Predictors of Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Every year, a significant number of young people die from exposure to and abuse of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs against the huge cost that are invested into projects that have the aim of reducing these numbers. 400000 Americans die every year of smoking and smoking related conditions, in fact one of every 5 deaths in America is assumed to be smoking related (National Center for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2011). Alcohol was no lesser a threat over in 1992, it was estimated that about $400billion was the amount wasted or lost to alcohol addiction. Other costs include chronic disease conditions like cirrhosis, criminal or antisocial behavior that might be a consequence of trading or acquisition of illegal chemical substances. These substances use or abuse lead to an increase in risky behavior (Galea, Nandi & Vlahov, 2004).Predictors of Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Charity they say begins at home, the predisposition for young people to take up the habits of alcohol and drug abuse can be increased multiple folds by the kinds of families they live in or come from. As it is often the case many of these children turn out to be alcohol and drug abusers themselves as this is the kind of life they have been exposed to (Clinton, Clark & Straub, 2010). It often proves to be the case because this is the kind of lifestyle they have been exposed to. Parental use or abuse of alcohol is a significant indicator of future use and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Studies on family incidence of alcohol have shown that alcoholics in a very significant number are likely to come from families where a sibling and or a parent displayed alcohol abuse (Cotton, 1979). In addition, parental attitudes to alcohol have shown links to adolescent’s use of alcohol. Stable families often produce children who are unlikely to be alcohol abusers. The divorce rate in the United States has gone up in the last 35years; the effect of this is that most families break up before the kids become adults. The strain that this puts on the divorced party has been known to cause negative alcohol behavior. A study carried out showed that the children from recently broken homes exhibited a higher tendency to consume alcohol in larger quantities and more frequently than children from stable homes. It might not be unconnected with the huge amount of stress resulting from the breakup of their families. As a result, the children will turn to alcohol as a stress reliever and with little or no supervision can go into binge drinking and go downhill from there (Jeynes, 2001).Predictors of Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Abuse