Girls, more than boys, seem to be breaking with the dominant patterns in recent generations, judging by the answers they have given in the School Coexistence Survey in the 2021-2022 academic year.
22% of female secondary school students feel attracted to men and women, indistinctly, regardless of whether they have had sexual relations or not. The majority, almost 72%, stated their preference for men.
In male students, the increase in bisexuality was not detected. Nearly 90% are attracted to women. Those who would indistinctly choose a partner of any type reach 4.5% of the total.
In addition, males, to a lesser extent than females, show a homosexual preference (2.9% of the total number of boys compared to 3.5% of girls).
On the other hand, in terms of real experiences, bisexuality does not appear in the same dimension as attraction among the female population. While 22% are attracted to either sex, only 4.3% have dated people of both sexes in the past year. It is true, however, that the question did not refer to sporadic sexual experiences, but to stable relationships of a minimum of one month. What is noticed is a higher rate of homosexuality, 8%, a higher figure compared to the expressed desire.
It must be considered that the answers about couple relationships were not given by all the students but only by those who had maintained them. In ESO, 27% of the girls and, in high school, almost half of the total.
In young men, desire and reality are more in line. About 94% of those who had relationships did so with girls and 3.4% with boys (a higher percentage than attraction).
These data coincide with other studies, such as the one on Sexuality of young women in the Spanish context , prepared by the Women's Institute with a somewhat older population (women between 18 and 25 years of age). According to it, almost 19% of them declared themselves bisexual, 2.8% homosexual and 2.2% asexual.
How is the consumption of tobacco and alcohol?
The survey detects a change in habits regarding toxins. Girls have much higher consumption rates than boys for tobacco (more than 10 points), alcohol (7.6) and marijuana or hashish (2.7).
The only one that is less is ecstasy or other synthetic drugs, a consumption that is very minor (less than 3%) and perceived as high risk. With alcohol the floodgates have been lowered, it is not seen as risky and it is consumed earlier, on average it starts at 14 years of age.
How are relationships at home and at school?
Family and school relationships are positive, better in primary than in secondary, the stage where the perception of well-being with parents, with the educational center, with classmates and with teachers decreases. In general, there is a certain perception of deterioration in the high school stage, although no score falls below 6 out of 10.
Thus, children and adolescents feel somewhat more confident with the mother than with the father. In primary school it is practically negligible, but in ESO and, especially, in high school or FP, there is almost one point of difference (8.55 out of 10 with the mother; 7.75 with the father). but they are still high values.
It is different if they are interested in what they learn. They score with 8.50 in primary, drop to 6.04 in ESO to go up slightly later. There is also a drop in the relationship with classmates and, almost one point, with secondary school teachers (from 8.50 with which they rate teachers to 6.75 for ESO teachers).
Do they perceive situations of school violence (non-sexual)?
64.4% affirm that a classmate has messed with him or her. This is a perception that has grown by almost 9 points in ESO since the 2016-2017 academic year. It is greater in girls than in boys. They are mostly non-physical violence, such as insults and teasing (half of the child population) or neglect (50% in primary school and 40% in ESO). On the other hand, 53% of the boys suffered blows, shoves or foot stitches compared to 40% of the girls (in primary school). As communication skills increase, in ESO, pushing decreases, although it is still maintained in 1 out of every three students.
Around 30% have broken or stolen an object of their property.
How do you use your free time?
Staying with friends has been in the background, especially in adolescence. At this stage, they spend their time on social networks (93% of the total very frequently), listen to music (81%) or watch series (62%). On the other hand, being with friends frequently is done by 39% and never or almost never (8%). 33% do reading frequently and 29% never, the rest occasionally.
For primary school children, rather than being physically fit with friends, they prefer to do sports (63%, and more accentuated in boys), followed by series and YouTube. For boys, video games are even more important than meeting friends.
However, more than half of the child population and more pronounced in girls (58%) playing with others in person is a frequent activity. Boys would also do it through video games if they do it in company (67%) and girls interact more than they do on social networks (50%), because even though they haven't reached high school, they have a mobile phone. According to the survey, 6 out of 10 children have a mobile before they are 12 years old.
