Alcohol is the most universally used and abused drug in the United States. An issue that continues to rise in today’s public health is alcohol use. Consuming alcohol in excessive amounts is not only a problem in the United States but worldwide as well. The largest number of consumers is teenagers. During this period of development, teens are faced with a multitude of pressures whether it’s trying to maintain good grades in school or perform well in sports. Teens may also be influenced by various factors that can lead to underage drinking. According to recent statistics, data regarding teen drinking indicates that youth usually drink less frequently than adults, but tend to drink more when they choose to use alcohol. In terms of gender, …show more content…
An additional reason teenagers are so infatuated with the act of drinking is because they see it in the media constantly. According to the National Office of Drug Control Policy, “on television, alcohol is the number one drug portrayed, appearing on 77 percent of TV episodes” and in “music videos, alcohol shows up every 14 minutes.” During this time in development, teenagers haven’t formed their individual identities and this may cause them to be more likely to experiment with substances such as alcohol (Johns Hopkins Children Center, 2011). A third reason for teenagers drinking alcohol is they see their family members such as parents or siblings drinking or abusing alcohol. More often than not, if parents don’t have a firm hand in monitoring their children’s behaviors, those children may be more apt to drink. In addition if teens are told by their parents they can’t drink, that can trigger them to go against the rules and rebel. Not only does having family members suffer from alcoholism influence teen drinking, but access to alcohol from parents can contribute to alcohol-related problems as well (Wood, 2013). A fourth reason is depression. For teens, it can be difficult to tackle various situations whether it’s in school or at home. Once teens don’t know how to cope with depression, it can be very easy to turn to alcohol as a way to
The article, “Alcohol can rewire the teenage brain,” starts by stating that more than 4,750 American kids aged 15 and younger, said they took their first drink of alcohol already. Kids who start drinking before the age of 15 are more likely to become alcoholics because they get addicted to the drug. The article also states that they are more likely to start binge drinking. A study conducted by Lorena Siqueira a pediatrician at the Florida International University and Nicklaus Children’s hospital in Miami, reported that, “When kids drink, they tend to do heavy drinking,” and that, “Their bodies are not ready to handle that kind of alcohol.” Teens think that alcohol will help them feel happier and better, but that is not true. Teens also drink
Is the media’s portrayal of adolescent drinking accurate? Yes, it is. To many individuals, Alcohol is only a drink, but it is a lot more than that, it's an addictive drug. 60% of young adults have tried alcohol earlier than the age of 14, and the numbers of under aged drinkers is rising. Adolescents begin drinking for a lot of reasons - given that they are bored, due to peer pressure, and quite simply because there is nothing else to do. The national Drug research Institute observed females aged 14 to 17 have been worse abusers of alcohol than 18 to 24-year old guys. In other records, it suggests that eighty percent of under 18-year-olds drink, 50 percentage binge drink. Also around 10 percent of 12 year olds drink.
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%
The study of adolescent alcohol dependency is a growing field and offers both captivating and alarming discoveries because more and more younger children are depending on alcohol to function on a daily basis. You would be surprised to know how many young individuals are now dependent on alcohol because of the false advertisement that happens through television commercials and through social influences that surround these
One fact that the authors point out is that youths are beginning to drink at lower ages and with more frequency. The statistics range from 47 percent of high school students drinking heavily to 10 million, 28 percent of children that age, reporting alcohol use in the last thirty days. College students reflect those same statistics. Concern is raised about how alcohol use patterns developed in the teen years is not an issue that time resoles. The article then bridges into alcohol’s effects on teens.
The underage consumption of alcohol is a major obstacle in America. Current statistics show 35 percent of all wine coolers and 1.1 billion cans of beer are consumed each year by underage, illegal drinkers (Novello 455). Possibly the hardest fact to stomach is that children "believe drinking is the thing to do" (Benenson 38). Parents, educators, legislators, and lawmakers previously thought that peer pressure was to blame, however, that is no longer the issue. Underage drinking in America is primarily the cause of children trying to fit in (also known as social drinking), advertising that is aimed at underage drinkers, and inherited traits/genetics. We must understand that alcohol abuse is no longer 'just
Underage drinking has become an immense problem in the U.S. There are many reasons that lead kids under the age of twenty-one to drink. CNN states that “ Only a sip early on in life could be a problem later on in life” (CNN News). This quote states that having that one drink as an underage drinker won't just affect you then, but it will affect your life later on. Our country has come to realize that we have a problem with teenage alcoholism; schools inform their students about this problem, the news talks about tragic events that have happened involving teenagers under the influence of alcohol, there is even movies that have to do with underage drinking. However, kids today choose to make the wrong decisions and put their
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
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 .
Did you know that over a third of young people engage in binge drinking or hazardous drinking? Alcohol use and misuse by teenagers seems to become a big problem, but what is the problem for that and what is encouraging the youth to drink? In this essay I want to find the reasons for all those problems.
Young people are considered to constitute the largest number of alcohol consumers and they account for a large portion of alcohol sales. This is despite the strict drinking laws that govern many countries as regards alcohol purchase and consumption. Underage drinking, which has been on the increase, is allegedly the major cause of alcohol-related problems facing the modern
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
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.