Alcohol Abuse: Teens Drinking Problems and Domestic Violence

Alcohol Abuse and Youthful Drinking. This thesis relates on  Alcoholism and Teens Heavy Drinking Problems. Alcohol abuse may result to domestic violence, even affects the whole family.

Girls Alcohol Abuse and Heavy Drinking

Alcohol Abuse: Tenns Drinking Problems and Domestic Violence

Alcoholism Abstrct: What are drinking problems? How serious is alcohol abuse among young people? What is the trend in drunk driving? What help is available for alcoholism?

Alcohol Abuse and Health Study: The health effects of alcohol abuse can include heart disease, liver disease, and even cancer. Treatment consists of medical attention, prescription medications, or treatment centers.

Many studies show a high rate of alcohol abuse among men who batter their female partners. Yet is there really a link between alcohol abuse and domestic violence? No evidence supports a cause-and-effect relationship between the two problems. The relatively high incidence of alcohol abuse among men who batter must be viewed as the overlap of two widespread social problems.

Definition: What Is Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol in Young People: To some college students, heavy drinking that leads to vomiting is not alcohol abuse but simply having a good time and being “one of the gang.”

To many whose religion requires abstinence, simply tasting an alcohol beverage is not only alcohol abuse but a sin.

To many activists, a married couple quietly enjoying a drink with their dinner is guilty of abusing alcohol if they happen to be twenty years of age.

To the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an accident is alcohol related (and implicitly caused by alcohol abuse) if a driver who has consumed a drink is sitting at a red light and rear-ended by an inattentive teetotaler.
In American Society

Our historical background and multi cultural population have created wide and strong disagreements in American society over what constitutes alcohol abuse.

Our Colonial tradition taught us that alcohol is the “good gift of God” to be used and enjoyed by all, including small children.
Our temperance and Prohibition experiences taught us that alcohol is “demon rum,” the cause of almost all poverty, crime, violence, and other problems.1 So convinced were they that alcohol was the cause of virtually all crime that, on the eve of Prohibition, some towns went so far as to sell their jails.2 Temperance systematically promoted both fear and hostility toward alcohol beverages, much of which continues to this day.
Repeal of Prohibition left us with a society in which the majority of people enjoy alcohol beverage in moderation, but a large minority (today about 1/3) of the population abstains. And a substantial proportion of American abstainers favor imposing prohibition again on the entire population. The prohibition impulse has never died and has re-emerged in a different form today.
Alcohol policy actually results not from science, logic, or evidence, but from a continuing struggle between those who wish to use alcohol beverages and those who don’t want them to. Repeatedly throughout our national life, movements have emerged to promote abstinence by persuasion, but failing to succeed, they have then resorted to coercion. The current neo-prohibition movement attempts to reduce consumption in general and to prevent it entirely among targeted groups, such as those under the age of 21.

And Young People with Serious Alcoholism & Alcohol Abuse

Prohibition for those under the age of 21 currently enjoys wide support in the United States and is imposed by force of law. Often it is enforced with a vengeance. “Carter Loar, a senior at Park View High School in Loudoun County, Virginia was suspended for ten days in February for violating the school’s alcohol policy.”3 Carter’s violation was using mouthwash at school. School officials confiscated the contraband and “He was charged with violating the school’s alcohol policy which prohibits the possession or use of alcohol on school property. As part of his ten day suspension, Carter was required to attend a three day Substance Abuse Program sponsored by Loudoun County.”4

Mr. Loar was a victim of “zero tolerance,” which is now all the rage. But what does such a zealous level of intolerance accomplish and what messages does it send our young people? It probably achieves about as much as the scare tactics characteristic of the temperance movement and is almost certainly counter-productive.

One apparent message is that those who promote such intolerance have lost touch with youth, another is that they are unrealistic and impractical, and another is that their alcohol education messages are naive.

Teenagers’ Youthful Drinking Issue

While a continuing barrage of newspaper articles, TV shows, and special interest group reports claim that drinking among young people is a growing epidemic, the fact is quite the contrary. Drinking among young people, like drinking among the larger population, is actually on the decline. For example, look at the statistics on drinking among high school students.

