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Alcohol abuse statistics reveal that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States.  What are some of the reasons for this?  Quite a few substance abuse authorities articulate that beer, liquor, and wine advertisements produced by the media are a major reason for the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse.

Other chemical dependency specialists think that the increase in adolescent alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and convenience of wine,liquor, and beer in our society.

Still other alcohol addiction authorities declare that many of our young people engage in excessive drinking due to the increased anxiety that they are subjected to.

From a slightly different point of view, due to the fact that both parents in a number of families work, the lack of parental guidance obviously has to play a key role in the increase in teen alcohol abuse.  And last but not least, various alcohol dependency specialists assert that the increase in teenage alcohol abuse is due, at some level, to our “anything goes” society.

Hazardous Drinking and Coping Skills Education

One element of youth alcohol abuse that seems to be poorly reported in the chemical dependency research findings, nonetheless, is the lack of educational programs that teach teens how to upgrade their coping skills so that their dangerous drinking behavior is significantly diminished or gotten rid of.

Stated more precisely, science has uncovered the fact that there is an indirect connection between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse.  Fundamentally, this means that the more mediocre the coping skills, the greater the occurrence of alcohol abuse.  To the degree that this is an accurate argument, why isn’t coping skills training a major part of the academic prospectus in all of our high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools?

A Society That Puts Emphasis On Youth Coping Skills

Let us manufacture a scenario for explanatory purposes.  Let us imagine a society in which all people are taught how to achieve superior coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their senior year in high school.

In such a society, when life gets complicated, individuals who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a more healthy and more successful manner, as opposed to others who are unsuccessful in their attempts to put their coping skills into practice.

More to the point, students who show evidence of superior coping skills will be more able to think proactively and engage in first-class decision making as opposed to students who, because they are deficient in top-of-the-line coping skills, are drawn to the “quick fix” of abusive drinking.

What would happen in the above “ideal” society, furthermore, if adolescents not only obtained first class coping skills education but also received an outstanding education that highlighted the short term and long term harmful results 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 declared, would help teenagers stay away from the apparent appeal interlinked with adolescent drinking and, as a consequence, would significantly decrease the harmful drinking behavior exhibited by teens in our country.

Youth Excessive Drinking: Conclusion

There are indubitably scores of justifiable reasons why so many of our teens drink in an excessive manner.  Such a complex subject demands a thorough and more applicable educational and preventative response by our politicians, parents, educators, and students so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s predicaments in a more rewarding and accountable way instead of resorting to dangerous drinking behavior to solve their problems.

Related Substance Abuse Websites

• Michele Borba Blog: Teen Drinking and Substance Abuse Up – 4 Key Parenting Lessons | Dr. Michele Borba’s Reality Check
• DrugAlcoholTest Articles » Blog Archive » Peer pressure in Teen’s drug addiction – drug abuse rehab
• National Public Education Campaign Under Way to Reduce Underage Drinking Substance Abuse and Mental Health Health Services Administration | How To Google Adsense

Technorati Tags: adolescent alcohol abuse, alcohol abuse facts, alcohol abuse statistics, teen alcohol abuse, teenage alcohol abuse, youth alcohol abuse

Tags: adolescent alcohol abuse, alcohol abuse facts, alcohol abuse statistics, teen alcohol abuse, teenage alcohol abuse, youth alcohol abuse

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 5:38 pm and is filed under drug treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.