Alcohol Addiction Levels in Teenagers

Alcohol addiction and abuse are two different things, but they are closely related. Addiction implies a chemical dependence, while abuse implies merely a propensity to drink beyond one's ability to handle it. Nevertheless, the main gross figure is that of all teens, from 12 to 20 years of age, almost 10 percent have some type of alcohol disorder.

Types

• Personality types among teenagers who are at risk for alcohol abuse are those who flaunt authority, those who seek thrills, those from dysfunctional families and those who "can't wait" to grow up." According to a 1996 study from the US Department of Heath and Human Services, about 33 percent of teens do not understand the effects of alcohol. A large percentage do not understand the distinctions in alcohol content for different drinks, hard liquor, beer or wine.

Features

• The average age for those first experimenting with alcohol is 11 for boys, 13 for girls. These children are at risk for later developing alcohol disorders. When one experiments with alcohol before the age of 15, they are five times more likely to later develop some kind of alcohol dependency. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse in 2000 reported that about 20 percent of all college students are "heavy" drinkers. In 1999, about 10 percent of all students between 18 and 25 were abusing alcohol in some form (about 3 million people). About one in five children between ages 12 and 20 were binge drinking (defined as five or more drinks in quick succession), and about 46 million people were doing this over the age of 12. About 41 percent of all full time college students are binge drinking.

Effects

• The cost of this abuse was roughly $220 billion per year. When teens experiment with alcohol, they are nine times more likely to experiment with marijuana, and six times more likely to experiment with other drugs. About 150,000 college students develop drinking-related health issues per year.

Demographics

• As of 2006, according to the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, about 54 percent of those between 12 and 20 drank at one time or another. About 28 percent were current drinkers. Of those drinkers, about 15 percent were Indian, and 11 percent were white. Blacks made up about 4.6 percent, with Hispanics making about 9 percent. The lowest level were Asians, with 5 percent of all teen drinkers. About 9.4 percent of all teens had developed some form of dependency in the past year as of 2006.

Significance

• Teen drinking causes health problems and clearly leads to other drugs. With 20 percent of those 12 to 20 years of age binge drinking, few can deny this problem. Full time college students clearly have the highest rate of unhealthy drinking, and there is a clear drop off in alcohol abuse when these teens are only part time or not in school at all. College is clearly a major factor in promoting alcohol abuse.