Few parents would buy a keg for their kid’s high school graduation party or a bottle of champagne for the prom night limo ride. Few allow their child to drink at home or to attend a party where alcohol is available to them. Nevertheless, many Minnesota kids are drinking. According to the Minnesota Student Survey, 62 percent of 12th graders and 43 percent of 9th graders say they’ve used alcohol at least once in the past year. Evidently, more than a few adults are looking the other way.
Whether we’re willing to admit it or not, underage drinking is commonly perceived as an inevitable rite of passage into adulthood. Besides (now picture a room full of baby boomer parents throat-clearing and squirming in their seats) we drank when we were their age – just a few beers once in a while, you understand – and we turned out okay. Right?
“One of the things that concern me most is that people continue to downplay the consequences that young people experience as a result of drinking, and not taking it as seriously as they need to,” says Jim Steinhagen, executive director of Hazelden Youth Facility in Plymouth, a treatment center for adolescents and young adults diagnosed with alcohol or drug dependence. He says recent brain research indicates that alcohol and other substances can change brain chemistry, possibly resulting in arrested or abnormal development, though exactly how remains to be discovered. And while 15-year-olds usually have adult-sized brains (about three pounds), they don’t have fully mature brains. Various regions of the brain, including judgment, impulse control, and emotion centers, are not fully developed until the early 20s.
Steinhagen also decries the alcohol industry’s advertising strategies. “It is my opinion without question that advertisers target young people with beautiful people and things,” he says, likening beer commercials to cigarette ad campaigns now known to have been intentionally targeted to a youthful “replacement market.”
Finally, binge drinking compounds alcohol’s negative consequences. The Minnesota Student Survey indicates that 30 percent of 12th graders reported binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks at a time) within the two weeks prior to the survey. Sadly, it’s not just high school seniors swigging six-packs in a parking lot or holding illicit keggers while parents are out of town: 12 percent of 6th graders and 43 percent of 9th graders said they’d had at least once drink in the past year – and 15 percent of 9th graders reported binge drinking.
Steinhagen also emphasizes that the societal cost of underage drinking is $58 billion – you read that right – every year, incurred by alcohol-induced traffic accidents, violent crime, accidental injuries, suicide attempts, and alcohol poisoning. If that’s not sobering enough, drinking contributes to the deaths of 1,400 college students in the U.S. each year, 500,000 injuries, and 70,000 drug-related rapes.
But the flip side of these ugly numbers is the fact that teens who don’t drink may be in the minority, but they are not alone. And knowing they’re not alone, having positive relationships with peers and adults, and feeling they belong in a school or a community, are big factors in keeping kids safe and healthy, says Patty Miller, a guidance counselor at Hibbing High School. She said about 60 people, including students and parents, bar owners, the police, senior citizens, and even the mayor, attended an April Town Hall meeting there about teens and alcohol, part of a nationwide push to discuss underage drinking.
“When parents and the school are talking about the issue and it’s a community norm, the teens are less likely to drink,” she said. “If the kids feel a part of something, their school, community, soccer team, whatever, they are less likely to drink.”
Even something as simple as getting to know the kids in your neighborhood by name so you can occasionally chat with them helps to make kids feel included and valued. “You can’t overestimate the friendly factor,” Miller said.
Adults do have the power to make a difference in kids’ choices about alcohol says Miller and Steinhagen. Adults can include young people in the community, even in small gestures like greeting them by name. They can model having fun without alcohol – especially at events like graduation parties intended to honor young people. And mostly, they can refuse to look the other way.
Resources:
–Wise Highs By Alex J. Packer, Ph.D, Free Spirit Publishing, A funny (the “LOL” kind of funny) guide to alternative “highs” from meditation to extreme sports to creative endeavors to building quality relationships.
– TheCoolSpot Facts about alcohol use for young teens.
