Teen Alcohol Abuse: A Precarious Problem
Alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among teenagers is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Many chemical dependency professionals think that beer, liquor, and wine ads generated by the media are an important reason for the escalation of teenage alcohol abuse.
Other substance abuse consultants think that the increase in youth alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and ease of access of wine, beer, and liquor in our society.
Still other alcoholism authorities emphasize the point that more than a few of our teens involve themselves in dangerous drinking because of the increased pressure that they feel.
From a somewhat different vantage point, since both parents in many families work full or part-time, the lack of parental guidance without a doubt has to play an essential role in the spread of teen alcohol abuse. And last of all, diverse alcohol abuse consultants state that the proliferation of adolescent alcohol abuse is due, at least partially, to our lenient society.
Coping Skills Education and Excessive Drinking
One component of youth alcohol abuse that looks as if it lacking in the alcohol dependency research literature, then again, is the nonexistence of educational programs that teach students how to improve upon their coping skills so that their abusive drinking behavior is fundamentally lessened or eradicated.
More explicitly, science has shown that there is an indirect correlation between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. In effect, this means that the worse the coping skills, the higher the frequency of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is a correct affirmation, why isn’t coping skills education a key part of the academic curriculum in all of our high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools?
A Society That Stresses Youth Coping Skills
Let us construct a scenario for for the purpose of illumination. Let us imagine a society in which students 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 demanding, students who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a more healthy and more creative manner, as opposed to others who fail to put their coping skills into practice.
Stated differently, students who display sound coping skills will be more able to think logically and display first-class decision making as opposed to teenagers who, because they lack first-rate coping skills, resort to the “quick fix” of excessive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, furthermore, if teens not only obtained first-rate coping skills training but also obtained an extraordinary education that emphasized the short term and long term harmful consequences associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these types of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills instruction, it is asserted, would help adolescents stay away from the noticeable attraction with underage drinking and, for that reason, would fundamentally lessen the risky drinking behavior demonstrated by teenagers in our country.
Adolescent Risky Drinking: Conclusion
There are evidently quite a few valid reasons why so many of our teens drink in an injurious manner. Such a complicated subject matter demands a thorough and more meaningful educational and preventative response by our parents, politicians, students, and educators so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s difficulties in a more productive and responsible way rather than gravitating to risky drinking behavior to solve their problems.
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Tags: adolescent alcohol abuse, alcohol abuse facts, alcohol abuse statistics, teen alcohol abuse, teenage alcohol abuse, youth alcohol abuse
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