Alcohol abuse statistics reveal that alcohol abuse among adolescents is increasing in the United States. What are some of the reasons for this? Numerous alcohol addiction professionals think that wine, beer, and liquor ads created by the media are an important reason for the escalation of teenage alcohol abuse.

Other alcohol addiction specialists think that the increase in teen alcohol abuse is due to the toleration and accessibility of beer, wine, and liquor in our society.

Still other substance abuse experts assert that numerous adolescents get involved in injurious drinking due to the increased fretfulness that they are subjected to.

From a somewhat different standpoint, since both parents in quite a few families work, the lack of parental guidance unquestionably has to play an essential part in the escalation of adolescent alcohol abuse. And as a final point, a variety of chemical dependency experts state that the escalation of teen alcohol abuse is due, in some way, to our “anything goes” society.

Abusive Drinking and Coping Skills Education

One element of youth alcohol abuse that looks like it is lacking in the chemical dependency research literature, nevertheless, is the paucity of educational programs that teach students how to enhance their coping skills so that their hazardous drinking behavior is radically lessened or done away with.

More specifically, science has shown that there is an indirect relationship between poor coping skills and abusive drinking. Fundamentally, this means that the poorer the coping skills, the higher the incidence of alcohol abuse. To the extent that this is an accurate proclamation, why isn’t coping skills education an essential part of the academic curriculum in all of our high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools?

A Society That Highlights Youth Coping Skills

Let us manufacture a scenario for the purpose of clarification. Let us imagine a society in which students are taught how to achieve first-class coping skills all the way from kindergarten up to and including their final year in high school.

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

Stated another way, students who show evidence of solid coping skills will be more able to think logically and engage in top-shelf decision making as opposed to teenagers who, because they failed to obtain outstanding coping skills, gravitate to the “quick fix” of hazardous drinking.

What would happen in the above “ideal” society, additionally, if young people not only received extraordinary coping skills training but also received an outstanding education that emphasized the short term and long term injurious costs associated with drug abuse and alcohol abuse? Emphasizing these kinds of drug and alcohol abuse facts, along with more advanced coping skills training, it is pronounced, would help adolescents steer clear of the apparent charm related to adolescent drinking and, as a consequence, would drastically reduce the destructive drinking behavior exhibited by teens in our country.

Adolescent Alcohol Abuse: Conclusion

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