Underage Drinking Research Paper

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Underage and Uninformed Drinking and furthermore underage drinking has taken on the dominant culture in today’s youth. With the culture rapidly growing due to many external pressures, underage drinking poses a problem to many of todays adolescents. As is becomes more and more widely accepted, pressures on kids to conform to today’s folkways become superior. Especially with pressures at colleges being so immense, Bowling Green deals with the issue on a daily basis. It is becoming so bad, kids choices are no longer what clothes or shoes they want to wear, yet what type of drugs they’ll do. Although drinking underage is still illegal it has taken on a large role in many adolescents lives. But with this growing counterculture in the rear view …show more content…

In order for the termination of underage drinking there must be increased information in the schooling system and involvement in extracurricular activities, but the best solution to underage drinking is having a positive role model’s supervision. Underage drinking has become a serious health issue, especially in the hands of unknowledgeable adolescents. With alcohol curiosity and initiation at about 50 percent from the ages of 10 to 13 it poses a possibly deadly occurrence (Komro and Toomey). For example, among eighth-grade students, ages 13 to 14, surveyed in the National Representative Sample of the Monitoring the Future Study, 52 percent reported having consumed alcohol in their lifetime, and 25 percent reported having been drunk in their lifetime. A majority of these situations stemmed from relationships and pressures within the schooling system. Due to alcohol being the number one drug used among adolescents at this age, schools must move quickly to eradicate the problem (Martin et. …show more content…

Family factors, such as parent-child relationships, discipline methods, communication, supervision, and parental involvement, can significantly influence alcohol use among youth (Komro and Toomey). In a study put on by Hurd, Zimmerman, and Xue they studied 659 African American 9th graders to examine the resilience of adolescents and negative parental influences. They concluded that exposure to negative adult influences led to increased externalizing, internalizing, and substance using behaviors, as well as negative school attitudes and behavior (Hurd etc. al). Adults influence the decisions of adolescents more so then they think. Albert Bandura studied this relationship and concluded that behaviors are learned either intentionally or inadvertently, through the influence of example (Bandura). Due to adolescence being a time to discover identity, children will often follow the example of adults around them. This idea brings into question the resilience theory, or why some faced with adversity are able to overcome negative effect and why some can’t. Many times it is due to positive influences from a role model, whether they’re a parent, coach, teacher, etc. Having a role model that exemplified positive aspects was a reoccurring theme in resilient youths (Hurd et. al). Having a positive role model to shadow is the best way of overcoming alcohol abuse pressures. The

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