Introduction
Alcohol consumption is endemic in the US with 80% youngsters under the age of 21 being involved in underage drinking. Despite the minimum legal drinking age set at 21, studies show that almost all the youths start drinking alcohol before crossing the threshold of 21. The trend among youngsters to drink heavily than adults is alarming. Alcohol abuse among youngsters is more prevalent than smoking tobacco or marijuana. As per the report presented by CDC, over 4,700 annual deaths occurring in the US are associated with underage drinking and more than 90% youngsters who use alcohol involve in binge drinking (CDC, 2012). The CDC report also states that about 189,000 emergency visits in hospitals due to injuries and otherwise in the year 2010 were linked with underage drinking. Despite the gravity of the consequences related to underage drinking, some adults who provide alcohol to the youths tend to underestimate the problem. There are many factors contributive to the increase in underage drinking resulting in some dire consequences and it is about time to arrest the problem through proper implementation of intervention programs.
Factors Contributive to Underage Drinking
- US Culture
US culture is saturated with alcohol. A wedding in the US remains incomplete without the tradition of toasting champagne. Poured wine that symbolizes the blood of Christ is served during the Christian Communion. The consumption of alcohol in a party or social activity is a sacrosanct tradition very normative in the US culture. As a norm of cultural tradition, the use of alcohol is passed down to children through adults. The easy availability of alcohol in every home in the US has led to the youngsters getting their hands down on alcohol so easily (Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 2002).
- Unsupervised Time and Parties
Another factor leading to an excessive consumption of alcohol is the society of the US structured in a way that adolescents tend to spend less time in adult company or under adult supervision when they grow older and as a result of unsupervised time spent with peers, they indulge in consumption of alcohol. Students who don't take part in sports, library related activities, clubs and youth organizations are more likely to consume alcohol than who do. Moreover, some parents leave their growing children unattended believing it is safe and also allow their children to visit unchaperoned parties. Sometimes parents organize an all-night party at home allowing their adolescent children to engage in boozing believing it is a safe practice to allow children drink at home rather than outside. This way some parents give their children ample opportunities to drink excessively. Undeniably, parents who condone the use of alcohol have children more likely to be heavy drinkers.
- Peer Pressure
Another reason contributing to the increase of alcohol abuse among teenagers is the peer pressure. During teenage, adolescents choose their peers who share the same interest and this way they are likely to form a group sharing the same values and lifestyle choices. Further, it is very important for teenagers to be accepted into their peer group. They fear if they refuse drinking, they might be singled out and thus under the peer pressure, many teenagers begin drinking alcohol and some teenagers in order to impress their peers overdo the consumption leading to alcohol abuse (Teen Alcohol Abuse).
- Family Environment
Family environment is also a contributive factor to alcohol abuse among teenagers. Adolescents are likely to get more mental and emotional support in a family unit which is strong with parents sharing warm relationship with each other and their children than in a family loosely tied. Parents who interact positively with their children and are involved in every aspect of their children's life may monitor whom their children are mixing up with whereas parents who are less actively involved in their children's social life remain clueless about their children's peer group. Some parents are themselves addicted to alcohol and their addiction might trickle down to their children who believing alcohol abuse to be a normative behavior indulge in underage drinking.
- Glamorizing Representation of Alcohol
Another factor accounting for the increase in alcohol consumption among adolescents is the way media and entertainment industry glamorize alcohol frequently displaying alcohol beverages in movies, music videos and television programs. Their glamorizing portrayal of alcohol consumption sends a false message to the adolescents who believe that it is cool to have a slug of wine or beer. Further the use of alcohol is frequently found in the lyrics and music videos of hip hop and rap songs. Research shows that 47% of rap music and videos contain references to alcohol (J. Richard Bonnie and Mary Ellen O'Connell, 2003, p 150).
Harms and Consequences
- Drunken Driving
Drinking affects one's cognitive abilities, resulting in difficulty of controlling impulse or making decision and impairment of motor skills. Resultantly youngsters in drunken state are more likely to be involved in car crash or accidents than those who don't drink. Also the crashes caused by inebriated underage drinkers are more likely to be fatal and serious in nature than those of adults, accounting for huge number of deaths and grievous injuries. Even at lower blood alcohol content (BAC) underage drinkers pose greater risks when driving than adults. As per the report of NIAAA, youngsters by drinking heavily not only put their own lives at risk, they also cause threat to others. In 2007, about 46% of the 4,553 people who died in car crashes were underage drunken drivers between age of 18 and 24 years (J.Christopher Correia et al, 2012, p 19).
