Young teenagers are happier and healthier now than teenagers were a decade ago , a new study said yesterday . It found that the ‘ Facebook generation ’ of youngsters are less likely than their predecessors to drink alcohol , smoke tobacco or cannabis , or get bullied . A growing proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds , the study said , engage in behaviour that would make their parents proud . They eat fruit and vegetables , take exercise , clean their teeth , and talk to their mothers and fathers . Adolescents are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables , take exercise , talk to their mothers and fathers . However the study , assembled by academics at St Andrews University , complained that despite the increasing levels of health and well-being , adolescents now are just as likely to be fat as the generation of the 2000s . Obesity rates , it said , did not decline between 2002 and 2010 . The findings , based on a series of papers put together with the help of the World Health Organisation , are the latest to underline the increasing trend for teenagers to avoid risky behaviour in favour of a healthier lifestyle . In England and Wales teen pregnancies have fallen to levels last seen in the 1960s and official surveys have shown a major drop in drinking among young people . More than a quarter of under-24s are teetotal and fewer than a fifth ever go binge drinking , according to 2013 estimates . in 2013 tobacco smoking among young women aged 18 to 24 dropped by 10 per cent , and among young men by almost as much . State surveys also showed a major drop in 2013 in numbers of people in the same age group who took any illegal drug , down from 19.3 per cent to 16.3 per cent . Some researchers have pointed to a ‘ Facebook effect ’ which has led teenagers who would once have spent their spare time on the streets instead to devote it to playing with gadgets in their bedrooms . Widespread public disapproval of smoking , drunkenness , drug abuse and teen mothers is also likely to have influenced teen behaviour . Professor Candace Currie of St Andrews , who assembled evidence drawn up from surveys and official statistics carried out in Europe and North America , said : ‘ There is much to celebrate about the health and well-being of many young people today. ’ The study , assembled by academics at St Andrews University ( pictured ) , said that despite the increasing levels of health and well-being , adolescents now are just as likely to be fat as the previous generation . She added however that ‘ others continue to experience real and worrying problems. ’ Some countries , including Scotland , showed evidence that fewer youngsters took daily exercise in 2010 than in 2002 . The report said that while the overall optimistic picture seems surprising , considering that many countries faced a severe economic crisis in the last decade , policies and actions to improve public health were implemented in many countries in the same period . Many of those policies were , however , deeply controversial . Some researchers have pointed to a ‘ Facebook effect ’ which has led teenagers who would once have spent their spare time on the streets instead to devote it to playing with gadgets . Critics of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy , launched in England by Tony Blair , have said that it had nothing to do with the fall in teenage pregnancy , which did not become evident until after David Cameron ’ s Coalition scrapped the programme of contraceptive distribution in 2010 . Yesterday ’ s report added that ‘ the general feeling that young people are better off today could also be attributed to changes in fashions , behavioural norms and societal values. ’ Professor Currie said : ‘ Adolescence is a crucial stage in life when you lay the foundation for adulthood , whether that is healthy or otherwise . ’
11-15 year olds less vulnerable to drugs , alcohol and smoking cigarettes . The generation is more likely to eat healthily , exercise and respect elders . However St. Andrew 's study shows adolescents just as likely to be obese . Teen pregnancies in England and Wales have fallen to 1960s levels . Teenagers who would be out with friends now play with gadgets at home .