Youth Alcohol Abuse: A Serious Problem
Alcohol abuse statistics reveal that alcohol abuse among teenagers is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Quite a few alcoholism authorities think that liquor, beer, and wine ads generated by the media are a major reason for the increase in teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcohol abuse consultants assert that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and ease of access of wine,liquor, and beer in our society.
Still other chemical dependency experts articulate that quite a few of our young people engage in destructive drinking because of the increased stress that they face.
From a slightly different viewpoint, because both parents in many families work full or part-time, the lack of parental supervision positively has to play a fundamental part in the spread of youth alcohol abuse. And last but not least, various alcoholism specialists assert that the increase in youth alcohol abuse is due, in some degree, to our permissive society.
Coping Skills and Abusive Drinking
One element of adolescent alcohol abuse that seems to be poorly reported in the alcohol abuse research results, to the contrary, is the shortage of educational programs that teach students how to improve upon their coping skills so that their abusive drinking behavior is fundamentally reduced or exterminated.
Stated differently, science has made obvious the fact that there is an indirect connection between poor coping skills and hazardous drinking. Essentially, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the higher the prevalence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a correct argument, why isn’t coping skills education an important part of the educational core curriculum in all of our high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools?
A Society That Emphasizes Youth Coping Skills
Let us create a scenario for for the purpose of illumination. Let us imagine a society in which all individuals are trained how to develop 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 difficult, students who are ”coping skills experts” will be able to respond in a healthier and more rewarding manner, contrary to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to execute their coping skills.
More precisely, students who reveal outstanding coping skills will be more able to think proactively and display quality decision making as opposed to teens who, because they do not possess top quality coping skills, gravitate to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, furthermore, if adolescents not only obtained outstanding coping skills training but also received an extraordinary education that focused on the short term and long term unhealthy outcomes associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills training, it is asserted, would help students stay away from the obvious attraction with teen drinking and, for that reason, would substantially decrease the abusive drinking behavior undertaken by adolescents in our country.
Teenage Alcohol Abuse: Conclusion
There are certainly many compelling reasons why so many of our teenagers drink in a dangerous manner. Such a thorny problem demands a comprehensive and more meaningful preventative and educational response by our educators, parents, politicians, and students so that our teenagers can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more fruitful and responsible manner rather than gravitating to abusive drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.
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