The proportion of high school seniors who have ever consumed alcohol is down (fig 1).5

The proportion of high school seniors who have consumed alcohol within previous year is down (fig 2).6

The proportion of high school seniors who have consumed alcohol within previous 30 days is down (fig 3).7

The proportion of high school seniors who have recently consumed alcohol daily is down (fig 4).8

The proportion of high school seniors who have consumed 5 or more drinks on an occasion within previous two weeks is down (fig 5).9

Drinking among young people continues to drop. For example, the proportion of young people aged 12 through 17 who have consumed any alcohol during the previous month has plummeted from 50% in 1979 to 16% in 2006, according to the federal government’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Thus, while one in two were drinkers in 1979, significantly fewer than one in five were in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available.10a

College student drinking attracts much attention in the press. But the proportion of college freshmen who drink continues to decrease. Freshmen entering college in 2006 reported the lowest rates of drinking in the 41-year history of the national college Freshman Survey. The proportion reporting occasional or frequent beer drinking dropped to an historic low, down 43% since 1982.

Efforts to link alcohol abuse and domestic violence reflect society’s tendency to view battering as an individual deviant behavior. Moreover, there is a reluctance to believe that domestic violence is a pervasive social problem that happens among all kinds of American families. For these reasons, it is essential to emphasize what is known about the relationship between alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

Battering is a socially learned behavior, and is not the result of substance abuse or mental illness. Men who batter frequently use alcohol abuse as an excuse for their violence. They attempt to rid themselves of responsibility for the problem by blaming it on the effects of alcohol.

Many men who batter do not drink heavily and many alcoholics do not beat their wives. Some abusers with alcohol problems batter when drunk, and others when they are sober.

In one batterers’ program, 80% of the men had abused alcohol at the time of the latest battering incident. The vast majority of men, however, also reportedly battered their partners when not under the influence of alcohol.

Data on the concurrence of domestic violence and alcohol abuse vary widely, from as low as 25% to as high as 80% of cases.

Alcoholism and battering do share some similar characteristics, including:

both may be passed from generation to generation
both involve denial or minimization of the problem
both involve isolation of the family

A battering incident that is coupled with alcohol abuse may be more severe and result in greater injury.

Alcoholism treatment does not “cure” battering behavior; both problems must be addressed separately. However, provisions for the woman’s safety must take precedence.

A small percent (7% to 14%) of battered women have alcohol abuse problems, which is no more than that found in the general female population. A woman’s substance abuse problems do not relate to the cause of her abuse, although some women may turn to alcohol and other drugs in response to the abuse. To become independent and live free from violence, women should receive assistance for substance abuse problems in addition to other supportive services.

Men living with women who have alcohol abuse problems often try to justify their violence as a way to control them when they’re drunk. A woman’s failure to remain substance-free is never an excuse for the abuser’s violence.

Alcohol Quantity: How much alcohol do teenagers use?

Alcohol  is the most frequently used drug  by teenagers  in the United States. About half of junior high and senior high school students drink alcohol on a monthly basis, and 14% of teens have been intoxicated at least once in the past year. Nearly 8% of teens who drink say they drink at least five or more alcoholic drinks in a row (binge drink).

Alcohol Harms: What are the dangerous effects of alcohol use in teens?

Alcohol decreases teens’ ability to pay attention. The younger a person is when they begin drinking, the more likely they are to develop a problem with alcohol.

Each year, almost 2000 people under the age of 21 years died in car crashes in which underage drinking is involved. Alcohol is involved in nearly half of all violent deaths involving teens.

More than three times the number of eighth-grade girls who drink heavily said they have attempted suicide  compared to girls in that grade who do not drink.

Teens that drink are more likely to engage in sexual activity, have unprotected sex, or have sex with a stranger.

Excess alcohol use can cause or mask other emotional problems, like anxiety  or depression.

Drinking in excess can lead to the use of other drugs, like marijuana, cocaine, or heroin.

Parents’ Control over Alcohol: How can parents prevent alcohol use?

Alcohol Abuse: Tenns Drinking Problems and Domestic Violence. Clear communication by parents  about the negative effects of alcohol, as well as about their expectations regarding drug use, have been found to significantly decrease alcohol use in teens. Adequate parental supervision has also been found to be a deterrent to alcohol use in youth. Alcohol, and other drug use, has been found to occur most often between the hours of 3 and 6 p.m., immediately after school and prior to parents’ arrival at home from work. Teen participation in extracurricular activities has therefore been revealed to be an important measure in preventing use of alcohol in this age group. Parents can also help educate teens about appropriate coping and stress-management strategies. For example, 15- to 16-year-olds who use religion to cope with stress  tend to use drugs significantly less often and have less problems as a result of drinking than their peers who do not use religion to cope.

Alcohol Abuse: Tenns Drinking Problems and Domestic Violence. Yeah, now we have read this article. But there are some questions about alcoholism: What are drinking problems? How serious is alcohol abuse among young people? What is the trend in drunk driving? What help is available for alcoholism? What do you think?