Affects of alcohol on teenagers

Review underage drinking is an increasing problem within the adolescent population. This leads to poor decision making, risk taking and behavioral problems as the brain is not fully developed. Underage drinking can also affect a person's social and emotional wellbeing. Popular Channel Ten television show, The Project (1), did a segment on teaching Australian youth how to P. A. R. T. Y safely. P. A. R. T. Y stands for Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma In Youth. According to the segment, It Is estimated that one Australian teenager dies everyday due to alcohol related causes while another sixty are hospitalized.

The point of the segment is to promote the P. A. R. T. Y program to adolescences to prevent youth Injury and trauma. The program includes educating teenagers through films and also meeting survivors of road trauma that are now going through rehabilitation. The researcher chose this source as they were able to relate It to their Interview with a PHD/PEE teacher. Both the segment and interview talk about programs or topics at school that give adolescents information on drugs and alcohol. By choosing this topic, the researcher was able to compare the P. A. R. T.

Y Program with what adolescent students are taught in the Great Lakes Area. The segment also states that this years MIAMI Crash Index Study has found that in the past year, 56% of people admitted to testing while driving, 13% had driven drunk. 8% while on drugs and with too many people In the car. A website about. Com (2), did an article on teen drinking and behavior problems. The article says that according too new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMARA), adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 who use alcohol are more likely to result in behavioral problems.

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Underage drinking - even so-called light drinking - is dangerous, illegal, and must not be tolerated," said SAMARA Administrator Melba Cave. The article says that adolescents who use alcohol are more likely to report behavioral problems, especially aggressive, delinquent and criminal behaviors such as fighting, stealing, driving under the Influence of alcohol and/or drugs, skipping school, feeling depressed and deliberately trying to hurt or kill themselves. Like 'The Project' segment, the researcher was able to relate this article to the interview with the PHD/PEE as the interviewer asked a question about behavior.

By using this article with statistics, the researcher Is able to compare the results from the interview with the statistics. This shows how the Great Lakes area compares to the rest of the adolescent country. With the underage drinking rates not significantly changing since 1 994, It Is clear that there Is a major problem. According to the article on about. Com, a new report, the "Patterns of Alcohol Use Among Adolescents and Associations with Emotional and Behavioral Problems" concludes that there Is big relationship between alcohol use among youth and many emotional and behavioral problems.

This is a problem as it affects the social and emotional wellbeing of the adolescent which has an impact on many things such as school work, social and family life and their mental state. The study also showed that drinkers are more likely to use illicit drugs then non drinkers. An article on drinkers. Org (3) did an article on underage drinking called "Kids and Alcohol don't years and more than quarter of our 14-19 year olds are putting themselves at risk of harm from underage drinking and binge drinking.

The article also says that from the age 12 or thorough to the early twenties the brain is in a state of intense placement, molding and hardwiring in readiness for the challenges of adulthood. Fractionation is a process where the brain is growing and forming all the critical parts it needs for learning, memory, planning, emotional stability and thinking. During this critical phase of growth, fractionation tells us that alcohol disrupts the brains development. By drinking alcohol at a young age, you are risking that your brain may never reach its full capacity which means you may never reach your full potential.

The researcher chose this source as the article then goes on to talk about hat you could do as a parent to help your teenager become a happy and healthy adult. The researcher can use this source, as well as the interview with the parent to put towards their research. These two sources would have similar results and would be good to compare with each other. The last source the researcher looked at was a literature review on the Juvenile Justice Bulletin (4). The review talks about the effects and consequences of underage drinking and how it can affect a youth's physical, emotional and neurological health. Like the article on drinkers. Erg, the review talks bout the brain development, stating that the brain doesn't fully develop until a person is around age 25. Underage drinking can often impact on the neurological development causing youth to make irresponsible choices. The effect of alcohol can also have long term, negative effects on the brain such as those listed below: Alcohol affects the hippopotamus. The hippopotamus is a part of the brain that handles memory and learning. By abusing alcohol, the hippopotamus becomes smaller affecting the academic performance and memory of an individual. Such effects on the brain can sometimes be irreversible. Alcohol affects the amelioration process. Amelioration helps stabilize and speed brain processes. Disrupting the amelioration process can cause cognitive deficiencies. Continuing abuse of alcohol use and other drugs may keep adolescents from advancing to more complex stages of thinking and social interaction. Adolescents have unique social and emotional characteristics and undergo physical and cognitive changes that can affect their social and emotional development. Because of this, adolescents will often find themselves in dangerous and risky situations when they are under the influence of alcohol which will often have negative outcomes.

While adolescents are growing up, they struggle to find independence and try to create their own personal identity. Adolescents look to their peers for support, approval and belonging as they start to provide some of the same functions that a family did earlier. This can often lead to peer pressure, rebellion, experimentation and risk taking. Peer pressure is the influence from members of one's peer group. It often convinces adolescents to engage in activities to gain one another's approval and often results in alcohol use.

Adolescents often try different social roles and identities to discover who they are such as using make up or alcohol use. Underage drinking has serious social consequences for adolescents and young adults. When adolescents are younger, they are more involved with their families. However, when they start to get older they start socializing more with their peers. In turn, their peers influence their values and them to start drinking. Frequent and heavy use of alcohol is often associated with low self esteem, depression, conduct disorders, antisocial behavior and anxiety.

Again, this has a dramatic impact on the social and emotional wellbeing of an adolescent as some effects are irreversible. The researcher chose this source as it has a lot of points about the social and emotional wellbeing of adolescents and that is the research question for their Independent Research Project (RIP). Although the source has American statistics, the points about the effects of alcohol are universal. The source has a lot of information and is easy to relate to the questionnaires and interviews the researcher as already done as they all look at the same topics.

Underage drinking is becoming very common in today's society and can often have tragic consequences. Many people view drinking alcohol as a fairly typical activity for youth and young adults and young people are finding it relatively easier to obtain alcoholic beverages. However, the abuse of alcohol can often result in negative consequences such as impaired decision making, poor coordination and engagement in risky behaviors. As the brain doesn't fully develop until around the age of 25 years old, alcohol abuse can damage the brain, body systems and organs, which are sometimes irreversible.

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