Consequences of Underage Drinking Reducing Underage Drinking NCBI Bookshelf

The CDC defines binge drinking as a drinking pattern that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration to 0.08% or above. Binge drinking means consuming five or more drinks in about two hours for someone who is biologically male, or four or more drinks for someone who is biologically female. In very small amounts, alcohol can help a person feel more relaxed or less anxious. More alcohol causes greater changes in the brain, resulting in intoxication. People who have overused alcohol may stagger, lose their coordination, and slur their speech.

• As kids enter their teens, friends exert more and more influence over the choices they make.
• Alcohol often produces rewarding feelings such as euphoria or pleasure that trick the brain into thinking the decision to drink alcohol was a positive one and that motivate drinking again in the future.
• Stress (school, social, home) may be another reason your child starts drinking.
• That’s an awful lot of youth who could be changing their brains — and their lives — forever.

Children who have suffered abuse or have behavior or mental health problems are at an increased risk for underage drinking. According to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in the United States, alcohol is the most frequently used drug by teenagers. Significant statistics regarding alcohol use in teens include that 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 drinking). The amount of alcohol that teens use can vary widely depending on a number of factors, including their age, gender, social environment, and personal experiences with alcohol. However, research has shown that underage drinking is a significant public health concern in many countries around the world and that many teens report drinking alcohol at least occasionally.

Longer-Term Effects of Alcohol on the Brain and Behavior

This stage may also include the teenager buying alcohol or other drugs or stealing to get their drug of choice. The final and most serious fifth stage of alcohol or other drug use involves the youth only feeling normal dangers of teenage drinking when they are using. During this stage, risk-taking behaviors like stealing, engaging in physical fights or driving under the influence of alcohol increase, and they become most vulnerable to having suicidal thoughts.

Many adults may assume that the risks and potential consequences of
underage drinking are more or less the same as they are for adults, but
research suggests that the dangers of youth drinking are magnified. In
2000, 36.6 percent of youths (under age 21) traffic fatalities involved
alcohol, a rate slightly lower than the rate for adults (41.7 percent). However, when the denominator is the number of licensed drivers,
drinking drivers under age 21 are involved in fatal crashes at twice the
rate of adult drivers (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002a). Moreover, alcohol use among youths is strongly correlated with violence,
risky sexual behavior, poor school performance, suicide, and other
harmful behaviors (Hingson
and Kenkel, 2004).

Mental health

Any drinking for this age group should be infrequent, with no binge drinking, and certainly on no more than one day a week. It’s  important to never exceed the UK Chief Medical Officers’ low risk drinking guidelines (adult men and women should drink no more than 14 units a week). Underage drinking puts children and young people at increased risk of physical, mental, emotional and social harm. If you’re concerned your teenager is struggling to cope with the pressures or worries of growing up in Britain today, it’s possible they may wrongly think drinking is a way to cope.

Expansion of blood vessels near the skin caused by alcohol, lack of perception of danger and falling asleep without adequate protection in cold weather can all lower body temperature, leading to hypothermia. Further guidance for young people in Northern Ireland is available in ‘You, your child and alcohol’ from the Public Health Agency. The NHS website has more advice on talking to your child about alcohol. It’s important to go over any issues you’ve discussed about the dangers of alcohol – and make sure you stick to the rules and consequences you’ve agreed. Listen, and then tell them what you’re feeling – whether that’s upset, angry, worried, disappointed, or anything else.