Alcohol abuse statistics demonstrate the fact that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? More than a few alcohol abuse professionals emphasize the point that beer, liquor, and wine advertisements constructed by the media are an essential reason for the increase in teen alcohol abuse.
Other alcohol abuse specialists articulate that the increase in youth alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and convenience of beer, wine, and liquor in our society.
Still other alcoholism specialists declare that numerous young people get involved in hazardous drinking because of the increased disquiet that they go through.
From a slightly different standpoint, because both parents in more than a few families work full or part-time, the lack of parental guidance surely has to play a significant role in the proliferation of teen alcohol abuse. And last but not least, different chemical dependency professionals assert that the escalation of teen alcohol abuse is due, at least partially, to our lenient society.
Alcohol Abuse and Coping Skills Training
One aspect of teen alcohol abuse that looks like it is somewhat incomplete in the alcohol abuse research literature, to the contrary, is the scarcity of educational courses that teach teenagers how to upgrade their coping skills so that their injurious drinking behavior is extensively reduced or gotten rid of.
Stated more precisely, science has illustrated the fact that there is an indirect correlation between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. Fundamentally, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the higher the incidence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is a valid affirmation, why isn’t coping skills training a primary part of the educational curriculum in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?
A Society That Puts Emphasis On Adolescent Coping Skills
Let us create a scenario for the purpose of clarification. Let us imagine a society in which students are trained how to develop high-quality coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their final 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 more healthy and more successful way, as opposed to others who fail to put their coping skills into action.
More precisely, students who reveal high-quality coping skills will be more able to think proactively and exhibit first-class decision making as opposed to teenagers who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to learn first-rate coping skills, resort to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.
What would happen in the above “ideal” society, additionally, if young people not only got exclusive coping skills instruction but also got an excellent education that focused on the long term and short term unhealthy costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these types of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more highly developed coping skills instruction, it is pronounced, would help students avoid the clear charm related to youth drinking and, therefore, would substantially diminish the harmful drinking behavior exhibited by teens in our country.
Teen Abusive Drinking: Conclusion
There are indubitably many valid reasons why so many of our teens abuse alcohol. Such a thorny issue demands a thorough and relevant preventative and educational response by our politicians, educators, students, and parents so that our teens can learn how to cope with life’s predicaments in a more rewarding and responsible manner rather than resorting to dangerous drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.
