Alcohol abuse statistics show that alcohol abuse among teens is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Numerous alcohol addiction specialists argue that beer, liquor, and wine advertisements generated by the media are a primary reason for the spread of teen alcohol abuse.

Other chemical dependency authorities declare that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the acceptability and convenience of beer, liquor, and wine in our society.

Still other substance abuse authorities stress the point that numerous teens get involved in destructive drinking due to the increased fretfulness that they go through.

From a somewhat different viewpoint, since both parents in more than a few families are employed, the lack of parental guidance definitely has to play a primary part in the rise in teen alcohol abuse. And lastly, different alcoholism experts argue that the spread of adolescent alcohol abuse is due, to some extent, to our permissive society.

Abusive Drinking and Coping Skills

One element of youth alcohol abuse that looks as if it deficient in the substance abuse research results, in contrast, is the insufficiency of educational courses that teach teens how to upgrade their coping skills so that their risky drinking behavior is significantly diminished or eradicated.

Stated more precisely, scientific research has illustrated the fact that there is an indirect connection between poor coping skills and alcohol abuse. In essence, this means that the worse the coping skills, the greater the occurrence of alcohol abuse. To the degree that this is a truthful line of reasoning, why isn’t coping skills training a key part of the educational prospectus in all of our elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools?

A Society That Accentuates Youth Coping Skills

Let us create a scenario for for the purpose of illumination. Let us imagine a society in which all people are trained how to develop superior coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including the twelfth grade.

In such a society, when life gets difficult, people who are “coping skills masters” will be able to respond in a healthier and more successful way, as opposed to others who fail to apply their coping skills.

More precisely, students who display solid coping skills will be more able to think logically and engage in first-class decision making as opposed to teens who, because they were unsuccessful in their attempts to implement first-rate coping skills, gravitate to the “quick fix” of abusive drinking.

What would happen in the above “ideal” society, what’s more, if young people not only received first class coping skills education but also obtained an outstanding education that stressed the short term and long term injurious costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Such an emphasis on drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills training, it is asserted, would help teens steer clear of the obvious appeal related to underage drinking and, accordingly, would substantially decrease the injurious drinking behavior demonstrated by teenagers in our country.

Adolescent Risky Drinking: Conclusion

There are certainly quite a few sound reasons why so many of our teens drink in an excessive manner. Such a thorny problem demands a thorough and more applicable educational and preventative response by our politicians, parents, educators, and students so that our adolescents can learn how to cope with life’s predicaments in a more productive and accountable manner rather than gravitating to hazardous drinking behavior to solve their difficulties.