Teens increasingly perceive drinking as unacceptable behavior

The lat­est sur­vey released by the Uni­ver­sity of Michigan’s Mon­i­tor­ing the Future shows teen alco­hol con­sump­tion is at the low­est level since the study began in 1975. The sur­vey revealed the num­ber of teens who drink alco­hol has decreased about 25 per­cent over the past 20 years with about 54 per­cent report­ing they drank in 1991 and about 40 per­cent report­ing they drank in 2011. Researchers con­tribute the decrease to the atti­tude soci­ety has toward under-age drinking.

Research shows teens are start­ing to per­ceive alco­hol con­sump­tion as dan­ger­ous. Teens are being bom­barded with the dan­gers of oper­at­ing a motor vehi­cle after drink­ing and now under­stand the health prob­lems drink­ing too much alco­hol can cause. Col­leges have also been edu­cat­ing incom­ing fresh­man on the dan­gers asso­ci­ated with binge drink­ing and strict enforce­ment of laws per­tain­ing to the sale of alco­hol to under­age peo­ple have made it more dif­fi­cult for teens to get their hands on alco­hol. Teens also report their par­ents’ atti­tudes toward under-age drink­ing have con­tributed to the decrease.

Teens reported their par­ents now have higher expec­ta­tions and stricter con­se­quences when it comes to under-age drink­ing. Teens are report­ing fewer par­ents sup­port under-age drink­ing par­ties and more par­ents are putting their alco­hol in locked cab­i­nets or clos­ets mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult for teens to take it from homes.

Stud­ies have always indi­cated teens’ per­cep­tions are one of the main fac­tors in whether or not they take risks. The more they believe some­thing to be risky, the less likely they will engage in that activ­ity. The Mon­i­tor­ing the Future sur­vey indi­cates teens per­ceive cig­a­rette smok­ing as being very risky to the health of the smoker as well as non-smokers and the num­ber of teens who smoke con­tin­ues to decline steadily as well. The sur­vey esti­mates the num­ber of teens who smoke is as low as six percent.

Researchers said teens used to see a cor­re­la­tion between smok­ing and drink­ing alco­hol, believ­ing most adults who drink alco­hol also smoked. Now, with some states hav­ing laws pro­hibit­ing smok­ing in pub­lic places such as bars and restau­rants, teens now per­ceive smok­ing and drink­ing as socially unacceptable.

Work­ing together to edu­cate teens about the risks asso­ci­ated with under-age drink­ing and mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult for teens to get alco­hol has caused teens to per­ceive drink­ing alco­hol as unac­cept­able behav­ior. We need to con­tinue work­ing together to keep low­er­ing the num­ber of teens who drink and con­tinue to keep our kids safe.

Keep­ing Our Kids Safe is brought to you by the Delaware Police Depart­ment and School Resource Offi­cer Rod Glazer.

Posted by Rod Glazer on Jan 6 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.