Youth Alcohol Abuse: A Complex Problem

September 25th, 2009 by author

Recent 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? Numerous substance abuse authorities assert that beer, wine, and liquor advertisements generated by the media are a major reason for the increase in teen alcohol abuse.

Other chemical dependency professionals believe that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and convenience of beer, wine, and liquor in our society.

Still other alcoholism specialists affirm that quite a few of our adolescents involve themselves in harmful drinking due to the increased anxiety that they experience.

From a somewhat different standpoint, since both parents in more than a few families work full or part-time, the lack of parental guidance evidently has to play an important part in the spread of youth alcohol abuse. And last but not least, a variety of alcoholism professionals declare that the proliferation of youth alcohol abuse is due, to some extent, to our lax society.

Excessive Drinking and Coping Skills

One element of youth alcohol abuse that appears to be somewhat missing in the chemical dependency research literature, in spite of this, is the deficiency of educational courses that teach adolescents how to augment their coping skills so that their dangerous drinking behavior is significantly decreased or eliminated.

Stated differently, scientific research has shown that there is an indirect connection between poor coping skills and hazardous drinking. In actual fact, this means that the more mediocre the coping skills, the higher the incidence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is an accurate claim, why isnâ€™t coping skills training a significant part of the educational curriculum in all of our junior high schools, elementary schools, and high schools?

A Society That Underscores Youth Coping Skills

Let us manufacture a scenario for the purpose of explanation. Let us imagine a society in which all individuals are trained how to develop high-quality coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their final year in high school.

In such a society, when life gets difficult, people who are â€œcoping skills mastersâ€ will be able to respond in a healthier and more successful manner, as opposed to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to implement their coping skills.

More explicitly, students who exhibit superior coping skills will be more able to think clearly and demonstrate top quality decision making as opposed to teens who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to learn top-of-the-line coping skills, are drawn to the â€œquick fixâ€ of excessive drinking.

What would happen in the above â€œidealâ€ society, in addition, if students not only obtained outstanding coping skills instruction but also obtained a top quality education that stressed the short term and long term devastating consequences associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills training, it is advocated, would help teens steer clear of the noticeable appeal interlinked with underage drinking and, consequently, would radically decrease the destructive drinking behavior demonstrated by teens in our country.

Adolescent Abusive Drinking: Conclusion

There are unquestionably many justifiable reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in an abusive manner. Such a complex subject demands a wide-ranging and more meaningful educational and preventative response by our parents, politicians, students, and educators so that our youth can learn how to cope with lifeâ€™s predicaments in a more rewarding and accountable manner rather than gravitating to harmful drinking behavior to solve their problems.