- Temporary Amnesia
Heavy drinking also causes momentary amnesia called blackout. During blackout a person though involves actively in activities like walking, dancing and talking cannot retain memories in his brain for the events. He or she might eat food, engage in sexual intercourse or fight but won't remember a thing next morning. Blackouts differ from passing out in which one falls unconscious or asleep after heavy drinking. Blackouts contribute to the difficulty in forming new memories. One might recall everything in detail that transpired before he got drunk, but he won't remember anything that he did during blackout. Blackouts are frequently common among underage drinkers.
- Alcohol Poisoning and Health Problems
As per the estimation of the World Health Organization (WHO), about 65,700 deaths occurred worldwide due to alcohol poisoning with 2,700 deaths among them taking place in the US (J.Christopher Correia et al, 2012, p 24). Alcohol poisoning triggers in one's body when one consumes large amount of drink within a short period of time as in binge drinking. Drinking large quantity too quickly can result in slow and irregular breathing, seizures, gag reflex, vomiting, hypothermia, passing out and many a time lead to coma and death. Slugging down five or more pegs of drink one after another in a row cause alcohol poisoning which is commonly found among college students and their peer groups (Mayo Clinic). Besides poisoning, excess alcohol consumption also may develop an array of long term health problems including hypertension, pancreatitis, liver cirrhosis, hepatitis and anemia Excess alcohol consumption also may develop an array of long term health problems including hypertension, pancreatitis, liver cirrhosis, hepatitis and anemia.
- Suicidal Tendencies
Apart from drunken driving, alcohol also is conducive to other risk taking behavior like suicide. Frequent heavy drinking often leads to feelings of depression and hopelessness, resulting in committal of suicides. Underage drinkers sometimes take drugs like marijuana along with alcohol and their increasing frequency of substance abuse causes low self-esteem, social isolation, alienation from friends and family. All these things put together create enough stress on them to contemplate suicides. Frequent heavy drinking also removes inhibition, increasing the likelihood of one to act on his suicidal thoughts. The University of Southern Illinois's Core Institute conducted a survey in 1991 on 30,000 college students all over the US and the result showed that students addicted to drugs and alcohol are more likely to develop suicidal thoughts than those who don't drink or take drugs. The survey report revealed that 8.15% binge drinkers have contemplated suicide and 2.34% have made suicidal attempts (Marie Bussing-Burks, 2013).
- Anti-social Activities
Youngsters under the influence of alcohol also are likely to commit anti-social activities like murder, theft, robberies, vandalism and property damage and sexual violence. A report published by Wechsler et al. in 2002 stated that 11% college students confessed of damaging property when drunk. Also 36% homicides involving youngsters have been committed under the influence of alcohol in 2000 (J. Richard Bonnie and Mary Ellen O'Connell, 2003, p 61). Underage drinkers also tend to engage in unprotected sexual activity and sexual violence under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol may subject someone to be a victim or a perpetrator of date rape and sexual assaults. For instance, Harrington and Leitenberg reported in their studies that date rape victims who confessed of being under the influence of alcohol during the rape or sexual assault believed that their assailants were also drunk (J. Richard Bonnie and Mary Ellen O'Connell, 2003, p 63). In addition to the vulnerability of sexual violence, alcohol also may influence someone to engage in risky sexual practice that might result in unplanned pregnancies and catching of sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS or genital herpes. What is worse is that some youngsters intentionally abuse alcohol to try something sexual.
Intervention Strategies
- Minimum Legal Drinking Age
Back in 1984, when only 17 states within US had the minimum legal drinking age of 21, the US Congress in order to create pressure on the remaining states to set minimum age for legal drinking to 21 withheld highway construction funding unless the states declared selling alcohol to anyone under 21 as illegal. Following this decree, all the remaining states adopted the law, but the law was not properly enforced because youngsters could buy alcohol easily from retailers or licensed establishments without showing any age proof and also they had access to the drink via their parents, relatives and friends. Though nowadays the law has been made stricter with all the licensed establishments required to view one's ID before selling any alcoholic beverage, youngsters still can get alcohol easily from their social sources like friends, family and even colleagues. Therefore, in order to prevent social providers from provisioning alcohol to underage drinkers, some states have enforced social host laws in which a third party is allowed to sue the social providers if the provision of alcohol leads to death and injury. There are few other policies being implemented like giving training to the servers of alcohol to recognize false age identification, prohibiting and controlling home deliveries of alcohol and the drivers' licenses designed in a way to reveal one's true age (Kelli A. Komro and Traci L. Toomey, 2002).
