Teen Alcohol Abuse: A Severe Problem

September 8th, 2009 by author

Alcohol abuse statistics demonstrate the fact that alcohol abuse among teenagers is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Many alcohol dependency authorities think that beer, wine, and liquor advertisements brought into being by the media are an important reason for the increase in teen alcohol abuse.

Other alcohol dependency experts believe that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and ease of access of beer, wine, and liquor in our society.

Still other chemical dependency professionals affirm that numerous adolescents involve themselves in abusive drinking due to the increased stress that they face.

From a slightly different perspective, due to the fact that both parents in more than a few families work full or part-time, the lack of parental supervision indubitably has to play an essential part in the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse. And as a final point, an assortment of alcoholism specialists affirm that the increase in youth alcohol abuse is due, in some measure, to our permissive society.

Alcohol Abuse and Coping Skills Education

One facet of teenage alcohol abuse that seems to be somewhat missing in the alcoholism research literature, nevertheless, is the insufficiency of educational programs that teach teens how to upgrade their coping skills so that their excessive drinking behavior is significantly decreased or exterminated.

Stated more explicitly, science has uncovered the fact that there is an indirect link between poor coping skills and hazardous drinking. Essentially, this means that the more mediocre the coping skills, the higher the occurrence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is an accurate contention, why isnâ€™t coping skills instruction a key part of the academic curriculum in all of our junior high schools, elementary schools, and high schools?

A Society That Puts Emphasis On Teenage Coping Skills

Let us create a scenario for descriptive purposes. Let us imagine a society in which all individuals are taught how to achieve superior coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their final year in high school.

In such a society, when life gets challenging, students who are â€œcoping skills mastersâ€ will be able to respond in a more healthy and more productive way, as opposed to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to put their coping skills into action.

More to the point, students who demonstrate good coping skills will be more able to think clearly and show signs of excellent decision making as opposed to adolescents who, because they do not possess outstanding coping skills, are attracted to the â€œquick fixâ€ of abusive drinking.

What would happen in the above â€œidealâ€ society, whatâ€™s more, if students not only got first class coping skills instruction but also obtained a top quality education that focused on the short term and long term injurious results associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills education, it is proclaimed, would help adolescents steer clear of the noticeable attraction with adolescent drinking and, therefore, would substantially lessen the excessive drinking behavior exhibited by teenagers in our country.

Youth Hazardous Drinking: Conclusion

There are clearly a number of well thought-out reasons why so many of our adolescents drink in a harmful manner. Such a complicated subject demands an all-inclusive and more applicable educational and preventative response by our students, politicians, parents, and educators so that our teenagers can learn how to cope with lifeâ€™s predicaments in a more rewarding and accountable way rather than resorting to risky drinking behavior to solve their problems.