Young New Zealanders appear to be taking fewer risks when it comes to engaging in traditionally bad behaviours including smoking, binge drinking and drug use.
A multi-year study has shown significant drops since 2001 in the number of secondary school students involved in risk-taking behaviour.
The research, led by Dr Sonia Lewycka from the University of Auckland, identified a number of possible catalysts for what she and her team said were "profound shifts" in youth risk behaviour.
The research suggests that attitudes towards things like drink driving have changed significantly with young people more acutely aware of the potentially fatal consequences, thanks in part to public health marketing. (File photo)
"Increased parental involvement, monitoring and access restrictions may have resulted in substance use and risky driving being displaced by other forms of sensation seeking, like social media.
"Undoubtedly, much has been achieved through concerted efforts to regulate access, legislation to reduce harmful behaviours and public health campaigns and social marketing to change societal attitudes," the study, published in the Journal of Paediatric and Child Health, said.
The research, led by Dr Sonia Lewycka, suggests there have been significant reductions in common risk-taking behaviours among adolescents in New Zealand.
School-based health policies and curriculum changes were also likely to have spurred reductions in sexual risk-taking, risky driving and violence.
Wellington Youth Council chair Brad Olsen said the findings were unsurprising with social media providing a new level of accountability for poor decisions.
"I think young people are learning from their mistakes a lot quicker ... they want to have fun and it is the time of your life to do that but ensure it doesn't impact on your future.
Wellington Youth Council chair Brad Olsen, second from left, says the results were unsurprising with young people more aware of the consequences of poor decisions.
"We're also learning about these topics younger because we're talking about it more; things like the #MeToo movement, mental illness, drinking and addiction."
Olsen also credited more traditional campaigns around drink driving finding their way onto more youth-friendly mediums as another potential reason why prevention messages were getting through.
"The [NZ] Police Instagram is littered with pictures of police dogs because they know people love it and they can still get their [safety] messages out around things like drink driving.
"Those campaigns stick with you ... No one wants to see their mate all roughed up on the side of the road after a crash."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified the most significant causes of adolescent morbidity and mortality in developed nations relate to risk-taking behaviours such as risky driving and substance use.
In order to canvas what's happening among New Zealand teenagers, the researchers carried out a nationally representative secondary school self-report survey three separate times over the past 18 years.
The study found that changes in youth smoking and drinking had typically accompanied broader population changes, with increasingly fewer adults engaging in those activities.
It's not all good news though, with a third of those surveyed reporting being overweight or obese and less than one in five meet the recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake or physical activity.
Support systems were also found to be sub-optimal, with about half of students not feeling safe in their own neighbourhood or having an adult they could talk to outside their family.
Whether the decrease in risky behaviours has, or will, flow into reduced instances of youth crime remains unclear, however, the most recently available data from the Ministry of Justice shows rates have been on the decrease.
The number of young people with charges finalised in court has decreased by 64 per cent over the last decade.