Teenage Underage Drinking

Access to alcohol for those not yet of age has become increasingly prevalent in the United States. The 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates there are 10.1 million underage drinkers in the United States. It takes teens less time to become dependent on alcohol than it would take an adult to become dependent, which increases their vulnerability. The younger the teenagers and the more often they drink, the more likely they are to engage in substance use and the higher their risk for developing an alcohol abuse problem. Underage drinking leads to other problems as well, including risky sexual activity, trouble in school, trouble with the law and difficulty in relationships with peers and family.

Alcohol consumption affects many areas of teens’ lives. School performance is impacted by underage drinking since approximately two-thirds of students with mostly A’s are non-drinkers while nearly half of the students with mostly D’s and F’s report drinking. Children who are drinking alcohol by seventh grade are more likely to report academic problems, substance use, and delinquent behavior in both middle school and high school. According to the 2008 Monitoring the Future Study, 39% of eighth graders, 58% of tenth graders, 72% of twelfth graders, and 85% of college students have tried alcohol.

Other areas impacted by underage drinking include driving under the influence. Teens are more susceptible to the effects of alcohol, which results in impairment of their driving skills and other judgments. Indeed, teens are twice as likely to be in involved in a fatal crash involving drinking and driving than drivers who are 21 or older.. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, annually, about 5,000 youths under the age of 21 die from motor vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries, homicides and suicides that involve underage drinking.

Furthermore, underage drinking has been associated with future alcohol dependence. Analyses of data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions show that people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence during their lifetime than those who began drinking at age 21 or later. This has even been shown for identical twins who share the same genetics, but begin drinking at different ages.

Underage drinking often causes changes in behavior in teenagers. Alcohol use interacts with conditions like depression and stress and contributes to an estimated 300 teen suicides each year. The added effect of peer pressure, the single greatest factor in teen drinking, makes it difficult for teenagers to resist trying or continuing to consume alcohol, as their peers lead them to believe there is not harm in trying something new. According to recent research, 62% of U.S. high school seniors reported that they have been drunk recently.

In recent years, laws have been passed to deter the common occurrence of underage drinking. Some of these policies apply to youth directly, for example, penalties for using false identification to purchase alcohol, loss of driving privileges for alcohol violations by minors, and lower blood alcohol concentration levels for drivers under 21. Other policies include minimum ages for both alcohol sellers and for servers and bartenders and criminal penalties for hosting underage parties.