5 Ways Parents Can Prevent Teenage Drinking

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Th drinking age should be 18. I gree with the comment about going to war. If kids can do that then certainly they can drink and do drugs, which is smething a lot less risky.

Ashley of NY 9:25PM April 20, 2010

Really? 21? But we can send 18 year olds to Iraq and Afghanastan to get shot up and lose limbs, lives. Let's not forget about the psychological damage our kids are suffering there too. I really wouldn't want to be a teenager these days. It doesn't sound like fun anymore. Maybe we should be realistic and teach moderation with smart choices.

Brad of NH 12:58PM April 19, 2010

If you abuse your body, you wont live long enough to enjoy your life, and that's the reason excesses in drinking and other drugs should be kept to a minimum. Not out of fear or misguided reverence for a non-existent enigma. Believing in God doesn't have anything to do with the issue. Alcoholics can be any religion. Last time I checked, the Catholic church was the one providing wine to all its members...

Matt T of WA 11:19AM April 18, 2010

Yes, teach your kids and be careful. Don't be a paranoid nutcase that alienates your kids and makes them want to run off to college (where they will be even worse). Stupid Calvinist attitudes don't help anyone!
People aren't so idiotic (or paranoid) about drinking in Europe, and as far as I can tell they drink more reasonably on the Continent than we do here. Particularly those that are younger.

Armando of NJ 12:03AM April 18, 2010

LOL. Really? The man who "turned water into wine?" Really?
Keep the faith, victim.

font9b of TX 11:42PM April 17, 2010

Truthfully, the surest way to ensure that young people (and everyone for that matter) avoid the problems of alcoholism, drugs, and every other problem that we face today and thereafter, is belief in God. As our nation pasted law in 1955 to make "In God We Trust" the national motto, we all should in fact do so, and do so by living a life pleasing to Him, not to ourselves.

BVH of VA 5:37PM April 17, 2010

out of Walmart, the pharmacy chains, the grocery stores and the C-store gas stations (places where kids go) and chase it back into separate-building liquor stores where signs on the doors prohibit anyone under 21 from entering? Anyone want to make it a little less convenient for Mom and Dad to be bringing this stuff home? Anyone want to chase the beer out of the ball parks?
Nah. Didn't think so. That's why, OF COURSE, there is not going to be much progress in America on curbing youthful drinking. Now, instead of openly battling the alcohol industry (as we should), we want to pin the responsibility on our doctors? Ding dang dumb.

Muser of NM 2:02PM April 17, 2010

Alcohol use by young people is dangerous, not only because of the risks associated with acute impairment, but also because of the threat to their long-term development & well being.
Research shows that adolescent alcohol use has the potential to trigger long-term biological changes that may alter an adolescent's development as well as affect the adolescent's immediate behavior. The resulting adverse outcomes may include:
-Mental disorders such as anxiety & depressive disorders
-Neurocognitive impairment
-Impaired memory
-Altered sensitivity to motor impairment
-Damage to the frontal anterior cortical regions (ie. the development of self-regulation, judgment, reasoning, problem solving, & impulse control)
-Possible disruption in normal growth
-Effects on liver, bone, & endocrine development
-Disrupted developmental changes in hormones associated with puberty in males & females
For more evidence-based information on Alcohol Dependence & Abuse, please visit us at AlcoholAnswers.org

Nancy of CT 9:03AM April 16, 2010

i think that this will be a useful method to get the teenage drinking percentage to decrease not only this but we will be able to have an average age of when teens start drinking but for this to happen parents need to give their children some privacy

Natalie Salgado of NC 9:45PM April 15, 2010