- Zero Tolerance Laws
Zero Tolerance Laws that make driving after drinking alcohol illegal for anyone below the age of 21 have reduced the number of alcohol induced accidents to some extent among younger people. According to this law, if the blood alcohol content (BAC) is detected to be .01% or higher in a youngster at the time of driving, then his license could be suspended for a year if he refuses to take the preliminary alcohol screening (PAS) test or fail in the test (California Department of Motor Vehicles).
- Parental Involvement and Monitoring
Another way to prevent underage drinking is through parental involvement in monitoring their children. A parent gets the opportunity to spend maximum time with his or her children and therefore, parents should supervise the adolescents' social circle and whereabouts. Parents should nurture a healthy bond with their adolescent children so that they easily communicate and teach the adolescents the dire consequences of excess drinking. Parental involvement and monitoring could help youngsters channelize the energy in a positive direction like studies and sports and keep away from risky peer group. Some of the parenting programs that have been successful in giving training to both adults and children as how to arrest this problem include Preparing for the Drug-Free Years program and the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (R.D. Peters and R.J. McMahon, 1996, p 241).
Conclusion
Alcohol consumption has taken an endemic form in the US with about 80% youngsters found to be involved in underage drinking and about 90% of them indulging in binge drinking. What is worse is adults play a role in fomenting the problem by giving easy access to the youngsters to alcoholic beverages. There are many contributive factors leading to the increase in underage drinking such as the US culture and tradition saturated with alcohol consumption, adolescents being unsupervised by the adults, parties allowing underage drinking, peer pressure to fit into a group, family environment and media and advertisement representing alcohol consumption garbed in glamor. Underage drinking leads to an array of dangerous consequences including drunken driving that leads to fatal injuries and deaths, suicidal tendencies among youngsters, anti-social activities like rape, homicide and vandalism, temporary amnesia, alcohol poisoning and long term health problems. In the view of such grievous consequences, some prevention strategies should be undertaken to curb the problem. Through the proper implementation of the intervention programs and by spreading awareness related to underage drinking only we can hope of a better result in the coming future.
Works Cited
Bussing-Burks, Marie (2013). Alcohol and Drug Use Increases Suicidal Behaviors, The Nattional Bureau of Economic Research, Retrieved on 7th June 2013 from <http://www.nber.org/digest/aug02/w8810.html>
Fact Sheets - Underage Drinking (2012), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Retrieved on 7th June 2013 from <http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/underage-drinking.htm>
Interventions in schools to prevent and reduce alcohol use among children and young people (2007), National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Retrieved on 7th June 2013 from <http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_145410_EN_UK04_Interventions%20in%20schools%20to%20prevent%20and%20reduce%20alcohol%20use%20among%20children%20and%20young%20people%20(2007).pdf>
Bonnie, Richard J. and O'Connell, Mary Ellen (2003). Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility, National Research Council. Washington DC, USA. National Academies Press.
Drinking in America:Myths, Realities, and Prevention Policy (2002), Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, US Department of Justice, Retrieved on 7th June 2013 from <http://www.udetc.org/documents/Drinking_in_America.pdf>
Komro, Kelli A. and Toomey, Traci L.(2002), Strategies to Prevent Underage Drinking, NIAAA. Retrieved on 7th June 2013 from <http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-1/5-14.htm>
Peters, Ray Dev. and McMahon, Robert J.(1996) Preventing Childhood Disorders, Substance Abuse, and Delinquency, SAGE Publications Inc, 1 edition
Alcohol poisoning, Mayo Clinic, Retrieved on 7th June 2013 from <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alcohol-poisoning/DS00861>
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Want to know about the Zero Tolerance Law?, California Department of Motor Vehicles, Retrieved on 7th June 2013 from <http://www.dmv.ca.gov/teenweb/crazy_btn3/tolerance.htm>
