During adolescence, one’s brain goes through major changes that include physiological, psychological, and social changes (Crego 2). This is one reason the drinking age should be raised. The raise in the drinking age would help prevent problems and set-backs to the student during the sensitive time of adolescence. Functions such as attention, working memory, planning, problem solving, and inhibitory control are developing during adolescence and can be harmed if students drink (Crego 2). According to Crego, “Given the extent of brain maturation occurring during this phase in life, adolescents who use substances appear to be vulnerable to alterations in brain functioning, cognition and behavior, and alcohol use may
This • Research shows that adolescents are more likely was done to reduce high rates of to develop alcohol dependency issues when they 8 alcohol-related problems like drunk begin drinking early. driving crashes, fights, domestic violence, and sexual assaults, all • A “trickle down” effect, in which older teens provide alcohol to younger adolescents, has been alcohol-related problems.5 found when the MLDA is lowered.9 Justice (2005) Youth Drinknal/122600955/abstract • “The problem, of course, is 1 U.S. Dept. ofProblems: A Comparison ing Rates and 9 Wagenaar, A. C., Toomey, T. L. (2002). “Effects of minimum drinking age laws: that physical ability alone is too of European Countries and the United States. Prepared by Joel Grube, PhD.
In addition, this essay provides us with some of the effects of substance abuse during adolescence. Solutions of how to avoid and deal with the problem are also discussed. Substance abuse is highly associated with peer pressure, family that does not support their children, low self-esteem, curiosity and psychological pressure. These reasons if taken seriously may eliminate the risk of substance use. Keywords: Adolescence –Substance abuse-Family-Peers-School.
al., 2007). It is therefore evident that youth smoking initiation is imitated from home with the support other researchers identified as “adolescence have a higher risk to start smoking or continue smoking when one or both parents are smokers”(see review by Mayhew et. al., 2000, as cited in de Leeuw, et. al., 2008). On the contrary a
Newly-legal drinkers often purchase alcohol for their underage peers, creating a "trickle-down" effect. [34] Surveys show that the most common source of alcohol among 18- to 20-year olds is their 21- to 24-year-old peers. [35] MLDA 21 helps prevent underage binge drinking by making it harder for people under 21 to obtain alcohol. Binge drinking peaks among 21- to 25-year-olds at 45.9%, while the binge drinking rates of those aged 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, and 18-20 are 1.5%, 7.8%, 19.4%, and 35.7% respectively. [23][36] MLDA 21 exerts valuable social pressure on potential underage drinkers.
Make 18 the Age to Drink Many people begin experimenting with alcohol in their early teenage years. During these experimental times all of the users are underage. This underage drinking has become a major problem in America’s schools throughout the nation. If the drinking age was lowered to eighteen there would be fewer incidents where students get caught with alcohol and receive minor in possessions charges, drinking wouldn’t seem as appealing if it were legal, and if an eighteen year old can be drafted and risk his life for this country he or she should be allowed to have a drink at the end of the day. Lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen would lower the amount of alcohol related tickets, make drinking less appealing, and give young soldiers have an easy way to relax and help them cope with what they have seen at war.
3. Deliver personally relevant messages to encourage, motivate and support the secondary target group to: examine their own aitudes and behaviour around alcohol consumption (including the way they talk about drinking to intoxication); talk to their children about alcohol use, misuse and the consequences of drinking to intoxication; and to model appropriate behaviour for their children around alcohol use. The National Binge Drinking Campaign (Don’t turn a night out into a Nightmare) launched on 21 November 2008 and ran until 30 June 2010 On 10 March 2008, the Australian Government announced the $53.5 million National Binge Drinking Strategy to address the high levels of binge drinking among young Australians. Binge drinking among young people is a community wide problem that demands a community wide response, including an emphasis on young people taking greater personal responsibility for their behaviour. William Anapu Monday, 26 March 2012 12:04:08 PM Australian Eastern Daylight Time The National Binge Drinking Campaign The campaign includes a $20 million hard-hiing social marketing campaign that
This model places the adolescent in a circle surrounded by concentric circles each representing a system of changing and interrelated contexts which interact with the environment through multilevel and mutually influential circles located on the inside and outside. Alcoholism Studies have shown that risk of initialization and escalation of drinking is related to exposure to others who drink. In particular, adolescents whose parents and friends drink are more likely to develop favorable risk images relating to alcohol use and are less likely to perceive alcohol use as a risky behavior (Gerrard, 2008, p. 46; Burk, 2011, p. 9). It is not even necessary for the parents to be users or abusers of alcohol themselves. When parents are aware of alcohol use by their adolescent children, but do nothing about it, the adolescent will interpret the lack of parental control as consent and approval of the conduct (Luthar, 2008, p. 608).
Does the Adolescent Brain Make Risk Taking Inevitable? Adolescence College students and adolescents are more daring in taking risks than adults and children as evidenced by data and statistics on binge drinking, automobile crashes, crime and contraceptive use. However, trying to understand why adolescents take such risks than in any other developmental stage has been a challenge for psychologists for decades. Several theories to explain the adolescents more involvement in riskier behaviors have been developed, but only a few of them withstood empirical scrutiny (Harding, 2007). One of such theories is by Laurence Steinberg, who holds that brain science demonstrates that the adolescents’ brain plays a big role in influencing adolescents undertake riskier behaviors.
Teen Sexuality’s research showed a few things: Adolescents who stated that they were connected with their parents were more likely than other teens to delay sexual intercourse. Teens who said their families were warm and caring also reported less marijuana use and less emotional distress. Teens who had a "good talk" with parents in the last year about sex, birth control, and the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases were more likely to use condoms at the last time they had sex than teens who did not talk to their parents. Only 38 percent of young women and 25 percent of young men said they had ever gotten a good idea from their parents that helped them talk about sexual issues with their girlfriend/boyfriend. The article also suggested that teens also listened to the information better when it came from their parents rather than school, or other outside sources.