The first Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) Survey was conducted in Ireland in 1998 and has been repeated every four years ever since. In 2018, the study was conducted in Ireland for the sixth time. This survey included 15,557 children aged 8 to 18 years, drawn from a representative sample of 255 primary and post-primary schools across Ireland. Data were collected on general health, social class, smoking, use of alcohol and other substances, food and dietary behaviour, exercise and physical activity, self-care, injuries, bullying, and sexual health behaviours. Social class corresponds to high, middle, and low social class groups. The categories used for social class are standard and were determined by the highest-reported parental occupation. High social class includes professional occupations (i.e. solicitor, doctor), and managerial occupations (i.e. nurse, teacher); middle social class includes non-manual occupations (i.e. sales person, office clerk) and skilled-manual occupations (i.e. hairdresser, carpenter); low social class includes semi-skilled occupations (i.e. postal worker, carer) and unskilled occupations (i.e. cleaner, labourer). The main results were published in January 2020.1 Published findings regarding cannabis use are shown below.

Last-year cannabis use among Irish school-aged children

Statistically significant differences by sex and age group were observed for last-year cannabis use. Overall, 8% of boys and 6% of girls reported cannabis use in the last 12 months. Younger children were less likely to report cannabis use in the last 12 months than older children. No statistically significant differences across social class groups were noted (see Figure 1).

Source: HBSC Ireland, 2018

Figure 1: Percentage of 12–17-year-olds reporting use of cannabis in the past year, 2018

Source: HBSC Ireland, 2018

Figure 2: Percentage of 12–17-year-olds reporting use of cannabis in the past 30 days, 2018 

Current use of cannabis among Irish school-aged children

Statistically significant differences by sex and age group were reported for current use of cannabis. Overall, boys (4%) were more likely than girls (3%) to report cannabis use in the last 30 days. Younger children were also less likely to report cannabis use in the last 30 days than older children. As with last-year cannabis use, no statistically significant differences across social class groups were found (see Figure 2).