youngsters compared to their European counterparts is how they spend their spare hours, with teenagers in the UK shown as spending significantly less time interacting with their parents than those across the Continent.

Whereas 45 per cent of 15-year-old boys in England and Wales and 59 per cent in Scotland spend most evenings with friends, in France that figure stands at just 17 per cent and Portugal just 7 per cent.

Only Ukraine ranked higher than Scotland, with 60 per cent of boys and 40 per cent of girls spending four evenings or more a week with friends.

In contrast, European teenagers are much more likely to sit down to a have a meal with their parents. In Italy 93 per cent eat regularly with their families, compared with 64 per cent in the UK.

French, Belgian and Spanish teenagers also scored highly, with 89 per cent, 87 per cent and 82 per cent respectively eating at the dinner table on a frequent basis, while Finland and the US narrowly beat the UK to the bottom of the list, with 59 per cent and 62 per cent.

The research, which was conducted over recent years, reveals a link between the lack of adult interaction and bad behaviour, with British 15-year-olds getting drunk more often, being involved in more fights and a higher proportion having had sex compared with their counterparts in Germany, France and Italy.

One of the studies carried out also suggested higher drug use among British youths, with 38 per cent of 15-year-olds having tried cannabis, compared to just 7 per cent in Sweden and 27 per cent in Germany in 2003.

Nick Pearce, director of the IPPR, said the research pointed to a "disconnect" between children and adults, with youngsters instead learning how to behave from each other, a process he said could "become very dysfunctional unless interactions with adults are improved".

"The issue between us and other European countries is that in the southern European countries you still have strong and extended families – the Catholic countries of Spain and Italy and so on," he told the BBC Radio’s Today programme.

"In the Nordic countries, they have family forms a bit more like ours – more complicated, more single parenthood, but they have stronger welfare states and less child poverty…we have a problem in that we don’t have the benefit of strong families…and we haven’t yet got the kind of strong family-friendly welfare state that you see in the Scandinavian countries."

He said that having adult role models was crucial for youngster to learn about the "norms of behaviour and values in our society" but insisted that stable and consistent parenting was more important than whether or not parents were married, with the report showing that having a loving relationship with a parent could override the effects of living in a lone-parent family.

"Family forms in Britain have returned to pre-20th century levels of complexity. We can't reinvent nuclear families or subsidise them at the expense of children growing up in poverty," he said. "But we can promote stronger bonds between children and adults, and more stable, consistent parenting.

"Children growing up in non-traditional family forms can succeed if warmth, stability and consistent parenting are also present. What goes on within a family is just as important as the structure of the family."

The findings of the report, which is out in full next week, coincided with the release of a study from the Youth Justice Board, showing that antisocial behaviour orders have become a "badge of honour" for youths, with parents and carers saying they were viewed as "diplomas" which boosted a teenager’s reputation rather than having a punitive effect.

The survey found that more than half of respondents had breached their orders, a large number on more than one occasion, with youth workers saying that ASBOs had little positive impact on the behaviour of young people.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Experts baffled by vanishing sea lions
• CIA caught in a dirty and secretive war
• Double life of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab