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Underage drinking is one of the biggest problems among today’s youth. Alcohol seems to be the leading drug of choice among young people, and many of today’s youth are dealing with the consequences of drinking too much. Every year about 5,000 young people under 21 die because of underage drinking. Nineteen hundred of those deaths are a result of car accidents and 300 are from suicide and other injuries, such as burns and drowning.
Despite the overwhelming proof of how dangerous underage drinking is, adolescents continue to do it. There are many things that are associated with underage drinking. Among them are lifestyle, physical, and emotional changes adolescents experience as they transition into young adulthood, such as puberty and increasing independence. Heredity can also affect whether or not a juvenile starts to drink. If someone in their family is a heavy drinker or alcoholic then they may be predisposed becoming an underage drinker.
Whatever the case may be that leads young adults to underage drinking, once they begin drinking they face several health risks. Studies have shown that adolescents who are heavy drinkers may be at risk for a wide range of health problems. Long-term thinking and memory skills may be affected by underage drinking. It’s difficult to determine just how much even a subtle change in the brain might impact their memory skills. Since adolescent brains are still maturing it makes the study of the effects of underage drinking even more complex. Another long-term health risk is liver damage. Elevated liver enzymes have shown varying degrees of liver damage in many underage drinkers. It’s even worse on young adults who are overweight or obese since moderate levels of drinking have shown elevated liver enzymes.
There are many ways to intervene and try to prevent underage drinking. These approaches to intervention generally fall into two categories: environmental-level interventions and individual-level interventions. Environmental-level interventions seek to lessen the opportunities juveniles have for underage drinking and increasing the penalties for not following the minimum legal drinking age. Individual-level interventions seek to change knowledge, attitudes, motivation, intentions, expectancies, and skills so that today’s juveniles are better equipped to resist the temptation and the opportunities to drink.
Some of the environmental approaches to intervention are raising the price of alcohol, increasing the minimum legal age to drink, enacting zero-tolerance laws, and stepping up the enforcement of the laws that are on the books. Some of the individual approaches to intervention are school-based prevention programs and family-based prevention programs.
Parents have the ability to influence their children no matter their race or ethnic group. Parents can set clear rules against underage drinking. By enforcing those rules on a consistent basis and monitoring their child’s behavior, they can decrease the likelihood their child will participate in underage drinking.
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