Boys in particular gamble online for money
Although online gambling is prohibited for minors, 1 in 15 secondary school students has done this in the past year. Boys in particular gamble online for money (more than 1 in 10). Girls do this less often (1 in 50). School students mainly place bets on sports.
Gambling companies are required to check a player’s age. Age checks by gambling companies have been tightened and can no longer be easily circumvented. But the ScholierenMonitor shows that young people can still gamble online. Minors therefore also use other means, for example by using other people’s accounts or gambling on illegal foreign websites.
Smoking levels remain unchanged, while vaping has increased
Despite all the measures to reduce smoking, the number of school students who smoke has not declined since 2017. Still, 8.5% of 12- to 16-year-olds smoked in the past month and 2.2% smoke daily. At the same time, many school students have started vaping. In 2023, 14.3% had used a vape in the past month and 4.0% did so daily. School students now vape more than they smoke.
If we combine smoking and vaping, almost 1 in 6 (15.7%) students smoked and/or vaped in the past month, and 5.0% do so daily. Vaping also starts at a young age. In years 7 and 8 of primary school, 8.2% have ever used a vape. This is a clear increase compared with 2019, when 3.2% had ever vaped. Smoking is limited in this group, however (1.4% of students in years 7 and 8 had ever smoked in 2023).
Both smoking tobacco and vaping involve serious health risks, especially for young people. It is therefore important to continue focusing on discouraging smoking and vaping. This can be done, for example, through the evidence-based Smokefree Challenge intervention, a no-smoking and no-vaping competition for years 1 and 2 of secondary education.
School students who do drink alcohol, drink a lot
Between 2003 and 2015, the number of school students who drank alcohol was halved. After that, the number remained stable. In 2021, the number of young people who drank increased, but this rise did not continue. In 2023, alcohol use declined again.
In 2023, 39.6% of students had drunk alcohol at some point in their lives, 34.5% in the past year and 22.0% in the past month. When school students drink, they still drink a lot: two-thirds of them engaged in binge drinking in the past month. Binge drinking means consuming 5 or more glasses on a single occasion. So although the decline in the number of alcohol users appears to be a positive development, we should be cautious about drawing conclusions. In addition, the research methods were partly changed in 2023. This may have influenced the figures. The next school student survey, the HBSC study in 2025, will show whether the decline actually continues.
Fewer and fewer school students use nitrous oxide
After peaking in 2019, the number of school students using nitrous oxide has declined. In 2023, 2.0% of school students had used nitrous oxide in the past year, compared with 6.7% in 2019. Nitrous oxide use has also declined in other groups, such as students, nightlife visitors and adults in recent years. The decline may be related to the ban on the sale and possession of nitrous oxide as a drug. In addition, increased knowledge about the health risks, such as paralysis symptoms, may have made nitrous oxide less appealing.
Monitor 3-MMC use because of the high risk of addiction
The drug 3-MMC is widely used in nightlife settings. The ScholierenMonitor shows that 3-MMC use among 12- to 16-year-old school students is limited: 1.0% have ever used the drug and 0.6% did so in the past year. However, this is a young and therefore vulnerable group. Use is associated with health risks, such as palpitations, anxiety and insomnia. There is also a high risk of addiction. It is therefore important to continue monitoring developments in its use.
Mental health: no further deterioration
The 2021 HBSC study, which was conducted during the coronavirus pandemic, showed that young people’s mental health was under pressure. The ScholierenMonitor shows that mental health has generally not deteriorated further and has improved slightly in some respects. For example, in 2023 students gave their lives an average score that was higher than in 2021 (7.4 versus 7.1). Emotional problems among girls also declined. Other mental health problems, loneliness and pressure from schoolwork remained approximately the same and are therefore still high.
There are currently many initiatives to strengthen and improve young people’s mental health. These include the government’s approach ‘Mental health: all of us’, with specific attention to young people; the Stijn student wellbeing programme; and Wellbeing at School. It takes time for these approaches to bear fruit. Future studies will show whether an improvement becomes visible.
Strengthening the positive development of school students in an integrated way
The monitor shows that school students face major challenges in the areas of substance use, digitalisation and wellbeing. Although some more positive developments are also visible, concerns about young people remain. In recent years, school students have experienced far-reaching social developments such as the coronavirus pandemic, international conflicts, rapid digitalisation, increasing performance pressure and the rapid emergence of new drugs and other psychoactive substances.
It is important to use scientifically substantiated measures, knowledge and support programmes, and interventions focused on promotion, prevention and accessible help.
More figures
On the website cijfers.trimbos.nl/scholierenmonitor you can find more figures on substance use among school students, such as the use of cannabis and other drugs, snus, hookah, as well as figures on social media use, gaming and pressure from schoolwork. We also present separate figures for students in years 7 and 8 of primary education.