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Teen Girls Drink to Forget Their Troubles, Study Says
Filed under: In The News, Alcohol & Drugs, Research Reveals: Teens
Teen girls just wanna forget. Credit: StuartWebster, Flickr
Teenage girls pack their bags for Margaritaville far more often than their male peers do, in the hopes of washing away their sorrows.
USA Today reports that the nationwide study, which surveyed 3,287 teenagers in grades nine to 12 in private and public schools, reveals that two-thirds of teenage girls use drugs and alcohol to escape their troubles, especially problems at home. Half of the girls surveyed also agreed that alcohol and drugs help all teens forget their problems.
Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of Partnership for a Drug-Free America, warns parents that false ideas about girls and illegal substances can lead to real problems."Your daughter, who you may assume may not be doing drugs, is actually more predisposed to this," he tells USA Today.
Pasierb adds that the study, paid for by the MetLife Foundation, also shows that use of marijuana and alcohol is increasing among all teens. Prescription drug abuse is on the rise, too, says Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation, thanks to advertising images of prescription pills as problem solvers.
"We've become a society that basically says, 'If things aren't perfect in your life, take a pill,' " Fay tells USA Today. "This causes our young people to see drugs as an answer."
Plain old-fashioned fun is another motivator for kids to drink and take drugs, says the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. That survey reveals that 41 percent of teen boys think "parties are more fun with drugs."
Related: Parenting Style an Influence on Teen Drinking, Study Says
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
8-03-2010 @ 2:00AM
Martha Hurd said...I think that their should be a drug and alcohol counceling class in their high school years. it should be a class to help teens do other things about their problems I know that if their had been a counceling class when i went to high school I would have known the fact's about alcohol and drugs. something has to be done about all these teens ending up on drugs and getting way out of hand. most of the people today are either on drugs or are drinking their lives away due to things that happened to them when they were young. abuseing a child hurt's them a lifetime
it never goes away and causing most of them a lifetime of not working or being able to cope with every day living. I have been abused in every way their is and i know from experience that it not only hurt's you it hurt's the whole family. and it causes a lifetime of hardship for the ones that are abused.
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9-23-2010 @ 12:24AM
Ore N. Mavro said...Honestly, looking not too far back (I'm only in my mid-twenties), I know most of these kids--the "problem" kids--the kids -with- problems whether it be internal (hereditary neuroses), or bad family lives-- they will only scoff at the lame drug/alcohol programs the school systems will (and have, and do) use to shy them away from substance abuse.
The real elephants in the room is the lack of REAL, SERIOUS, INTENTIONAL, THOUGHT-OUT engaging of teachers, professional counselors (of the therapeutic variety), and the school's head and the parents of said children.
Also Lots of kids in public high schools -really- do not belong in them. They require a bed-side manner that isn't offered or even thought of. I know lots of kids may not like the idea of being "classified", but personally I was having a hard time in public high school...I wish I was, to be honest.
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