Teenage Alcohol Abuse: A Difficult Issue

Alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Many substance abuse professionals think that liquor, beer, and wine advertisements produced by the media are an essential reason for the rise in teen alcohol abuse.

Other substance abuse specialists declare that the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and convenience of liquor, beer, and wine in our society.

Still other alcoholism experts state that quite a few of our young people involve themselves in destructive drinking due to the increased disquiet that they face.

From a slightly different vantage point, due to the fact that both parents in a number of families work, the lack of parental supervision obviously has to play a primary part in the spread of teenage alcohol abuse. And finally, different chemical dependency experts believe that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due, in some measure, to our laissez-faire society.

Excessive Drinking and Coping Skills Training

One element of teenage alcohol abuse that looks like it is under reported in the substance abuse research literature, in spite of this, is the scarcity of educational courses that teach teenagers how to upgrade their coping skills so that their risky drinking behavior is significantly reduced or eliminated.

Stated differently, scientific research has demonstrated that there is an indirect link between poor coping skills and excessive drinking. For all intents and purposes, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the greater the prevalence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is an accurate statement, why isn’t coping skills education an essential part of the educational core curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?

A Society That Accentuates Youth Coping Skills

Let us construct a scenario for for the purpose of elucidation. Let us imagine a society in which students are taught how to develop 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 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 put their coping skills into practice.

Stated another way, students who show evidence of good coping skills will be more able to think clearly and exhibit top quality decision making as opposed to students who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to learn quality coping skills, resort to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.

What would happen in the above “ideal” society, additionally, if teenagers not only got excellent coping skills instruction but also obtained a top quality education that highlighted the short term and long term damaging outcomes associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills training, it is pronounced, would help teens stay away from the obvious appeal related to youth drinking and, as a result, would significantly lessen the destructive drinking behavior exhibited by the youth in our country.

Youth Abusive Drinking: Conclusion

There are without a doubt quite a few convincing reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in a hazardous manner. Such a complex issue demands an extensive and more meaningful preventative and educational response by our politicians, parents, educators, and students so that our youth can learn how to cope with life’s predicaments in a more productive and accountable manner rather than resorting to excessive drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.