Effects of Alcohol Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Effects of Alcohol - Essay Example Besides, majority of the teenagers are not found to be a part of responsibilities. Mostly they are college or high-school students seeking to experience activities like smoking, drinking etc. For teenagers drinking starts with the concept of "exploring", all they want is just to discover and explore the taste like they have tasted never before. After they have explored the new "taste", they drink for fun, in friends' gatherings, get together or simply they are convinced to drink by the word of mouth. This "fun" activity takes them to the journey, which is all ended up at the threshold labeled "heavy drinkers". The reductions in alcohol use by adults in their late twenties largely reflect the impacts of new responsibilities associated with engagement, marriage, pregnancy, and parenthood due to which psychologically 'drinking' becomes secondary for them. "Research suggests that parental behavior plays a central role in adolescent use and misuse of alcohol. Parental drinking affects adolescent perception of alcohol misuse in several ways. The children of drinking parents are less likely to see drinking as harmful and more likely to start drinking earlier. Both these attitudes and behaviors, in turn, predict greater alcohol misuse particularly at age 17-18. Parental drinking may also be mediated by friends' alcohol use in predicting alcohol misuse in adolescence". (Abbott et al, 1997, p. 280) One of the main causes for teenage drinking is the fact that they impinge heavily on decisions regarding living arrangements, but there are other important living contexts that may bear important relationships to substance use. Living with one's parents, in a dormitory, with roommates, or living alone offer varying levels of constraint or opportunity with regard to substance use. "Newcomb and Bentler (1985) found significant co variation between substance use and living arrangements, although their work emphasized the selection interpretation of these results. Those living with their parents as young adults reported the lowest levels of alcohol use of any group in adolescence. Those living with roommates, alone, or in "other" arrangements did not evidence distinct patterns of substance use". (Bachman, 1997, p. 24) As far as adults are concerned, many are independent and smart enough to take their own decisions wisely. Their stability refers to the living arrangements in which they ar e not dependant on anyone. If, however they are unstable financially, they drink and in rare cases become heavy drinkers but that does not affect their health as badly as teenage drinking affects. "Employment", one of the main reasons of drug use refers to those complex situations, which results in varying results depending on what aspect of employment is under consideration. The costs and benefits of employment in adolescence have been the subject of some