Maltese 13- and 15-year-olds drink their European and North American counterparts under the table with the exception of Ukraine, which holds the title for top guzzlers, an international report reveals.
Just over a quarter of boys (28 per cent) and 21 per cent of girls aged 13 drink alcohol at least once a week, a habit that nearly doubles among 15-year-olds, where 51 per cent of boys and 39 per cent girls indulge in weekly consumption.
Maltese 11-year-olds trail behind in sixth place among the 41 countries surveyed - though their behaviour promises to keep up the pace - with 17 per cent of boys and seven per cent of girls admitting to this practice. These figures emerge from the latest Health Behaviour of School-Aged Children Study (HBSC), which is carried out in Europe and North America every four years and looks into the social background, body image, health, and risk behaviours of schoolchildren aged 11, 13 and 15.
A sample of 1,500 students was taken from each age group for the study that was conducted in 2006.
It reveals a picture of underage drinking, which the new law, introduced last summer to outlaw the sale and consumption in public of alcohol by under-16s, attempts to address.
Marianne Massa, principal investigator of the HBSC survey in Malta, hoped the new law would push the figures down by the time the next survey is carried out.
The study says Europe has the highest alcohol consumption rates in the world and alcohol use is imbedded in the cultures of most of the countries and regions that participated.
Malta's culture must nurture a relaxed attitude towards alcohol because when asked to specify what they drank, Maltese boys and girls in all the three age groups topped the table for knocking back wine and spirits. Ukrainian youngsters preferred beer and alcopops as their alcohol of choice. Despite the high rate of alcohol consumption, Malta did not have a high level of drunkenness - one per cent of 11-year-olds reported being drunk at least twice, compared to nine per cent of boys and four per cent of girls aged 13.
Comparatively, Malta has the second lowest rate of 15-year-olds who have been drunk on two or more occasions (18 per cent boys and 15 per cent girls).
The report's chapter on risk behaviour also studies regular cannabis use among 15-year-olds and, though Malta's rate is low (placing 17th among 41 countries) there are still nine per cent of girls and six per cent of boys who have admitted to using this drug over the 30 days before the survey was carried out.
Malta's data on sexual behaviour is missing after Church schools were instructed by the Curia not to fill in the questions related to intercourse, the contraceptive pill and condom use.
Violence was another area which the study looked into and Malta emerged with the fourth highest rate of 13- (13 per cent girls, 26 per cent boys) and 15-year-olds (10 per cent girls, 20 per cent boys) who have been involved in a physical fight at least three times in the previous 12 months.
When the survey then asked students if they had been in a fight at least once in the previous year, Maltese 13- and 15-year-olds surpassed all the other countries.
Violence among adolescents has emerged as a major concern in most countries, the report said.
Meanwhile, Malta had a low rate of children who admitted they were bullied at school at least twice in the previous couple of months. Being a victim of bullying declines between 11 and 15 and in general boys are more likely to report being bullied.