Portugal’s teenagers are drinking less, but problematic social media use is rising

A national survey found substance use has generally declined among Portuguese pupils since 2019, while social media dependence and gambling are emerging as growing concerns.

Portuguese researchers say teenagers are, on the whole, drinking and taking drugs less often than they were five years ago, but a new national survey points to a different concern: an increasingly visible dependence on social media and other non-substance behaviours. The ECATD-CAD 2024 study, published by Portugal’s Institute for Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies, looked at alcohol, tobacco, drugs and other risky habits among public-school pupils aged 13 to 18, and found that most troubling indicators had fallen since the previous survey in 2019.

The clearest shift is away from the broad, across-the-board levels of consumption that worried researchers in earlier years. According to ICAD, problematic behaviours are now concentrated in a smaller group of adolescents, rather than spread more widely through the student population. Even so, the institute said the improvement should not obscure a more complex picture: some teenagers are still exposed to multiple risks at once, and that overlap makes them more vulnerable to harm.

Among behaviours that do not involve substances, social media stands out as the main area of concern. A significant share of the teenagers surveyed said they spent too much time on these platforms, and ICAD described problematic use of social networks as the leading issue in the non-drug, non-alcohol category. The study also found clear differences between boys and girls. Girls were more likely to show signs of problematic social media use, while boys were more often linked with risky patterns in video gaming and gambling for money. On gaming, including online-only play, the level of problematic use was broadly unchanged from 2019. Gambling on money, by contrast, has become more common, even though it still affects only a minority. Researchers also noted a slight fall in some warning signs, such as the urge to bet ever larger amounts.

The survey also suggests that the reasons behind teenage drinking matter almost as much as the amount consumed. Fun, pleasure and socialising remain the most common explanations for alcohol use, but a sizeable group said they drank to forget personal problems. ICAD treats that as a red flag, because using alcohol as emotional escape can be linked to harmful patterns and dependency. The pattern was more common among girls. In the case of cannabis, most users did not appear to show signs of addiction risk, but the share of those classed as high risk increased. ICAD said better school performance, closer parental supervision and stronger physical and emotional wellbeing were linked with lower risk, while poorer grades, weaker supervision and frequent late-night outings were tied to greater vulnerability. Compared with 2019, Portuguese pupils reported better academic performance, more parental oversight and fewer night-time excursions.