Underage Drinking and the Repercussions
Statistics show that in 2007, underage drinking cost about $68 billion in form of medical bills, household income loss, and costs of treating pain and suffering associated with the unethical behavior. Contrastingly, the input of over $68 billion into the alcohol industry by young drinkers ensured the profitability of the sector. However, statistics asserts that in 2009, 19% of drivers aged 16-20 years were involved in a fatal crashes since their consumption was concentrated way over the 0.08 limit set for the adult population (NIH, 2014). The number of alcohol drinkers has increased tremendously since about 30% of the youth aged 12-17 confirm drinking at least once a month. Furthermore, about 67% of youths …show more content…
Introduction of alcohol alters the development of an adolescent’s brain. For example, the frontal lobe develops until the age of 16, and it is critical for both long and short-term neurological functions. However, alcohol affects the development of the frontal lobe leading to long-term and irreversible effects on memory. The hippocampus part of brain handles memory and leaning. However, underage drinking inhibits the development and growth of the region leading to a smaller hippocampus. Therefore, learning processes are impaired by poor memory and reduced coordination of the neurological functions due to underage alcohol consumption. Moreover, even adolescents that drink moderately are affected in an irreversible manner that interferes with their memory such that retrieval of both verbal and nonverbal information becomes difficult (American Medical Association, 2003). The vocabulary of non-drinkers is higher and highly refined compared to adolescent drinkers. Likewise, the education performance of underage drinkers falls far behind the academic achievement of their nondrinking counterparts. Drinkers perform poorly in school because their memory fails them in recalling the academic concepts. Therefore, alcohol disrupts the intended academic success of underage drinkers by impairing learning and memory. Besides, alcohol disrupts …show more content…
The subjects were selected from California State University undergraduate students who are least likely to use protective alcohol behaviors. Data was recorded and logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate the correlation between each behavior with age, gender, and year of study. The authors used the hypothesis that younger male student in their first or second year of study were more likely to be careless than female or older students. The study administered 3,771 NACHA forms randomly to ensure the credibility of their research. Only 1,082 students returned the forms, which represents a 29% response rate, which is higher than the national response rate of 29 for web-based studies (Zografos at al., 2015). Logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between protective alcohol-use behavior with age, gender, and the year in school. Results assert that 70% of the students used alcohol. The report found that age was not a significant factor in use of protective alcohol behaviors since students under the age of 21 used protective behaviors than their counterparts above the legal drinking age. However, the tear of study remained statistical significant predictor at 0.05 levels for protective behavior of having a friend to control the drinking habit
Statistics show that in 2007, underage drinking cost about $68 billion in form of medical bills, household income loss, and costs of treating pain and suffering associated with the unethical behavior. Contrastingly, the input of over $68 billion into the alcohol industry by young drinkers ensured the profitability of the sector. However, statistics asserts that in 2009, 19% of drivers aged 16-20 years were involved in a fatal crashes since their consumption was concentrated way over the 0.08 limit set for the adult population (NIH, 2014). The number of alcohol drinkers has increased tremendously since about 30% of the youth aged 12-17 confirm drinking at least once a month. Furthermore, about 67% of youths …show more content…
Introduction of alcohol alters the development of an adolescent’s brain. For example, the frontal lobe develops until the age of 16, and it is critical for both long and short-term neurological functions. However, alcohol affects the development of the frontal lobe leading to long-term and irreversible effects on memory. The hippocampus part of brain handles memory and leaning. However, underage drinking inhibits the development and growth of the region leading to a smaller hippocampus. Therefore, learning processes are impaired by poor memory and reduced coordination of the neurological functions due to underage alcohol consumption. Moreover, even adolescents that drink moderately are affected in an irreversible manner that interferes with their memory such that retrieval of both verbal and nonverbal information becomes difficult (American Medical Association, 2003). The vocabulary of non-drinkers is higher and highly refined compared to adolescent drinkers. Likewise, the education performance of underage drinkers falls far behind the academic achievement of their nondrinking counterparts. Drinkers perform poorly in school because their memory fails them in recalling the academic concepts. Therefore, alcohol disrupts the intended academic success of underage drinkers by impairing learning and memory. Besides, alcohol disrupts …show more content…
The subjects were selected from California State University undergraduate students who are least likely to use protective alcohol behaviors. Data was recorded and logistic regression analysis was applied to evaluate the correlation between each behavior with age, gender, and year of study. The authors used the hypothesis that younger male student in their first or second year of study were more likely to be careless than female or older students. The study administered 3,771 NACHA forms randomly to ensure the credibility of their research. Only 1,082 students returned the forms, which represents a 29% response rate, which is higher than the national response rate of 29 for web-based studies (Zografos at al., 2015). Logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between protective alcohol-use behavior with age, gender, and the year in school. Results assert that 70% of the students used alcohol. The report found that age was not a significant factor in use of protective alcohol behaviors since students under the age of 21 used protective behaviors than their counterparts above the legal drinking age. However, the tear of study remained statistical significant predictor at 0.05 levels for protective behavior of having a friend to control the drinking habit