Alcohol abuse in teens has become a huge problem across the United States. “Moreover, alcohol is the most commonly used drug among adolescences”(Komro & Toomey, 2002, p.5). Teens use this drug way more than tobacco or any other drug. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “People ages 12 through 20 drink 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United States. Although youth drink less often than adults do, when they do drink, they drink more. That is because young people consume more than 90 percent of their alcohol by binge drinking” (Anonymous, 2017, p.1). The reason that youth under 21 consume alcohol is because of peer pressure, increased independence, desire to do it, stress, other reasons are family problems like: parent’s divorced, family member sick or passed away. The first obvious reason for a teen to drink alcohol is peer pressure. What exactly is pressure? Peer pressure is when one’s age group is inspired to do something whether they like it or not. Peer pressure has a couple of different types. For example: direct negative peer pressure is when a friend is directly asking someone to do something. This kind of peer pressure can be very affective in teens because teens are afraid of ridicule and losing their friends if they don’t do what the other person asked of them. “This behavior then shapes the child’s environment, as he or she chooses friends and situations that support further drinking” (Anonymous, 2006, p.22). Teens think
“According to the CDC, about 90% of all teen alcohol consumption occurs in the form of Binge Drinking, which experts say peaks at the age of nineteen.” (qtd by Listfield). Binge Drinking is the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. The author, Emily Listfield, defines that the standard alcohol consumption over a two hour period is considered to be four beers for women and five beers for men. This has become a great distraction for college students nationwide and a major dilemma on college campuses. Nearly two hundred thousand students visit emergency rooms each year due to the abuse of alcohol, and more than one thousand seven hundred students die. In the article “ The Underage Drinking Epidemic”, Listfield identifies the problems that underage drinking can cause, the dangers that could happen, and four solutions on what parents can do to keep their kids from binge drinking.
Underage drinking is very common in the United States. Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug in the United States, even more so than illicit drugs (Marijuana, Cocaine, etc…) and tobacco. “In 2012 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 24% of youth aged 12 to 20 years drink alcohol and 15% reported binge drinking. In 2013, the Monitoring the Future Survey reported that 28% of 8th graders and 68%
According to Andrew Herman, “Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders” (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice as fast as adults and are more likely to participate in “binge-drinking” (Sullivan 473). The problem is evident, but the solution may be simple. Although opponents argue lowering the drinking age could make alcohol available to some teens not
According to current statistics released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “In the United States in 2011, there were an estimated 25.1 million adolescents aged 12 to 17. In the past year, more than one quarter of adolescents drank alcohol, approximately one fifth used an illicit drug, and almost one eighth smoked cigarettes” ("A Day in the Life of American Adolescents," 2013, para. 1). Substance abuse is major problem amongst adolescents. Some are experimenting, but some adolescents may become dependent on a particular substance. If one becomes dependent on a substance as an adolescent it could be detrimental to their future health and success as an adult. Spear (2003) stated in an article titled Alcohol’s
Alcohol remains the most commonly used substance among youth in the United States with use rates far exceeding that of other substances. Nationally, almost half of all tenth graders and thirty percent of eighth graders drink alcohol (Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2015). Teen alcohol use results in the death of 4,700 youth per year (Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2015). In Texas, 67% of high school students have used alcohol at least once in their lifetime and 36% drank alcohol in the past month (Texans Standing Tall, 2013). Parents commonly ignore or underestimate the problem of underage drinking. While one is six teens binge drink, only 1 in 100 parents believes his or her teen binge drinks (Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 2015).
