Alcohol is the drug of choice for many individuals globally. Consequently, it is the most prominent drug among American youth. The prevalence of alcohol use among American youth has drawn the concern of many for the potential health and social consequences it has for these individuals. However, it is worth noting that the consequences of drinking affect all users regardless of their age, gender, or status. One of the issues that has attracted much concern is the use of alcohol among American teenagers. In the US, the drinking age limit is set at twenty-one years, yet so many individuals aged below this limit consume alcohol frequently. An analysis of the prevalence of alcohol use among American youth provides resourceful insight into the extent of the social problem, its effects and ultimately draws the attention of different stakeholders to take prompt action to address the challenge.
Alcohol use among American youths
Alcohol use has been a troublesome affair for decades for people of ages. However, the contemporary rise in alcohol use among youths is what has attracted the attention of different stakeholders, including parents, teachers, medical professionals, policymakers, and others. Despite the setting of age limits to regulate the use of alcohol, problems associated with alcohol use among youths have remained a critical problem. Different researchers and health institutions have undertaken research into the problem to provide resourceful insight into the problem.
Different researchers and scholars dwell on different dimensions of alcohol use among American youth. The insight provided demonstrates why parents, the educational community, policymakers, and other stakeholders need to give this issue a priority. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism points out that by the age of fifteen, approximately thirty percent of teenagers had drunk at least once, and roughly fifty-eight percent of those aged eighteen have drunk at least once. Moreover, in 2018, over seven million young individuals aged between twelve and twenty indicated that they had drunk more than what you would call ‘a few sips’ in the past month. A more in-depth insight reveals that individuals aged between twelve and twenty consume about eleven percent of American alcohol consumption volume. Such statistics show the depth of the problem of alcohol consumption among America’s youthful populace. The frequency of alcohol consumption among the American youth is lower compared to adults, yet when the youths drink, they consume higher amounts. The argument for this is that the youths binge drink over ninety percent of their alcohol. Binge drinking refers to the consumption of high amounts of alcohol on one occasion. Further statistics indicate that over four million youths reported binge drinking at least once monthly, where males consume up to five drinks, and females take four drinks per occasion in a few hours. Moreover, over eight hundred thousand youthful individuals indicated engagement in binge drinking on at least five days of the past month.
As earlier mentioned, alcohol has been the most prominent drug among American youths for decades. Research by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism is proof that the problem has persisted for the past few years hence the need to rethink the solutions. Despite the multiple negative consequences of alcohol among youths, drinking by young individuals continues to grow significantly. Statistics from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) indicated that roughly seventy-five percent of grade twelve, over two-thirds of tenth graders, and approximately forty percent of eighth-grade students have taken alcohol at least once. Research further indicated that most adolescents begin to drink at very young ages. For example, in 2003, first-time users of alcohol were averagely aged fourteen, while in the mid-1960s, the average age was at least seventeen. The implication of this is that more individuals at starting alcohol consumption at a young age, a statistic that shows the intensity of youth drinking challenges in America. Research points out that early drinking results in other problems such as alcohol dependence in the future.
Further statistics concur with the argument that drinking among youths has become a prominent concern in America. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 2019 showed that twenty-nine percent of high school learners drank alcohol in the past month, with fourteen percent binge drinking (CDC). Additionally, five percent of those driving drove drunk, and seventeen percent of the students reported being driven by drunk drivers. However, the researchers noted that rates of drinking had declined in recent years. An interesting highlight of the research was that female high school learners had a higher probability of drinking alcohol than males, a shift from what has been traditionally observed. Moreover, the study also concurred with the findings of heavy drinking among teenagers.
