Alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among teenagers is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Quite a few alcoholism experts claim that beer, wine, and liquor ads brought into being by the media are an important reason for the spread of youth alcohol abuse.
Other substance abuse authorities believe that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and accessibility of beer, wine, and liquor in our society.
Still other alcohol abuse specialists articulate that more than a few of our young people get involved in alcohol abuse because of the increased disquiet that they live through.
From a slightly different outlook, due to the fact that both parents in a number of families work, the lack of parental supervision indubitably has to play a significant part in the proliferation of youth alcohol abuse. And lastly, different alcohol addiction authorities stress the point that the expansion of youth alcohol abuse is due, in some measure, to our permissive society.
Coping Skills Training and Excessive Drinking
One element of teenage alcohol abuse that seems to be lacking in the alcohol dependency research results, nonetheless, is the scarcity of educational programs that teach teens how to improve upon their coping skills so that their harmful drinking behavior is substantially reduced or exterminated.
More precisely, science has shown that there is an indirect association between poor coping skills and abusive drinking. For all intents and purposes, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the higher the frequency of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is an accurate affirmation, why isn’t coping skills instruction a significant part of the educational curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?
A Society That Underscores Youth Coping Skills
Let us construct a scenario for the purpose of explanation. Let us imagine a society in which all individuals are taught how to achieve sound coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their final year in high school.
In such a society, when life gets stressful, people who are ”coping skills experts” will be able to respond in a healthier and more rewarding way, as opposed to others who fail to apply their coping skills.
Stated more explicitly, students who exhibit first rate coping skills will be more able to think clearly and show signs of top-shelf decision making as opposed to students who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to implement first-rate coping skills, are attracted to the “quick fix” of abusive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, additionally, if students not only got first class coping skills training but also received a top shelf education that outlined the long term and short term negative consequences associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these types of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills education, it is emphasized, would help teenagers steer clear of the noticeable charm associated with underage drinking and, as a consequence, would fundamentally lessen the destructive drinking behavior undertaken by teens in our country.
Teen Alcohol Abuse: Conclusion
There are certainly more than a few defensible reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in an abusive manner. Such a complex subject matter demands a far-reaching and more pertinent educational and preventative response by our students, parents, politicians, and educators so that our teenagers can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more productive and responsible way rather than gravitating to alcohol abuse to solve their difficulties.