Nearly 25 percent of teens drink alcohol because they think it is fun; however the problems it may bring are not so fun (Hyde 22). There over six times more teen deaths per year from alcohol than any other drug (O’Malley 30). Alcohol affects the body of teens as well as all of the developmental processes. A major issue of teens drinking is that it increases the chance of becoming an alcoholic in the future; which leads to lowered self-control, impaired judgment, and lowered inhibition (Heath 12). Alcohol can completely change the life of a teen from the time they start drinking till death. Alcohol affects so many aspects of a person’s life and once it does, it is so hard to get life back to normal. Alcohol effects teens by harming them
A possible reason why teens consume alcohol would simply be just for the risk of doing it (Underage Drinking). According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which is a very respectable health and government organization that “supports and conducts biomedical and behavioral research on the causes, consequences, treatment, and prevention of alcoholism and alcohol-related problems”, scientists believe that since the brain continues to develop well into a person's twenties, a teen may not fully understand the consequences of underage drinking and some teenagers fulfill their risk needs by consuming alcohol (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). This could possibly explain why teenagers
First off, alcohol addiction and abuse among teenagers today is a bigger problem than ever before. The root of the problem lies in the fact that the teens are so exposed to the culture of this day and age, leading them to where they have easy access to alcohol. For example, their parents may already be alcoholics, and it's merely a few bad decisions later which could cause the child to have a few drinks and cloud their judgement. This is a big problem because their young bodies have never encountered anything like alcohol before, so in turn, the body does not know how to process it, and therefore leads to their downfall. A publication released by the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAA) suggests that by age 18, an astounding 60% of US teens would have had at least one drink. Moreover, according to the NIAA, youth between the ages of 12 and 20 will often binge drink as well.
Alcohol abuse in high school teens is very common . Three-fourths of high school seniors have experimented with alcohol, according to a report by the Fairfax, Va.-based Society for Prevention Research.(M. C. B 1) . 95% of the time high schoolers start drinking because of peer pressure . Also, males are likely to start drinking before females do .Teens that drink often are three times more likely to commit self-harm such as cutting or suicide attempts than teens that don’t drink. Adolescent drinking represents a significant problem in the United States (Doumas 1) . The Effects of Alcohol Abuse in High School teenagers are death, low academics, and health issues .
One of the main reason why teenagers chose to drink at first place is peer pressure. Teens are ‘forced’ to start drinking because their friends are drinking, and eventually drive when they are drunk. 66% teens say that, they are drinking because of peer pressure, and they couldn’t say no to it. After some times, they became addicted to drinking and become binge drinkers. Another reason is parent’s influence on their child. According to the article “Young Adult Drinking”, parents play a big role when it comes to influencing children for drinking. Children/teenagers think that if their parents
the incident of drug abuse, especially in adolescents, has become a major public health concern. Like other drugs, opioid analgesic abuse majority is concentrated in adolescent and the youth. Also, it is more debatable in adolescent period because of unclear long-lasting effects of future addiction. For instance, early initiate of drug abuse has been determined to raise the risk of addiction in the future and these trends are due in part to susceptibility associated with adolescence. Adolescence is defined as a gentle change and shift from childhood to adulthood and the process of continuous "soft event". Therefore, it is difficult to define the exact time onset and offset of adolescence. Adolescence is characterized by behavior
Teenagers are America’s greatest natural resource, and they need to be protected from some of the evils that lurk in the world. A subject that needs special attention is the abuse of alcohol by teens. Statistics show that there is a problem currently between teens and alcohol. There are many causes of teenage drinking and effects that prove that drinking is an important issue that needs to be dealt with to preserve American teenagers. Teenage drinking will become worse of a problem if it continues unchecked on its current path to destruction. Alcohol abuse among teenagers in the United States is a plague that is destroying the structure of American society.
Teenage binge drinking (consumption of five or more alcohol drinks in a row) has grown to be a serious problem in the United States. A report in 2009 from the Surgeon General’s office show alcohol consumption by teens start as early as 11 years of age for boys and 13 years of age for girls (Grant & Dawson, 1997). In the youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Report (2007), data results showed that over three million teenagers in grades 6 through 12 are alcoholics, and several million teens have serious health issues due to drinking. Further research conducted by the Harvard School of Public health (2006) show a direct correlation of automobile accidents, alcohol poisoning, poor academic performance. violence and
One of the main reasons for young people to use alcohol is peer pressure, this is when young people socialise with their friends and feels they cannot say no in fear of being left out.
Alcohol is the number one drug problem among America’s youth. More senior high school students use alcohol than any other psychoactive drug. Family doctors, pediatricians, schoolteachers, and parents know that alcohol is overwhelmingly the drug of choice among today’s youth, although trendier substances such as cocaine are often given more attention in the headlines (Carla Felsted, p. vii). Furthermore, it is widely acknowledged that drinking alcohol is a part of the youth culture in America; it may also be understood as a culturally conditioned and socially controlled behavior.