It is worth noting that drinking of alcohol among youths is an issue of global concern, which further contributes to the argument stakeholders should consider solutions that can go beyond national boundaries. The problem is not limited to developed nations like the US but is rather universal. For example, in Thailand, many pieces of research and national surveys highlight underage drinking as a significant problem (Kittipichai et al., 57 ). The National Statistical Office of Thailand reveals that the prevalence rate of alcohol use ranges from twenty to thirty-five percent for middle to late adolescents. The concern is similar in England. For example, 2011 statistics on drug use among individuals aged eleven to fifteen in England showed that twelve percent had taken alcohol in the past week. Moreover, for students aged thirteen to sixteen, over seventy percent had engaged in alcohol consumption, with most reporting having their first drink as early as twelve years and accompanied by an adult (Marshall, 160). Moreover, about twenty percent of those aged thirteen to fourteen drank at least one weekly, with fifteen to sixteen-year-olds reporting a thirty-nine percent rate of weekly drinking. Such statistics indicate the universality of youth alcohol use that warrants concern.
Factors contributing to drinking among youths
A look into the factors that somewhat facilitate drinking among youths can help provide a starting point for the search for suitable and prompt solutions. Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism also provides some insight into why adolescents engage in drinking. One of the prominent contributing factors to youth drinking is risk-taking. As teenagers grow, they tend to demonstrate different behavior in adolescence, including the desire to explore new and potentially dangerous activities. As a result, young people may impulsively engage in drinking alcohol without much consideration of the consequences. Moreover, young people engage in drinking due to the expectancies they have about alcohol. Adolescents who expect alcohol to be pleasurable have a higher probability of consumption. Before age ten, many individuals have negative perceptions about alcohol, but their expectancies tend to shift to positive perceptions about alcohol during teenage.
Adolescence development and associated factors significantly contribute to adolescent youth behavior. The said factors include the influences of peers and parents, factors that act both independently and together to influence the simultaneous processes of friendship link choices and behaviors such as drinking (Wang et al.). Drinking among adolescents relies on the influence of peers and their selection. As a result, the people that an individual interacts with and often spends time around will impact drinking behavior. Parents also profoundly influence the direction that their child takes in several ways, including parental monitoring and social support. For example, parents somewhat influence the friends that their child keeps. Through monitoring, parents can decrease the probabilities of their children engaging in alcohol at an early age by influencing their chances of selecting friends who drink. Additionally, parents also influence their children’s drinking behavior directly. Parents who drink at home or demonstrate high levels of permissiveness of adolescent drinking have a higher probability of having children who drink, and their alcohol use levels are likely to rise in the future. Consequently, parental and peer influences significantly contribute to drinking among American youths.
Closely related to the parents’ factor is the hereditary factor. Some physiological and behavioral factors that influence an individual’s risk of alcohol-related problems have been associated with genetics. For instance, an individual born to drinking parents or who live with alcoholic family members has a higher risk of alcohol-linked troubles. The said children have a four to ten times higher probability of drinking in the future compare to children without drinking kin (The Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism). Some studies have shown that children of drinking parents have unique brain differences that could indicate future drinking problems.
Effects of drinking among the youth
There are multiple negative impacts of youth engaging in alcohol, especially when it is excessive. The negative impacts of alcohol use among the youth necessitate prompt intervention by relevant stakeholders to put an end to these costs that society and the individuals affected occasionally incur. Some scholars chose to focus on some of the drinking habits experienced among youth to provide insight into the behavior’s consequences. For example, adolescent binge drinking increases the probability of drunk driving and subsequently getting involved in motor accidents. Moreover, binge drinking is linked with alcohol-related injuries and fatalities such as alcohol poisoning and choking on vomit. Additionally, binge drinking is associated with an increased probability of indulgence in physical fights and injuries.
Binge drinking is also linked to other problems experienced among the youth, such as early sex, higher sexual activity rates, more sex partners, and higher chances of unprotected sex. The mentioned factors exposed the youth to risks of sexually transmitted ailments and unplanned pregnancy. Girls who binge drink experience higher risks of sexual violence. One study estimated that about four hundred and seventy-four thousand learners had unprotected sexual contact due to drinking, with almost a hundred thousand individuals falling victim to alcohol-related sexual victimization (Harding et al.). Binge drinking also disrupts growth and puberty development. By the early twenties, individuals who had gotten used to binge drinking report higher rates of health complications and unhealthy behavior, e.g., unprotected sex, smoking, and intoxicated driving. Moreover, they have a lower probability of having finished high school or college studies and more likely to be selling drugs. Additionally, young binge drinkers are likely to become alcoholics in the future, continue binge drinking, and develop substance abuse challenges.
