Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: A Crucial Problem
Alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among teenagers is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Many alcohol abuse consultants affirm that wine, liquor, and beer advertisements generated by the media are a fundamental reason for the rise in teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcohol abuse consultants stress the point that the increase in teenage alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and ease of access of wine,liquor, and beer in our society.
Still other alcoholism authorities emphasize the point that numerous teens engage in abusive drinking because of the increased apprehension that they experience.
From a somewhat different perspective, since both parents in many families work full or part-time, the lack of parental guidance clearly has to play a significant part in the escalation of youth alcohol abuse. And last but not least, an assortment of alcoholism experts stress the point that the expansion of teen alcohol abuse is due, in part, to our lenient society.
Coping Skills Education and Hazardous Drinking
One aspect of youth alcohol abuse that seems to be somewhat incomplete in the alcoholism research findings, however, is the deficiency of educational courses that teach teens how to further develop their coping skills so that their excessive drinking behavior is fundamentally decreased or eradicated.
Stated more explicitly, scientific research has disclosed the fact that there is an indirect association between poor coping skills and hazardous drinking. In point of fact, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the greater the rate of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a truthful assertion, why isn’t coping skills training a fundamental part of the educational prospectus in all of our high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools?
A Society That Stresses Youth Coping Skills
Let us manufacture a scenario for the purpose of explanation. Let us imagine a society in which all individuals are taught how to develop first rate coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their senior year in high school.
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 fail to put their coping skills into practice.
More precisely, students who exhibit superior coping skills will be more able to think logically and engage in top quality decision making as opposed to adolescents who, because they do not possess good coping skills, resort to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, additionally, if teens not only received first class coping skills education but also received a first-rate education that stressed the long term and short term destructive consequences associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these kinds of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills training, it is asserted, would help students stay away from the clear fascination with teen drinking and, accordingly, would notably lessen the harmful drinking behavior displayed by adolescents in our country.
Adolescent Excessive Drinking: Conclusion
There are without a doubt numerous well thought-out reasons why so many of our teens drink in a destructive manner. Such a knotty predicament demands a wide-ranging and relevant preventative and educational response by our parents, students, politicians, and educators so that our youth can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more fruitful and responsible manner instead of resorting to destructive drinking behavior to solve their problems.
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Tags: adolescent alcohol abuse, alcohol abuse facts, alcohol abuse statistics, teen alcohol abuse, teenage alcohol abuse, youth alcohol abuse
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