Teen Alcohol Abuse: A Serious Problem
Posted by GuestW on Jul 16, 2009 in Diseases • No commentsAlcohol abuse statistics demonstrate the fact that alcohol abuse among adolescents is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Numerous alcohol addiction authorities state that alcohol ads produced by the media are a key reason for the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcoholism authorities assert that the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and ease of access of wine, beer, and liquor in our society.
Still other alcoholism specialists believe that quite a few of our teenagers get involved in destructive drinking because of the increased apprehension that they face.
From a somewhat different standpoint, because both parents in many families work, the lack of parental guidance without a doubt has to play a key role in the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse. And as a final point, an assortment of alcohol dependency experts think that the expansion of youth alcohol abuse is due, to some extent, to our permissive society.
Coping Skills Training and Alcohol Abuse
One aspect of teen alcohol abuse that looks like it is under reported in the alcoholism research findings, in spite of this, is the shortage of educational courses that teach adolescents how to improve upon their coping skills so that their destructive drinking behavior is drastically reduced or exterminated.
More to the point, scientific research has displayed the fact that there is an indirect connection between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. In essence, this means that the worse the coping skills, the greater the rate of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is a valid claim, why isn’t coping skills training a primary part of the academic core curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?
A Society That Stresses Youth Coping Skills
Let us construct a scenario for descriptive purposes. Let us imagine a society in which all people are taught how to achieve excellent coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their senior year in high school.
In such a society, when life gets challenging, people who are “coping skills masters†will be able to respond in a more healthy and more productive way, as opposed to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to implement their coping skills.
More to the point, students who exhibit sound coping skills will be more able to think clearly and show signs of excellent decision making as opposed to teens who, because they are deficient in outstanding coping skills, are attracted to the “quick fix†of hazardous drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal†society, additionally, if adolescents not only received outstanding coping skills instruction but also obtained an exclusive education that stressed the short term and long term injurious consequences associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these types of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills training, it is asserted, would help adolescents keep away from the obvious attraction with youth drinking and, consequently, would drastically lessen the hazardous drinking behavior exhibited by teenagers in our country.
Teenage Risky Drinking: Conclusion
There are clearly many compelling reasons why so many of our adolescents drink in a destructive manner. Such a knotty predicament demands a broad based and more meaningful educational and preventative response by our students, politicians, parents, and educators so that our youth can learn how to cope with life’s predicaments in a more productive and accountable manner instead of resorting to excessive drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.