Drinking among the youth, whether binge drinking or otherwise, has significant impacts on the individuals’ psychological health. Underage drinking has been increasingly linked to a higher risk of depression, sleep pattern disruption, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, and self-injuries. Alcohol Use Disorder is regarded as a risk factor for suicidal tendencies. For example, statistics indicate that about nine percent of hospitalizations related to suicide involved individuals aged below twenty-one, with over seventy percent of these cases being linked with alcohol. Other psychiatric conditions likely to result from drinking among youth are mood disorders, hyperactivity disorders, bulimia, PTSD, conduct disorders, and schizophrenia. Additionally, the youths may encounter physical health challenges such as dental and oral problems, trauma sequelae, and a modest elevation of serum liver enzymes’ concentration, among others. Additionally, the youth may also suffer the same health complications that drinkers of all other ages face.
As has been highlighted in this discussion, most of those affected by the problem are school-age individuals. As a result, drinking among American youth has negative implications for educational outcomes. Drinking among the school-going populace disrupts their academic schedules on several dimensions, mostly due to the other negative impacts discussed above. For example, the health complications associated with drinking will limit the individual from attending classes. The subsequent impact of this is that drinking students have lower probabilities of graduating from their current studies or attaining good grades. As a result, the chances of relying on their academics as a foundation for their future life is doomed. Another negative impact of youth drinking is motor vehicle accidents. Data from 2016 indicates that the number of traffic fatalities rose by nearly six percent from the previous year, with about twenty-eight percent, accounting for over ten thousand deaths, being associated with alcohol-influenced drivers (Ryan & Kokotailo). In 2016, fatal crashes involving drunk sixteen to twenty-year-olds were at fifteen percent. Additionally, the youth may encounter unintentional injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning, some of which are fatal, and others have long-term consequences.
Another reason why policymakers need to do more in efforts to reduce drinking among youth is that different measures have already shown the potential to decrease the harms associated with it. For example, the move to raise the legal minimum drinking age limit from 1988, and some years earlier in some states, has been significantly impactful. Since the early 1990s, binge drinking rates declined steadily among both male and female learners in college and high school. Furthermore, risky behavior linked to youth drinking and drunk driving decreased profoundly over the years. Figures of drunk drivers and passengers demonstrated a decline between 2001 and 2013. The US Department of Transportation indicated that the highest declines in alcohol-related traffic fatalities since the 1980s took place among the sixteen to twenty-year-olds (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). The argument is strengthened by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s finding that the drinking age limit has deterred over thirty thousand alcohol-linked traffic fatalities since the policy was first conceived in the mid-1970s. As a result, policymakers should be motivated to pursue pro-active policies that can help regulate drinking among American youth.
Counterargument
Despite the numerous negative consequences that demand prompt intervention measures by stakeholders, there is still some evidence of positive alcohol impacts among the youth. However, the said positive impacts relate to young individuals who drink sensibly. Among these benefits include improved confidence levels to enable shy individuals to communicate, especially with the opposite sex, enhanced sociability, and a means of celebration, which is positive (Newbury-Birch et al., 5). In response to this counterargument, the prompt intervention measures that stakeholders need to develop are aimed at regulating alcohol use among the youth. There is a need to minimize the potential harms of alcohol use among the youth and enforce the legal minimum drinking age.
Conclusion
Alcohol use among American youth has been an issue of significant concern for society over recent years. Alcohol consumption has been relatively high among youths, which has exposed them to the risks of various negative impacts. As a result, relevant stakeholders need to undertake various steps to regulate alcohol use among young individuals. Alcohol among young individuals disrupts their education, exposes them to the risk of physical and psychological harm, dangers of traffic fatalities, and risky behavior. On the other hand, some young individuals take alcohol for the positive benefits of increased confidence and sociability. However, there is an urgent need to increase regulation on drinking among American youth to minimize the multiple negative consequences.