 | Jody Patterson is the director of COMCARE’s Children’s Services. Jody has been involved with children’s mental health programs and services for more than 18 years. She is dedicated to helping children live healthy and productive lives in the community. If you would like to speak confidentially to a professional about your child, call COMCARE Children’s Program at 316-660-7540. COMCARE of Sedgwick County is the licensed Community Mental Health Center for residents of Sedgwick County. Help is available. |
Mental Health
2013-03-25 13:47:14
Under aged drinking
A-Whether it’s a stage of adolescence or not, underage drinking and associated problems have profound negative consequences for the under-aged drinkers, their families, their communities and society as a whole. Underage drinking contributes to a wide range of costly health and social problems, including motor vehicle crashes, (the greatest single mortality risk for underage drinkers); suicide; interpersonal violence, unintentional injuries such as burns, falls, and drowning; brain impairment; alcohol dependence; risky sexual activity; academic problems; and alcohol and drug poisoning. Alcohol is a factor in the deaths of approximately 4,700 youths in the U.S. per year, shortening their lives by an average of 60 years.
Binge drinking (the consumption of a large amount of alcohol over a relatively short period of time) is the most common underage consumption pattern. High blood alcohol concentrations and impairment levels associated with binge drinking place binge drinkers and those around them at substantially elevated risk for negative consequences.
Early initiation to alcohol use increases the risk of a variety of developmental problems during adolescence and problems later in life. Although the peak years of initiation to alcohol are 7th to 11th grade, 10 percent of 9 to 10 year olds have already started drinking and more than one fifth of underage drinkers begin before they are 13 years old.
Private residences are the most common setting for youth alcohol consumption. Most underage drinkers reported drinking in either someone else’s home or their own. Research finds that underage drinking parties, where large groups of underage people gather at private residences are high risk settings for binge drinking and associated alcohol problems. Very young drinkers are most likely to obtain alcohol at home from parents, siblings, or alcohol kept in the home. The next most popular drinking locations for youth are more likely at a restaurant, bar, or club; at the park or in a car.
Generational transmission (The term frequently used to describe behaviors involving older and younger people even if they are unrelated to one another) has been widely hypothesized as one factor shaping the alcohol consumption patterns of young people. For example children of parents who binge are twice as likely to binge themselves and to meet alcohol-dependence criteria. Whether through genetics, social learning, or cultural values and community norms, researchers have repeatedly found a correlation between youth drinking and the drinking practices of parents.
The greatest single mortality risk for underage drinkers is motor vehicle crashes. Mile for mile, teenagers are involved in three times as many fatal crashes as all other drivers. Homicide and suicide follow motor vehicle crashes as the second and third leading causes of death among teenagers. Although it is unclear how many of the deaths are alcohol related, one study estimated that for all ages combined nearly one third of homicides and almost one quarter of suicides were alcohol attributable. Individuals younger than 21 commit 45 percent of rapes, 44 percent of robberies and 37 percent of other assaults, for the population as a whole an estimated 50 percent of violent crime is related to alcohol use by the perpetrator.
According to the Surgeon General, (US Department of Health and Human Services 2007) underage drinking plays a significant role in risky sexual behavior, including unwanted, unintended, and unprotected sexual activity, and sex with multiple partners. Such behavior increases the risk of unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Studies show it is parents who have the most influence over their teen's decision to drink alcohol. Parents who set clear ground rules, have clear expectations, and enforce clear consequences, have the most success preventing underage drinking. Parents can further reinforce these expectations by setting a good example with how they manage their own alcohol consumption. Our youth are too important and the stakes are too high not to change the course of underage drinking.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Service
