This April, during Alcohol Awareness Month, Destinations for Teens encourages you to educate yourself and your loved ones about the dangers of excessive drinking.
If you are drinking too much, you can improve your health by cutting back or quitting. For those under 21, taking even one drink is illegal and can have adverse consequences on the brain. Despite these negative effects, some teens choose to drink alcohol for a variety of reasons – boredom, curiosity, to cope with life’s problems and because “everyone else is doing it.” Stopping this is what alcohol awareness month is about.
Facts About Underage Drinking in the United States:
- Those who start drinking before age 15 are six times more likely to have alcohol problems as adults than those who start drinking at age 21 or older.
- 35% of 15-year-olds have consumed alcohol in their lifetime
- 10% of 8th graders drank some amount of alcohol in the past 30 days
- 35% of high school students drank some amount of alcohol in the past 30 days
- 68% of 12th graders have tried alcohol at least once
- 8.7 million people aged 12–20 consumed alcohol in the past month
- People aged 12–20 drink 11% of all alcohol consumed
- 52% of 10th graders believe it’s easy to obtain alcohol
Underage drinking and driving facts include:
- Teens drink and drive approximately 2.4 million times a month
- 1 in 5 teen drivers involved in fatal crashes have alcohol in their system
- 85% of high schoolers who drink and drink say they binge drank
- In the past 30 days, 22% of high schoolers rode with a driver who’d been drinking
- Kids who start drinking young are 7 times more likely to be in an alcohol-related crash
Other Risks of Teenage Drinking
- Addiction
- Mental health problems
- Serious injury or other disabilities
- Abuse of other drugs
- Unplanned pregnancy
- Social difficulties
- Being arrested
- Being victims of physical or sexual assault
Helping teens and parents stay educated while limiting use of alcohol can have a positive impact on a teen’s physical and emotional well-being. Destinations offers education in the community on various topics of mental health and substance use. To find out more information or to schedule a talk for your community, please contact Cynthia Della Ripa at (818) 737-2220 x 4554.
If you know a teen struggling with alcohol abuse, you can contact Destinations Admissions Department at (818) 737-2221 x 3260 for an assessment or resources.
