Stay Informed

Sign up for news & alerts

Already signed up?
Login here

take action
For every $1 states spend dollar sign on substance misuse and addiction, 94 cents go to shovel up the consequences instead of for treatment and prevention. TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS

What Can I Do?



Continuing Education
Free online courses for addiction counselors LEARN ONLINE

Get Help
Need alcohol or drug help for yourself or someone else? GET HELP

 
Report Finds More Underage Drinking Among Those Who Bought Own Booze
November 25, 2008

Share Share Email
Email
Print
Print
SubscribeSubscribe
News Summary

A new report revealed that over one-quarter of persons aged 12 to 20 (an estimated 10.8 million Americans) used alcohol in the past month, and that underage alcohol users drank more on average if they paid for the last alcohol they used (6.0 drinks) than if they did not pay for their last alcoholic drink (3.9 drinks).

The report, "Underage Alcohol Use: Where Do Young People Get Alcohol?," found that nearly one-third of underage drinkers paid for the last alcoholic drink they consumed, while one in four got alcohol free from a nonrelative of legal drinking age, 14.6 percent got their drink free from another underage person, 5.9 percent got alcohol from a parent or guardian, and 8.5 percent got their drink from another relative aged 21 or older.

Underage male alcohol users were more likely than females to have paid for the last alcohol they consumed, while more than three-fourths of female underage drinkers got their last drink free from a nonrelative of legal drinking age.

The report was based on data gathered in 2006-2007 from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by Jason Blanchette on 26 Nov 08 10:34 AM EST
As teenagers begin to drink more often, they also begin to seek their own sources of alcohol rather than relying solely on isolated incidents where it's provided to them. Providing teenagers with alcohol would likely cause them to drink more often and as a result cause them seek their own sources. Be careful when analyzing the data from this survey since the it did not identify what relationship exists, but only that a relationship does exist.

Posted by John French on 26 Nov 08 06:29 PM EST
This is not rocket science. People who smoke more cigarettes tend to buy them. People who drive motor vehicles more tend to own them. And females get more rides and offers of freebies. Next?

Posted by Dado on 26 Nov 08 09:55 PM EST
john: exactly! it is one of the oldest technologies existing: noshing out at the trough. taxpayer-funded "research" of the glaringly obvious which concludes by calling for more money to further investigate the non-issue. a big joke that helps not a alcoholic person become free of the obsession. and on it goes.

Posted by policyadvocate on 27 Nov 08 05:44 AM EST
Doesn't this undercut SAMHSA's entire approach of encouraging parents to talk to their children about underage drinking? The important thing to me about these findings is that underage drinkers are mostly getting their alcohol from non-family sources - i.e. commercial sources, peers or above-21 non-relatives. This has policy implications different from what alcohol companies are constantly trying to get us to believe.

Posted by C.J. on 01 Dec 08 01:13 PM EST
As a professional ATOD preventionist, I'm not surprised at Dado's response about wanting to spend funds on JUST treatment for those already using. That's a typical reaction to these kinds of studies. I am not here to defend prevention. Prevention works and so does treatment. We need both. What I AM here to defend is parents talking to kids about the kid using alcohol before 21. The research in this article said that only 6% of parents had supplied. The other 94% have GREAT influence over their own kids. We just need to convince parents to talk specifically about their views on their kids' use of alcohol prior to 21. The study in the article covered interesting information other than kids drinking more if they bought it. Duh. Of course they do....and of course girls get more because they flutter their eyelashes. That wasn't the only area studied in this research. We need to know where they are getting it, so we can get policies changed in our communities to curtail this practice.

SUBMIT A COMMENT:

Note: Comments are now held for moderator approval. More info

Name:

Comment:
(limit 250
words)
Enter this word
(help):		 Change

GUIDELINES: 
Please keep comments on-topic, courteous, clean, non-commercial, and within the word limit.
Read the complete guidelines