Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: A Dangerous Problem
Recent alcohol abuse statistics demonstrate the fact that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Many substance abuse professionals believe that liquor, beer, and wine ads generated by the media are an important reason for the rise in teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcohol dependency specialists state that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and convenience of alcohol in our society.
Still other alcohol addiction authorities affirm that many of our teens engage in risky drinking because of the increased stress that they undergo.
From a slightly different vantage point, since both parents in a number of families work full or part-time, the lack of parental supervision clearly has to play an essential part in the proliferation of teenage alcohol abuse. And last of all, a variety of alcohol addiction experts assert that the expansion of teen alcohol abuse is due, in part, to our laissez-faire society.
Coping Skills Education and Excessive Drinking
One element of teenage alcohol abuse that looks like it is lacking in the alcohol dependency research results, in contrast, is the paucity of educational courses that teach teenagers how to augment their coping skills so that their risky drinking behavior is fundamentally decreased or exterminated.
More specifically, science has disclosed the fact that there is an indirect connection between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. Essentially, this means that the more mediocre the coping skills, the higher the prevalence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a valid declaration, why isn’t coping skills education a major part of the educational core curriculum in all of our junior high schools, elementary schools, and high schools?
A Society That Puts Emphasis On Teenage Coping Skills
Let us manufacture a scenario for the purpose of explanation. Let us imagine a society in which all individuals are trained how to achieve sound coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including the twelfth grade.
In such a society, when life gets stressful, individuals who are ”coping skills experts” will be able to respond in a healthier and more creative manner, contrary to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to put their coping skills into action.
Stated more precisely, students who show evidence of solid coping skills will be more able to think proactively and display superior decision making as opposed to students who, because they lack quality coping skills, are attracted to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, what’s more, if teens not only obtained first class coping skills training but also obtained an excellent education that highlighted the short term and long term destructive outcomes associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these kinds of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills education, it is affirmed, would help adolescents steer clear of the apparent charm associated with teenage drinking and, accordingly, would drastically reduce the injurious drinking behavior demonstrated by the youth in our country.
Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: Conclusion
There are obviously several sound reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in a hazardous manner. Such a tricky issue demands an all-inclusive and more applicable educational and preventative response by our students, parents, politicians, and educators so that our adolescents can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more rewarding and responsible manner instead of gravitating to dangerous drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.
