Teen Alcohol Abuse: A Crucial Problem
August 23rd, 2009 at 11:57am Under General
Alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Quite a few substance abuse professionals assert that liquor, wine, and beer advertisements produced by the media are a fundamental reason for the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse.
Other substance abuse specialists believe that the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and accessibility of wine,liquor, and beer in our society.
Still other alcohol abuse specialists believe that many of our teens engage in injurious drinking due to the increased tension that they undergo.
From a slightly different perspective, since both parents in many families work full or part-time, the lack of parental supervision obviously has to play an important role in the increase in teenage alcohol abuse. And finally, a variety of alcohol addiction consultants articulate that the spread of youth alcohol abuse is due, at least partially, to our laissez-faire society.
Abusive Drinking and Coping Skills
One aspect of adolescent alcohol abuse that appears to be under reported in the substance abuse research literature, in spite of this, is the insufficiency of educational programs that teach adolescents how to further develop their coping skills so that their excessive drinking behavior is notably diminished or eradicated.
Stated another way, science has made obvious the fact that there is an indirect correlation between poor coping skills and excessive drinking. Basically, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the greater the prevalence of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is a valid assertion, why isn’t coping skills instruction a key part of the academic curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?
A Society That Underscores Youth Coping Skills
Let us create a scenario for the purpose of explanation. Let us imagine a society in which all people are trained how to develop 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 difficult, students who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a healthier 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 display first rate coping skills will be more able to think clearly and exhibit first-class decision making as opposed to adolescents who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to implement good coping skills, are drawn to the “quick fix” of excessive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, moreover, if adolescents not only obtained top shelf coping skills education but also obtained a first-rate education that stressed the short term and long term negative results associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills instruction, it is declared, would help students stay away from the noticeable appeal associated with teenage drinking and, consequently, would significantly diminish the destructive drinking behavior displayed by teens in our country.
Teen Hazardous Drinking: Conclusion
There are positively many legitimate reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in an abusive manner. Such a thorny problem demands an all-inclusive and more applicable preventative and educational response by our politicians, parents, educators, and students so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s difficulties in a more productive and accountable manner instead of resorting to harmful drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.
By writer Add comment