October 6, 2009
Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: A Significant Problem
Recent alcohol abuse statistics reveal that alcohol abuse among adolescents is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? More than a few chemical dependency experts think that beer, wine, and liquor advertisements produced by the media are a major reason for the increase in teen alcohol abuse.
Other substance abuse professionals affirm that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and convenience of liquor, wine, and beer in our society.
Still other alcoholism professionals affirm that many of our young people engage in excessive drinking because of the increased apprehension that they undergo.
From a somewhat different standpoint, since both parents in more than a few families are gainfully employed, the lack of parental guidance certainly has to play an essential part in the increase in teenage alcohol abuse. And as a final point, different substance abuse experts articulate that the spread of adolescent alcohol abuse is due, in some degree, to our “anything goes” society.
Coping Skills Training and Excessive Drinking
One element of teen alcohol abuse that seems to be lacking in the alcoholism research findings, nonetheless, is the insufficiency of educational programs that teach teenagers how to upgrade their coping skills so that their harmful drinking behavior is radically diminished or eradicated.
More specifically, scientific research has illustrated the fact that there is an indirect association between poor coping skills and abusive drinking. Essentially, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the greater the occurrence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a valid declaration, why isn’t coping skills instruction a fundamental part of the educational core curriculum in all of our high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools?
A Society That Accentuates Adolescent Coping Skills
Let us construct a scenario for descriptive purposes. Let us imagine a society in which students are trained how to develop excellent coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including the twelfth grade.
In such a society, when life gets challenging, students who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a more healthy and more successful way, as opposed to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to implement their coping skills.
Stated more explicitly, students who demonstrate sound coping skills will be more able to think clearly and exhibit superior decision making as opposed to teenagers who, because they are deficient in quality coping skills, are drawn to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, additionally, if students not only received first class coping skills instruction but also got a top shelf education that emphasized the long term and short term injurious outcomes associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these types of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills training, it is pronounced, would help teens stay away from the obvious attraction with adolescent drinking and, for that reason, would notably reduce the risky drinking behavior exhibited by the youth in our country.
Teen Abusive Drinking: Conclusion
There are surely scores of legitimate reasons why so many of our adolescents drink in a hazardous manner. Such a thorny subject demands a comprehensive and more pertinent educational and preventative response by our politicians, students, educators, and parents so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s problems in a more fruitful and responsible manner rather than gravitating to injurious drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.
Tags
Related posts
Filed under Uncategorized by coolsunglasses