Burnet’s annual Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll (SDRR) survey to find out the views of young Victorians aged 15-29 on sexual behaviour and knowledge, alcohol and other drug use, and other lifestyle behaviours, is now live.

This year’s survey includes some new topics for investigation, including young people’s motivations for consuming alcohol.

“Last year we focused on reasons that people had stopped their alcohol consumption, and some of those reasons were fitness, weight loss, and avoiding hangovers,” project co-ordinator, Caitlin Douglass, said.

“We want to flip that around and focus on why people are drinking, whether that’s to have more fun, or to fit in with their social groups.

“We’ve got a range of different reasons that we’ve listed and we want to see how often people are drinking because of those different reasons.”

The 2018 survey will also explore new aspects of sexting, prompted by some interesting data from last year’s survey.

“In 2017, 60 percent of young people reported that they had sent a sext of themselves to someone else, and we found that one quarter had been shown a sext or picture of another person by someone who was not in the image themselves,” Ms Douglass said.

“We want to unpack this a bit further and find out if people have had negative experiences with sexting.

“So if they have ever had another person show a sext of them to other people, and they know about it, what happens after that?

“Are there consequences for the perpetrator? Does the person affected report it to anyone? Do they tell their family or friends? We don’t really know what happens next.”

Participation in the study involves filling in a questionnaire, which should take 20-30 minutes to complete.

Click here to access the survey.