Teenagers 'offer sex for alcohol'

Feb 19 2013

Teenagers are offering sexual favours in exchange for alcohol and drugs, MSPs have heard.

Meanwhile, teenage fathers are being sidelined throughout Scotland by professionals who are too focused on the needs of the mother, Holyrood's Health and Sport Committee was told.

The committee heard evidence for its inquiry into teenage pregnancy from health and education representatives from five Scottish councils, who have all seen links between sexual activity and drug and alcohol misuse.

Robert Naylor, director of education and leisure services at Renfrewshire Council, said: "We certainly have instances where our homelink workers are working with young women who have self-esteem issues and may be involved at weekends in offering sexual favours in return for drugs or alcohol. Therein, you have a cycle where you really need to work with young people on their self-esteem, their sense of self-worth, as well as steering them away from alcohol and drugs.

"These things often go together, particularly where drink is involved, and often young women are getting themselves into situations because of drink and because of desires to belong and fit into a peer group that is leading them into these kinds of behaviours. That is partly driven by the modern media and the depiction of women in how they ought to behave."

All of the witnesses had seen links between sexual behaviour, socio-economic deprivation, alcohol misuse and drugs.

Glasgow City Council strategic manager for young people's sexual health Marian Flynn said: "There's no doubt in the evidence that teenage pregnancy occurs in more deprived communities. We know that in many young people's early sexual experiences alcohol is often involved, more than substances, I would suggest.

The committee also heard that not enough is being done to engage teenage fathers, despite evidence that most of them want to play a part in their children's lives.

SNP MSP Mark McDonald said: "Often the focus is very much on the mother, for obvious reasons, but she didn't get pregnant by herself. One thing we learned in Dundee was that very often the father of the child is not of school age, is not in the school system, but sometimes they are."

The meeting follows a separate submission urging the Scottish Government to consider making the morning-after pill available in schools. School nurses could dispense condoms and emergency contraception, which would help towards reducing teenage pregnancy rates, the Scottish Sexual Health Lead Clinicians Group suggested.