Youth Alcohol Abuse: A Major Issue
August 27th, 2009 at 04:48pm Under General
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? More than a few alcohol abuse authorities argue that beer, liquor, and wine advertisements produced by the media are an essential reason for the spread of teen alcohol abuse.
Other substance abuse authorities stress the point that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and accessibility of liquor, wine, and beer in our society.
Still other alcoholism specialists declare that more than a few of our adolescents engage in abusive drinking due to the increased anxiety that they are subjected to.
From a slightly different viewpoint, because both parents in more than a few families work full or part-time, the lack of parental guidance unquestionably has to play a primary role in the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse. And last of all, diverse alcohol dependency specialists articulate that the rise in teen alcohol abuse is due, to some extent, to our lax society.
Alcohol Abuse and Coping Skills Training
One feature of youth alcohol abuse that looks like it is poorly reported in the alcohol abuse research findings, in contrast, is the paucity of educational programs that teach teens how to improve upon their coping skills so that their injurious drinking behavior is substantially reduced or gotten rid of.
Stated differently, science has shown that there is an indirect association between poor coping skills and excessive drinking. Basically, this means that the more mediocre the coping skills, the greater the frequency of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a correct argument, why isn’t coping skills training a key part of the academic core curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?
A Society That Underscores Adolescent Coping Skills
Let us create a scenario for for the purpose of illumination. Let us imagine a society in which students are trained how to achieve first rate coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including the twelfth grade.
In such a society, when life gets challenging, students who are ”coping skills experts” will be able to respond in a healthier and more productive manner, contrary to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to put their coping skills into operation.
More precisely, students who exhibit good coping skills will be more able to think logically and show signs of quality decision making as opposed to teens who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to develop first-rate coping skills, are drawn to the “quick fix” of abusive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, furthermore, if adolescents not only received outstanding coping skills education but also received an extraordinary education that highlighted the short term and long term damaging costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Such an emphasis on drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills instruction, it is asserted, would help adolescents steer clear of the clear appeal associated with adolescent drinking and, consequently, would substantially reduce the excessive drinking behavior exhibited by teens in our country.
Teenage Risky Drinking: Conclusion
There are clearly many justifiable reasons why so many of our teens drink in an abusive manner. Such a knotty problem demands a comprehensive and relevant preventative and educational response by our educators, students, parents, and politicians so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s difficulties in a more productive and responsible way rather than gravitating to injurious drinking behavior to solve their problems.
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