Teen Alcohol Abuse: A Significant Issue
Recent alcohol abuse statistics reveal that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Quite a few substance abuse consultants affirm that beer, wine, and liquor ads brought into being by the media are an important reason for the escalation of teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcoholism authorities declare that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and convenience of wine, beer, and liquor in our society.
Still other alcohol addiction professionals claim that more than a few of our young people get involved in injurious drinking because of the increased fretfulness that they feel.
From a somewhat different viewpoint, due to the fact that both parents in many families work, the lack of parental supervision indubitably has to play an important role in the spread of teen alcohol abuse. And finally, a variety of alcohol addiction experts claim that the spread of teenage alcohol abuse is due, to some extent, to our “anything goes” society.
Alcohol Abuse and Coping Skills Training
One element of adolescent alcohol abuse that looks like it is somewhat missing in the alcoholism research findings, on the other hand, is the scarcity of educational programs that teach adolescents how to augment their coping skills so that their abusive drinking behavior is extensively reduced or eradicated.
Stated more explicitly, scientific research has shown that there is an indirect association between poor coping skills and excessive drinking. Essentially, this means that the worse the coping skills, the higher the occurrence of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is an accurate declaration, why isn’t coping skills education a primary part of the academic prospectus in all of our junior high schools, elementary schools, and high schools?
A Society That Emphasizes Youth Coping Skills
Let us create 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 final year in high school.
In such a society, when life gets challenging, individuals who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a healthier and more creative way, contrary to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to put their coping skills into practice.
Stated differently, students who display excellent coping skills will be more able to think logically and show signs of first-class decision making as opposed to students who, because they lack quality coping skills, are drawn to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, what’s more, if young people not only obtained exceptional coping skills education but also received a first class education that stressed the short term and long term destructive consequences associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills education, it is declared, would help teens stay away from the apparent charm interlinked with youth drinking and, accordingly, would fundamentally reduce the destructive drinking behavior demonstrated by teenagers in our country.
Teenage Hazardous Drinking: Conclusion
There are definitely various justifiable reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in an abusive manner. Such a thorny predicament demands a broad based and more pertinent preventative and educational response by our students, educators, politicians, and parents so that our youth can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more fruitful and accountable manner rather than resorting to risky drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.