WESTBOROUGH – Although middle and high school students in Westborough are less prone to smoking and drinking, they’re more likely to pick up the phone several times during the school day.
During its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 15, the School Committee discussed these and other results from the latest Metrowest Adolescent Health Survey.
According to Roger Anderson, director of wellness, physical education and health, and Kim Tynan, clinical director, 47% of students surveyed said they check their phones a few times per hour or more during school.
“If they do that, they’re not necessarily engaged in their education,” said Anderson.
Being on their phones and engaging in social media is taking a toll, according to the survey. Close to half of WHS students said they don’t concentrate as well, and 59% don’t sleep as well.
Anderson said that school officials are developing media specifically targeting daily media use.
One of the other results indicates that although there was a slight rise in alcohol use from 2021 to 2023 (to about 20%), the trends in other uses (vaping, cigarettes, marijuana and prescription drug abuse) have either decreased or held steady when it comes to Westborough students — at or below 10% of those surveyed.
Although the numbers are down, “It’s not zero,” said Anderson.
There were also lower numbers when it comes to stress and depression. Eighty percent of WPS students said they feel safe at school; and 76% of students said they’ve taken part in volunteer or community service activities.
Both Anderson and Tynan are concerned about the amount of time WPS students spend online.
According to the survey, 42% said they spent three or more hours on their smartphone, not for school or homework, per day.
“That’s a significant amount of time,” said Anderson. “A part-time job is 20 hours per week.”
Westborough Public Schools has several policies when it comes to phone and computer use. For example, every student at Westborough High School must put their phone in a phone holder pocket at the beginning of every class, and cannot retrieve it until class is over.
There were also discussions on cyberbullying (20% of students reported they were victims of cyberbullying); and distracted driving behavior (37% of 11th- and 12th-graders reported texting, emailing or messaging while driving).
The distracted driving numbers are “very concerning,” said Anderson.
“We think teenagers often think they’re bulletproof,” he said.
