Teenage Alcohol Abuse: A Critical Problem
Recent alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among adolescents is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Numerous alcohol dependency experts think that liquor, wine, and beer advertisements constructed by the media are an essential reason for the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcohol addiction professionals claim that the increase in youth alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and ease of access of liquor, wine, and beer in our society.
Still other substance abuse consultants think that many of our young people involve themselves in risky drinking due to the increased pressure that they face.
From a somewhat different point of view, due to the fact that both parents in quite a few families work full or part-time, the lack of parental guidance surely has to play an important part in the expansion of youth alcohol abuse. And last but not least, various alcoholism consultants claim that the spread of teenage alcohol abuse is due, in some degree, to our permissive society.
Coping Skills Training and Abusive Drinking
One element of teenage alcohol abuse that looks as if it somewhat missing in the alcoholism research literature, however, is the shortage of educational courses that teach teens how to further develop their coping skills so that their harmful drinking behavior is fundamentally diminished or done away with.
Stated another way, science has revealed that there is an indirect connection between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. Essentially, this means that the more mediocre the coping skills, the greater the rate of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is a correct proclamation, why isn’t coping skills instruction a significant part of the educational curriculum in all of our junior high schools, elementary schools, and high schools?
A Society That Underscores Teenage Coping Skills
Let us manufacture a scenario for descriptive purposes. Let us imagine a society in which all individuals are trained how to develop high-quality coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their senior year in high school.
In such a society, when life gets stressful, individuals who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a more healthy and more rewarding way, contrary to others who fail to put their coping skills into action.
Stated more precisely, students who reveal sound coping skills will be more able to think logically and exhibit quality decision making as opposed to teens who, because they failed to obtain first-rate coping skills, are drawn to the “quick fix” of excessive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, moreover, if teenagers not only obtained excellent coping skills training but also obtained an exclusive education that focused on the long term and short term injurious costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these kinds of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills training, it is proclaimed, would help students keep away from the noticeable appeal associated with adolescent drinking and, accordingly, would substantially diminish the risky drinking behavior displayed by the youth in our country.
Teen Risky Drinking: Conclusion
There are unquestionably numerous defensible reasons why so many of our teens drink in a hazardous manner. Such a thorny issue demands an extensive and relevant preventative and educational response by our students, educators, politicians, and parents so that our teenagers can learn how to cope with life’s predicaments in a more fruitful and responsible way instead of resorting to excessive drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.