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Teenagers who drink alcohol are at higher risk of becoming victims of violence, a Cardiff University study has found.
A team from the School of Dentistry' s Violence Research Group studied drinking habits in
children aged | 1-16 in England. They found not only a link between drink and violence but also
that children who drank were more likely to be hit, even if they weren' t violent themselves.
The researchers are now calling for measures to prevent alcohol misuse to reduce injury
risk. Current policy focuses on reducing aggression but this research shows that there should be
equal effort to reduce victimization(受害).
More than 4,000 children were surveyed at 13 schools at four local authorities in the North, the Midlands, London, and the South. The study found that 25% of 1 l-year-olds were drinking
monthly and 3.6% daily, with 12.8% admitting to getting drunk 3 to 5 times a year. By the age
of 16, 40% were drinking weekly and 6.2% were drinking every day. The research also showed
22.6% of 16-year-olds were getting drunk more than 21 times a year.
The study, which has just been published in the Journal of Adolescence, found a strong
link between frequency of drinking and frequency of hitting other people.
However, children who reported drinking monthly were also three times more likely to be
hit. Adolescents(青少年) who drank but didn't get into fights were more likely to be hit than
those who did fight.
Professor Jonathan Shepherd, who led the research, said a lot of previous alcohol-related
violence work had focused on the offenders rather than the victims. His team is calling for more pre-vention work from parents and teachers in the first two years of secondary school by taking advantage of the "teachable moment", that is, immediately after a student has missed school because of drunkenness.
Previous work by Professor Jonathan Shepherd has shown drinkers may be more at risk of vio-lence because of reduced physical co-ordinatlon ( 配合), poor decision-making in threatening situa-tions and isolation while out late at night.
He said,"This new study seems to be the first to show a direct link between alcohol misuses and victimization. There now needs to be much more effort put into reducing alcohol misuse in order to reduce injury. "
58. The underlined word "aggression" in the third paragraph probably means_____
A. violence B. sad feelings C. bad manners D. drunkenness
59. Drinkers may be more at risk of violence because of all the following EXCEPT __
A. reduced the physical co-ordination
B. isolation while out late at night
C. a higher frequency of hitting other people
D. poor decision-making in threatening situations
60. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to Professor Shepherd' s research?
A. The frequency of children getting drunk increases with age.
B. His previous alcohol-related violence work had focused on the offendersl
C. Some children missed school because of drunkenness.
D. This new study shows a direct link between alcohol misuse and victimization.
