Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: A Complex Issue
Recent alcohol abuse statistics demonstrate the fact that alcohol abuse among adolescents is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? More than a few substance abuse consultants declare that wine, beer, and liquor advertisements created by the media are an essential reason for the expansion of teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcohol addiction specialists state that the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and ease of access of liquor, wine, and beer in our society.
Still other substance abuse authorities emphasize the point that more than a few of our teenagers engage in harmful drinking due to the increased tension that they face.
From a somewhat different perspective, due to the fact that both parents in a number of families are employed, the lack of parental guidance definitely has to play an essential role in the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse. And last of all, an assortment of alcohol addiction authorities affirm that the rise in youth alcohol abuse is due, in part, to our lax society.
Coping Skills Education and Excessive Drinking
One element of teen alcohol abuse that seems to be somewhat missing in the chemical dependency research findings, in contrast, is the shortage of educational programs that teach teens how to further develop their coping skills so that their abusive drinking behavior is radically lessened or done away with.
More explicitly, scientific research has demonstrated that there is an indirect association between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. In essence, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the higher the incidence of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is a correct argument, why isn’t coping skills instruction a fundamental part of the educational curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?
A Society That Stresses Teenage Coping Skills
Let us create a scenario for for the purpose of elucidation. Let us imagine a society in which students are taught how to develop superior coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including the twelfth grade.
In such a society, when life gets demanding, students who are ”coping skills experts” will be able to respond in a healthier and more successful way, contrary to others who fail to apply their coping skills.
More precisely, students who display sound coping skills will be more able to think logically and display top quality decision making as opposed to teens who, because they do not possess good coping skills, gravitate to the “quick fix” of abusive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, additionally, if teens not only obtained exceptional coping skills instruction but also got an extraordinary education that stressed the short term and long term injurious costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these types of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills training, it is asserted, would help adolescents stay away from the apparent charm interlinked with adolescent drinking and, as a consequence, would fundamentally lessen the injurious drinking behavior undertaken by adolescents in our country.
Youth Abusive Drinking: Conclusion
There are certainly more than a few defensible reasons why so many of our teens drink in a hazardous manner. Such a complex problem demands an extensive and more meaningful educational and preventative response by our parents, educators, politicians, and students so that our teenagers can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more productive and responsible manner instead of gravitating to excessive drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.
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