Alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among teenagers is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Numerous substance abuse professionals believe that liquor, wine, and beer advertisements produced by the media are a key reason for the escalation of teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcohol dependency experts argue that the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and convenience of wine,liquor, and beer in our society.
Still other chemical dependency specialists stress the point that many of our teens get involved in alcohol abuse because of the increased stress that they experience.
From a slightly different point of view, since both parents in many families work full or part-time, the lack of parental guidance clearly has to play an essential part in the proliferation of youth alcohol abuse. And last of all, diverse chemical dependency specialists affirm that the escalation of youth alcohol abuse is due, in some measure, to our laissez-faire society.
Hazardous Drinking and Coping Skills
One aspect of teenage alcohol abuse that seems to be deficient in the alcohol dependency research literature, in spite of this, is the deficiency of educational programs that teach adolescents how to improve upon their coping skills so that their injurious drinking behavior is extensively diminished or gotten rid of.
More precisely, scientific research has disclosed the fact that there is an indirect link between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. In actual fact, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the higher the rate of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a correct contention, why isn’t coping skills training a primary part of the academic core curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?
A Society That Accentuates Teenage Coping Skills
Let us construct a scenario for illustrative purposes. Let us imagine a society in which students are taught how to develop good coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their senior year in high school.
In such a society, when life gets stressful, people who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a healthier and more productive way, as opposed to others who fail to put their coping skills into practice.
Stated differently, students who exhibit superior coping skills will be more able to think logically and demonstrate top-shelf decision making as opposed to teenagers who, because they failed to obtain first-rate coping skills, gravitate to the “quick fix” of excessive drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, in addition, if young people not only obtained top shelf coping skills instruction but also obtained an excellent education that outlined the long term and short term harmful costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Such an emphasis on drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills education, it is declared, would help adolescents avoid the clear appeal interlinked with teen drinking and, as a consequence, would fundamentally lessen the destructive drinking behavior shown by adolescents in our country.
Teenage Risky Drinking: Conclusion
There are evidently a number of compelling reasons why so many of our teens drink in an abusive manner. Such a complicated predicament demands a far-reaching and more applicable educational and preventative response by our parents, educators, politicians, and students so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more rewarding and responsible manner rather than gravitating to alcohol abuse to solve their difficulties.
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