A new study has found that alcohol use in teens is decreasing, but slowly for younger girls. When it comes to substance use, parents are always paying attention to what their children are doing. They make sure they are staying away from substances that can harm them. Things like cigarettes, vaping, and drinking are all things parents are concerned about.
However, despite some parents’ best efforts, youths are still being exposed to these substances, and they are being used. This could be due to peer pressure and other factors, but work is always being done to keep an eye on the trends, and to see what work needs to be done to keep young people safe.
According to Medical Xpress, a study has found that alcohol use in teens is decreasing, but it is happening slowly for girls. This study was done by the Research Society on Alcoholism, and it can be read in full here.
What the study found was that the teen use of alcohol, including alcohol with cannabis, is decreasing, but the rates are decreasing slower in girls than in boys. They also found that rates of cannabis use among teenagers who are not using alcohol have doubled in the last ten years, but it is also raising faster for girls.
It is also important that parents are not pulled into a false sense of confidence, because the rates of alcohol use in teenagers are still incredibly high, and work needs to be done to bring it down even more. The use of alcohol, and cannabis, can cause some health problems for youth and some of these risks include injury, impairment, and other long-term consequences.
It is a public health crisis, and one that needs to be taken seriously, and experts are suggesting that they implement intervention strategies specifically aimed at girls.
To come to this conclusion, researchers looked at data from Monitoring the Future surveys that were done between 2000 and 2020. They looked at an average of 38,000 students in 12th grade, and they looked at samples, as well as survey responses. They found that the numbers are decreasing, but not enough to make them not concerned about them. They are continuing to say that interventions are needed, and they have to be accessible, especially after these youth leave high school, where they may not have as much access as they would have when they were in high school.
Sources: Medical Xpress, Wiley Online Library