Alcohol and Your Health Teen Drinking

With these guidelines can help you identify the best ways to talk to your child about alcohol, address potential underlying problems that may be triggering their alcohol use, and help them to make smarter choices in the future. While teen drinking rates are declining, it is still present and teens should be able to be prepared to navigate peer pressure and the avaability of alcohol. Statistics show that less than 10% of teens under age 14 has drunk alcohol in the past month. For teens ages 15 to 17, less than 30% has drunk alcohol in the past month.

WHO’s work on adolescent health

WHO works with Member States and partners to improve the health of young people by producing evidence-based guidelines, advocating and providing recommendations for adolescent-responsive health systems, and documenting progress in adolescent health and development. The patterns of death of 10–14-year-olds are dominated by infectious diseases. Among older adolescents and young adults, a shift away from infectious diseases of childhood is seen, towards accidents and injuries, self-harm and interpersonal violence.

Relationship Among Adolescent Risk-Taking, Brain Plasticity, and Drinking

Your goal should be to discourage further drinking and encourage better decision-making in the future. As a teenager, your child is likely to be in social situations where they’re offered alcohol—at parties or in the homes of friends, for example. When all their peers are drinking, it can be hard for anyone to say “no.” While fitting in and being socially accepted are extremely important to teens, you can still help them find ways to decline alcohol without feeling left out. Talking to your teen about drinking is not a single task to tick off your to-do list, but rather an ongoing discussion. Things can change quickly in a teenager’s life, so keep making the time to talk about what’s going on with them, keep asking questions, and keep setting a good example for responsible alcohol use.

1. Excessive alcohol use can harm people who drink and those around them.
2. Within the age group 10–24 years, mortality rates are lowest among adolescents aged 10–14, and highest among young adults aged 20–24 years.
3. For adolescents, drinking alcohol can make it even more difficult to control impulses and make healthy choices.

This Review examines the contributors to and consequences of the use of alcohol in adolescents. Human adolescents with a history of alcohol use differ neurally and cognitively from other adolescents; some of these differences predate the commencement of alcohol consumption and serve as potential risk factors for later alcohol use, whereas others emerge from its use. The consequences of alcohol use in human adolescents include alterations in attention, verbal learning, visuospatial processing and memory, along with altered development of grey and white matter volumes and disrupted white matter integrity.

Your teen should also understand that drinking alcohol comes with specific consequences. Agree on rules and punishments ahead of time and stick to them—just don’t make hollow threats or set rules you cannot enforce. Make sure your spouse agrees with the rules and is also prepared to enforce them. As most parents know all too well, talking to a teen is rarely easy. You can feel discouraged when your attempts to communicate are greeted by a sullen roll of the eyes, an incoherent grunt, or the slamming of a door.

Effects of adolescent alcohol consumption on the brain and behaviour

Teenagers often rebel against their parents but if they hear the same information from a different authority figure, they may be more inclined to listen. Try seeking help from a sports coach, family doctor, therapist, or counselor. Keep any alcohol in your home locked away and routinely check potential hiding places your teen may have for alcohol, such as under the bed, between clothes in a drawer, or in a backpack.

The 2019 Youth Risk Behavioral Survey found that more than a quarter of high school students drank alcohol in the 30 days before they took the survey, and one in seven reported binge drinking in that same time period. Prospective longitudinal studies of substance-naïve youth are uniquely positioned to identify factors predating the onset of alcohol use. If you’ve discovered your child or teen is drinking alcohol, it’s normal to feel upset, angry, and worried. Underage drinking can have serious implications that may not show up until later in your child’s life. Using alcohol at a young age can impact how a teen’s brain develops, disrupt their sleeping patterns, delay puberty, make it harder to concentrate at school, and even increase their risk for liver and heart disease, high blood pressure, and certain types of cancer. In adults, drinking alcohol impairs decision-making and impulse control, and can lead to a range of negative consequences.

What About Peer Pressure to Drink Alcohol?

Globally, in 2016, only 1 in 5 adolescents are estimated to meet WHO guidelines on physical activity. Prevalence of inactivity is high across all WHO regions, and higher in female as compared to male adolescents (8). Sign up to get tips for living a healthy lifestyle, with ways to fight inflammation and improve cognitive health, plus the latest advances in preventative medicine, diet and exercise, pain relief, blood pressure and cholesterol management, and more.

Local or state governments enact regulations that reduce the number of alcohol establishments or limit the number that may be established in a community or area, often through licensing or zoning laws. Patrons who appear underage or intoxicated attempt to purchase alcohol. Servers/sellers are rewarded and/or congratulated for checking IDs and/or refusing alcohol service. Servers/sellers who sell alcohol receive education about the laws and training to improve compliance rather than punishment. Environmental strategies aim to change the alcohol use environment in the community, and thus can affect large subgroups such as those under age 21.

The percentage of pure alcohol, expressed here as alcohol by volume (alc/vol), varies within and across beverage types. Although the standard drink amounts are helpful for following health guidelines, they may not reflect customary serving sizes. A large cup of beer, an overpoured glass of wine, or a single mixed drink could contain much more alcohol than a standard drink. If you think your teen may not feel comfortable talking with you, perhaps guide them toward another trusted adult, such as an aunt, uncle, family friend, or community leader, with whom they have a good relationship. Regardless of the cause of someone’s AUD, it’s important that they receive the treatment and support they need to feel better.

Binge drinking is defined as drinking so much within a short space of time (about two hours) that blood alcohol levels reach the legal limit of intoxication. For kids and teens, that usually means having three or more drinks at one sitting. Young people who binge drink are living amends scholarship more likely to miss classes at school, fall behind with their schoolwork, damage property, sustain an injury, or become victims of assault. In 2023, among adolescents ages 15 to 17 who reported drinking alcohol in the past month, 84.3% reported getting it for free the last time they drank.15 In many cases, adolescents have access to alcohol through family members or find it at home. Reported use for almost all substances decreased dramatically from 2020 to 2021 after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related changes like school closures and social distancing.