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Youth Alcohol Abuse: A Precarious Problem

October 25, 2009

Recent alcohol abuse statistics reveal that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Many substance abuse authorities articulate that liquor, beer, and wine ads created by the media are an essential reason for the increase in teen alcohol abuse.

Other alcohol addiction professionals affirm that the increase in youth alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and convenience of wine, beer, and liquor in our society.

Still other alcohol abuse authorities state that many of our adolescents get involved in injurious drinking due to the increased pressure that they are subjected to.

From a somewhat different viewpoint, because both parents in quite a few families are employed, the lack of parental guidance surely has to play an important part in the escalation of teen alcohol abuse. And last but not least, a variety of substance abuse experts affirm that the proliferation of adolescent alcohol abuse is due, in part, to our laissez-faire society.

Abusive Drinking and Coping Skills Education

One component of teenage alcohol abuse that seems to be lacking in the substance abuse research findings, nevertheless, is the insufficiency of educational programs that teach adolescents how to upgrade their coping skills so that their abusive drinking behavior is substantially reduced or exterminated.

Stated more explicitly, science has demonstrated that there is an indirect link between poor coping skills and abusive drinking. Basically, this means that the more mediocre the coping skills, the greater the occurrence of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is a valid proclamation, why isn’t coping skills education an important part of the academic core curriculum in all of our junior high schools, elementary schools, and high schools?

A Society That Puts Emphasis On Adolescent Coping Skills

Let us manufacture a scenario for illustrative purposes. 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 the twelfth grade.

In such a society, when life gets challenging, people who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a more healthy and more successful way, contrary to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to apply their coping skills.

More specifically, students who display superior coping skills will be more able to think proactively and show signs of quality decision making as opposed to adolescents who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to learn outstanding coping skills, are attracted to the “quick fix” of excessive drinking.

What would happen in the above “ideal” society, furthermore, if students not only got exceptional coping skills instruction but also received an exclusive education that accentuated the short term and long term destructive 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 adolescents steer clear of the noticeable appeal interlinked with teenage drinking and, as a result, would substantially reduce the abusive drinking behavior exhibited by adolescents in our country.

Adolescent Hazardous Drinking: Conclusion

There are indubitably many legitimate reasons why so many of our adolescents drink in an injurious manner. Such a knotty subject demands a broad based and relevant preventative and educational response by our educators, students, parents, and politicians so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s predicaments in a more productive and accountable way rather than gravitating to dangerous drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.

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