PEDIATRICS Vol. 79 No. 3 March 1987, pp. 450-453
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation

Alcohol Use and Abuse: A Pediatric Concern

Committee on Adolescence

Since the beginning of recorded history, humans have consumed alcoholic beverages for purposes of religious ceremony, celebration, medicinal therapy, and recreation. Unfortunately, problem drinking also has been recognized and reported for thousands of years.1 There is continuing debate as to whether alcohol is a beverage or a drug and whether its use is always hazardous or is, at times, beneficial to physical and/or psychologic health. There is even greater debate as to whether youth should be restricted from all use of alcohol or encouraged to develop safe and responsible drinking patterns through progressive controlled exposure.

ALCOHOL USE AMONG YOUTH

Alcohol is the drug most often abused by the largest number of children and adolescents. More than 90% have tried alcohol at least once before graduation from high school. In 1984, two thirds of senior high school students admitted to using alcohol at least once a month. Nearly 50% of male high school seniors and 30% of female seniors reported drinking excessively at least once every 2 weeks. One in 20 high school seniors reported drinking daily. Despite efforts to address this problem, there has been no significant change in these statistics for the past decade according to several national surveys. 2,3 Alcohol use by school drop-outs has not been recorded but is suspected to be even greater.

Exposure to alcohol frequently occurs before or during early adolescence. Of high school students who have used alcohol, 10% had their first drink by grade 6, 30% by grade 8, and 55% by grade 9 according to one national survey.3




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Journal of Adolescent ResearchHome page
S. V. Eisen, D. J. Youngman, M. C. Grob, and D. L. Dill
Alcohol, Drugs, and Psychiatric Disorders: A Current View of Hospitalized Adolescents
Journal of Adolescent Research, April 1, 1992; 7(2): 250 - 265.
[Abstract]

Home page
 American Behavioral ScientistHome page
A. A. BAUMEISTER, F. D. KUPSTAS, and L. M. KLINDWORTH
The New Morbidity: A National Plan of Action
American Behavioral Scientist, March 1, 1991; 34(4): 468 - 500.