OSLO (AFP) -- Suicide attempts among teenage girls in Norway rose by 30 percent between 1992 and 2002, a study revealed, an increase attributed to rising substance abuse and young girls' growing concerns about body image.

The study by Norwegian Social Research, a government-financed institute, surveyed a total of 24,000 individuals, half in 1992 and half in 2002. The interviewees included boys and girls across the country aged between 13 and 19.

The results showed that 10.6 percent of girls in 1992 tried to commit suicide, compared with 13.6 percent in 2002. By contrast, suicide attempts among boys remained stable during the same period, 6.0 percent in 1992 against 6.2 percent in 2002.

Higher consumption of drugs and alcohol and increased concern about body image were to blame, the academic who led the research said.

"The frequency of substance abuse had increased with respect to alcohol and cannabis (during the period)," explained Lars Wichstroem, a professor of child and adolescent psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

"Girls' weight has also increased in Norway, as in most other countries, while the body ideal has become stricter," he added. "So the gap between the ideal, what they want to be, and the reality, what they look like, has widened," Wichstroem said. "Body image is very important to adolescents and can lead to low self-image (which can lead to attempted suicide)."

Wichstroem said that the research could apply to other European nations, given that the region had seen the same increase in weight among teenagers in this period.

Wichstroem said the delay in reporting the data after the end of the study was due to a lengthy processing procedure, but said the results would still be applicable as both weight gain and alcohol consumption among young girls have continued to rise.