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 abuse authorities believe that beer, wine, and liquor ads brought into being by the media are a fundamental reason for the expansion of teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcoholism consultants claim that the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and accessibility of beer, wine, and liquor in our society.
Still other alcoholism experts affirm that more than a few of our teens involve themselves in injurious drinking due to the increased pressure that they are subjected to.
From a somewhat different point of view, due to the fact that both parents in quite a few families work, the lack of parental guidance surely has to play a key part in the spread of youth alcohol abuse. And finally, a variety of alcohol addiction professionals assert that the expansion of youth alcohol abuse is due, to some extent, to our “anything goes” society.
Abusive Drinking and Coping Skills Education
One component of teenage alcohol abuse that looks like it is somewhat missing in the alcohol dependency research findings, then again, is the paucity of educational programs that teach teens how to further develop their coping skills so that their abusive drinking behavior is substantially decreased or done away with.
More specifically, scientific research has demonstrated that there is an indirect correlation between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. Basically, this means that the worse the coping skills, the greater the occurrence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a correct contention, why isn’t coping skills training an essential 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 construct a scenario for for the purpose of elucidation. Let us imagine a society in which all people are trained how to develop high-quality coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including the twelfth grade.
In such a society, when life gets difficult, individuals who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a healthier and more rewarding manner, as opposed to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to put their coping skills into operation.
More precisely, students who demonstrate solid coping skills will be more able to think logically and display quality decision making as opposed to teens who, because they do not possess top-of-the-line coping skills, are drawn to the “quick fix” of excessive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, furthermore, if young people not only received extraordinary coping skills instruction but also got an excellent education that underscored the long term and short term unhealthy costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills education, it is advocated, would help students avoid the obvious appeal related to teen drinking and, accordingly, would significantly diminish the hazardous drinking behavior undertaken by the youth in our country.
Youth Hazardous Drinking: Conclusion
There are definitely many defensible reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in an injurious manner. Such a complex subject demands an all-inclusive and more meaningful educational and preventative response by our educators, politicians, parents, and students so that our teenagers can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more fruitful and responsible way instead of gravitating to destructive drinking behavior to solve their problems.